K.M. Carroll's Blog, page 10

Sketching characters

I’ve been working on a commission for the last week or so, so I haven’t actually finished anything. Here’s the sketches I’ve done around the edges:

Kari gets five minutes with Jayesh in his isolation cell.

A character from one of Shari Branning’s upcoming books. Sean. Cute guy. Food blogger. Assassin.

Jayesh and Crow making a big show of meeting for the first time.

Sometimes you get more than you asked for when you kiss a teammate.

I suppose I should actually finish something, but this commission I’m working on is eating my lunch. It’ll be a while before I have the bandwidth for anything else.

Various fanarts

I think I went two weeks this time between updates, yikes. So here is the random stuff I’ve been working on. Just fanart of various things, mostly.

Bandages

The above was fun to do, because I was going for a charcoal look. This is fanart from Destiny 2.

Next, this one takes some explaining.

My husband has been playing the latest World of Warcraft expansion. In Shadowlands, you are trying to travel to the lowest level of the afterlife. Meanwhile, my kids have been playing Hades, a game where you try to reach the top level of the afterlife and escape. I joked about the hero, Zagreus, meeting the player from Warcraft on the way down. Of course he gives them directions.

Told you this one took some explaining.

Next, a process pic of an artwork I worked on for a whole week.

In Destiny 2, they came out with this really cool constellation outfit for each class. The warlock one is based around Pegasus, and has wings and stuff. (Notice the horses on the chestpiece!) So I just had to draw it alongside a guy with the fire wings and sword. I didn’t really intend any deep meanings in it, but it’s been amusing to see people analyze this pic and draw all these meanings from it.

That’s all I’ve got for now. It’s been fun to try some very different styles and play around with them. I need to get back to work doing actual book cover art and stuff, though.

[image error]

Concept art and sketching characters

I forgot to update the blog last week. My hubby was home, and I kind of forget my routine when he’s around.

Anyway, here’s the various things I’ve been working on:

Concept art dump

I did a bunch of concept art to help me think through the events in the finale of this book I was writing, Sanctuary. It’s finished now! *waves flag* I’m hoping to launch it in April. First, Mercurion has to come out. It’s mostly done with edits, I just need to make a cover.

Destiny characters

I just can’t get away from Destiny, so here is Destiny Jayesh with his friend Crow. They’re showing off their magic guns, Lumina and Hawkmoon.

Shadow the powerful and grumpy

Keeping up with my new year’s resolution to draw Sonic artwork, here is Shadow. He is shiny. So is his background. My deviantart followers are very happy right now.

I mostly worked on a commission that I’ve been chewing on for the past month. But it’s a book cover, and I’m not at liberty to share it around until the author does.

Cute character art

I’ve been beating my head against a commission this week. Around the edges, I drew some cute, fluffy things:

The first Sonic characters I ever invented back when I was like 14, and they are also the most visually boring. And the same color, lol. Still, people on deviantart were happy to see them, which surprised me.

Kari and Jayesh flirting at breakfast. They don’t even notice the tiny dragon about to steal the coffee.

My lightning super and healing/fire super from my Vid:ilantes books. They’ve been dragging out this relationship for three books now, and it’s about time they put up or shut up, if you know what I mean. It’s finally 2021 so I can finally publish some more of their books. Next project: Book cover art!

Making of a comic

One thing about videogames is that sometimes they offer up a tantalizing paragraph of story that just begs to be expanded.

I did that with this little dialogue snippit from a recent quest in Destiny 2: Beyond Light. This is from the Hawkmoon quest, when Crow is telling you about the various keepsakes he’s stashed away in his lair.

Here’s the sketches:

Most of the work happened in the sketch stage, really. Painting it was just putting meat on the bones. I could have made it look even nicer if I’d had more time, but alas, I had to paint as fast as I could for an hour and a half and that was al the time I had.

I love doing comics like this. I hope I can do some more soon.

Very small art post

Just a smattering of artwork this week. I’ve been working on a commission and haven’t had time for much personal stuff. Here’s one where I was concepting my heroes as kids. Too much time spent looking at the sketches for the Valiard Mansion, a graphic novel that never got released.

I wanted to draw more Sonic the Hedgehog art this year, so here’s a fan character:

Zephyer

She made my Sonic fan followers very happy this morning.

2020 creativity recap (and 2021 resolutions!)

2020 was quite a ride, wasn’t it? At the beginning of the year, I decided to take the Publishing 12 Books in 12 Months challenge. I had a baby due in June, so I figured that I would be doing really well to publish 6 books. I wound up publishing 5 books and a novel-length fanfic, so I figured that counted. Here are the books:

They’re all the same series. I have to figure out how to have the Vid:ilantes series labeled as happening inside the After Atlantis series. You’ll notice that Guardian’s Vow is book 2. I redid the cover for book 1 when I launched the paperback:

Once I had the baby, my writing mojo went out the window, of course. I wrote a few very short fanfics because fanfics are easy. I also drafted all of the next Vid:ilantes book, where the HeroTubers meet up with the characters from the After Atlantis trilogy. It’s still in edits, and I’m hoping to launch it late January or early February.

My goals for 2021 are to write one more book. And one more. And one more. I don’t have a set number. But I’m halfway through writing the book after the next book, so that’s at least two books for 2021 already. Maybe this year I can actually get some advertising traction so folks will hear that this series exists. It’s superheroes who film their own exploits and put them on HeroTube for those sweet ad clicks. And everybody’s powers come from Atlantis, which sank and is a modern-day island chain visited by tourists and cruise ships. It’s terrific fun, and I can’t wait to write more.

As for resolutions, my only resolution is to write and improve my writing, and to continue to improve my artwork by studying fundamentals. We’re hoping to move sometime in 2021, so I’m not planning anything beyond that. Moving is a brain-suck, just as much as having a baby. I’m going to keep on posting my weekly art blogs, with the occasional opinion piece here and there.

Speaking of art, here is a Destiny Christmas art, which I finished on New Year’s Eve:

A warlock takes his daughter to the City to see the decorations.

And that’s my very simple goals for next year. Let’s make it a good one!

Belated Christmas arts (last of 2020!)

I’m looking at the art and writing I did this year, and I’m very pleased with how it’s all turned out. Here are the last few Christmas arts I did last week, and then I can look into how I did with my publishing challenge for 2020.

Artwork catchup

I guess this week is Christmas, isn’t it? I’d better draw something Christmasy! In the meantime, here is the random things I’ve been drawing over the last week or so.

I wanted to draw a robot guy with a sweater, glasses, a book, and a cat in his lap. I just love the contrast of the harsh, man-made angles and the soft curves of the cat and the sweater. Also, a robot guy with glasses amuses me unduly.

This is concept art for an upcoming Vid:ilantes book. Kari, a lightning super, has burned herself out. Possibly she’s been struck by lightning, I’m not sure yet. And Jayesh, the overpowered healer, is having to exert his strength to save her.

Concepting Jayesh’s armor. It’s the kind that mountain bikers wear, and the idea is that Jay’s team is sick of him always getting hurt, so they outfit him in this. There’s a helmet, too, but I wanted to draw his fluffy hairs.

That’s what I’ve been working on. I guess now I need to draw something Christmasy. Holly! Bells! Snow! Candles! Angels!

Finishing artwork and stories

I didn’t draw much this week because of five hours of sleep every night. And also pushing hard to finish a story. I wrote The End this morning, and it feels great. In between, I drew a few things, so here they are:

[image error] Bowhunting



[image error] My character Maximillian Ross when he was about 16, before I started writing him and ruined his life.