#emerald9d's art

[emerald9d]

Robo-Ralsei! For a crossover AU thing I'm working on. Just a sketch I figured I'd throw some color onto.

[emerald9d]

I spent all day making spell animations for an RPG I'm working on! It was a ton of fun but also a lot of work!

[emerald9d]

I try to let go, but, I always get scared, and catch myself.

[emerald9d]

Show us your favorite child (oc)

Shelly!!!!!!!!

The art here is going from newest to oldest. I can never quite settle on what's going on with her face and head features. Or the presence and degree of neck/chest fluff.

But, anyway! Her full name is Leshelle Leigh Starr yiv Rolante IV, but she usually just sticks to Shelly Starr. Stylistically she's basically a unicorn anthro. But in "canon" (my own setting and stories) she's effectively an alien from a world named Kardac, which is currently at a level of development roughly equivalent to our mid 19th century, where the industrial revolution is a few decades old and capitalism-as-we-know-it is really getting its bullshit going.

Kardac has three different sapient species living on it: Unicorns, Saurians, and Narsima. As you can probably guess, Shelly belongs to the first group. Specifically, she's a "highland" unicorn, who tend to have white fur, and a lot of it, especially with the feathering on the forelimbs.

Probably the most oddball part of their anatomy compared to what you might expect from your typical unicorn (anthro or otherwise) is their four-toed feet. They're actually inspired by hippo feet! Though taller and not quite as thick. Otherwise, unicorns are basically just anthro versions of those old-timey unicorns that have some goat-like features.

Subsequently, Shelly kinda looks like... well...

Sigh.

(really it's fine, a little flattering even)

Anyway... personality-wise she's everything from adorably chipper to self-destructively furious. She... goes through a lot. And some of it is her own fault. But most of the time she's actually pretty personable. She's intelligent and well-read, and has good ideas when she actually stops to think. She likes talking about politics, society, arts, and entertainment. Just like me! Go figure. She really is bordering on a sona at times. Overall, she's kinda this blend of like, Karkat and Mae Borowski. Among other things.

Her canon story begins as she's finishing up her education at 18. She's dreading the fact that her controlling father is just going to have her work at his law office as a glorified secretary for the rest of her life, which she expects to be fairly short and pointless thanks to various chronic neurological issues she has, a fact that weighs on her daily.

And then a mysterious cult starts trying to murder her for no discernible reason, and at the same time an equally mysterious band of brigands show up to protect her and bring her somewhere safer. And, what would be a curse for most, turns out to be the key to her freedom. And so begins the long, violent tale of a driven young adult, who only feels alive in the face of death.

[emerald9d]

Ricka

No ask prompted this, this time. I just need to talk about her because she's, like, the other main OC of mine, right up there with Shelly. I just... don't draw her as much as I should.

The art here is in no particular order and the last two are actually Allie, a "version" of her I used for a tabletop campaign where the setting was different enough (Princess: The Hopeful, for those who are wondering) that she needed a new background and name. She basically looks and acts the same though. Also ignore that other guy for now lol.

This is going to be more rambly than when I described Shelly.

So yeah. Her full name is Ricka Rene Fuyu. She lives on Earth... or, well, "Earth." It's called that, and it even resembles our current-day world. But, there's a bunch of people with pointed ears, and most everyone can learn telekinesis. (though it's difficult and not THAT useful to most people, sorta like martial arts. guess what there's a lot of martial artists in my stories)

Also the ladmasses are (roughly) the same but everything else is different! Ricka lives in "The Triad," a collection of three closely located cities situated around the location of current-day Moscow. Ricka lives in Trifol, the "poorest" of the three cities. The other two are Slayton, a more froufrou college town, and Elaros, the capital of the country.

The tech is very "30 minutes into the future." There's fancy prosthetics and crazy computers and power armor, but most people can't afford them, and see them infrequently. I hesitate to call it cyberpunk, but its in that ballpark for sure. (Half of Ricka's design is "wannabe Matrix character") The most noteworthy development is "biotech drones," however, mindless attack-and-defense robo-creatures have started filling out military and police forces worldwide, courtesy of a subsidiary of Unity, a massive corporate conglomerate with its sites on controlling basically every major industry in the world. The only thing they haven't broken into fully, however, is the energy industry...

Anyway, Ricka couldn't be more different than Shelly, at least outwardly. She's quiet and reserved, and slow to react emotionally. (dissociative, really) But she's quite technically intelligent, and has a rich inner world, which she will show off when she lets herself relax and open up. This girl has opinions. And memes. And blorbos. She's basically the equivalent of a seasoned lefty Tumblr user. She's kind of my answer to the Rei Ayanami type of character, though her influences are myriad. Many years ago she started off by being a ripoff of Lucca from Chrono trigger. How far she's come.

Llife for Ricka started off promising enough. But, when both her parents died when she was 8, (one from a workplace accident, the other from cancer) only her grandfather and older brother were left to take care of her. (or take care of the older brother, for that matter)

For the next several years the family struggled with poverty, and mental illness. Ricka in particular barely hung on through the course of middle school, before succumbing to a massive breakdown at the beginning of highschool. Though, if there's a silver lining, is that she grew close to a former friend of her parents, who she sees as an uncle of sorts. Some particular interests of his, like boxing and motorcycles, rubbed off on her. (I know she's doing karate stuff in that one pic, but I changed my mind on that later)

After her breakdown, even her somewhat conservative grandfather had to admit her struggles needed to be taken seriously. Thankfully, around that time the family's finances improved somewhat. Since then, she's had a therapist and homeschooling, while pursuing her various technical interests as best she can.

