Legend of Zelda Deluge: December part 9

    After leaving the main square, Link and Hena went through the noisy, gossiping crowds, finding their way to a small, well-lit, warm restaurant that was less crowded than the outdoor food booths. The restaurant had several high tables with no seats, so they stood as they ate a quick dinner of soup in hollowed bowls of bread.

    "So, you saw the candidates together," Hena spoke up when she was nearly finished with her soup. "What do you think of them? My uncle sure can go on, can't he?"
 
    "He was very friendly," Link replied, then gulping down the rest of his soup and biting into the bread bowl.

    "Yeah, he's always been like that." Hena's smile was a little crooked. "He's really popular with just about everyone in town thanks to that. But, as an outsider who just met them, who do you think will win?"

    After considering for a moment, absentmindedly tearing off a large piece of the bread, Link answered slowly, "It depends on what the people in town are looking for in a Mayor."

    "Yeah, yeah." Hena nodded. "It depends if people want someone official and fancy or somebody… well, like my uncle. And as I said last night, people are leaning towards fancy. Not that Brian Koru won't do a good job."

   They finished in silence. After paying, they headed outside, where a twilight sky loomed above them, a pale, washed out orange to the west that faded into a dark blue, partially hidden behind dark clouds that were thickest to the north. Link took a long breath and smelled snow on the chilled northern wind.

Legend of Zelda Deluge: December part 8

    The next couple hours flew by as Link wandered around the lakeside town, only able to observe a small fraction of the variety of booths, games, and other festivities stands and events occurring through the town. As the afternoon began to wear on, the crowds started to gather around the gate of the city, waiting, talking up a din so loud that the noise and beat of their chattering and laughing could be heard clearly on the other side of town. Eventually Link joined them, getting into a crowd further from the gate, waiting along the decorated main street of the town, which mounted town guards were trying to clear of the crowds, that led to the immense main square where the crowd wrapped around the large, raised stone dais in the center, which had wooden poles erected at the corners, covered in ivy, topped with lanterns, and connected by ropes with small, colored flags. There was a small group on the dais, but Link only spotted them a second before several people taller than him blocked his view.

Legend of Zelda Deluge: December part 7

     Link opened his eyes to pitch darkness all around him. After staring blankly for a moment, he rolled over, looking at the fireplace. The unattended fire had burnt low overnight, leaving only lingering embers behind. In its absence, the chill from outside had crept in, its claws gripping the room. Slowly Link rose up into the cold, noticing that his neck had gone stiff. Yawning, he rubbed his neck methodically, and reached around blindly for his shoes until he realized he was wearing them.

    He stoked the fire for a while, slowly remembering all that had happened last night. Recalling his disorientation from the mulled wine, he noted with relief that he only had the slightest traces of a headache. After the fire was stable, he got a spare piece of wood and lit it, using it as a makeshift torch as he rose, searching the room for the oil lanterns and lighting them.

     The light swept the shadows away, revealing that the entire interior of the small building was a single room, separated into two parts by neatly stacked wooden crates. The larger section had a long wooden counter, with large drawers built into its far side, several of them locked. Behind the counter was an assortment of clean, though clearly not new, fishing equipment, including sealed bait. On the opposite side of the room was the door, and again it's the far wall between door and counter was an empty glass tank, spotlessly clean, though still bearing a strong smell of fish.

Legend of Zelda Deluge: December part 6

    “Here?” Link looked down from the edge of the plateau of Hyrule Field. Beyond the long, steep descent below, the land sharply leveled off and curved around an enormous lake, Lake Hylia. It seemed to stretch on, flat and dark, with no end in sight. Nestled next to the lake was Laryu, the only lakeside town. Even from this distance its considerable size was clear; it could easily boast a population of over two thousand. Where it was not bordered by the black lake, it was wrapped by a tall, thin wall. Inside the very buildings seemed glow in gold warmth, spotted frequently with white and yellow lights.

6: Faith and 9: Heaven and Earth

Wound up using this song: http://a-single-thread.tumblr.com/post/47673963820/oh-small-fragment-of-hope-left-behind-in-this-hand

Doing this picture and Colette and Tales of Symphonia to respond to this prompt just...felt so right. The themes of faith, hope, and love in this game are absolutely stellar and heartbreaking, and while they're simpler than in other Tales titles that followed, they're also more clear, and penetrate the characters and the plot in ways that are easier to recognize and appreciate, as its less clouded by obscurity or half-heartedness.

