tsarcomics

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Intermission 9

Howdy, all!  Since I'm on a "horses of the cast" kick, here's Agent Ne'Anya's lovely beast, Bella!  She's a proud member of an old, durable and elegant breed from Tanoba's eastern grasslands, and was bred in the shadow of Everspring as one of several mares meant to be gifted to one of the ruling trade lords' eldest sons.  Despite her elegance and agreeable temperament, said son took issue with slight deviations in Bella's coat pattern and sent her away, declaring in his perfectionism that she was unfit even to be bred.  Fortunately, Commander Andrasmenos is constantly on the lookout for sturdy horses for his agents, and always keeps half an eye on the stock pens at Everspring's meat market for animals with potential.  These days, when she's not working, Bella spends most of her time eating well, being fancy, and looking for opportunities to bully Agent Muranelli's little roan gelding Brioche away from his food. Might have to start feeding them separately, those two.

I tried for a bit more realism with the style on this one than I did with Xanthos, and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  In fact, I'm almost as proud of this one as I am of the first horse I ever drew.  (At one and a half years old.  On the bathroom wall.  In pen.  He had eleven legs, looked like a broken hair comb, and was beautiful.  Some masterpieces you just can't ever top, alas.)

It's funny - despite having been drawing equines ever since that first grand triumph of art, horse anatomy is still never as simple as I think it's going to be.  You try for a nice, smooth, elegant line, and then you step back and realize you've failed to account for roughly 60% of all their weird leg muscles and your equine creation is walking around on wooden stilts.  Don't ever look too hard at a horse's legs, guys.  You'll go insane.

Have a lovely week as always,

~ Bri

[tsarcomics]

Intermission 8 - Notice!

Hey all! Taking a break from posting new art this week in order to continue work on a more detailed piece that I have planned for our next update. Looking forward to sharing it here! Have a lovely week, friends :)

[tsarcomics]

Intermission 7

Some further experiments with hairstyles for our comic!  Tanoba's a big land and covers a lot of regional differences in culture, but Everspring's history as a trade hub brings styles from all over the province into conversation with each other. This is especially true around holiday times as residents and visitors alike wear their traditions on proud display - from the elaborate beaded pastoral motifs worn in lowland farming towns to the structured updos woven around carved wood-and-bone frames favored by hunting communities in the mountainous north.

I'd love to do more detailed pieces that elaborate on these ideas, but that's a challenge for future me.  On to other projects in the meantime!

Have a lovely week, all :)

~ Bri

[tsarcomics]

Intermission 6

Since I didn't post last week, here's the second of two posts for you today :) Here's a few more examples of Tanoba's local wildlife, enormous arachnid monsters aside.  Queen Kalan's Eagles, though not the largest eagles in the region, are a favored companion of hunters and serve as inspiration for a variety of regional art forms, from local dances to traditional wedding garb to tales of heroic deeds.  They share the canyons with the Cobble-Scaled Rattlesnake, an ambush predator whose dappled hide allows it to blend into the blue-speckled gravel at the base of King Oba's ivory deposits.  Be careful if you decide to go combing the canyons for souvenirs - those pretty pebbles might turn out to be more than you bargained for!

Have a superb week, everyone :D

~ Bri

[tsarcomics]

Intermission 5

(dated: Jan 15)

Hey all!  It's been a bit of a rough week for getting things done (a series of pinched spinal nerves combined with repeated long drives to the barn to break ice for a bunch of thirsty, snowed-upon horses will do it to ya), but that certainly doesn't mean the creative gears aren't still cranking along!

I've been tossing around some rough ideas on Tanoba's hair-styling trends this week, exploring what sorts of 'dos might be common in various contexts.  These ones want to lean a bit toward the fancy side, I think.  I'm still searching for the shapes I want, but expect further explorations on this down the road!

#thesunalwaysrises#digital art#illustration#tsarcomicsart#bri's art#worldbuilding#fantasy#spiders

[tsarcomics]

Intermission Pt. 4: A New Year!

Howdy, everyone!  We hope everyone has had a lovely and restful holiday season, because now we're back to work with some more content for you all!  

For the next few weeks, I'll be continuing to explore different elements of the world of TSAR while Kiki prepares our next crop of pages for the comic (with "assistance" from the Small Bean, who continues to grow rapidly and contribute a variety of dinosaur-like noises to our weekly business calls.  Thanks for your support, Small Bean!).  Expect another comic-related update around the end of January.  Thanks for your patience and thanks so much for coming along with us on this trip!

In the meantime, here's a protoype design for one of Tanoba's largest - and also laziest - local predators, the Rosy-Footed Felt Mime!  These whiskered tarantulas hatch from the egg entirely pink and grow into burrowing behemoths who spend almost their entire lives inside their dug-outs.  Due to their ponderously slow movements, they cannot chase most prey, so they hunt by sticking their front paws - whose fur and trailing hairs closely resemble the branches of a mature rosefelt  - outside their house to entrap lizards, birds and other small animals who attempt to use the "tree" for shelter or food.  A sticky secretion ensures they won't get away before the felt mime eventually gets around to transporting her lunch from her feet to her face.

Oh, to be a rosy-footed felt mime.  Chilling at home 24/7, eating delivery takeout in her Chanel boots.  If we could all be so lucky.

