Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the Jello Crisis saga and had as much fun reading it as I did writing it. I'd been planning it for a few weeks and didn't get time to post it in May because I was busy finishing classes. I was also super busy and didn't get post all the art I was working on. With Art Fight coming in July, I've been trying to draw as much as I can for references. Many artists want more character art as well, so I want to post some of my favorite older pieces as well as my newer work for others to see. I'm sorting it by character, and will give the time frame for each piece, as well as it's meaning.
Please note this post contains details that, while not graphic, may trigger some readers. These are war and death.
Fox and Castiel
Fox and Castiel are my main characters, not just for my novels and writing, but for art as well. This is mostly because they're important to visualize for my novel, but also because I feel the most connected to them. If either of them walked in my front door, I'd get on my knees and apologize for the pain my writing has caused them. But hey, I had never planned either of these two to take center stage. Fox was originally written for a roleplay where he was supposed to play more of James' role, much less evil, but he wasn't supposed to be the tall softie is he now. Castiel came to me a few days before I got a kidney stone and went on vacation and suddenly took over my mind. I knew he'd be perfect for Fox. So, here's some art of them.
This piece is the original rough draft of Castiel. I imagined him as a singer who was wildly popular, but that was all. I figured Fox knew him, but what their relationship was wasn't clear at the time. I still think this is the best coloring/drawing of his hair. I've never got it to look the same after, but I was up til midnight working on this one, the day before a trip. There's no real meaning behind it besides being the first Castiel art. He just got sadder from here. The piece is dated July 16th 2021 according to my computer. I had no idea that Castiel is almost two years old. That feels wild.
This piece is dated November 15th 2022, and is honestly one of my favorite pieces of these two. Castiel's makeup looked and still looks odd to me, I had been going for snake scales (it's a popular fashion in Lower Emerald City where Castiel was fostered), but I half failed and half succeeded. Still, I pulled off Castiel's flirty energy and Fox's calm demeanor pretty well in this one. I found it hard to replicate.
If you're here from Art Fight or know me personally, you'll know Fox's gem color was originally black (Smokey Quartz) and I changed it for a few reasons. The metaphor of racism that my story stands for was too obvious and the black colors had started to get too plain for my taste. This was one of the first pieces I color changed to be blue, so you'll see some black jewelry in there still. I love him more blue, but his old design will still have a place in my heart.
This piece is dated November 27th 2022, I was working on making art of Fox and Castiel holding each other after the success I felt with the piece above. You'll see in both of these pieces that Fox has a more defined chest than in most of my other pieces of him, and that's because I was experimenting with his post-novel design. In roleplays, Fox had gotten breast implants to better represent his gender, which is somewhat confusing lore in itself. I'll make a post someday about it all. Gemlords use a gender scale, with masculine at one end, and feminine at the other. Gems are all over this scale, and can be off it too. Fox's technical gender, (conlang is still too much of a work in progress to use it fully,) is a mix of male and female. Since he was born as a male in terms of body, breast implants just made sense. However, for he and Castiel's novel, I use he/him pronouns and a male gender because I want to represent male abuse and show others that they should speak out. Fox's Gemlord gender will mostly be displayed on this blog and any extra content that may come in the future.
I actually hate this piece, dated April 30th 2023. Fox looks too timid and the filter makes the colors look weird, the glitter is bad, the perspective is off, his face is too long- but I was in a funk and had to try something, so I did. I always find it important to show people any art I hate, because it tells me where I can improve instead of shoving it away in the back of my computer.
Here's another piece I'm meh with. I didn't finish Castiel's shirt properly, I'm noticing just now. This one is from May 2nd 2023. I was clearly not doing too great the start of this month. The cherry blossoms aren't awful, it was a good idea to blur the brush, but Castiel's face is all off. Fox looks ok, used his male body for this one.
I finally drew Fox's Camaro after not drawing it for a couple years. Of course it's got the racing stripes on the front. I couldn't figure out how to get the spoiler in there so I just omitted it, and the road lines are off, but it was still really fun to work on a car again. Since I'm focusing on Fox's male body type for the novel, all my pieces going forward will most likely use his male body type, unless he's feeling real dysphoric that day. This one is from May 16th 2023 but it took a few days to finish. Overall happy with it. Not loving Castiel's outfit but I was messing with outfits. I needed a reference of the Camaro for Art Fight.
The most recent art of them, May 23rd 2023, I'm prepping for Pride Month! I always like to change my Discord profile picture to some art of my characters with their flags, sometimes I do Ciana or Fox, but I wanted to do Fox and Castiel this year. I modified the pose reference a lot for Castiel, the character was originally unsure and uncomfortable, and head was tilted to the side. I think Castiel's mouth is a tad low, but I couldn't fix it and gave up. I don't notice it too much. Fox has his asexual (ace) flag colored clothing, ace painted nails, ace ring, ace makeup and ace earrings. The studs are each color in the flag, and the Ace of Spades is a symbol the ace community has sort of claimed. Whoops~ ♠️ I've also added the pansexual heart necklace because that's his romantic orientation.
For Castiel, he has the black choker, a green jacket which is a bit darker than the first stripe of the aromantic (aro) flag, the aro arrow, aro nails, and the aro makeup. I added the bisexual heart earring for his sexual orientation. I love that these two are aro/ace and pull off their relationship so well.
Itri and His Elves.
Itri is a character from one of my other fantasy races, the Raini, who are trained to be warriors from a young age. Itri is polyamorous, and has three husbands which he gains over the course of his story. Everyone is married to everyone, and loves each other dearly. I'll cover all these characters here.
