Oooooooh The Hair And The Shine On The Armor Are Gorgeous!!! I'm In Love With Your Color Choices!

Oooooooh the hair and the shine on the armor are gorgeous!!! I'm in love with your color choices!

Hermit a Day May: Day 2, Xisuma, Personification of Void!

I had SO much fun with this one!! The iridescent hair was inspired by @/Kingscourthouse's wonderful comic. And here's his full portrait without the text and background:

:D I'm glad you like it!!

HERMIT A DAY MAY - DAY 2

Xisuma x Dethklok

I drew Xisuma in the style of a Dethklok music video!

I picked this one for him because X is a big fan of metal and I am a big fan of Dethklok, a fictional death metal band from the show Metalocalypse. Even though the band is fictional, they produce real metal and their music is great.

Warning: Metalocalypse is hilarious but also very adult, with graphic depictions of violence and inappropriate themes - this extends to a much of Dethklok's music and music videos as well, so please be aware of that if you decide to look them up. Obviously I wont be posting anything like that here.

If you want to learn more about Metalocalypse and Dethklok, or just want to see my style references, keep reading below the cut!

Dethklok is a fictional band created by Brendon Small and Tommy Blacha. Small both writes and is the main performer for the band. The band, consisting of 5 members that don't actually exist, are stars of the show Metalocalypse.

In the show, Dethklok has become so popular that they control the entire planet. Nearly every episode ends with the band performing one of their original songs, which somehow causes horrific violence to everyone listening. However, since they are idiots, they also seem oblivious to the destruction their awesome, face-melting, eldritch-beast-summoning music causes...or they just don't care because they're ultra wealthy megastars.

The show heavily, but lovingly, satirizes the metal scene and, less lovingly, the music industry and celebrity in general. The over-the-top gore is played for laughs, but the characters are interesting and endearing. There is genuinely a lot of heart under all that growling and corpse paint and a lot of care goes into their (often very funny) music.

If you are interested in checking out their music and want a PG track, I recommend Go Into the Water. This is one of their few non-violent music videos (big epilepsy warning though) and there's no profanity or graphic imagery in the lyrics. The premise of the song is that the band realized that fish can't listen to metal because they're in the ocean, and they thought that was sad, so they set up a concert just for the fish.

Style references:

Set design/aesthetic from Black Fire Upon Us (this song is awesome and was my primary design reference, but the music video is VERY violent, so be warned)

Nathan Explosion's evil DnD paladin fit also from Black Fire Upon Us

Dethklok's band logo

Aww he was just looking for someone to help out with his Zedvancements! I'm sure it'd be fine. :)

This whole series is so fun, I want more people to see it.

Entry 25

Day 200

I think I nearly avoided death by not sticking around this guy.

While I was busy clearing out a gas station today, this guy popped out of nowhere! I swear on it! That gas station was as dead as dust and then he just shows up out of the blue! (Or brown? The sky doesn't exactly look blue really.)

He seemed decently friendly while I spoke to him. Rambling on about how he's completing these "Zedvancements" (I still haven't figured out what qualifies for one of those things) and that he needed help on this next one.

Then came the change in attitude.

"You know you could be a really useful person! It's just a second." It started off casual.

"No thank you."

"Come on man! I haven't seen anyone in what? Five, six days? My Zedvancements are boring without anyone to complete them with!" He got a bit louder around here.

"I am sorry but I really can't! I have to go speak to a man about a horse, you know? Can't dilly dally!"

That eye of his... He didn't seem all too happy when I told him no at that time.

(As I'm writing this down, I feel so stupid! He probably just wanted my head on a spike or something!)

"Who are you trying to meet with?" He had started to walk a circle around me then. Like I was prey (AND I SOMEHOW DIDN'T REALIZE. WAY TO GO PAST ME WHAT THE FUCK! WELCOME EVERYONE TO THE NUMBER ONE DUMBASS OF THE YEAR) "There can't be anyone that important that you can't stay a day or two!"

"Well, actually there is. I'm trying to find the Doctor!" And I had turned. Away. Just turned away and walked to the door like there wasn't a single damn in the world. "My arm here needs work to be done. Keeps glitching out!"

I distinctly remember just how shocked he was when I looked back at him. How that golden-yellow eye was fixed on me. How his weird pupil dilated several times over in just the span of seconds. He was getting angry and I hadn't known it at the time.

"You can't be serious! THE Doctor?? The madman?! Are you insane?"

"I am!" I had to of been stupid to keep talking to him, let alone to just crack open one of the last pop bottles that lingered on the shelves (I'm still fine as of writing this. I'm not hurting or sick because of that drink.) "He's the only one who can fix my arm. It's Watcher Tec and Admins were never trained on how to fix that kind of stuff."

