Sketches: Alyssa

Alyssa is a fairly new character, so I'm not completely married to her looks yet. I know she's a Northerner - as in, Alaska north - so I'm thinking some Russian, some Inuit, inspirations like that. However, I didn't do as much research into her face as I should have - I actually kinda didn't need to. She'd been floating around, bugging me a for a few days, and I just couldn't stop seeing her face. I didn't get it right, but she's at least satisfied that I tried.

Fun things about Alyssa:

• She's a snow bunting! Yes, a ridiculous thing to know about a character, and a ridiculously specific species of bird, but I love it anyways so shut up :P
• Alyssa has actually made an appearance in Asylum already, though we weren't positive it was her. It is (and I'm sorry Lyssa)
• She's easily the shortest character I have, again, making it impossible for me to imagine. I'm really stuck in this whole 6'2" frame of reference thing. Everyone is short to me (except Kain ...and Jack) so someone that short - I just cannot relate.
• Alyssa came into being around the same time Hannah did, so initially I made mistakes and blended some of their characteristics together. Hannah has sense corrected me, and rescued Alyssa from the current predicament she's in now (Gods, predicament sounds so mild for what I know she's going through. Aiya...)

Sketches: Kain

Ah Kain. I cannot say enough good things about Kain. I also cannot keep from swearing at him every time he does something in the story, because it's always a)smug b)meddling or c) both. But he is very, very pretty.

Sketches: Nica

Nica has a very odd face. She has been hands down the hardest to try and draw. You'd think this would not be the case, as Naj sits around staring at her ALL THE TIME,  but it's true. I cannot draw Nica.

NICA'S HAIR!!! Nica's hair defies drawing!!!!

Sketches: Naj/Seth

A side by side comparison of Seth and Naj. I am both really happy with this piece, and really not. For one, the more I draw Naj and Seth, the more I feel like I'm losing them. But on the other hand, it's really cool to have a comparison of facial expressions and such on them. It would be cooler if I'd drawn them right, but whatever. Practice makes perfect, right?

Sketches: Jack's Tattoo

This is a sketch of Jack's tattoo. It's a fairly large one, takes up most of the space between his shoulder blades. Tripp designed and inked it, so it actually looks much better than this, cause, well, Tripp's got that weird Sight thing going on. I can't claim the same.

Sketches: Jon

I thought it might be nice to put Jon and Lena in the same month, since they're realizing they're kinda falling in love with each other. And, ya know, this month is February and all.

I'm silly like that.

Fun tidbit - I had no idea Jon, but Jon is apparently of some kind of African descent. We haven't been able to pin it down yet, but it took Lena telling Caitlin that she liked the way his dark skin looked against her pale skin for me to go "Wait, you mean he's not just like, some super tanned guy from the Mediterranean or something?"

Yup, my own character, holding out on me. :P We'll pin him down eventually, but I think he might be a Moor or Berber? Not sure, as I know VERY little about these cultures and have done little research into them. I'll figure it out later if it ever comes up, but for right now, Jon's exact ethnicity isn't very important. I just thought it was highly entertaining that he never bothered to tell me. It just wasn't important to him, I guess. Can't have been that important to me, either, I never thought to ask him why his skin was so dark. I've only ever seen him in a darkened bar, so I didn't think too much of it.

Sketches: Lena, progression

Sketching at work one night. This is how doodles become characters. Sadly, I don't remember the order I did these in originally, but here they are.

Sketches: Lena

Here's another character that I sketched a few times before putting her into "The Book", so I played around with her expressions a bit too. This is Lena.

Sketches: Tripp's Tat

This is the second thing I drew in my awesome BazBiz sketch book, partially because we were sitting across from an awesome booth selling Muerto stuff, and partially cause I opened up my bag and discovered I'd accidentally brought along a whole crap ton of colored pencils, so that was exciting.

Fun facts about this piece:

• This is Tripp's first tattoo. It's a shoulder cap - holy crap blanking out on important character details! It's on his dominant hand's arm, but I suddenly can't remember if Tripp is right or left handed! D'oh!
• Zig designed and inked this tat for his bro, and yes, it is designed after Aladdin Sane.
• I totally have plans to get this tattoo myself! It will also be my first tat, and I am BEYOND excited to get it!

Sketches: Naj

Same awesome journal that Seth is sketched in. I wish I could remember the name of the vendor, they were cool folks - from NY, I think. The front of it has a great quote by George Bernard Shaw. "Life isn't about finding yourself, life is about creating itself."

Sketches: Seth, profile

Seemed appropriate to post this after the "Have you seen my serpent?" bit. For those curious, this is what Seth looks like (kinda. my sketching skills are not their most awesome).

Some fun factoids:

• I did this sketch on the final day of BazBiz in Cleveland, Ohio, while playing booth babe for my wonderful friend, Zabet (of anticraft fame). Wow, lots of links in that one.
• This is not the first sketch I've done of Seth ...I think. Could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure I've tried to draw him a few times before. This is definitely one of the better ones though.
• The characters from Asylum come from a WIDE variety of ethnic backgrounds, so drawing them has been an exercise in "What makes X people look different from Y people?" An EXCELLENT resource for that sort of thing can be found here.