So I’ve been art blocked for a long while. Life’s been busy and I needed a break! Who knew the silly shirt cut meme would be the thing to break me out of my block? It’s a fun excuse to put Kalara in pretty dresses! Powerful god-tier businesswomen need to have fun too, right? I’m going to share my topics one at a time till I reveal the final collection and stash these individual entries.
Fashion inspiration from Eli Saab and Sherri Hill.
For those who don’t know this character, Kalara is from The Uncrucified, my fan project inspired by the Exalted TTRPG setting.
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Deathlord - The Lover
Masters of the Abyssals, the Deathlords terrorize Creation, the whispers of dark gods in their ears driving them forth. Each Deathlord is a powerful ghost who rules over an array of weapons and armies poised to bring about the destruction of Creation for the Neverborn, the remnants of the Primordial gods imprisoned in the Underworld.
Not so for the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears. She has no armies, nor does she make war like the others. Her insidious claws seep into every corner of her enemies’ territories in the form of spies and hidden knives. She once seduced an entire monastery of celibate monks before transforming their holy land into a Shadowland and building her own fortress atop its ruins. I do enjoy a clever villainous lady and couldn’t resist drawing this particular Deathlord!
I wove the ‘tears’ of the Lover’s name into her design, her dangling jewels mimicking falling streams of tears and the makeup on her face flowing like tear streaks punctuated by a drip of ‘blood’ from her lips. The tear shape even echoes in the cleavage cutout in her dress. For a seductress as high caliber as the Lover, I wanted a sense of high class, of ornamentation. She has bare shoulders to show a tantalizing bit of skin and smokes an opium pipe, which to me embodies her motif of 'luxurious destruction’.
She really seems to agree with the muse! I am definitely planning to choose one of her thumbnails to turn into a full painting.
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Favorite God - Plentimon of the Dice
Creation is full of offerings a-plenty for the Plentimon of the Dice! He is the God of Gambling and one of the most present and active gods in Creation. This god gets a thrill from watching games of chance unfold and the excitement of high stakes. He’s always circulating Creation visiting every casino either in his full splendor or a mortal disguise. Those who gamble to him and lose without repaying their debts meet mysterious unexplained deaths.
The Plentimon shows up often in The Uncrucified, as Kalara’s hometown of Gem hosts one of the most magnificent subterranean gambling parlors built with such finery as to please the gods themselves. Games of chance are part of the culture of Gem, with fortunes always turning in their many gambling parlors. Kalara has experienced this firsthand as her contract was lost several times in a game of chance, usually during Plentimon’s festival day.
I’ve chosen to depict the Plentimon with a half-mask representing Good and Bad fortune with jewelry and adornments made from various game pieces and jade obols. Perhaps they are the good luck charms from those who have lost to him?
I knew I’d love this take on the God of Gambling when I was working on this. I’ll definitely be finishing up that thumbnail on the right! It just has something about it.
I’d love to go on adventures with the Plentimon in human form taking bets on what dumb thing the party does next. XD
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Favorite Incarnae
I chose the Incarnae, Luna, goddess of the moon in Exalted for this topic. The Changing Maiden is all things, trickster, lover, prankster, and so much more. Her capricious nature appeals to my favorite trickster stories.
For her concept, I explored what a mural might look like in her temple, eventually favoring an asymmetrical version that felt more organic and freeform, which suited her themes better than the orderly symmetrical concepts. The masks represent her shapeshifting identities, with moon phases and rabbit companions worked into her motifs.
Keen-eyed fans might also pick up the inspiration I took from the Diamond murals in Steven Universe. The cosmic space queen energy of the style felt fitting.
Out of the topics so far, this is one of my favorites I want to bring to finish!
The 2nd collection of Early Access sketches for my Exalted Art Challenge is up a month in advance for Patrons! This collection explores the spell “Death of Obsidian Butterflies”, the hedonistic nobles of House Cynis, and the Silver Lady herself, Luna, goddess of the moon.
More sketches and discussion at the post! It is available to Patrons at any level.
Miss the first collection with Favorite Charm, Favorite Caste, etc.?Find it here!
Signal bumping the art challenge sneak peeks I’ve been posting this month!
So I’ve been art blocked for a long while. Life’s been busy and I needed a break! Who knew the silly shirt cut meme would be the thing to break me out of my block? It’s a fun excuse to put Kalara in pretty dresses! Powerful god-tier businesswomen need to have fun too, right? I’m going to share my topics one at a time till I reveal the final collection and stash these individual entries.
For those who don’t know this character, Kalara is from The Uncrucified, my fan project inspired by the Exalted TTRPG setting.
Finally drawing Kalara again and wouldn’t you know it’s a boob meme? lol!
Finally calling my try at the Exalted Art Challenge inspired by @theonyxpath ‘s Exalted setting is complete! You can see the entire set of images with links to each collection’s lore and concept notes at the post. Lemme know what your fave topics were!
There are so many great Dungeons & Dragons-themed art challenges out there that I decided that @theonyxpath ‘s Exalted needed one of its own as well! Feel free to interpret these topics as loosely as you like or replace topics that don’t vogue with your favorite edition or subject matter.
if you know someone with an art blog please tag them in this post and harass them into doing angeltober. I would like to reblog significantly more angel art
Made myself a 30 prompts of art improvement challenge. Feel free to use if you want! There are no rules to this, for example you do not have to go in order or do a prompt/day. Feel free to ask if any of the prompts are confusing, but you can also interpret them any way you want!
