GW2: Botanist Klekks

To celebrate the resurrection of my blog, I am going to do a little character post! There was a character slot sale on Guild Wars 2 and I made a new character - an elementalist asura called Botanist Klekks.

It's hard to come up with good names - a gw2 themed name generator gave me the suggestion 'Piss' for a male asura name. Technically it adheres to canon, but really, Piss? Funny.

Anyways, first idea was Kex or Kekks because it sounds like the Latvian word for cupcake - kēkss. Then I went for Klekks since that sounds like 'kleksis' - a colloquialism in Latvian to refer to a dirty spot.

Considering the fact Klekks works with plants he can get his claws dirty quite often, so that name seemed most fitting.

Here is a height comparison between Klekks and Zojja. I made him a bit chubby and also max height - he does a lot of hard work! Must stay in shape. A buff ele is a bit odd, a buff asura even moreso. He looks surprisingly good in some types of light armor - usually a big headache for male characters in gw2.



Not to mention that he has a cute face. Klekks is a pleasant asura - a bit sharp tongued like most but not arrogant or outright malicious to other races, maybe a bit insensitive to sylvari since they're plant-people, Klekks finds them most intriguing.
Klekks hails from the college of Synergetics, so he's all about the Eternal Alchemy and the mathematics and philosophy behind it, I suppose that's why his hobby is gardening. After a long hard day in the lab picking weeds is the right kind of activity to relax.

In other news - I need to find a better way to take prettier gw2 screenshots. I cannot run the game on max settings but I need to find a format that doesn't create grainy pictures. Perhaps through fraps. Apparently there's a way to make the game output the screenshots as .bmp or anything else but that takes some messing around I'm too lazy to do. God forbid I mess up the game.

Art: September practice #1

So, I found a site where someone has compiled pdfs of Andrew Loomis' books, they're pretty good for beginners as they go through all the basics of drawing the human figure.

As drawing heads/faces is one of the many things I am no good at I picked up the "Drawing the head & hands" book and went through it. In honesty it helped me quite a bit, so far I only got up to drawing the male head so I practiced with more masculine features. I should probably free study time for drawing each day but whenever I go out to do things like daily challenged they dwindle out pretty early on so I will not promise myself anything or make grand plans, I'll just doodle and more importantly - try to memorize and understand what I'm doing.

If anyone is interested: here is the link to the pdfs!

 

An assortment of rough sketches and two final practice drawings. Obviously I'm far from good and god knows when I'll be able to capture the likeness of a person (references used for last two drawings) but eh, I'll try. I think I need to do individual studies on eyes and noses, eyes especially. Eyes are really hard to draw because they have incredible detail but at the same time are a small speck in the general composition.

I suppose the biggest challenge will be memorizing all the fundamentals and then building a style upon that, my art style is a weird blend of stylized pseudo-realism with weird anime eyes. At least to me the eyes look like anime trying to be realistic. It's weird but maybe it is just me.

I have this issue when the drawing looks kinda ok when I do it and when I've finished it but when I scan it and post it everything looks bad.

Art: It me

A stylized self portrait, I'm not good at capturing the likeness of people so when it comes to real people I only draw myself. One is true - my default expression looks a bit sad.

Art: Gras

I have many ideas but little skill so here's the product of struggling with drawing programs. I haven't signed a drawing in a long time, not sure if this is worth it. Stopped signing artwork long ago.

I have ideas for a comic and a large scale group picture... but... drawing is hard.

GE: Fun With Friends

 Waiting in the BHG, Abakuks is terrorizing Enoby (Oli's and my Vincents). Dullie is standing tall. Included Milla's toons in the shot.

I once warped out of farm and was greeted with Letaniel, Oli's Kess. Then we posed around a bit. Cherlyn and Kess look pretty. Interpret this as you will

I'm pretty sure that is not a landscape... Well, she's a marksman, not an artist.

In other news I got up really early today and to some people that is a good thing but, eh, I had a bad headache which was not lifted with coffee. Maybe I should eat breakfast. I hope it's just a passing pain. My right foot is swollen and it has reached the stage where it's a bit hard to walk without a limp. For the past months the foot would randomly swell up, mostly it didn't bother me and didn't hurt so I ignored it. Now it swelled up a lot, problem is, I can't possibly sit all day on my ass, I have to move at least a little bit so I guess I am not resting it the right way. I also hate doctors so I'm just gonna pretend the problem will go away on its own volition.

