Sketches of some of my original characters: Opal, Mia, and Vladimir.

Opal Sariel, a character from my original story, Discretional Valor.

I spent a long time working on her hair and lips! I hope to be as good as Sakimichan someday with lips…

I’m very happy with the results of this one.

I have been trying to learn from cushart’s vivid use of color, and his liberal use of the SSS effect. This drawing is the result of some of that experimentation.

Cushart is a Taiwanese artist that does a lot of high fantasy game art and romance novel covers. See some of his work here!

This drawing is a scene from my story, Discretional Valor. Silas, Opal, and Sir Vladimir (you can just barely see his helmet in the background) are waiting in a carriage for the arrival of Lily, the Ogmian Princess. They are to transport her to a Lord Vodnik’s castle, which is about four days East of Ogmia. This is the first time all three of them are working together. Opal is concerned about the consequences her absence from the capital city may cause among the gang that collects interest on a debt from her weekly. Silas is too naive and excited to be spending time with Opal to comprehend her concerns, and Vladimir is so preoccupied with the mission that he has barely spoken a word.

Opal Sariel, a character from my original story, Discretional Valor.

More Discretional Valor sketches. This time, Opal and Maximiliian Lothair. I used a ballerina pose as a reference for Opal. Graceful and deadly.

Discretional Valor character and weapon sketches. Did this one a while back, forgot to post it here!

Some of these character designs are subject to change…

I’ve been flipping back and forth between writing a novel, and writing a graphic novel for my original work, Discretional Valor. I’m leaning towards comics again. I’m testing out a few different softwares for the best sketching, inking, and speech bubble designs.

I think Adobe Illustrator is going to be pretty good for text and speech bubbles. I used Autodesk Sketchbook Pro for the lines, but I’m not very satisfied with them. Maybe if I stick to the pencil brush tool only, and adjust the opacity so that its higher, I might get a better result… I used SAI for the colors, and I do like that result.

A dynamic painting of Opal in her alternate combat outfit. I really like the way this one turned out! I used a paper texture this time on the SAI simple brush.

Silas and Opal, characters from my original story, Discretional Valor. She seems happier than usual! Silas seems like his typical excitable self.

After playing Disgaea 4, I felt compelled to draw some of my characters as though they were part of a strategy RPG. I tried to do something a little more like Ogre Battle 64 than Nippon Ichi. I swear, Ogre Battle 64 had some of the coolest character art of any game I have ever played!

Miscellaneous sketches of my original characters from Discretional Valor.

This is another drawing of Opal Sariel, an original character from my novel in progress, Discretional Valor. A reference photo from Flickr user Đăng Thiện was used as a reference for the pose, and sunset backdrop.

Discretional Valor characters at the beach.

Sir Vladimir, Silas, Mia, and Opal travel along a scenic trail.

Silas, Mia, and Opal fight a gang of Ock-Wocks. All characters and monsters from Discretional Valor, and original story I am working on.