"YOU'RE FROM A G.U.I.D.E?!" I swear to you his scream could have scared off a Night Stalker. "That's genuine Watcher Tec?? You have Old Metal??"

"I wouldn't call it that." I had let him see the complex steam system wiring up my arm to my stub. "It's titanium, not the stuff that the G.U.I.D.E.s were made from. And even then, good luck trying to pry that stuff off the walls. Once it's molded, it's stuck for good!"

I hadn't realized he had been staring at me like I was a fool. No, I was too busy chugging my soda. (Still really good by the way!)

"I know a couple of people that could melt it down." He had said oh so casually. (No I did not do a spit take here, shush.) "One's a few days South from here. The other, West. Find one of those guys and they'll help melt down some G.U.I.D.E. metal."

"I'll see what I can do for you. No promises though. Do you have a number or however these things work?"

Annnnd that's how I suddenly have three new contacts in my wrist thingy. (From here on out I'll just call it a Comm, since it's a Communication Device of a sorts, but not exactly like how those old phones worked back in the day.)

Person one (South) is called "The Demon" in my phone. I don't think that's a very trustworthy name, but it could be worse. The second one, however, is called "Heavy-Body Builder." What's a Heavy-Body Builder? Is it important? Dangerous?

And the third...

"Zedaph"

I'll have to make sure to contact that number as little as possible. Leave it alone unless absolutely necessary. That guy was NOT safe. But at least he showed me how to take photos on this thing. Got a reference for the journal though, so it was kind of worth almost dying.

Just got to find The Doctor.

-MLW

-G.U.I.D.E 67

I LOVE the inclusion of the brown paper. Using multiple materials like this is so cool!

papa k.... keralis..... big eyes boy.... i originally did the doodle of him on brown paper just as a sketch idea but then. i couldn't be bothered to redraw the entire thing so i just stuck it in my sketchbook!!!!

this is his season 9 skin dreaming about his season 10 base heheheh

HERMIT A DAY MAY - DAY 3

Zedaph x Professor Layton

I drew Zedaph in the style of the fabulous puzzle adventure game series Professor Layton! I think this is perfect for Zedaph because, like Professor Layton himself, Zed loves to make everything much more complicated and mind-bending than it needs to be simply for the whimsy of it. And we wouldn't have it any other way! If you want to learn more about the Professor Layton games and look at my reference images, continue below the cut.

Professor Layton is a series of adventure puzzle games that follows the titular gentleman professor and his child protégé, Luke, as they solve mysteries. The games are packed full of creative challenges ranging from logic problems to visual riddles, which the characters encounter through the events of the story. While difficult (if you're like me and refuse to use hints or walkthroughs), the game is very rewarding and set a cozy pseudo-steampunk world that's a delight to explore. These were some of my favourite games to play on my DS as a kid. Style references:

A collection of characters from Professor Layton and the Curious Village, the first game in the series.

A de-pixelated remaster of a screencap from Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box, the second game.

The Professor Layton title logo

HERMIT A DAY MAY - DAY 5

TinFoilChef x The Lord of the Rings (1978)

For TFC, I chose Ralph Bakshi's animated 1978 adaptation of The Lord of the Rings. I picked this one for TFC because he always made me think of Tolkein dwarves (what with the beard and the love of mining) and I wanted to draw him content and taking a rest in a cave. Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings, with its beautiful painted backgrounds, was the perfect fit here. If you want to learn more about Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings and see my reference images, take a look under the cut! (And of course, don't forget about the fundraiser for Gamers Outreach! Today is the BONUS DAY DOLLAR DRIVE so go throw in a dollar if you can!)

Ralph Bakshi's 1978 The Lord of the Rings is the direct origin of many of the designs and visual concepts that would later be used in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings. While I love both adaptations, Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings is much lesser known now and overshadowed by the live-action movies, which is genuinely a shame. The movie covers the events of The Fellowship of the Ring and The Two Towers but the final Return of the King installment was never made. The animation is visually interesting and a little strange, since it uses traditional cartoon cell animation in combination with rotoscoping. The animation is overlaid on a series of atmospheric painted backgrounds which creates a beautifully surreal viewing experience. I watched Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings as a kid with my family and I just want more people to see and appreciate it too.

Style references:

The animated characters don't have any shading in most scenes and stand out from the very dynamically shaded backgrounds. There is a wide range of character designs in the movie, but for TFC I followed the design choices seen in the human characters and Gimli.

The backgrounds for the movie are stunning. This image in particular is actually concept art for the Mines of Moria, but it is in line with actual backgrounds from the movie and I really liked it so I used it as my primary inspiration for TFC's cave.

The 1978 The Lord of the Rings title design