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Revali is colourised. I spilled blood and tears on this fr. First time I draw and colour something digitally. Not even finished and certainly not perfect but I can't take it no more just take the stupid bird im giving him to you.

Oak will have to wait a while

Work in progress 🍂 Tryna practice digital into Sketchbook now that I've got my graphic tab back

[the-lost-beast]

Work in progress 🍂 Tryna practice digital into Sketchbook now that I've got my graphic tab back

[the-lost-beast]

TLB - Chapter 7: Fathers talk

*gasp* no... it can't be... unless?

Guess who's back with chapter 7. Out on Wattpad and AO3.

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"Time to be a Champion"

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Trivia: Drawing Akah-El

🍂 All pictures have images descriptions. Click alt.

Oak's (Akah-El, never mind the misspelled name on the sheet) design was the one I struggled the most with. Drawing birds is much easier, who would've thought.

First, here are the earliest design I made for Oak. Dates back to 2020, during lockdown.

Hair down then up. First drawing I ever made of Oak. They were a much different character back then and I wasn't really happy with how they turned out, but looking back now, I think these drawings are pretty good for a first try. It set most of the features they still have now. As you can see on the research sheet below, I played around with their hair a lot and it took a while for me to ditch the strand of hair on the right side of their face - I think, for the best.

Oak's scar was established pretty early. I wasn't sure about the feathers at the time but ended keeping them. Got rid of the big ones on the forehead though. Idk. Might bring them back.

Giving a character recognisable features is just something I usually struggle with and Oak was no exception. The Hebra being people of the mountain and cold weather, I knew quite early on I wanted to base their design off the Inuits. That ended up evolving into something quite different that's really just my own style but the inspiration is still there. None of the sketches on this page really fitted what was on my mind. The big one at the centre helped me define the nature of their hair, its colour, and how the feathers would look like. The green ends on the hair and red outline on the eyes were ideas that came with the new design and were based off Kíran's. Hesitated on making their eyes red. The sketch labelled 'Rito style' still looked too Caucasian for my liking.

Same thing with this sketch on the the left. The face was not what I wanted, but it's still a good sketch to show their body features: Oak has wide hips and strong limbs from climbing. Their feet are sort of scaled and look like not fully-formed talons. They have feathers growing along their arms and calves and their body hair is dark green.

The one on the right at least set me on the path of what I wanted for the face and hairstyle.

Tried a different face and eyes shape and this happened. Something clicked. I think it was the eyes. I tried drawing them higher up on the cheeks. The left one was still too Caucasian.

So then I drew this and it was super satisfying. Like when you can put a name on a face you'd thought you'd forgotten,

I love Oak´s nose and scar. They have a flat, rounded nose due to their former beak growing on top of it.

The Hebra and Rito outfits were a nasty piece of work and even now I'm not satisfied with how they turned out. For now, Oak´s Rito outfit consists merely of their Hebra trousers and the Rito breastplate they sell for Hylians. The fabric they wear is obviously Kíran's. Their hair is also loose as opposed to the ponytail they wear in their Hebra outfit. There´s a small mistake: they shouldn't be wearing the shoulder pads because they are an indication of a Rito's skills, according to whether they're still an apprentice or an accomplished warrior.

I went for that overlayered look with the Hebra outfit, hoping to recreate something in the style of the Inuits, again, although trying to keep it Zelda-like. I went back to the artbook and clothes references a lot while drawing this. There is much inspiration from the Sheikah, including their prior iterations. The Hebra outfit is meant to keep them warm but its moveable layers are meant to be adaptable. Given Hebra do a lot of climbing and goign in and out of caves, where the temperature is milder, I wanted to create an outfit that would easily adapt to all these apsects of their daily lives. Oak wears a face mask to hide their bird-like features but I don´t know yet if that´s just a common piece of the Hebra outfit.

I like the triangular motive. It gives off a nice touch to the outfit and is meant to be reminescent of the mountains. I figured Hebra probably use polar bear furr to make their clothes, hence the beige/white/grey colour scheme. But I also wanted the Hebra outfit to be easily recognisable as that of an enemy, hence the touch of red.