At the same time I'm paranoid that maybe it's some sort of weird infection and it'll spread throughout my body, so the moment I get a headache I become wary. I googled what causes swelling, some things I could easily write off - pregnancy, excess weight (that would cause both limbs to swell most likely), but the scarier symptoms are lymphatic system infections or even kidney failure. Then again I'm not a doctor and google is not a medicine book so I hope it's nothing too serious. A headache could be a symptom of a brain tumor, so, there's that.

 I hate the doctors here, if I went to one they'd prolly give me a side eye and tell me to rest. I don't wanna rest! I already sit on my arse all day, I'm sad I can't work out properly because I'm scared on putting actual pressure on the foot. Maybe I can pray away the pain (sarcasm).

On a more positive note - I've finished collecting plants for my herbarium. I need identify some of them and sew the specimens onto paper and write proper labels. I hope I get a good mark, it is part of my field course grade and I got a stable 8 so far, if I get a good grade for the herbarium I have a chance of raising the grade to a 9, but then again I think my plants aren't super perfect. When you do something for the first time you're bound to make mistakes. Perhaps I shouldn't worry too much about grades, not sure if I can pretend for scholarship this semester. Far too many motivated and smart people in my course.

Gotta love how this post turned 50% game 50% life but I'm sure nobody minds.

Art: The elementalist

Doodle of my elementalist, Mysteria. I adore f!eles and their dresses, very nice. 

Mii and her family are probably my most well developed stock characters story wise. She has two older siblings - middle sister Nikol and eldest brother Victor. They're all nobility. Their mother is an elementalist but father -  a wizard. Mii's mother was a fiery and fierce woman but an arranged marriage turned her life dull. She learned to somehow love her husband but both generally have neutral feelings towards each other. There were some ups and downs, which are mirrored in how their children grew up.

The eldest son, who unlike his fiery mother possesses the element of ice is a direct result of a slowly growing tolerance towards an arranged marriage. Victor grew up pragmatic and quiet, it is hard to get a reaction out of him. He is quite open minded and takes everything with a grain of salt.

Their second child, Nikol, is a product of the father taking over childcare. She is aggressive and adheres to the noble lifestyle strictly, perhaps being a wizard is what put off her mother. Nikol gives Mii a lot of grief as she feels like she has to be a good role model.

Mysteria is the youngest of three and is much like her mother in looks and personality. Her mother became overprotective and this often created tension between her and Nikol who believed it was her duty to take care of Mii. The girl bonded with her brother as his very calm personality was a good match for her own impulsiveness. It was Mii who gained permission to travel to the New World, but under one condition - her siblings had to come with her. 

Victor took it easy, at the time he was betrothed to a woman who bored him more than life did. He silently hoped the ship would sway and he'd fall in the water, alas, the siblings arrived in Coimbra.

Nikol was terrified of the New World and all the things it could bring, but even more she dreaded the port city which was a den of street rats, thugs and prostitutes, among other things.

Mii was hopeful, she had very romantic thoughts about the New World. Her goal was to find new friends and maybe even love; she, much like her mother, wanted to make her own choices in life but with a strict sister on her neck it was more than difficult. The girl prevailed in the end and found many likeminded individuals, the New World was full of adventure loving girls with strong personalities. 

 

Love, however, is a different story...

Art: The Twins

Story time! Rena (Blue Flame Ludin) is the long lost twin sister of Rebbie (Lionel, who might be reborn as Cadet Lionel some day). 

Rebbie's original story was that there was a mashup - he was the 'real' Lionel Von Hanen but got mixed up as a baby. In fact, there were three families and his true family was left without a son, but with a daughter.

When Rena was old enough to travel on her own she set out to find her brother, armed with a notebook and a pair of birth certificates. She found Rebbie through Ralph. Now the two siblings are reunited and cause trouble all around - together they're much more unbearable than alone. They also loiter around at Ralph's house and call him 'uncle' and steal his food.

I changed Rebbie's design - he only has one fake leg now, it would make more sense in the game's setting. This story also makes sense in a way that both Blue Flame and regular Ludin can exist. The tiny Ludin is one of the mixed-up Lionel's sister. It's a huge mess out there.

Old man can't get rest.