Plume

Plume is a small, isolated village found on a floating island off the southern tip of Iridea. This is the only settlement found on one of the islands that comprise the Shards of the Old World, an archipelagic region in the Aethersphere with islands that are near uninhabitable because of their irregular rock formations.

I have mentioned Plume often in the past, and I even made a town map of it, so I think it's about time it got a landscape of its own. I wasn't so keen about making this halfway through, but thankfully it's now done. 😌

Cessna

I'm back! This took me a while to color in, but I hope this made the wait worth it!

The town of Cessna is one of the many windmill-powered settlements in the floating continent of Argent in the Aethersphere. It also serves as the main port of entry to Argent, and therefore serves as a major hub of commerce for locals and foreigners alike. It is often said that one can easily find wares from all over the Aether when they come here.

I already featured Argentine architecture during Conceptober, but today was the first time to see it presented in a landscape. Also, looking at this again now, I think it may have been better if I used shutters instead of glass for the windows, as I just realized sand isn't all that common to find in the Aethersphere. 😅

Conceptober 2022 - In Closing

With the success of this year's art challenge, it would be wrong if I didn't write a post to properly wrap everything up!

Conceptober Thoughts

If you've been following my content for a fair amount of time, then surely you're aware that I have always struggled to see these October art challenges to completion within the month itself, or even actually finishing them. This is the first time that I've actually been successful with doing and finishing the art challenge within the month itself and I'm very proud of this achievement.

Because of how broad my scope was for this year's theme, I initially wanted to be able to showcase various elements from my fantasy story. However, as time went on my focus shifted from variety to just being able to do what was more convenient and easier to do, which is why you start to see more bestiary entries near the end of the challenge. I was also consistently late by two days, at one point even reaching up to three, and I needed to ensure I caught up so I can finish the art challenge on time.

I also didn't mention this on my blog, but on the 7th, I finally received my new Wacom One tablet. This was a huge upgrade from my old Intuos, but I had to make changes to how I worked because this was the first time I was drawing on tablet that displayed my canvas at the same time. I like to think that all the entries I made for Conceptober were a huge help in my transition from the Wacom Intuos to the Wacom One, and now I'm very comfortable working with the latter.

Here's what my new tablet looks like by the way 😄:

It's the one on the right, by the way.

Improvements

I think the one thing I need to improve on is drawing the lower torso and the legs of humanoid characters. Same with hands. When I draw some of my characters I feel like I understand these concepts, and on other characters I struggle and realize that I actually don't. 😅 I need to take a few days to understand these elements better and practice drawing them.

The Tower of Ascension is definitely one of those pieces that I need to eventually return to and paint all over again. This is not a piece I am proud of and I really want to change that.

Moving Forward

I said last year's challenge was great, but this year is better simply because I finished the challenge on time. 😂

I started the challenge with the intent to create more content for the Aether and Radisrol. I'm glad to see more of this world come to life and to see these various elements put on canvas. After this work of Emeline, I even mull the possibility of this becoming a graphic novel in the near future. Although a great undertaking, it would be amazing for me to tell the story of my characters this way and I genuinely consider pursuing this endeavor.

For now, however, I'd like to go back to making colorful and elaborate landscape paintings again, preferrably based off of screenshots from Guild Wars 2 and GTA Online. I also miss making some content for Gator Buddies and maybe this month I'll start working on the next series of strips.

I also want to create some more original content for merch. New stickers, new hoodie designs maybe? My shop is long overdue for some new selections... Speaking of business, now that Conceptober is finally finished, my commission status is once again open! Perhaps you'd be interested in checking out my commish page here, and we can talk business if you'd like.

Before I jump into all that, though... I think I'll be taking a week off from arting. Just need some time to recharge after dishing out so much content this past month. 😅

I have to say though, this year's art challenge has done a good job of making me accustomed to the habit of trying to make art even when I'm not pressed to make some anymore... As I write this entry, I'm being nagged by this constant feeling that goes along the lines of, "You need to make some art right now even though I know you don't necessarily need to at the moment but you better make some anyway just 'cause". Not to say I dislike this, though. With all these projects I have in mind, heck, I'm definitely going to need this bug of productivity. 😋