This game is really beautiful, because it keeps capturing true tragedy and true goodness in its story and characters over and over and over.

I couldn't have even tried to chose a better story to grow up with.

I have more mixed feelings on this one, but both were largely experimental, so I don't mind really.

For some reason, when it comes to the very concepts of the meeting of Heaven and Earth in the material but-very-pretty-and-feels-mystic-to-me sense, I keep leaning towards Asian-ish styles. Not sure why, though I'm sure it has to do with the music prompt for this.

Legend of Zelda: Deluge December part 5

    “What are you doing in these woods?” The giant tree’s voice came out low, deep, and earthy, reminding Link of sound of an old man telling an ancient tale, of the hard sound of boulders scraping and dislodging, and of a great bear’s throaty growl.

    None of the researchers found a voice to answer: Gutoh was staring, mouthing silent words, his face alight but frozen; Roe had shrunk behind the former but too held a distinct expression of astonishment, his wide eyes scrolling over the giant, talking yew; Faron, in front of the other two, dumbly plucked at his long salt and pepper beard, not even blinking, his lips pursed together. Vinn, their guard, stood behind them all, his hand on his sword’s hilt, his face pale.

    Link noticed the frown lines on the tree’s face grow deeper in the silence. After quickly glancing at the others to see them still dumbfounded, he spoke up, “These men were traveling to research the woods. I…I was looking for someone.”

Sherlene Holmes: Comic

Though, I guess this is really only funny if you've seen that one episode of Batman: The Animated Series. C'est la vie.

On a side note, yay for St. Joseph's Day!

4. Affection and Insecurity

The fourth one in the series.

Did this while thinking of all the songs linked here: http://mahira-chan.deviantart.com/art/4-Affection-and-Insecurity-360068334

And as I mentioned there, I never thought of the song "I'm Just Your Problem" as related to romantic feelings---if you think that girls can't have extremely emotional, extremely stressful and bitter breakups with their platonic friends, then you've never been in that situation yourself.

We're girls. Especially in teenage years (which Marceline is in), we get overemotional over things, especially when it means losing a relationship of ANY SORT with someone who is very dear to us, and it can leave painful and strongly emotional residue for a very long time.

And denying this means shoving around people and characters into labels to suit certain stereotypes, which is hardly open-minded.

I know this isn't the best thing I've done by a long shot, but I was very happy to get the chance to draw Marceline. I wanted to draw her more feminine and classy and wearing a dress because she has appeared in these sorts of fashions in the show, and that tends to get overlooked since she's not as stereotypically feminine as some other characters, but she's hardly mannish in her tastes...opposite of how the culturally and ethically homogenous population of tumblr represents her.

3. Ongoing

With the song identified here: http://lifetruthandart.blogspot.com/2013/03/that-art-series.html

This song is one of my favorites from Skyward Sword, and it was perfect inspiration for this prompt. I did this thinking of the Link and Zelda from my comic series I plan to do, but later on, when I actually go about writing their story. She's going to send him on a quest to what's basically hell; what he's going there for I haven't decided yet, but it's an extremely important point in this story, starting off a chain of events that are pivotal for Link's character.


I did the first draft for the next chapter by the way, so it should be coming along soon.

Everything's been strangely blue lately, but c'est la vie. Spring break ending blues!

Limpidly Flow

Please view it fully, which unfortunately will mean using the right-click then View, as this is too wide for the blog format.

Did this based off of Baten Kaitos music and scenery, the Boggly Woods in Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door, an artist I knew who used real lace in art, and the concept of a spiritual bouquet.

When I woke up two mornings ago with this song in my head note for note, I just knew I had to do something.

Legend of Zelda: Deluge December part 4

    In the light of the four blazing fires that illuminated the small clearing and cast grim flickering lights on the cliff and tall trees surrounding, Link, the researchers and their only remaining guard, Vinn, began to sort the luggage that had been hastily dumped in the middle of the fires. Link found his sword and pack there, which had been quickly, poorly tied back together with the leather thongs. Untying them and unfolding the blankets and digging amongst his belongings, he found everything was still there—save two things.

