May I formally introduce The Crucified Dreamer. This alternate universe Abyssal form of my character, Kalara, enjoys seducing revolutionaries to the cause of her Deathlord, the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears.
She fiercely loves her Deathlord, who saved her from the days of torment she had endured after being crucified by the Guild for a murder she didn’t commit in an effort to silence her calls for reform.
The Lover gave the Dreamer the chance she craved to ‘equalize’ all in the embrace of death. The Dreamer enjoys finding revolutionaries much like herself, encouraging them to fight wars they cannot win so she can watch them die 'beautiful’ deaths.
Her skin is meant to be a corpselike blue with her crucifixion wounds still present and unhealed.
Then I remembered to come back and share Kalara’s completed Shirt Cut Meme here! Her wardrobe and hair got an update and her Koh persona (Free Space) got a redesign to be way more sexy-badass instead of kinda nerdy, which just wouldn’t do for the Silver-Tongued Devil famed for many misadventures.
I also experimented with a new style in Procreate, which I’m digging. I’m slowly, but surely morphing The Uncrucified towards a more painterly, less line heavy style.
You can also watch a narrated timelapse of this piece here.
Kalara’s Shirt Cut Meme continues! It’s a dangerous move to wear your Anathema caste mark in your jewelry, but it’s a perfect way to keep your enemies guessing & distracted. Is it an ornate circle or a sign this lady’s Trouble?
Kalara Vadras, the main character of my story, The Uncrucified, inspired by the Exalted TTRPG. She’s a high level businesswoman, Guild Master, and lady with a score to settle.
Fashion inspiration Mollyca, Stephane Rolland, and Eli Saab.
Made with perfect pose reference from AdorkaStock.
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 - Favorite Charm
The concepts for Favorite Charm (or magical ability) gave me a chance to explore the many glorious flame FX of the Celestial firepower of a Righteous Devil like Kalara. It also granted a bit of wish fulfillment since she never learned Garda Flies on Gilded Wing Attack. These FX are just SCREAMING to be animated and are giving me more incentive to learn animation in Procreate!
I’m saving the top right thumbnail of Cloud of Ebon Devils for a cover piece because it just has presence! Future cover of a sequel story to The Uncrucified, perhaps? Or at least some cool promo art!
One of my favorite sketch compilations from my recent Art Challenge I’m sharing over at my Exalted fic’s account. Be sure to check out that account from the rest of the sketches from my prompt list!
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!
The Righteous Devil form isn’t merely a martial art, but a spiritual reckoning. When you draw on this art, you’re pulling from that turmoil deep down, from all the sins you’ve ever committed, and all the sinners you’ve ever reckoned with. All that roiling guilt and anger and painful understanding refined and channeled into the flame of your soul, of your weapons.
It took me years to even begin to master it…and it almost destroyed me. Only one who can understand their own sins can channel what it means to be not only a Devil, but a Righteous one.
- Memoirs of Kalara Vadras, The Uncrucified, RY 800.
Then I remembered to come back and share Kalara’s completed Shirt Cut Meme here! Her wardrobe and hair got an update and her Koh persona (Free Space) got a redesign to be way more sexy-badass instead of kinda nerdy, which just wouldn’t do for the Silver-Tongued Devil famed for many misadventures.
I also experimented with a new style in Procreate, which I’m digging. I’m slowly, but surely morphing The Uncrucified towards a more painterly, less line heavy style.
You can also watch a narrated timelapse of this piece here.
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!
Exalted Secret Santa 2020 for @theuncrucified of their gorgeous Kalara! I hope I got all the details in <3
OHHH! Look what was posted while I was sleeping! She’s absolutely stunning @fishcapades. Thank you for this lovely gift! This color scheme is gorgeous for her!
Now we’re getting into the fun spoopy topics of the Exalted Art Challenge I was looking forward to the most! Feels great to indulge my inner Goth Girl.
Abyssal - Golden Lies Spewn Forth From Avarice
No that title isn’t a sentence, it’s this character’s name. Abyssals are the dark reflection of Solars like Kalara. Their once-divine Sun essence has been corrupted by beings empowered by the ancient fallen gods. This character once had a name, but it was taken from him and stricken from the books in heaven when he was transformed into an Abyssal.
In life, Golden Lies obsessed over material wealth and pursued it to his end. In death (or undeath), he cloaks himself in the finery of a king’s funeral adorned with bejeweled bones and serves the Deathlord, the Lover Clad in the Raiment of Tears. I played with a couple of different color schemes for him and am favoring the white-haired look at the moment! This isn’t the last we’ll see of this fellow, as he might appear in The Uncrucified down the line, if the story goes where I think it’s going.
