shoccoe

[shoccoe]

Annd a Horizon sketch. I had some ideas for some art for her, so I wanted to prototype how I visualize her. I really like this effect for her, so now I need to figure out how to rainbow-fy her. I kept her in her original colors here, because everytime I tried to add other colors she looked like I poorly overlayed the pride flage on her...

[shoccoe]

More TLH sketches. Varic becoming Spellbinder for the first time, + some Varic designs/redesigns. Titan Knight Varic based on the elbow of friendship sneak peak. Refraining from drawing Raion until his cover comes out.

Wanted to make my own version of Varic's design bc I have... thoughts on him in the cover. Didn't want to stray to far from canon. Stopping myself from going further with Titan Knight Varic's design until the cover for The Knight is released...

[shoccoe]

It may have taken me a few months, but he's finished!!! I love him so much!

Hm. This was timed suspiciously well with the Pilot announcement.

[shoccoe]

yeah im not going to bother coloring this

[shoccoe]

your mind is beautiful

Shyrax Designing

This might be a long post, apologies.

Tryna design Shyrax right now. Design-wise I feel like she is going to be the most complex, both because of how regal I imagine her to be and because I have to essentially design up karoshans. While reading I also found it really hard to visualize her especially. When character designing, my process usually involves rough sketches trying to find the characters personality and then coming up with outfits that fit them/the setting. For Shyrax though, I decided to do what I will now call the paper doll method, where I try to come up with a design first using a base, before actually drawing her. Did it this way so I can have a rough idea of what Shyrax could look like, put some ideas down instead of trying to tackle personality and appearance in one go. In future pieces, I would use these as rough guides on how to draw her, atleast until theres official art released.

My first attempts came out decently well. I think this is closer to what I initially pictured imagined her as. And I really like the results! I always got the impression that Shyrax is wearing a dress, but like designed for battle. I think it adds to the royalty vibe. For some reason, I also imagined her without irises, so I left them out here too. Whats really missing is more jewelry but eh that can be added in future work. I tried a few color schemes, these three were my favorite. Imo red looks the best, but I feel like the darker vers would be closer to canon.

I still like this version, but in the end I don't think it matches the setting very well? Maybe I'm overthinking it but it feels like it borders too much on fantasy over scifi.

Next version is closer to what is described in the books. I also took some minor inspo from the armor Predators wear. I'm not sure how much inspiration from Predators I want to pull for her design, because although I do think Karoshans take some inspiration from them, I feel like its in a very different vibe. I also gave her irises in this version. This version also feels like it could have more jewelry and could probably deal with being a bit more scifi too. Two color versions, using a bronze as a secondary color. I like the one on the right more.

Additional notes:

Anatomy wise, I find it very hard to decide how alien I want go with Karoshans. Tried to find the nice balance between alien and humanoid. Now that we know how human-ish Visiri look, I don't want to go to far into alien, both because I have no experience designing aliens and I don't want Karoshans looking out place with the other races. I am giving them digitigrade legs, because its fun.

I debated adding more techy stuff to Shyrax. I think it'll be something I do on a case-to-case basis. Jewelry too.

I think I've hit the limit on using this method. I have some more ideas for alternative designs but at this point I really rather draw Shyrax in action rather than using a base.

Anyway this was mostly written for myself for future reference, but in case anyone is reading this, please feel free to share your thoughts on Shyrax's design or how you picture her. Or vote in the poll below for which of the versions you think looks better.

[shoccoe]

Ehehe 100% self indulgent alt Varic x Mell art.

I really have to write down all my ship headcannons at some point, I keep thinking about them constantly <3

Art Rambles below

I actually finished 90% of this a week ago but I couldn't decide if I wanted to add Novabots or not. I'm glad I did, they added the extra details that this piece needed.

I tried a new shading technique, not only was much quicker than my usual method, it m think it doesn't look half bad! I used two gradient maps, one set to multiply and the other to color dodge. I think I'll try to practice this technique during the Art fight, see if I can get used to it.