    “Where are they?” He looked up at Gutoh, the researcher who was closest, who opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. The man’s face was stricken as he just shook his head quickly. He looked at the other researcher, Roe, who did not even respond, his face still colorless, his eyes wide.Link turned his gaze towards Vinn, who was pulling his own pack up onto his shoulders. The guard noticed him and half-heartedly shrugged.

    “He—took a few things.” He jerked his head towards the bloody, strewn corpse of the other guard, Narif, who was left at the edge of the clearing. “Get them yourself.”

Hope

From my DA post of this:


I'm not going to lie and say I spent a whole lot of time on this, but I wanted to focus more on the colors and coloring. The little time I spent with the line art and character concept shows for sure in that A: Her outfit is highly inaccurate and B: Yeah, there's a lot similar to this and the previous picture of the series, I know. But I'll be watching out for that.

That Art Series

A series of art prompts related to and inspired by songs, with some details or quotes or ideas related to them. Links will be given as they are created and posted.

1: Grandiose ("The Eternal Diva", Professor Layton: The Eternal Diva) 

2: Hope ("Serah's Themes", Final Fantasy XIII-2) (Character: Serah)

3: Ongoing ("Gate of Time", Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword)

4: Affection and Insecurity ("Nuts/Remember You", Adventure Time)

5: Destiny ("Run", Final Fantasy XIII-2, also a remix of Noel's Theme)

6: Faith (The Rise of the Guardians Soundtrack)

7: Decision ("Short Hair", Mulan)

8: Eternity ("Forever My Heart", Miriam Stockley)

9: Heaven and Earth ("Heaven and Earth", Kitaro)

10: Festival ("He Nan Xiao Qu", Jia Peng Fang)

11: Villain (Caius’ Theme, Final Fantasy XIII-2)

12: Otherworldly Hero ("The Story of the Past", Samurai Jack Soundtrack)

13: Neon ("Rave in the Forest", Samurai Jack Soundtrack)

14: Bleeding ("Blue Lips", Regina Spektor)

15: That's Enough Curves for You, Young Man (Hercules Songs w/ the Muses, Hercules Soundtrack)

16: Love ("Forever", Jia Peng Fang)

17: Anton and the Ghost ("Friend Like Me", Aladdin)

18: Beginning ("Gates of Dawn", Secret Garden)

19: It's Inductive, Thank You, Idiot ("Series One Suite", Sherlock)

20: What Was Lost ("Lotus", Jalan Jalan)

21: Beauty ("Isobella", Enya) (Character: Zelda)

22: Training ("Dumpling Warrior Remix", Kung Fu Panda 2)

22: Divine ("The Burning Bush", The Prince of Egypt)

23: Usurper Ghosts ("In the Dark of the Night", Anastasia)

24: Truth ("What Am I to You", Adventure Time)

25: Together ("Tha Mo Ghaol Air Aird A' Chuain", Julie Fowlis)

26: Goodness ("Cardinal Knowledge", The Secret of Kells Soundtrack)

27: Freezing Rain ("The Broken Manas and My One and Only", Baten Kaitos Origins Soundtrack)

28: Dream ("Unknown Song", Final Fantasy XIII-2, also a version of Yeul's Theme)

29: Reconciliation ("Leaves from the Vine (Instrumental)" Avatar: The Last Airbender Soundtrack)

30: To You ("le ali del principio", Baten Kaitos Origins Soundtrack)

31: Expectations ("Rolling Girl", Hatsune Miku)

32: Yearning ("Yeul's Theme", Final Fantasy XIII-2 soundtrack)

 33: Ethereal ("New Bodhum" and "Ruined Hometown", ibid)

34: Suffering ("Thanksgiving", George Winston)

35: And Move ("Baile Para La Luna", Nicholas Gunn)

First of an Art Series (Grandiose) and Updates

This is the first of a series of 35 pictures I plan on doing, all strongly linked and inspired by a particular song, though I'll be letting inspiration from any number of places flow freely while drawing and painting the picture. Here we have inspiration from Professor Layton, the notion of "classic beauty", lazy decorative art, as well as from different artists, one of whose characters I partially modeled this character here after.

Original and Fanfiction Art

With some of the comments from when I posted them on deviantart.

