charrhorns

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When catering to guests please ensure you have properly sized serving ware. (Feat @adurolobe Jaehm! TY!)

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The last GW2 story update was so solid! Here’s my Sinder enjoying the Jahai Bluffs.

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Charr horns update is the kind of content I can get behind

/ᐠ .ᆺ. ᐟ\ﾉ  New Charr Horns  ฅ/ᐠ｡ᆽ｡ᐟ \

Have your pointy bits lost their luster? Do they make terrible can openers? Chipping? Cracking? Just not your aesthetic for spring?

Good mews! [ducks wrenches] Horn styles are now gender-neutral, and there are even a few brand new options in the mix. You can update your look through Total Makeover Kits, or when you create a charr character.

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Well look who it is. My cryptid self Z1-9 now has a Tyrian counterpart.

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I reincarnated that shitpost I never finished about trahearne’s lack of mini

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decided to finish this up for the morning 

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This. Whenever this happens, I just turn and leave cause clearly the ranger’s got it under control.

P-please….don’t….don’t spam longbow 3…

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I’ve been neglecting doing daily studies and warm-ups, getting back into them. Just as well, since I can only do art in short bursts during the summer.

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ah! i just wanted to say that i think your art is really nice! i can't figure out how charr faces/horns even begin to work but i really like how you draw 'em. (also all your charrs are super cute aa)

Thank you! I LOVE drawing charr. Everyone should draw more charr.

They are complicated beasts, with detail on top of detail that can make nailing down their shape language tough (draw a circle, draw the rest of the owl). Not to mention adding armor on top of the equation.

You didn’t ask, but I hope this isn’t too forward. Here are some things I keep in mind when I’m doodling them:

I find most of their heads are boxes with boxes glued on, also some cylinders and a ton of shapes in a heap. (Some charr heads are rounder, softer, with more curves but still have a heavy skull/jaw underneath it all).

I start with the head and muzzle, find the midline for front of snout and where the nose should rest, then split the muzzle into a mouth. I tend to oops and draw the eyes too large every time.

The skull to neck connection is important to keep it looking charr, with a resting stage more like a big cat (/crossarms emote of course, gives them height, posture, and swagger).

Don’t be fooled by hairstyle and manes that give the illusion of super fluff.

For horns (and practice) I suggest the Coil Technique. Don’t rely on it for everything, but it can help figure out those wacky horn forms.

As for teeth…it’s a mouthful of knifes haphazardly taped to a skull. Grenth have mercy on us all.

(Disclaimer: I’m not a teacher, so take any advice here with a legendary grain of salt.)

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Greetings from the Super Adventure Box!

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Ignify!

Full colored ballpoint commission done for @ahkaskar of his awesome imp-touched Elementalist/Tempest Varetia! Fully admit I went overboard but I never get enough chances to render and color things like flames in action. Mage characters always give the best opportunities to play and have fun.

8’‘x10’’ smooth bristol, colored entirely with ballpoints and Copic markers.

My commission queue is officially cleared! Want to fill it? I’m open for all commission types right now. DETAILS HERE!

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check out that ROCK HAIR

Barring having stable band members, Solonius gets Talys Stormbane (lead guitar @charrhorns) to help out with mesmer shenanigans.

(Lyrics on the left: Undeclinable Ambuscade - Not Again & A.F.I. - Hearts Frozen Soil Thawed Once More By The Spring Of Rage, Despair, And Hopelessness)

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Check out this fantastic work! If you’re looking for awesome GW2 art definitely watch oort!

Centurion’s Vantage

Got this project done finally! Commissioned by certified Cool Dude @charrhorns​ of his guardian Centurion Ahkaskar Stormheart surveying conflict in Auric Basin and getting ready to join the fray. He wanted me to do this in the same sort of style as my personal piece “As They Fall” and I couldn’t have been happier. Commissions like these give me life.

I don’t even know how many hours I poured into this so I’m not even going to estimate. 9′‘x12′‘ multiliner ink and a bit of Copic marker on smooth bristol.

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Check out this deeeetaaaaiiillll

And another progress shot for @charrhorns ‘s commission project. Absolutely tickled with how his face came out. May or may not be the last one I post before the finished product.