On the bottom-right, I also decided to draw fan art of another Abyssal who I liked the design of, the Saint of Promised Silence, who belongs to HamSandLich. Be sure not to be too loud in cemeteries around her!
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Incarnations Back to Back - Kalara and Calym
While Calym’s time is over, he and Kalara remain inextricably bound, with his Shard passing on some of his memories and knowledge. Kalara strives to learn from the mistakes Calym made and the emotionless spirit construct of himself he has left behind to tutor her in bureaucracy.
Should she ever prove unworthy, however, Calym has made his intentions known that he will destroy her so that a more worthy successor might come along more quickly, a threat Kalara never takes seriously.
The left thumbnail is another one I hope to bring to final! It has a badass epic mood to it that really inspires me.
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Age of Sorrows Incarnation - Kalara Vadras
When the Exalted of the First Age fell, the Age of Sorrows began, but a glimmer of hope stands on the horizon. The Shards of the Exalted have begun to appear again, imbuing heroes like Kalara with the power to change the face of Creation.
Like Calym, I’ve depicted her in a mural style with some key differences. While Calym’s focuses on veneration from his worshippers, Kalara stands among people who rise up in revolution carrying tools of their trade, as she spends much of her power in Creation empowering escaped slaves like herself with trade skills and fostering fair economy through her organization, the Pristine Guild.
She struggles between the Gun and the Quill, violence and diplomacy. By the end of her time in Creation, she will have learned to balance both.
She and Calym share the phoenix as a personal symbol, though they oppose each other in gold and silver.
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - First Age Incarnation
In each spark of Exaltation resides a Shard which is passed down from one worthy vessel to another. This gent here is Calym Lang, the Solar and Righteous Devil practitioner whose shard Kalara would eventually inherit.
Calym was a shrewd and paranoid master of trade whose cold pragmatism would be his downfall. Kalara is more like him than she would like to admit at times and the two maintain a begrudging respect towards one another. She often communicates with his greater soul in the underworld, the two poking fun at each other’s flaws in a good-natured competition to see who will achieve their goals through more effective ends.
He’s also ghostwritten a series of erotica novels that Kalara is a fan of, but will never tell him.
Calym’s mural venerates his status as one who united the four corners of Creation, all trade routes leading to the compass in his hand. I imagine this to be the centerpiece of a wider mural, each region of the mural depicting the exports of the area they represent (an image our Storyteller described once that never left my mind).
Man alive, has it really been since October of last year since I posted a chapter? Thanks to the extra motivation of Camp NaNoWriMo, I’m back at it again! After the losses of last chapter, Kalara searches for meaning on the slave’s path, finding it in the shine of firewands and an unexpected reunion.
The quiet chaos of grief felt like it should have consumed her, that upon arriving at yet another home in the shade of a grander lava tube, Kalara should have cried for the loss of her friends and the loss of Djali. Instead, numbness set in as Farook rode with her to her new home. Life, as it happened, seemed to continue on, ignorant of the cares of a Scrap like her. Farook introduced Kalara to her new quarters in his shaded abode, a little room barely larger than a closet with a small bed, half of the space full of scrolls and boxes. He was an appraiser in the grand scheme of House Iblan, his humble holdings luxurious enough to be shaded from the sun and furnished with woven carpets, but not near as decadent as Kalara might have imagined for someone descended from the venerable goldsmiths of Iblan.
Iblan Farook cracked his back as he stretched from their trip in the sedan chair, the aging man more past his prime than he liked to let on. “Clean up the mess tomorrow and the space is yours.” He gestured lazily to the piles of parchment. “I wasn’t expecting to win a slave. Lucky girl!” He laughed and placed a hand on her shoulder, Kalara’s green eyes flicking up to take in his beard-lined face, searching there for some clue as to whether that touch meant good or ill. Apparent kindness, she had learned, did not protect you from being sent off to the next master. Every time a new master bought her contract was a gamble of Plentimon’s dice between kind and cruel. So far she had been rolling well, too well.
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Favorite Spell
There was no contest in choosing a fave spell. How could I resist a spell that sends razor sharp obsidian butterflies flying out of the caster’s hands? It’s so goth extra and I love it! If a sorcerer chooses this spell as their specialty, they can also grow slashing claws of obsidian.