~ Bri

[tsarcomics]

Intermission Pt. 2

Hey, folks!  It's been a cold, rainy, low-energy week, so after last week's big landscape piece, I wanted to scale down a bit and explore the topic that's been on my mind: food!  Besides being a creator, I'm also a hobbyist cook; researching world cuisines and finding out what our foods have to say about us is not only a lot of fun for me personally, but has not once failed to get my creative gears turning.

Ergo, here's the beginnings of my Everspring-centric food study!  Tanoba is a land characterized by extreme shifts in altitude, situated as it is between forested mountains to the north and arid - but farmable - deserts to the south.  Though the city of Everspring itself is a mecca for trade far beyond Tanoba's borders, Tanobi home cooking throughout the region is still mostly characterized by the hearty wilderness landscape that produced it.  Clockwise from the top: grilled quail cooked two ways (herb-marinated or grilled in a wild berry sauce), baked antelope tamales, blue cornbread with rehydrated huckleberries, venison mole stew with chiles and squash, and bluecorn tortillas ready for their fillings.

Have a delightful day, all :)

[tsarcomics]

Intermission Pt. 1

Hey, everyone!  Coming in hot with a very late post - unfortunately the weird insect in charge of Mondays that lives outside my office window was asleep this week, causing a localized buckle in linear time that shot us straight to Saturday.  We will be addressing our concerns with the weird insect in charge of Mondays over the course of this coming week to ensure this anomaly remains one-time only.  In the meantime, have some art!

One of my favorite parts of creating TSAR is all the fun worldbuilding I get to do behind the scenes.  Here's an exploratory shot of some naturally-occuring King Oba's ivory, a phenomenon found throughout the river canyons of Tanoba.  Local religion considers these veins of magic-enhancing blue sandstone to be the antlers of Oba, a powerful spirit of nature who sacrificed themselves in ancient times to relieve the land of a devastating drought.  In recent years, the substance has become strictly regulated within Everspring's walls - much to the indignation of the locals who have been using it in their daily lives for generations.  Still, outside the city limits, it makes for a stunning view.

~ Bri

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Page 3 of Chapter 2 is up!

If you enjoy our content and would like to leave us a tip, you can buy a month of subscription to our Patreon for $3.00 and get early access to new pages, plus bonus content! New uploads are released on Fridays at 12:00pm MST. All pages will become free-to-read at 12:00pm MST on Mondays. Have a great read!

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Page 2 of Chapter 2 is up!

If you enjoy our content and would like to leave us a tip, you can buy a month of subscription to our Patreon for $3.00 and get early access to new pages! New uploads are released on Fridays at 12:00pm MST. All pages will become free-to-read at 12:00pm MST on Mondays. Have a great read!

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Page 1 of Chapter 2 is up!

If you enjoy our content and would like to leave us a tip, you can buy a month of subscription to our Patreon for $3.00 and get early access to new pages! New uploads are released on Fridays at 12:00pm MST. All pages will become free-to-read at 12:00pm MST on Mondays. Have a great read!

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Introducing our story's home city!  Plus a little, ah...editing by certain yet-to-be-identified locals.

If you enjoy our content and would like to leave us a tip, you can buy a month of subscription to our Patreon for $3.00 and get early access to new pages, plus bonus content! New uploads are released on Fridays at 12:00pm MST. All pages will become free-to-read at 12:00pm MST on Mondays. Have a great read!

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Announcing the imminent arrival of our primary artist's new baby! Congratulations, Kiki :D

After a short break of a few weeks' time, we will resume regularly scheduled posting of comic pages, starting with Chapter 2! In the meantime, we have some complimentary bits of worldbuilding and art saved up for y'all. Stay tuned!

[tsarcomics]

Chapter 1 is finished!!!

Due to an unscheduled Brain Error(tm) in which the blogger accidentally saved this post as a draft instead of putting it in the queue, we are coming to you now with a surprise post! Here's our brief overview on the fun and challenges of putting together TSAR's first installment. Posting will resume tomorrow on Monday, 12:00pm as scheduled. Expect an exciting announcement in our next post!!

If you enjoy our content and would like to leave us a tip, you can buy a month of subscription to our Patreon for $3.00 and get early access to new pages! New uploads are released on Fridays at 12:00pm MST. All pages will become free-to-read at 12:00pm MST on Mondays. Have a great read!

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Page 20 is up!

If you enjoy our content and would like to leave us a tip, you can buy a month of subscription to our Patreon for $3.00 and get early access to new pages! New uploads are released on Fridays at 12:00pm MST. All pages will become free-to-read at 12:00pm MST on Mondays. Have a great read!

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Page 19 is up!

If you enjoy our content and would like to leave us a tip, you can buy a month of subscription to our Patreon for $3.00 and get early access to new pages! New uploads are released on Fridays at 12:00pm MST. All pages will become free-to-read at 12:00pm MST on Mondays. Have a great read!

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Page 18 is up!

If you enjoy our content and would like to leave us a tip, you can buy a month of subscription to our Patreon for $3.00 and get early access to new pages! New uploads are released on Fridays at 12:00pm MST. All pages will become free-to-read at 12:00pm MST on Mondays. Have a great read!