sketchbook update continued

more Groaning Cake art

- Merry and Gwen waking/getting dressed the morning after their honeymoon

- (top left) merry and gwen, (bottom left) Merry’s first son Baraq and the Eudialyte King’s daughter who are engaged, and a merry when he was little with his older brother Baraq. 

-Gwen in her natural form. Here she’s with her mystical horse who she takes to battle with. Gwen aids Merry in his battles under the alias of the Blue Rider during desperate times. He is unaware that the spirit who aids his army is actually his wife for she appears as nothing but blur when she engages in battle and quickly disappears. 

SKETCHBOOK UPDATE Y’ALL!

Starting it off with some Groaning Cake art!

FINALLY I have glimpse of the four kings for you guys 

Those who have been following recognize Merry who is the Obsidian King (being that he’s one of the main characters.)

Merry is on bad terms with all the kings except for the Eudialyte King only because of the engagement between his first born son and Eudialyte King’s first born daughter. On the other hand the Lapis King and High King are tight allies who hate Merry, but care nothing really for the Eudialyte King despite he himself having a wealthy kingdom. 

In the High King’s sketch behind him is his familiar which is a giant sphynx cat. Merry’s familiar is a creature called a skyhound, Eudialyte’s is a behemoth, and Lapis’s is a sea serpent/leviathan. 

Last picture is a sketch of Merry’s battle with the High King (w/ early design of his cat) before his banishment, and another sketch of the Lapis King.

 kotaline asked: merry!!!

Merry from my story Groaning Cake

Question & Answer to this post

Alright let’s see…MERRY. I first created Merriweather and his wife Guinivere during my freshman year of high school (around 2007 ish i believe). 

They have both DRASTICALLY changed from their original designs. Merry and Gwen were actually a designs I had for a scifi post-apocalyptic story set in one of the world’s last remaining cities with the main characters based off the tale Little Red Riding Hood. Merry and Gwen represented the hunter and little Red and had lames names with Merry being Hunter and Gwen’s was Hoodie (Hunter is good, but Hoodie…fucking slap Past-Me plz). They had a shit load of piercings with Merry in a pink hoodi, shorts, knee-high socks and shoes, and Gwen had black boots, pantyhose and this dress that was (based off a black dress I wore as a child and as short dress when I was in middle school) and of course a red hoodie. 

They both still have their blue and pink hair thing going on (something I just could NOT let go), but just about everything from their appearance, personalities, and story have changed. Originally Merry was  16 years old, with this gift for controlling the earth and plant life who was very innocent and childlike (basically a man child) and Gwen was one of those hardass rebel agents and was in her late twenties.

My junior year of high school I started to draw them again and this is when I changed their names from Hunter and Hoodie to Merriweather and Guinivere. For a short time they were a subject of a bunch of strange but happy artwork I was drawing of this couple. Merry became known as “Muscle-Man” to my friends and classmates because his new design he had transparent skin so he looked like a human walking around with no skin. They continue to have affection for one another but with Gwen being happy instead of constantly angsty. 

Then during spring time I started to draw them even more and I decided to take a a dark turn on their story that was more subtle then some action adventure. I still wanted them to have a deep bond, for Merry not to be a man-child anymore, and I’ve always loved story of mermaids (both good and bad kind) so I wanted to do a horror story with mermaids, and have a sort of folk-life in the story,  so I ended up combining the three which became pretty much what the story is today with a few minor changes since then. Merry is now older being in his mid to late twenties, and Guinivere in her early thirties(or atleast that’s what she wants others to believe). 

Their personalities have also changed with Merry changing from naive and childish to being very dark and violent. Merry is a good person and is sweet in general, but there has always been a dark and sinister part of him growing since his childhood after witnessing (SPOILER ahead um sort of) the traumatizing death of his older brother by a mermaid. When he became an adult and also king, tensions have grown between his people (who live in a more humble culture) and the other 3 more lavish kingdoms of their region of the world. The banishment of Merry and his tribe to an abandoned port in the ocean (with waters that are known to be infested with mermaids) by the High King only increases Merry’s anger and bitterness, and is driven to do terrible horrors for what he believes is the right thing to do in order to save what’s his surviving villagers from starving and sickness (not to mention his wife and two sons with one who was born not long before the banishment). 

As I mentioned before Merry is a sweet person. He cares deeply for his wife who is the only person he completely trust and of course cares with great pride for his sons. What he doesn’t know is that his wife is actually a mermaid. The mermaids that Merry has so much hatred for are vile with an unrelenting hunger for human flesh. They have become the evil creatures that they are because they have consumed human flesh. Mermaids like Gwen (tho they still can be mischievous) are generally good and forever beautiful for they have never eaten any humans. That lack of knowledge of this difference definitely comes with some consequences later. Despite being different from the evil mermaids Gwen is still of the same species and is terrified of her husband when starts to become more aggressive but most of all after she finds out that the food her husband has been providing the villagers are really mermaids that Merry kills. 