I made this character up on the fly as a sorcerer-assassin, of sorts. Instead of the more proper elegant mages, I imagine this nameless mage to be much more world-weary and cold. She would fit in well with the Guild assassins that Kalara will no doubt clash with later on in her story!
Exalted Art Challenge Concept Sketches - Favorite Dragonblooded House
No, I’m not talking about Dragonborn from D&D, but the ruling bloodlines descended from the elemental dragons in the Exalted RPG. Each House is named for a progenitor of unique power and fame, their descendants doing what they can to uphold that family legacy.
I chose House Cynis who feature in The Uncrucified in the form of gambling addict and bathhouse owner, Cynis Varia, and his wife, Sana, the daughter of an outcaste Wood Aspect who married into the family, since nobody else of status wanted to take on Varia’s debt and bad habits. The two are a strangely tender and terrible couple in a world of arranged marriages.
This sheet explores portraits of Varia and Sana as well as a house sigil encircled by a bonsai, since their associated element is Wood. Their house motto reads “Wood Nourished on Tears of the Fallen”.
Exalted Art Challenge Concepts - Regional Fashion of Gem
Exploring the fashion of Gem, the underground mining metropolis in a volcano and Kalara’s hometown. I went through different ideas for this one, from Kalara eating lunch in a hidden niche by a crystal (top right thumbnail) to a fancy version of her where she’s returned to Gem as a wealthy Eclipse Caste and dresses in full finery for a party (top left thumbnail).
I opted for the simple glimpse of her in the market almost purely so I could draw that fun purse and explore fashion textures, as well as show a peek of her early life. I really like that lunch concept though, so might have to work that up sometime!
The first batch of my Exalted Art Challenge concept sketches are out of Patreon Early Access, so I can finally share them here!
These concepts for the topic Favorite Caste explore customizing a caste mark for my Eclipse, Kalara, who hails from Gem. As such, I wanted her sigil to have a desert flair to it and took much inspiration from Moroccan motifs.
In the end, the final design combines abstracted fire elements with the tails of the phoenix, a personal symbol of Kalara’s.
The 3rd compilation of sketches for my Exalted Art Challenge arrives early for Patreon Patrons! Exploring concepts for the God of Gambling, First Age heroes, and more. Here are some of my favorite picks, with alternates and creative notes at the post.
PLUS enjoy a bonus sketch of the Plentimon of Dice’s poker face. I had a good giggle imagining what he’d look like while playing a game. His innocuous inky form would make it very hard to read his tells!
The Righteous Devil form isn’t merely a martial art, but a spiritual reckoning. When you draw on this art, you’re pulling from that turmoil deep down, from all the sins you’ve ever committed, and all the sinners you’ve ever reckoned with. All that roiling guilt and anger and painful understanding refined and channeled into the flame of your soul, of your weapons.
It took me years to even begin to master it…and it almost destroyed me. Only one who can understand their own sins can channel what it means to be not only a Devil, but a Righteous one.
- Memoirs of Kalara Vadras, The Uncrucified, RY 800.
I wonder sometimes if I would even recognize myself back then. I still remember the soft light of Gem’s crystals and the teeming underground marketplace that never slept. As a slave of Iblan, I was dressed in attire to represent the household of my master, an aging master goldsmith.
I owned no finery of my own, not even the bangles I wore which served as an example of Iblan craftmanship for all to see and admire, for even their slaves must convey everything about their stature as Gem’s famed goldsmiths. Instead of gems sewn into my shawl as any fine lady of Gem might own, mine was painted and embroidered to mimic gems. I was a pale imitation of what a noble Iblan lady might be.
- Memoirs of Kalara Vadras, The Uncrucified, RY 800.
My Exalted Art Challenge for October has BEGUN! Find out about what you can look forward to this month, how to keep up with my Challenge posts, and how you can participate!
got this done for @shiftingpath‘s exalted secret santa! i decided on their fire aspect, Khazan the Starless Dragon… he seems like a great fellow and figuring him out was a lot of fun! good luck on your project!
I was hoping my Secret Santa might pick someone like Khazan! It’s so fun to see him getting some art love. I adore what Jadehand did with him! “Cheeky dad” describes exactly how he is when Kalara meets him. This art has captured his larger than life spirit and big smile. I love it so!
I really need to keep writing so you all can meet him properly in the sequel story I started way back during NaNoWriMo of long ago. Thanks for the handsome gift and fun bonus sketch, @jadehand ! I am inspired all over again!