[shoccoe]

Minor Spoilers below for The Knight ch21!

I love how pathetic Horizon was in this scene. And look! I'm figuring out how to do rainbowizon.

It took me way too long to finish this, this was just supposed to be a doodle but it was getting hard to distinguish what was what in black and white, so I added some color. I spent over an hour trying to figure out how to do Horizon, but I think I'm satisfied with the results.

And my design for Mortal Edict! Its a bit simple, which is how she is described to be. Lately I've been having a soft spot for designing weapons so I had to draw her. IK she isnt described to have red lights, but since she shoots red orange bullets, I thought it made sense.

[shoccoe]

lunch break doodles..... talking about his new man with the Girls

[shoccoe]

True! And honestly as a revision of this post, having finished both Yumi and Sunlit Man. I think Sanderson just LOVES Taldain because he. He did it TWICE in the Secret Projects!!! Like-

What if Taldain’s Light Side was even worse!! (2x) and What if Taldain’s Dark Side was even worse!!! (1x)

Yumi and Painter’s worlds are so interesting. It’s like Brandon took Taldain’s two halves and just… “What if I made them entire planets?” It’s very very neat.

[shoccoe]

I have, and this post of him is very funny in hindsight :P

Yumi and Painter’s worlds are so interesting. It’s like Brandon took Taldain’s two halves and just… “What if I made them entire planets?” It’s very very neat.

[shoccoe]

I’m doing a re-read of The Last Horizon and- gosh. The Captain is absolutely delightful. It’s a gauntlet that almost never lets up the entire way through. Then you pick up Engineer, then Knight, and you start to notice a pattern. The entire series is the emotional and pace equivalent of that one Kinect Adventures minigame where you have to patch holes in a ship with your hands and feet to stop your submarine from sinking. So so so good.

[shoccoe]

This is a. Weird answer I understand, but… Elantris, Raoden, and everything about Elantris’s setting. I absolutely NEED a follow-up book and it’s not even funny. Elantris has its flaws and is so clearly his early work, but it’s so magical and charming.

Like- my favorite novel was Way Of Kings. It’s my favorite book ever written, actually. But as a Cosmere novel? Elantris is ALIVE with my absolute FAVORITE type of magical writing and fantasy. Tress is similar, but adheres too much to the sciency-stuff for me. I enjoyed Tress’s world so much more before Hoid just TOLD me how everything worked. But Elantris..? It doesn’t do that. It’s cryptic, vague, and makes you find and piece together the answers. I’ve talked about it before, but I figured out how the magic worked on my own. The dead gods, the invoking their bodies to access their spirits mingling, the power of it all. I read Arcanum Unbounded’s introduction to the Elantris-World books and that sense of vindication? That sense of discovery and affirmation of ideas? It was electric. It’s nothing really about the plot or characters despite them being delightfully charming. They aren’t Sanderson’s best, but they feel close to his purest.

Sigh…. I’ve now read… every single Cosmere novel, novella, short story, and graphic novel. If there’s some newsletter Cosmere stories out there I’d love to get a link or something.

God what a ride. What. A. Ride.

[shoccoe]

Sigh…. I’ve now read… every single Cosmere novel, novella, short story, and graphic novel. If there’s some newsletter Cosmere stories out there I’d love to get a link or something.

God what a ride. What. A. Ride.

[shoccoe]

I forgot how Westerns are supposed to end and it was so obvious Sunlit Man was going to end that way but IT STILL HURTS SO MUCH.

AAAAAAAAAGGHHHHHH

[shoccoe]

The fact that Sanderson managed to make a storm worse than EITHER of the ones on Roshar is absolutely insane. This planet is just so awful it’s insane. Literally how. How did they possibly manage to live here this long.

[shoccoe]

Ohhhh yeah buddy we can tell you listened to it lmaoooo

perhaps my favorite thing about being on book subreddits is watching audiobook listeners misspell everything

[shoccoe]

“This seems stupid.”

“So what?”

“Maybe do something not stupid instead.”

I LOVE Auxiliary so damn much