Old to New 13: Naleysa, Sad Past, Stiff Spine

{Theme song: Break Myself, Something Corporate}

Location:  Muchovan

Today's Character was born centuries after Muchovan's world-conquering days, but society is slow to change, and it's still very much male dominated (sound familiar?).

Naleysa was an avid learner from childhood, so it was only natural she'd pursue teaching as a Career.  She'd been ecstatic to become the first female educator at an Elite Academy for boys.

This joy ended after she was let go following an incident in which she was the victim.  The culprits, three boys from powerful families, went unpunished, while Naleysa struggled to pick up the pieces of her life.

A fellow faculty member, Evron Tallurse (another candidate for future update), sought justice for her, eventually joining the UCD in order to gain the necessary pull.  His victory helped Naleysa to overcome her past, but it was his death that gave her the strength to join the UCD and champion other victims.

When I first drew Naleysa, I didn't have a clear vision of the Muchovan aesthetic, and it shows.  I've managed to keep something of the original "feel" (along with her jewelry and shoes), but she now conveys the modern-medieval look I settled on for Muchovan.  (Definitely no subtext there!)

Old to New 12: Vavnica, Tough as Nails, yet Sweet as Antifreeze

{Theme Song: The Ghost Inside, Broken Bells}

For a change, today we venture North to Siskad.  Here is a small island that's managed never to be conquered by convincing the world they want neither the miserably cold, unyielding land, nor the contrary, abrasive Siskadians.

While this strategy works well in deflecting would-be tyrants it doesn't exactly make Siskadians a Popular people.  Fortunately, they don't particularly care.  It's a hard life in Siskad and sometimes little things like "feelings" must be overlooked.

Yet here again Siskad is as contradictory as its people.  While everyone is expected to work hard and use any special talents they have for the good of all, their personal lives are considered just that - personal.  Despite a Siskadian's general prickliness and well fortified heart, almost all marry for love and a Separating (called just that with a Capital "S") is almost unheard of and mourned like a death in the family.


Vavnica is a fairly typical Siskadian, if perhaps more internationally aware.  From an early age Vavnica trained in infiltration, stealth and information gathering.  She excelled, but hated the life.  Using those same skill sets, Vavnica escaped her schooling in order to run home to her mother.  This ended after her mother's death in Vavnica's teen years.

Vavnica only lasted a few years longer in her selected profession before she was "retired" due to perceived instability.  With such an unusual resume and not much in the way of job prospects in Siskad, Vavnica chose to leave and offer her services to the Humanitarian-minded United Champions of the Defenseless (UCD for short).

Her background combined with her intense, but cool facade can make other UCD members nervous at times, but no one doubts her abilities.  Time and again she proves you Don't want to come up against Vavnica Peerkchnes.

My first drawing of Vavnica has been touched up a bit, so I also included my second - my update is something of a mish-mesh of the two pictures anyway, rather than a straight redo.

I know when I posted Aiya I complained about the difficulty of dark skin - now I must add that extremely fair skin isn't a breeze either!  It's ridiculously easy to "muddy" the color, and my first layer in marker had WAY too much pink.  I had to go over her skin several times with colored pencils before I finally got it right - though even now I worry she has too much color...

I also included another picture, an early attempt at greater realism.  A straight take on picture one, this was done on scrapbooking paper using Crayola colored pencils, so be merciful =]

Old to New 4: Aiya

On to Aiya in Effenta!  An unlikely hero if ever there was one.  After hearing tales of the UCD (United Champions of the Defenseless) from her cousin, an Officer of the Law, Aiya decides to offer her services.  Her skill set?  Science, chemistry, and a special interest in experimental explosive and incendiary devices.  Has there ever been such a dangerous woman with such an innocent air?

To be fair, it's the intellectual pursuit that fascinates her, and she leaves using her creations to more qualified UCD members - at their own risk, of course.

Aiya is a cheerful, sometimes intense, often absent-minded character, and young.  So the key with her was mixing scientist intellectual with fun loving young woman and communicating this through Effentan dress: a romantic mix of Baroque, Marie-Antoinette, Revolutionary America, swing dancing and that modern me touch.

I both love and hate designing for Effenta.

I love it because it's just so unabashedly girly and frilly and fun - I often look at wedding dress pics for inspiration.  I LOVE the rich look of the dark, bitter-sweet chocolate hue of Effentan skin.

I hate it because laces, satins, velvets, gathering, draping and tucking can be tricky to draw as I envision in my head (designing for men is a whole other issue).  Also, getting their skin to be the dark hue I desire while not losing detail, and placing the highlights just right isn't a walk in the park either!  The last two I've drawn I've had to go back over the skin a couple times before I got the hue and smoothness I desired.

Still, I love the concept and when it comes together I'm just too pleased for words!  Hence Aiya's style didn't particularly change from picture 2 to picture 3.  While keeping the same basic silhouette and color palette, I changed some cuts and added some details to give it a little more visual interest and richness.

I Love how her stockings turned out.  The white colored pencil wasn't popping enough on top of the light gray marker base, so I traced the rose shapes with a white paint pen.  In some scans this gave them a really cool glow, but I chose not to use those as typically the rest of her didn't look so good in those shots.

Picture 1 is actually the 2nd time I drew Aiya, while Picture 2 was my first go.  I included Picture 1 as reference because I couldn't find a scan of the original drawing.  Picture 2 has been greatly cleaned up on the computer.  So for the true original just picture coloring worse than Picture one and you'll know how far Aiya has come!