This is one of my favorite pieces of Itri, along with the one I'll share next. This is drawn to be a flashback of when his mother's home was burnt down in a raid. His mother was an Artist, a group of people who've split from the Raini after Itri had left. She was peaceful and taught Itri to paint and draw. Arcana, where the Raini live, is always in war between Sectors. The Artists were always caught in raids, and his mother died in her home as it burnt. Itri was ten when it happened, but in this piece he's in his twenties. Basically, it represents how his trauma affects him in his adult life. His hair blows gently in the wind as firelight illuminates his face. Frozen as he was when he was ten, he hears his mother's screams as the house collapses in on her. He knows he should run, as she'd lowered him out of the window with a rope to save him, but he's too scared. This piece was created August 26th 2022, and I listened to "I See Fire" the entire time.
Created two days later on August 28th 2022, this is one of my favorite Itri pieces. Itri has a big theme with roses, for a few reasons. You can see the yellow rings tattooed on his arm, which you can see better reference for on his Art Fight page. Those are a part of his sun sleeve, which is more visible in the last piece. But you'll notice the blue marks on his arm are gone in this piece. Those blue marks are a Raini tradition, marking how many kills a Warrior has. Itri had twenty, reaching from the top of his shoulder to his fingers, and he felt great shame for them. After his mother passed, he had to fight in a war with his father, and he killed men there, along with killing the Warriors who set his mother's house ablaze as revenge. The blood on his hands only gave him more depression, and after his father was captured and executed, he ran away to the Elven Islands. After living there some time, his kill marks were removed with magic, and he tattooed the rose onto his arm. It wraps around his arm twenty times to remember each person he killed, but it's much more friendly looking. Itri's mother loved roses as well. I'm very proud of this piece, how his hair sits over his shoulder, his look, the pose, all the roses. This is an idealized version of himself, where he gets to be an elf. Itri is just one of those characters you can throw all sorts of colors and things at and they're still fun.
Above are pieces of Everis, Itri's first husband. I won't really cover Arului, Itri's second husband today, but I will cover the third, Silveri, later. These are comparisons, the images where Everis wears yellow being older and the ones with blue being newer. The color change is because in universe, the goddess of the Temple changed. Originally it was Celest, the sun goddess, but as Everis continued to dismantle the cult he had grown up in, he found that Celest was half of one goddess, and the other half, Luna, was the goddess who actually cared about doing her job. So she was released after Everis and Itri found her old temple and Everis adjusted everything to Luna. Elves really do have all the time in the world.
The portraits are mostly because I really liked the older one I did on September 3rd 2021 (wow, didn't realize that piece was that old), and wanted to update it. So on May 24th 2023 I updated it with blue. The first portrait still has a special place in my heart, but I think the new one is much better. It uses my current style and has a less pixelated look, and Everis' hair has more movement. The reference sheets, well, it's one, I just recolored it. It was originally done August 26th 2022, as I was taking time to update my Art Fight for this year. I didn't have the art file for the High Priest robes so I had to recolor the entire thing by hand and it was honestly a big pain. Worth it, but a pain. The blue looks good, I think.
A piece I did specifically for Art Fight to fill out his profile, here's Silveri. I had the concept for an emo elf, and really ran with it. Not sure what else I wanna say, I just like this one.
These two I just wanted to tag these two onto the post because I had so much fun making them. Civic Alliston (left) and Pontiac Aselton (right), are based off of the two cars I've owned. If you've read my introduction, you'll know which cars these are. My 03 Honda Civic LX, and my 08 Pontiac Vibe. Basically, I kept asking myself what my Civic would look like as a person. I always call the Civic "he" for no reason, and ask it if it's ok after the CD player skips when I go over train tracks too fast, or when the belt squeals. We're gonna fix that. So I imagined a kid who was born in Canada to a Canadian mother and Japanese father, lived in Pennsylvania, then moved to New York to study English. You can read his full backstory on his Art Fight page. Because Honda is a Japanese make, and the Civic was made in Canada, it made sense for this to be his parents. The pervious owner lived in Pennsylvania and moved to New York where I now have the car. Actually, I just gave it a bath and put stickers on it, too! I'll add a picture at the end. The character Civic was finished on May 26th 2023, but I'd been thinking of him for a few months.
Pontiac came about because I thought Civic, the character, should have a boyfriend. My mother asked me if all of my characters are gay, and I can't name one that isn't queer, so of course Civic needs a boyfriend. My 08 was too young for Civic, if you will, since Civic is 20 from being made in 03. So I based Pontiac on the 04 Vibe instead of the 08. When I crashed my Vibe the passenger side was damaged, and for some reason my brain told me that Pontiac had to be trans to represent that. It worked well, actually, and you can read the full backstory on his Art Fight page. I wanted to make him Native American because Pontiac was a Native American leader. His father is European American because the GM company Pontiac was started by a white man. I'm always worried I'll fail horribly at representing diversity in my artwork, but I won't learn if I don't try. I started Pontiac on May 27th, but had to rush to work that day and didn't finish til May 28th 2023.
Anyway, here's the picture of the Civic. The juxtaposition of the ace flag and the Weeknd stickers will always crack me up. If you listen to the Weeknd, you'll get why. Might have to get the bisexual flag if that ace one holds up, there's that weird empty space now.
I hope you enjoyed this art dump, and for Art Fight friends, found it helpful!
XO, Rosetta 💖