The story begins with her starting university at 19. A rather big step for her considering her history of social anxiety, she's confident she can handle it. And she does! Especially with the help of a friend of hers from online, who also happens to be attending the same university as a transfer student.

However, despite making some irl friends, the future still presents a struggle. Corporate interests rule higher education to the point that they outright dictate what majors are available to matriculate into. It's hard to be an engineer when the powers that be decide that there's currently enough engineers.

Being around attentive friends who aren't used to her quirks reveals just how odd some of those quirks are. Which then leads to a discovery both illuminating and somewhat upsetting. See, I said telekinetic powers exist, but not telepathic. So mind-to-physical influence, but no mind-to-mind interaction.

Well, it turns out Ricka is unnaturally good at knowing what people are feeling, and where they are, and what they're about to do. To the point that it becomes clear she's got some special, unheard of mental abilities. And that, furthermore, she's had these powers, unknowingly, for most of her life. It becomes clear that it was actually a major source of her social anxiety, as the feelings of those around her overwhelmed her to a supernatural degree. However, Ricka's conditions are still quite real. Knowing the reason (or, at least, a reason) for her issues does not make them go away overnight.

While grappling with that, some strange things start happening to people around campus, which leads her and her newfound friends into unwittingly becoming a group of amateur sleuths. Ricka's empathic powers, naturally, become very useful for this task, making her into the functional core of the group. This then leads them into stumbling across things that they weren't supposed to know, and... well, the plot had to start at some point. What happens from there is a conspiracy thriller of unreasonable proportions.

Because, you see, those empathic powers didn't come from nowhere. And where they did come from...

...

One more thing. A somewhat more recent development is that she lost her left forearm when she was young. Or, hell, maybe she was born without it. Either way, she wears a prosthetic a lot. Normally... well, I'll let Ricka herself explain, in a block of narration I wrote randomly a little while ago:

My prosthetic could be covered by insurance. Well, kind of. The school health insurance will get you a part, but only within a certain price range. And, really, that’s not unreasonable. A fully articulated human-like hand is a bit much for the everyday, especially for your typical student. I’m not your typical student. And I don’t like being told what to do by an insurance company. No, the only thing that’s covering this hand is a leather glove.

You can see that leather glove in the pic where she's princess carrying that guy. And the prosthetic itself, uh, coming apart in that one doodle.

She also wears a simpler hook/pincer sort of prosthetic half the time. But she got that more advanced one at a young age, and has basically been learning how to maintain and adjust it herself for years. It's kind of her pride and joy. If it wasn't clear already that she's a big smarty pants.

So, yeah. That's Ricka. I find her a harder to think about because she's less upfront than Shelly by a long shot. Her presence doesn't come with the same bombastic instant gratification. It does however come with an internal narration that would feel at home in a hard boiled detective mystery novel. So, that's something.

[emerald9d]

My attempts at really nailing the design of Shelly's face/head, ordered from newest to oldest. Pretty satisfied with where I ended up. Pretty sure I understand the underlying structure enough to reproduce it well enough, from now on. Variations in style notwithstanding.

[emerald9d]

I bought some new skirts.

Also, I'm trying to be a little kinder to myself about the body I actually have. Trying to learn to love my belly. So Emerald's gonna have a bit more roundness in places.

[emerald9d]

A design I whipped up a while ago for a mech sim protagonist. Basically "what if solid snake was a trans woman?"

I'm repurposing her for a Lancer campaign :3 Her name is Jade Kaiser, callsign Smoke.

[emerald9d]

Fender, updated with his fancier new gear. He's picked up a nicer coat, a mithral sword, a magic pistol, and a hat that makes his bardic inspirations more reliable.

Speaking of fancier, I need to get better at coloring and effects...

Background is a stock image found here: https://unsplash.com/photos/X1I0kzLhLf8

[emerald9d]

N3CHRO-BOT, a perfectly normal robot with nothing wrong with it. Worms? Oh no no no, those are cables. Prehensile cables that, uh, make wet squishy sounds...

The background is nothing but my brain was already coming out of my ears just finishing the character itself, so you'll have to forgive me.

[emerald9d]

I can't escape myself.

So many times I've lied.

Crazy pose, complicated boots, and a new lineart style. This one took DAYS because I was doing all this shit I've never done before. Also I was taking a lot of breaks for my sanity.

[emerald9d]

I'm doing commissions!

Example art below. I know these are line-arted in a non-sketchy way but I kinda don't like doing that? But I'm willing to talk about that if anyone wants it.

I'll probably have five (5) commission slots at a time and try to go through them at a comfortable pace.

[emerald9d]

Daniel being dramatic. You know, that photo.

Wanted to try my hand at just black and white.

[emerald9d]

An older drawing, from back on 2021, but one I'm still quite proud of. She's a jackalope demon. She's probably going to be relevant to the prison boys, soon...

The reason I never posted her is that she was originally designed with more... explicit intentions that I never really got around to making good on. But I've always liked the design, and her overall energy, so I'm finding a use for her.

[emerald9d]

Never thought you'd fall so far.

[emerald9d]

I have been VERY hard at work at getting all the weapons and effects working in my RPG. This is RPG Maker MZ, but you'd barely recognize it at this point.

I need to add little hand sprites so the weapons aren't just kinda floating in front of their hands and it looks like they're properly grasping them. But you get the idea. There's NES sound effects to go with all this too, made in FamiTracker. At some point I'll make a showcase video, but I'm not sure when.

The Final Fantasy influence is pretty clear here, but I wanted to go above and beyond with constantly visible equipment and all sorts of animations and character poses. Expanding the content in this game is going to be FUN.

Though, uh, at some point I have to compose music I guess? Ergh.