World of Artcraft

Well hasn't it been long since the last update. Let's blame it on the summer, okay? Okay.
- School's ended, summer jobs ( hopefully ) started, and so many of us have fallen to the beast called RL. There's been a lot happening to me and Sazz as well, and apologies for the inactiveness of this blog. At least we live up to Zyl's example!

I could probably write about a million subjects, especially about the Firelands patch etc etc, yet this time I'm actually going to be focusing on another aspect - World of Warcraft art!
As many of us know, Blizzard keeps up a fan-art section that weekly or so gets updated by the most game-aspired artists around the world. The place is filled with a lot of great stuff, and those who haven't been feeling like checking it out, DO IT NAO. Seriously. One can really be amazed by the time and effort people put into their work just to show how much the game actually inspires them artistically.
- And they are not alone! This time I would like to share some art that I've made myself about the characters in WoW. So let's start :)

I felt like trying my claws in drawing goblins some time ago. At that time Ferbian was actively leveling a goblin mage called Ferinar, so I automatically thought of him and asked if he had any screenshots of his character. He didn't, but he took some for me, and I started sketching.
- First thing I learned, damn, goblin males have such angular faces and wrinkles everywhere! I started to think of goblins as a bit ugly, but nevertheless pretty fun to draw. I tried out a bit with Ferinar and thought that as a character it was more so towards the prettier goblin males. I wished for change!

So I asked our Kravtuk if he had any pictures of goblins. As an artsy person which he is, I hoped that he'd have some screenies of his various goblins characters - ...aaaand I wasn't disappointed. Quite the opposite.
- I asked for a few screenshots of his characters, and he got a little overboard with it :P My internet connection at the time was shitty as hell, and I had hoped that I'd get a couple, perhaps tops five pictures through, but the man insisted on sending me 82 SCREENSHOTS. 82! ...at least I have goblin models in every possible pose and expression for the rest of my life...
Also, I asked Grego ( who just very early this morning got tGC the achievement [Classy Orcs] by racechanging the goblin to an orc! ) to send me some screenshots of his gobliny-self, so I got plenty of different sorts of screenies to look at and practise. With Krav's screenies I started to think that even though goblin males first seem quite ugly, there's a certain kind of charisma in them as well. There's something in their lips I really like to draw.

So after having tried goblin males, I naturally wanted to try goblin females.
I didn't really know anyone who'd play with a goblin female at the time, so for another picture that I had huge inspiration to draw, I let Sazz play around with female goblin designs and let her choose what she wanted. I took some very poor shots of the result in the character creation screen, since I couldn't make another character - yay for having all ten slots for the realm used! ... Here's the result after that.

I learned that goblin females, as every female counterpart in the WoW races, are so much more cuter, prettier and just way... well. They have none of the roughness of their male counterparts. There were no lines in their faces ( in most of them - of course there were the VEERRYYY OOOLLDD-looking faces, but nothing in between the beautiful and young//old and ugleh. ), but I was lucky enough that Sazz chose a lot of all sorts of jewelry on the goblin's face. I learned a lot about the differences of the facial structures. Was cool :)

So for a bigger picture I also wish to share this little piece of sketch - a tauren female head.
One day I started thinking what would me and Sazz be if we'd ever end in to the world of WoW. Well, for Sazz, she instantly said that I'd be a tauren and I'd definately be a druid. I started pondering that if that'd be the case, I'd never be able to find myself in flesh in the front lines - rather be fighting as restoration, healing my allies and keeping them safe. I said that Sazz would be a hunter, for she loves guns and would be a bloody good one with a pet as well, but she wouldn't be a troll hunter, like Raega, but a goblin instead! Fiery spirits and the child-like joy that they have ( fem. goblins! ) is just awesome, and fits her like a glove if you ask me. I asked her what her pet would be, and she said fox, so here, you have the adventurers!

It is the druid Crow and her friend, the goblin hunter Sazzer with her fox Ashtail ( named after the rare fox in somewhere in... Redridge? )! Pencil and inked versions :)

Also playing so much on my paladin Alairn inspired and still does for a lot of tauren Sunwalker art. Tier 2 for paladins, the Judgement armour, is by far one of the most awesome sets ever made in the game. Also the ever beautiful, amazing, legendary, Naïma's-quest-to-get-ffs [Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros] is something I've always loved, lookwise and all. So! An image containing these both on my beloved little Sunwalker happened. This is the result.

That was all for the serious artsyness that you'll see me for now.
...I think it's time to go to Naïma's Cataclysmic Adventures!
- The idea for these silly comics started after a few... "unfortunate" happenings that I got after the Cataclysm and half of the ideas I haven't even brought to paper. These are a few clips that have made it to the paper, tho! Hope some of them make you smile at least :P

The first one is Sazz's reaction the day I told her I made a tauren Sunwalker. It's very truthful to the original scene irl. Trust me in this.

...yeah. We sort of agreed on one point that paladins suck. But it's a Sunwalker, not a paladin!... cough.

Next we see two different skype conversations with my respective guildies, the ever-lovable Stonie and our master of pervert jokes, Gentle!

He has a lot of cats. Sometimes it's very confusing.

He's really a helpful guy! ...I'm serious now!

Lastly, but not least.
I was making an around 3-4 page long comic about questing in TB at the time when the three of us, me, Lylma and Vozor went everywhere and did everything together, but somehow I never managed to go past this first page :/ I still felt like I wanted to share this already, so here you have it. I might make more pages to this and finish it, but we'll see about that then! For moo and the jazzin' saunatroll.

'til next time!
- Naïma xxx

P.S. I love worgen males. I love worgen male druids. Myst spent a small time as one when he went into this spiralling insanity disease called factionchanging. What it did though was give me lots of time to ask him for screenies!