I kind ruined Oak´s face with the colouring but I'm thinking on touching the illustration up later, digitally.

Overall, I think I succeeded in showing Oak´s duality in their features. They're probably still going to evolve as I grow more confident with my drawing skills, but for now I´m proud of the result.

Bonus sketches in terrible quality.

I know I said I´d post this back in early November but I love lying, now who knows when the next chapter might be dropping.

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Akah-El: character design

🍂 Here they come~

With and without colours. Breakdown, trivia and image descriptions coming soon.

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TLB - Chapter 6, part 2: The Hebra

Part 2 of Chapter 6 is out now on Wattpad and AO3 ✨

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About: Chapter 6, part 1

Elund and Carine 🐦

Our generic Rito people? Nope sir. Elund is Revali's main opponent, as said in the narratives. He will appear more often at a certain point, but for now he's not important. Like Revali, he can't stand being second in everything and envies the Rito Champion a lot, making the most out of each of their training sessions to try and beat the Champion. Unfortunately for him, that never ends the way he'd like. Elund is named after the puffin, which in Icelandic is said lundi (j'ai cherché l'oiseau mardi mais la vie y'avait pas). So he is a black and white Rito. I might draw him later.

Carine is the town's bowmaker. She made a quick apparition in Chapter 3 but she had no name or appearance then. She will not be as important as Elund and will probably stay a background character. Carine is a 🥁🥁🥁 canary! Bright yellow, my favourite colour. Will probably draw her as well.

Bel and Rev 🍁

These two have work to do with each other (especially Bellam). Their scene together is important because it shows Bellam isn't just a complete and unfair asshole. He knows he did wrong and actually acts to make things right, acknowledging his fault. Revali is capable of being mature enough to accept Bel's apology, even though he will disguise his feelings and act as if he doesn't care (he does)

Kíran and Bellam 🥀

hehe.

You see now how Bellam can be a tad oversensitive when it comes to Kíran... Well Kíran is just the same. No spoilers, but his past experience with Bel affects how he sees Revali, and that might explain why he´s being so hostile towards the Champion.

Kíran 🌫️

As said in his character design sheet, he cannot fly, a change that was made very recently. This has not kept him from becoming an excellent warrior. He is respected by other Rito but rarely ever shows up, preferring his own company... and now his child's. His signature weapon is the boomerang, which he learned in Lurelin.

Oak 🍂

Akah-El's nickname is Oak. It will be introduce far into the story but it's shorter so now you know. There's a reason their name is hyphenated and I will not reveal it now.

So Oak is visually impaired and has glaucoma and tunnel vision. I am trying my best to write them as accurately and respectfully as possible, so feel free to point out any blunder. They can see and fight, but according to the setting they're in, their sight might get worse.

I cannot reveal much about them for now. Oak is happy to have found Kíran but this is all very new to them (them both, actually). They don't dare to call him dad just yet. We're working to that.

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TLB - Chapter 6, part 1: The Hebra

Chapter 6 is out on Wattpad and AO3 ✨

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"Are you following me?"

A note of harmless curiosity could be heard through their croaky voice. They held still even as Revali stood up, the tip of their dagger still pointed at him. The Rito warrior eyed the weapon, then the Hebra.

"Attacking me again?" he asked. "Now you're just begging for trouble."

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Trivia: drawing Kíran

Kíran´s green plumage is something I had in mind for a while, and that comes from Oak´s design. I desgined them first and then wondered, hey, what bird has rich green feathers like Oak? So really I just sprinkled ´green bird´ in the Internet stew and settled for the Didric Cuckoo, a really beautiful bird. When you see Oak (their design will be revealed in Chapter 8 btw), you immediately see how they´re related to KÍran.

There was a lot of brainstorming before I even started drawing him. After looking at several pictures of the Didric Cuckoo, I had a rather precise idea of what the colours and plumage would look like. but not much for the rest. Well, surprisingly, drawing Kíran came quite naturally! This (above) is the first sketch I made of him and it set all his main features right away.

