#OC: Riato

[haldenlith]

I slaved away on this entirely too long, including throwing out progress and redoing it.

I'm most pleased with the wings.

[haldenlith]

Sometimes you go back to sketches to fuck around and end up with a finished product you quite like.

Tried a few different things here. I'm trying to get better at further varying up my lines, since I have a habit of not going too thick with them. It's funny, honestly. I started out my "journey" in art as being someone who is a horrifically hard sketcher/drawer. I left indents in the paper with pencils because I drew too hard. I broke pencils. Ripped paper. Transitioning to digital, I left dents in my tablet and always had perpetually angled nibs.

I've gotten a lot better over time to where I'm incredibly controlled with traditional tools, and a lot lighter with my tablet. (I still grind nibs down to a nice 45-degree angle, though.) Yet, now, I'm having to retrain myself to press harder again. It's funny to me.

Anyway, enjoy a random bust of my precious idiot, Riato.

[haldenlith]

Perceive my dumb man.

He is very pretty.

I'm not super happy with his shirt, but it's good enough.

I still love how ostentatious he is with his accessories, like his eyepatch.

[haldenlith]

Felt up to sketching, so I sketched Riato.

Also continuing my trend of characters facing the right.

[haldenlith]

First full piece for 2024, and I'm fairly pleased with how it came out. Got a bug about me to draw a currently unused OC of mine, Mneriae, a wild magic half-elf sorcerer (with short-term memory loss). Last time I played him was in a very doomed DnD group that fell apart as quickly as it came together. Ah well.

I continue to struggle with backgrounds, but, uh... progress? Sorta? Like there's SOMETHING there at least?

Some character rambling below the cut. The only thing I'll say outside of the cut is Mne's an actual sweetheart, even if he is a little eccentric.

Whenever I get to play him again (me and an RP buddy have been discussing bringing him into the universe that I play Riato in), I would like to lean harder into his memory issues, as it is, essentially, magically induced early-onset dementia. Basically, due to a magical event in his childhood, he has a slightly unique variation on the wild magic thing (he'd require a different, and more dangerous, wild magic roll table)-- this is also why his lightning he's casting is red, but also it's slowly eating away at his memories, burning out that part of his brain. His memory issues only affect his short term and, as such, he has a stop gap solution to make up for it (a magical tome that's psionically linked to him and records his memories).

Thing is, his issues are short term memory loss for now.

I think it'd be interesting to play through that, through the issues -- and victories, his fears, and his quest to try and stop it, alongside various other related issues. Other issues include him being the youngest in an entire huge family of fairly famous scholars and inventors, and he's a bit of the outcast for various reasons, some relating to said memory issues and magical life-event.

[haldenlith]

More old art retouched/finished up. Also, a fun little blurb on why I chose hydrangeas.

"Y'know they call him the 'Changeling Prince.'" "Well 'ow do ah know yer not 'im right now?" " Not like that, silly! He can change into other fae versions o' himself. Can even be a selkie if'n he wants." "Lucky bastard."

Given that hydrangeas change color depending on the soil, I felt they fit him. He can change according to his situation if he wants to, not entirely unlike those flowers.

[haldenlith]

I finished it. It's been a while since I've done a background on something, even a simple one. I'm fairly happy with it.

Anyway, the first official meeting of Riato (and Sophia, not pictured). Sophia stabbed him in their unofficial meeting before being knocked out and kidnapped. Riato had a himbo moment and assumed Sophia was ransomable without actually checking.

The intro scene under cut from our RP logs.

(Also, Riato assumes Sophia is a woman, when he is, in fact, a man.)

"Ah, the fair, fiesty maiden awakens! Good evening, m'lady. We still have some whiskey left, if you'd like some. Mirena should be done cooking, soon, if you're hungry." Heather Sophia blinks slowly for a moment. This … is not what he's expecting.

It also helps make people look more like one than two, so there's a bit of a pause before he speaks, "…I'd rather medicine for a concussion than food. You have quite a hard head. And no, whiskey doesn't count." Stopping that potential comment before it even starts. Priority #1 being … priority #1. Then talk later.

Riato chuckles. "I get that a lot." He makes a motion and a small elf hops up to amble off to get Heather some meds. It doesn't take them too long. "Sorry, I didn't think about that. The other offers still stand, by the way." The small elf who ends up bringing him the medicine actually gets a small smile and a "Thank you." Sophia can be polite, clearly. He's quick to take it - dry swallowing pills if he has to. He doesn't respond to the first part of what Ria says - it would involve an eyeroll and that sounds like a bad idea to him right now - but he does respond to second part.

"I may be hungry later. Have you any water?"

"I'd hope so. As much as we may try, you don't survive long on just booze." Heather'd soon find that same little elf offering her water. "Do you have a name? Or did I headbutt that out of you?"

That same little elf gets another 'thank you' as he takes it and sips on it. He arches a brow. "Your head is hard, but not that hard. Yes, I have a name - as you do, I imagine."

Riato smirks a bit and stands with a small wince. With that, he offers a flourish of a bow. "Captain Riato of The Dream Runner, m'lady."

[haldenlith]

More art. Trying out doing more cleaned up, fully rendered busts. Not just because I wanted to draw my idiot pirate (Riato), but also because I've been toying with the idea of opening up commissions.

Still on the fence about it.

In any case, enjoy a bust portrait of my chaotic dumb pirate OC, Riato.

[haldenlith]

More art I’ve done recently. An OC of mine, Riato, that I’ve had for... years, but I’ve never really properly given him any air time as far as drawing him.

Quick and Dirty Background: A psuedo-shapeshifting fae prince-turned-pirate/”privateer” due to a lust for adventure. He had a rocky start and, um, lost an eye and part of his wings thanks to it, but lord knows that didn’t stop this flashy chaotic bastard.

[haldenlith]

I ran out of steam before I could finish or anything, but I felt like drawing the eyepatch-side of my fae boy.

Hydrangeas suit Riato. Also, the colorize function is fun to play with.

If I get steam back in me again, I may go back to this. For now, I'm pleased with the flats.

[haldenlith]

I have my prince-gone-pirate on my mind, so I'm re-posting some art of him.

Please perceive my chaotic and fabulous boy, Riato.

[haldenlith]

I finally finished a redraw of an older picture of mine, of my OC Orius. It fought me, for sure, as I had to redo the sketch about three or four times, but I managed to get there somehow.

And while the brocade is a texture I got from... somewhere (I don't remember anymore), the highlights on it are all done by hand. I couldn't get the right effect when I just did a layer effect. So, there's that. That was... tedious.

Anyway, here's the old one. (I didn't forget the chain over the tie, I just chose not to do it. I think the new one looks better without it, to be honest.)

[haldenlith]

I made myself do color this time. Still feeling very blah on the creative front. Still got that art block. I have classes that are starting up soon, so maybe that'll kick me into gear again (art classes).

Character in question today is my OC, Orius. He's Riato's elder brother, and overall a very uptight fairy prince.

The green parts in his hair change color according to his mood. He hates it, but alas, he can't fight his own biology. (Green = bored/neutral.)

[haldenlith]

What was originally just going to be a bump is now a bump with a detail shot, because I noticed a tiny bit got lost in the size that Tumblr usually shows. So have a detail shot.

I slaved away on this entirely too long, including throwing out progress and redoing it.

I'm most pleased with the wings.