And that’s the history of Merry’s making and his current character and story. :’) 

Sorry this is so long ;w;

sketchbook update continued

- Todd Loki and Fawn from my story Fox in the Snow. I’m not really sure why Todd looks the way he does here.

-Todd again

- Merry Boanerges from my story Groaning Cake. I’ve been wanting to do a bunch of royal portraits for the four kings in the region of the world the story takes place. Merry is the Obsidian King, then there’s the Eudialyte King, Lapis King, and the Axinite KIng who is also the High King of all the four. It’s the Axinite King who banishes Merry and his people after Merry loses in their duel to settle the war. 

this post contains an ending spoiler for my story so yeah just don’t look at last sketch in the first picture or the last picture if you don’t want to be spoiled (but what the heck who knows when I’ll ever get around to creating pages for this damn comic ha)

I was taking a break from homework and serious art to sketch these

Last year I doodle this time line of Merry and Gwen’s relationship from my story Groaning Cake. I found it recently so I wanted to a sketch it out nicely since the origin is on like scrap paper and really small.

- Meeting (Childhood)

Merry meets Gwen for the first time shortly after his brother’s funeral. Not to long ago I posted some sketched out pages of when Gwen first sees Merry.

- Courting (Adolescence)

- Marriage (Adulthood)

- Trials (Middle Life) <- When the story actually takes place 

- Reconciliation (Old Age)

I was really inspired last night to draw a scene from my story Groaning Cake so here are some sketches I drew.

- Gwen resting on a rock protruding from the sea

- The waves crash against the rock and cover her

- When the water dies down from the wave Gwen spots a ship ahead

- Gwen feels herself being drawn to the ship as a storm is forming

- (I skipped a few pages) Gwen observes a man and a boy on the ship being affectionate (actually Merry and his older brother)

- Gwen waking up and glancing at her husband Merry nervously (Gwen’s hair is blonde when she’s human).

These are probably really boring if these were to be panels in the comic, but I drew these more with the intention as if I was shooting a film (PROBABLY NOT ANY BETTER HA).

sketchbook update continued

my characters from my groaning cake comic

- Merry’s(middle left with pinkish hair) family tree, I’ll try and make a clean and complete version sometime

- sketches of Merry’s mother, his older brother, and child Merry in the bottom right corner

-sketches of Merry’s wife Gwen with some studies of her hair weight

summer sketchbook update continued

sketches of my characters for one of my comics I plan on doing called Groaning Cake

-sketch of Queen Gwen and King Merry near the end of the prologue

-tried to color the previous sketch @_@

- Gwen and Merry again, it’s sketch for a drawing that was a possible cover

-sketches of a scene from the prologue where the High King banishes Merry(and punishes him) and his tribe. Sort of a spoiler? If you can tell what’s going here good for u(unless u didn’t want to find out now) if not then uh GOOD x’D

-Merry

-old ass sketches of Merry and Gwen. The middle sketch is the couple with their first son Baraq VIII. The blond dude on the bottom left corner is Merry’s older brother Baraq VII. 

hertenderribs: kotaline: a private chuckle -SCREAMING-  OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD AM I FUCKING DREAMING?! HOLY SHIT I MUST BE. I MUST BE. Omg Kota u drew Merry so beautiful AND THAT SMUG LOOK AND CHUCKLE FUCK I’M DYING HELP I’VE FALLEN AND I CAN’T GET UP reblogging from main blog omg guys LOOK at what Kota did! She made Merry so beautiful oh gracious

hertenderribs:

kotaline:

a private chuckle

-SCREAMING- 

OH MY GODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

AM I FUCKING DREAMING?! HOLY SHIT I MUST BE. I MUST BE.

Omg Kota u drew Merry so beautiful AND THAT SMUG LOOK AND CHUCKLE

FUCK I’M DYING

HELP I’VE FALLEN AND I CAN’T GET UP

reblogging from main blog

omg guys LOOK at what Kota did!

She made Merry so beautiful oh gracious

sketchbook update continued

This post is of sketches of my characters Merry(Merriweather) and Gwen(Guinevere) who are King and Queen of their tribe.

1st left side: Gwen washing Merry’s face. right side: is a sketch of their wedding portrait

2nd sketches of one of Merry’s casual outfits and an angsty portrait lol x’D then sketches of Gwen in her human form (blonde) and her true form (blue)

3rd old ass sketch from like junior year of high school O_O (around early 2010) and it’s of Gwen finding Merry in a battlefield completely fucked up :’I Maybe a spoiler? MAYBE?

4th recent sketch of gwen in her true form battling

Stephanie Escalona Morales

I'm 20 and currently majoring in illustration.

This is an art blog to post my sketches, WIPs, and finished work.

Personal Tumblr: hertenderribs.tumblr.com

Tolkien Tumblr: glitteringgimli.tumblr.com

Send your questions and what not here: scorpionhoney.tumblr.com/ask