I liked his design already and tried drawing him again before I made any changes, just to make sure I was actually able to draw him consistantly. I first thought I'd change the braid because it was too simple but eventually I think it's good! And I was not sure about the beard but I think it's very funny, it makes him very dad™ and I love it. But one thing about him is if I draw him smiling then it's not Kíran anymore. Wtf. Who is this boy? No, he has to look like the serious dad he is >:(

Funny thing about how drawing characters can change the way you see them is, I just can't get his wings' size right. Bellam's wings are huge and that makes them easy to draw. Kíran's have a very specific knife shape to his wings. But that often makes them too thin or small. Btw ignore the very chaotic proportions of the full body drawing below.

Anyway, funny thing is, because I couldn't draw his wings properly, I decided to make them too small for him. So Kíran was born with wings unable to carry him, he can't fly. It adds a lot of interesting parameters to the story. His being an accomplished Rito warrior with a disability will make it so he can guide Oak with their own. Plus it makes sense with other things, one being that he trains Oak to fight with weapons traditionally not used by Rito.

Here you go, bonus sketches.

Kíran and Bellam have a complicated relationship but they are, or used to be, great friends. No spoil though. Chapter 5 is out on Wattpad and AO3. Chapter 6, The Hebra, is being drafted. Will try to post it before Halloween. See you then, meanwhile, come say hi~

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Kíran: character design sheet

🌿 I give you: Kíran. Based on the didric cuckoo. Click alt for image descriptions (did my best). Breakdown and trivia coming soon (maybe)

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About: Chapter 5

I'll tag this as trivia. I like to give out peaks of what's happening behind the scenes 👀

🍃 Chapter 5 is titled after that famous quote from Catcher in the Rye. I hate Holden Caufield so really this could be ironic. But I thought the parallel between that song and the fact they literally crash into each other was funny

Characterisation: Bel and Rev 🍁

i WILL be posting a cast intro, once I'm actually done drawing the cast haha :'D Meanwhile, know that I mainly use the enneagram to craft my characters and that Revali is a 3 and Bellam is a 1. Typically 1 enneagrams 1 will be super demanding of others but also themselves. So that tells you where Ravioli got his self-exigence from. 1s also can't stand being criticised, which is why as soon as Kíran criticises Bellam, he goes 💥

3s hate being ignored, which I stated pretty explicitly in the narratives. Bellam says "I don't have time for this" and that's what triggers Revali into being mean. That + the fact he's being blatantly dismissed by Bellam when Kíran walks in. I love the "you're not my parent!" trope and will NOT apologise for it. Drama 😯

Zelda and Link 🌼

These two obviously have issues™, in case you hadn't noticed. I'm using that line from Zelda's diary that says what troubles her about him is that she can never know what he's thinking. I think it works pretty much the same with Revali. Both her and Revali feel judged or looked down at by Link because he doesn't communicate, and their self-esteem will automatically imagine he has the worst opinion of them both. Miscommunication, I love you.

Zelda and Rev 🍂

They're the fucking same in reality. And I know it's not obvious but really they are. Both have an exigeant parent in their lives, though, let me spoil you right there, Bellam is actually trying while the King is just a piece of SHIT, and both have low self confidence. In my own experience, finding someone who mirrors what you don't like about yourself will NOT make you comfortable around that person. So Revali thinks Zelda, in all her royal sufficiency, has little esteem for him as a Champion, while Zelda thinks Revali sees right through her efforts that she really is useless in this fight against the Calamity.

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TLB - Chapter 5: "A body catch a body"

Chapter 5 is out on Wattpad and AO3 ✨

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It's a-comin' 🍃

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Chapter 5 is on its way actually, it's just I'm lazy and can't get through this stupid chapter

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Rito Village — a map

Which I'll most probably redo later. I want to indicate some important places in there. Basically it's just more huts and footbridges bc it doesn't make sens to me that the village only has like 3huts.

Also the huge hut in which everyone gathers in Chapter 4 is where the shrine used to be in BotW actually.

Oh yeah btw. Chapter 4 is finally out.