This is my character, she eats children and can cut glass on her cheekbones.

Painted on a crappy monitor so I have no idea what it looks like on a good monitor.

There is quite a variety of owl species but each one is a murder machine. I did some owl doodles trying to bring out the personality of different species.

I was inspired by a drawing I found while looking at greek pottery at wikimedia commons:

daw, so cute

But it’s still important to take inspiration and ideas from other artists. Seeing sketches by someone you admire that has clues to their process is just as exciting as seeing a fully rendered painting. Here are some by Glen Keane, a living legend among animation fans. He’s supervised the animation of a whole bunch of Disney leads, including Ariel, Aladdin, Beast, Pocahontas, and Tarzan. His drawings are bold and graphic, and so awesome that I’m sure if I look at them hard enough I will absorb some of his greatness.

There’s a blog showcasing his drawings, maintained by a fan, and videos of him drawing on youtube:

The designers justify it as “style” but I think it goes to show how this game has no style. The character models and the backgrounds all attempt to look as realistic as possible- but fall pitifully short. None of the other armors are attractive, but they’re not as exaggerated and over the top either. There just isn’t a cohesive look to the game. Who was the art director? Ah, no wonder, looks like he worked previously on Kotor, a game even more horrifyingly ugly.

Cailan’s and Loghain’s armor are a minor quibble but I can still poke fun at it.

This was what I drew to amuse my friends for Christmas. It’s not great, but it is a picture.

I’ve pretty much only doodled this past week. I keep telling myself it’s for warming up, but I never move on to actually make a complete picture. Well that changes now! I swear to God I made this blog to make myself get better and I will start updating as often as possible. I’m really inspired by this guy. He must draw every waking moment, maybe in his sleep too. He is incredible.

I’ll be moving soon, and I’ve already started shipping my belongings east. I’m a little excited when I’m not

i am completely uninteresting!

The protagonist having some sort of built-in alignment-meter would be alright with me if there was at least some conflict here; like I said, we are told he is charismatic and everyone loves him but the main character. This offers a great opportunity for something like this:

“Alanna hated this dude, for reasons even she didn’t know. She tried to keep this hidden, but her friends picked up on her feelings and demanded to know what was wrong with their hero. “He’s so manly and suave,” they’d say, “what do you have against him?” She would reply that she had no idea, he just rubbed her the wrong way, and would they please leave it alone? But they persisted, and it caused interesting tension and conflict that was an excellent showcase for the personalities of the characters.”

Nope. Fine, how about this?

“Alanna disliked the man’s spiky black wardrobe, his long oily mustache, and the way he made jokes about crippled children. All her friends seemed to adore him, so she tried to give him a chance, but every moment with him just deepened her dislike and distrust. “You’re being silly,” she told herself when she was alone, “You’re the only one who doesn’t like him, so get over it!”

That way, we see more of the villain’s character, and we the readers still suspect he is evil while the protagonist remains ignorant. And it doesn’t imply that evil is something tangible that people exude, like an odor.

Why is he even a bad guy? He wants to be king. He’s already a duke and one of the most powerful sorcerers in the land, and everybody loves him. Why would being a king be a step up?

i am evil, I guess for the fun of it

There’s another character, a beautiful and slutty young woman named Delia. Again, Alanna’s inner evilometer goes off, even though Alanna has plenty of reason to hate her without it. Alanna is disguised as a man; almost all of her friends think she is a boy. She’s in her teens, a confusing time already, and she went through puberty as a boy, and hasn’t dressed as a woman since she was 11. Nobody’s ever treated her as a girl and here is this beautiful young woman being fawned all over by her friends. It would be perfectly understandable if Alanna felt feminine, catty jealousy, and it would be a great showcase for character growth and change. But she just hates Delia for no real reason, even though Delia sleeps with someone she has a crush on.

Aaaand it turns out Delia is working for the evil duke. Surprise!

what a shock, right

In contrast, another of Tamora Pierce’s series, Protector of the Small, has… no villain. Oh sure, there’s this guy who’s a jerk, and his jerkiness increases over the course of the story, but then he sort of… goes away, comes back, and then quickly dies off screen, never being defeated by the main character.

Both of these series have so much wasted potential. It’s not that they’re bad; they’re okay. They could have been great. If I had children I would encourage them to read these books, because they are both about girls struggling to succeed in the traditionally manly role of warrior. It’s unfortunate that the main characters are both so flat and boring. That’s what happens when conflict is brushed over or nonexistent. In fact, all the character relationships are brushed over!

Most people are familiar with the term “show, don’t tell,” but Tamora Pierce must have had “tell, don’t show anything at all!” drummed into her brain because the majority of the books are devoted to telling us things we don’t have the privilege to see, including entire character relationships. It’s especially frustrating when we learn things through a secondary character telling someone else. Thank you for letting the reader know, Ms. Pierce! I guess we’re not important enough.

But I was still interested in the art book, because a) I love art books and b) I love Matt Rhodes, and there was a chance that some of his art is in it. And indeed, the artwork on the back cover is his, and maybe on the front? I’m not sure because, aside from a list of artists in the back, the art is uncredited. It should be required that the artist’s name be listed somewhere next to the art. That is a crime equal to splitting a picture between two pages, so the center (and often the focus of a piece) is hidden in the spine (why does EVERY book do that? Stop it, you dumb jerks).

There is a tiny bit of Matt Rhodes character art, and that alone makes the book worth it (to me). But it’s also such a tease. Why is the amount so miniscule? I want more, damn it.

Most of the book is devoted to creature, transport, and environment design. That stuff is okay, like I said I didn’t find the visuals in the game that interesting and the stuff in here is no different. There’s a bit of costume design, that’s cool too… But I would have loved this book if it had more character design.

Matt Rhodes’ site, including Mass Effect concept art.

*the PC’s character was boring as shit. I would rather play an RPG with a fixed main character than this half-way compromise that left me feeling like it wasn’t my character at all.