Glowshard's Awakening

Deep within the volcanic caves of Mount Draconem, a tiny emerald egg began to tremor and shake. Hairline cracks formed across the ancient shell etched with cryptic runes as rays of lava light filtered in. After centuries lying dormant, the hatchling within sensed it was time to break free into the world.

With a final mighty push, the egg shattered apart, and out tumbled Glowshard, a small sky-blue dragon wyrmling covered in glittering crystalline shards. He let out a squeaky sneeze, sending sparkling motes shimmering through the air. His eyes blinked open, revealing brilliant golden irises that reflected the lava flows around him. Despite his miniature size, power coursed through Glowshard's veins, gifted to him by the magical volcano that was his hatching ground. His whip-like tail twitched with excitement as he explored his new surroundings, tiny wings flapping in a frenzy. The cavern walls glowed with mystic runes left behind by ancient dragons of old.

Glowshard's instincts took over. He opened his mouth, feeling the scorching heat building within, and released his first real burst of dragonfire. Instead of a cone of flame, however, brilliant lances of pure light and energy erupted in a blinding flash. Shard-like projectiles ricocheted wildly, fracturing the rocks and causing the entire volcanic cavern to luminesce. Glowshard blinked, startled by the unexpected brilliance. Had he done that? A surge of uncertainty mingled with exhilaration coursed through him. This was only the beginning...

Affinity Workflow: A few cycles of image prompts using NightCafe AI (DALLE-3) to end up with the cute glowing dragon. I then cleaned up some AI artifacts, sharpened some edges, and extended the image vertically a bit to show off his motes of magic.

Hi-rez image link [3298px tall]

Beauty and Brains

Here's something a little different today, created as vector art within Affinity Designer, which I'm calling Beauty and Brains.

Hi-rez image link [4096px wide]

Harley and Ivy Kissing (Harlivy)

I created my own vector version of Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy kissing by tracing over a panel originally drawn by Shae Beagle & Roberto Poggi from Harley Quinn: The Animated Series: Legion of Bats! #2.   I made some alterations to the girls, added some new effects, and labeled this recreation "Harlivy." I've included a side-by-side image for easier comparison.

Hi-rez image link.

Travis Kelce Catching a Football

This one was interesting to create something different on my version of Travis Kelce catching a football.  Took a few photo images, did some rough tracing with vectors to create the main body, and then started using Affinity Designer's knife tool to cut out the detail shape areas, and then recolored things trying to use limited colors.  I only used a couple gradient fills trying to keep most of the coloring plain and simple solid colors.  When you discard my two gradients I think this is less than 12 colors.   This vector image can scale to just about any size and not distort so that is cool.

Hi-rez image link.

Affinity Designer 2.3.0 Spiral Tool

This month's enhancement to Affinity Designer 2.3.0 added a new Spiral Tool, which you can see I used in my previous post.. Check out Spiral Tool Video Feature Walk-Thru.

Hi-rez image link.  

The Last Acorn - Animated Movie Starring Selena Gomez, Antonio Banderas and John Leguizamo

Here is my pre-production copy of the movie poster for The Last Acorn which is an upcoming animated movie starring Selena Gomez, Antonio Banderas, and John Leguizamo.  I brought four separate Bing Image Creator (DALL-E 3) prompt creations of mine into a single combined layout. 

Hi-rez image link.

Batman Wants to Put You In a Coma

Eduardo Barreto had a nice panel in DC Comics' Batman - Gotham by Gaslight, which I pulled out, isolated, and then did a few edits and added fresh dialogue "Why don't I help you slip into something more comfortable... like a coma."

Hi-rez image link.

Rocketship Blasting into Space

Bing Image Creator (DALL-E 3) coloring book drawing built from my prompt "create a coloring book drawing of a rocketship flying to the moon" and then I colored it while watching some TV. Hi-rez link.

Distressed Typography Play

 Some typography with vector play and watercolor washes. Hi-rez link.

Vector recreation of Batman threatening one of Ra's al Ghul's henchmen

I created my own vector version from a panel originally drawn by Dario Brizuela from The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #1 (DC Comics 2022).  Just vector brushes, solid colors, and no gradient fills.  I simplified the balloon pane dialogue and made Batman a bit more intimidating.  I also gave the henchman a broken tooth and mangled his left ear.   I added a side-by-side image just to make it easier to compare.

Hi-rez image link.

Orange Kitten colored by TrUzEDIT

My turn to take a simple cat sketch and turn it into an orange kitten sitting on a blue shag carpet finished image while watching some TV.  The full-sized image is available here to get around certain desktop or mobile browser quirks.

Dinosaur Standing in Front of Campire

I found a cute dinosaur image but had trouble sourcing it back to the actual original artist.  Thanks to whoever made this image for today's coloring experiments.  The full-sized image is available here to get around certain desktop or mobile browser quirks.

Dinosaur Color Work

I took a dinosaur sketch from a Cavewoman comic book pin-up and worked on vector flat colors with texture brushwork.

Angelo Di Martino Shark in a Bathtub Colored

Found a #Inktober2023 shark drawing by Angelo Di Martino which I colorized while watching the Arizona Diamondbacks clinch the NCLS.

Jordan Monsel Freddy Krueger Colored

Another #Inktober2023 drawing by Jordan Monsel which I whipped together while watching an episode of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon, playing with some layered vector brushes and finding a classic Freddy dreamscape background.

Batman says Boo.

Original Batman and Robin #2 artwork by Simone Di Meo for my panel extract, minor color tweaking, and then replaced the words with something way scarier. Hi-rez image link.

Tom Bancroft colored alien in spaceship

I found a simple alien design by Tom Bancroft and began coloring it during some of my TV-watching time.

Jordan Monsel Mushroom Man Colored

Found a remarkable mushroom man during #Inktober2023 drawn by Jordan Monsel and spent another evening vegging in front of the TV and giving it some colors, a few ink adjustments, and an appropriate background.