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Some of my recent daily doodles

Left to right, top to bottom:

Sinder Stormshine (player: @neogeen)

Ahkaskar Stormheart

Ahnkara Stormforge

Ceretheus

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Ahkaskar Stormheart, Guardian of the Iron Legion and Centurion of the Storm Warband.

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Guardians in Heart of Thorns

I’d like to talk shop about Guardians here for a minute.

I’ve had a chance to play with the HoT trait builder for the Guardian on dulfy.net and I’ve watched the PoI Dragonhunter breakdown, and I have to say between HoT in general and the DH specialization, everything that bugged me about the Guardian is going to be fixed up.

First important thing to note is that Guardians are in no way bad off as it stands, nor are they broken. But like all classes in GW2 there are things… missing? A little roughness around the edges if you will.

For the majority of my time playing Guardian, I used shouts--it’s only within the past year that I switched to consecrations as they have a more apparent visual and greater team synergy. But really, it was that visual effect that sold me. 

Playing Guardian is… dull, sometimes. Not boring, but you don’t have a whole lot of iconic moves to hurl around in a fight, unless you’re packing the Tome of Wrath or something. That’s going to change, and soon--anyone who’s seen the Dragonhunter in action knows that their traps and new virtues are all very flashy. And big. Heck, Light’s Judgment looks to put GW1′s RoJ/space laser monks to shame, as it SHOULD.

Also we’re getting a Longbow as a Dragonhunter! Finally! We’ll have range that should be a LOT of fun to use--not like the drunken softball slinger known as a scepter. Whenever I was stuck whiffing white fluffy orbs at the Mandatory Ranged boss, I would briefly wish I was playing something ELSE. Provided we make sure to switch our traits between fights if we need/want to, we’ll be set. If I forget, that’s my fault and I can live with that.

Speaking of traits, in a more general HoT look, I hope they’ll find a way to retain our selections for each trait line so they’re all set when we swap other trait lines in. But even if they don’t, having only three selections with no re-use makes resetting your traits a vastly simpler undertaking than it is right now. I’m also happy to see that we’re allowed to go fully into three lines--there won’t be any It-Would-Be-Nice traits dangling just out of reach.

And on Guardian traits specifically, the new trait lines are dramatically cleaner and address a pretty annoying issue for Guardians--trait lines as they are now are kind of a mess. Going forward, traits of a similar kind will all be together in the same line. Shout traits with shout traits, meditation traits with meditation traits, aegis traits with aegis traits. Weapon traits have been consolidated by weapon type. Really, Two Handed Mastery (2HM) has always held us back--if you wanted to be versatile, 2HM was not an option unless you were already 4 points in Honor. Even then, there were potentially better options, especially if you had a one-handed weapon equipped at all.

I’m sure some people are looking at the reduction in trait selection and foo-fooing about build options, but if you consider how many traits there were that had little to no synergy or were hard to utilize *cough*Inner Fire*cough* and the fact that those traits are being repurposed or consolidated or made more accessible, it’s only a net gain. On top of that, they’re being put in parallel with similarly strong traits requiring players to make important choices: whether I take Pure of Voice, Writ of Persistence or Force of Will is going to depend on the other traits I chose, my utilities, what weapons I’m wielding, where I am in the fight, and to some extent, what gear I’m wearing.

Last thing is stats, which gets a little into the meta. (Sorry!) Stats are getting decoupled from traits, and again, this only a good thing. Traits will still guide stats somewhat, but you’re no longer locked to, say, boon recharge because you went Virtues. Nor will you have to go one-handed to get the best crit chance. We won’t really gain more stats, but stat utilization will be much better for everyone and it’ll be easier to hit those statistic milestones without forcing one build or another.

I think between all the consolidation and stat changes, we’re all going to feel just that little bit more powerful, even if the numbers aren’t going to change much. HoT looks like it’s going to be a good time.

And you know what? Even if Dragonhunter or Guardian isn’t your thing, you should still be excited because all this work ANet is putting into GW2 to restructure each class is not specifically about the new specializations we’re getting--it’s paving the way to let them add as many specializations as they want.