I’m meeting with a local vanity press tomorrow to explore how they could help take The Heartwood Trilogy to the next level. I wanted to include some interior illustrations but I was stressing how I could ever set up a proper scene illustration. But I just finished this portrait of Andrew and it occurred to me that THOSE should be the portraits in the books – the portraits I’ve been passionately and carefully constructing as I’ve been writing the trilogy. So, at least that’s out of the way. Here’s Andrew, looking full Druid! I kind of want to add more to it – I don’t love how the book cover turned out – but I’m going to let it lie for now. ...Maybe
This is also the first finished work of 2023. đŸ˜€
It’s been a vast and varied holiday season in my house, so it should come as no surprise that I ended up with several drafted Christmas illustrations before ending up with one I was happy with.
So that means you get lots of bonuses – the finished one I’m very happy with; IT’S SO COZY – and the drafts for the other versions.
<3I really liked this one and everything, but it was too much the same tone as the Halloween one, with Lucienne being a goblin. I also got freaked out with how similar Andrew and Ingrid looked ahahha.
I’m revising Superior and added a scene where Micah makes Ingrid and Lucienne go to Target to get gifts for the Folk and…doodles ensued
And okay so when I was writing the original draft I kept debating whether or not Micah and Lucienne would kiss/have a thing/briefly be together and I opted for this awkward Trial scene where Lucienne tricks Micah into thinking they slept together, but I ended up squeezing another scene in in its place and Micah ends up in Lilydale
So I talked it through with, you know, my monogamous partner, and ended up deciding one one kiss between them
I’m trash so I wanted to make a parallel kiss pic to Andrew and Micah’s forest kiss from Lilydale. I’m not quite as squealy, over the moon about it as I was about the first one, but I am into the TONGUES hahaha
It gives major Cirrus/Syracrus vibes from that picture I did of them in high school which is hilarious because Cirrus is The Ultimate Badguy in the 3rd Heartwood book. Really there’s visible tongue because MLM manhua has taken over my brain
I had the first flash this day talking to the receptionist about books where I’m like, excited to have some more brain space left rather than terrified of finishing this all-consuming trilogy.
The evil Cirrus + tongue picture in question lol. Kinda looks like Syr’s tongue is like a probiscus hehehahahaha
But I feel like I’m trying to emotionally prepare for it. Good news is there will be plenty of edits ahead of me I’m sure teheh. And it’s gonna be extra tedious since I wrote both of the last two parts without editing!
But I love them all so much and I’m sad already to be moving toward the first of the last two (large) scenes
Which of course culminate in A WEDDING EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Gotta throw in one of the OG couple pics of Andrew and Micah from Code: Compromised
An unexpected scene led to Andrew getting a concussion which was very goofy but potentially insensitive to the seriousness of concussions
Bluey and Gravity Falls brought it to my attention that a favorite cartoon trope of mine is eyes facing different directions
I’m sad that the hottest kiss (that I traced from a manhua for practice) turned out so bloody? I guess in that sense this was a practice lol
I’m well into the third in the Heartwood Trilogy (Lilydale/Superior/Heartwood) and in Superior Micah makes himself a magical staff which I one hundred percent thought of knowing Myoku’s history as a staff wielder haha.
This truly feels like his most evolved form, although there are places where I’m like, mm I could see him coming across as a bit annoying in that hero tendency. I mean, I’m happy with the choices and missteps he makes and his difficulty owning his power. And anyway Andrew, Ingrid, and Lucienne are all amazing.
Anyway ever since his birchwood staff was born I wanted to do a redraw of his “master of the shadows” arc. I tried a few serious adventure drawings but then I was in a session I think when him reclining in a flower bed popped into my head and I was like WELL isn’t that more appropriate. The design and the skeleton was born in under an hour and I just putsed with it for the next few days.
My little army of old Myoku: Master of the Shadows drawings hehe. The rightmost one is probably from 2005?
Well…the worst case scenario has happened. My dad planted the idea in me to turn Lilydale into a series and…well, that’s working out.
So that’s most of the art that I’ve been doing lately, but honestly what art could I possibly need to do ever again tbh, they’re perfect
And THEN…I was getting underway with it and the anthem band for MicahxAndrew, All Time Low, released a new single and IT. IS. A SPIRITUAL. EXPERIENCE for me.
I literally told Ryan that the fact that this song came out while much of the plot of this second one was planned and the new single matched the theme PRECISELY…like something about that is so unreal and implausible that…that’s the shit that moves me.
So here’s an image dump of illustrations since I started Superior.
Don’t worry, this part of their story is only TWO OUTTA THREE hehe
Maybe, probably. We’ll see haha.
Micah’s sad and angry in this one, ft. Sleepwalking lyricsAndrew on a snowmobile is an image Micah and I mutually find very sexy. But we know how I feel about drawing machines. Anyway, more Sleepwalking lyrics.This one I did at the tail end of Lilydale and I 100% imagine this is engagement photos for them.This was initially supposed to be an Inktober prompt but it did not remain on theme, but I loooove the vivid colors and the sketchtasticness
Ingrid goes full mom mode in SuperiorHere’s an amusing and super awkward now v then for Micah and Ingrid but now she’s taller than him as a faerie
HHHH I’m chokingAnother tail end of Lilydale one, SO KAWAII KYAAAAInktober prompt “empty” from Micah’s drunken night out