The first is an original piece, and was my Valentine's Day art.

Quote from DA post http://mahira-chan.deviantart.com/art/To-Meet-You-354269025
A Valentine's Day picture, because I really wanted to make one this year because of reasons......though it doesn't really look like one at all. C'est la vie.

This is Deval meeting LILI for the first time, probably. He's probably nearing the end of some crazy rebel mission for the night that he's not in charge of this time, and thinks she's just some weird girl who got lost in the area.
She is in reality a internet idol (made solely for exploitation) who was essentially "incarnated" a-la Digimon on Earth, save that it's kind of Deval's fault, but I don't know if he knows it when he first meets her.

Anyways, Deval being Deval, automatically stops to help her get out of the area. It's not because she's a girl or because it's true love at first sight or whatever: that's just the type of person he is, and his willingness to help and give and give and keep giving to just about everyone is a big part of any romantic attention directed towards him in his story.

So yeah, this picture isn't cutesy Valentines Day like it should be, but it is, like...I guess just showing things that have to do with love. I dunno.

I still don't know about the lighting. I know there's a lamp in that corner. And then the fire, and then something else that Deval is looking towards. Yep.


Of course, one thing I love best about these two is that their names are like a really bad joke. Deval's name comes from "deva", which is Sanskrit, so I have NO idea what the pronunciation is like, but I know most people will pronounce it like "devil." And then LILI's full, original name that only she knows at this point is Lilith. Yeah, stupid joke...though I guess you actually have to be a little educated to get it...


And the second picture is a concept for my fan fic that I've been posting here and on DA:

 So, I'm not going to call this a completed work, mostly because the mountains look so...bleh. But I still liked doing this. Got the colors and look down for my Link better, and also got Truett's color and the style I want to draw her and fairies in for this thing.

So, I was thinking that the mountain behind them would be the one that they're on now, the Lost Woods, but it doesn't look like the trees are nearly dense enough. But the mountain is...roughly the right height. Needs to be taller though. Though, if you take into account that Link and Truett are on elevated ground too, then it's probably about right.

....
And oh, the statues in the ground aren't random, though they're incomplete. No, I was thinking of the old Celtic statues, with emphasis on the head and eyes. Kind of like the open-eyed look that's always in the art in the Book of Kells, things like that. But again, it's not complete.

Legend of Zelda: Deluge December part 3

   Picking up another dark shelled brown nut, Link looked it over. It was large, almost too large for him to easily hold in his hand. They did not show any sign of wear or tear from animals or from the hard winter weather and frozen temperatures of the past weeks. The hard shell was smooth and intact, with each only having the smallest of cracks in the middle, through which he could barely see a dark yellow nut.

    He slipped the nut inside of his hat, which he was using as a makeshift bag. Equipped with only his shield, he had nothing else to carry these nuts that Truett had spotted in a small, dry clearing and immediately snapped at him to collect. Now his hat was nearly full and he picked up another, looking for any flaws, though he had not found any thus far.

    “Don’t try to eat them, Link,” Truett said, fluttering overhead.

    He shot a frown at her, but shook his head and hurriedly put the nut in his hat. “You said these are magic, aren’t they?”

    “Yes. They sort of work like small bombs. If you throw them at a Hylian or animal, it will stun them, though it won’t hurt them very much. It’s more effective on Wolfos and other monsters.” She flew down closer to him. “They won’t help much if these people you’re trying to save try to kill you again.”

Legend of Zelda: Deluge December Part 2

    Someone kicked Link roughly in the side, shouting for him to wake up. Cold air surrounded him as his blanket was thrown off of him. Quickly he sat up, reaching for his sword. He froze, cold steel brushing against his neck.

    “Don’t move.”

    Narif and Vinn, the two guards traveling with the small company of researchers in the Forbidden Woods, were looking down at him. It was still night, but the fire was large enough to light the area, revealing the severe expressions on the guards’ faces. Narif had his sword out and was drawing it away from Link’s neck, but still pointed it at him.

    “Recognize this?” Vinn thrust out a scrap of cloth towards Link.

     Reflecting the firelight was a gold leaf symbol. With a small gasp, he recognized the symbol of the Royal Family of Hyrule: the Triforce, with a pair of wings cascading out from underneath it.

Legend of Zelda: Deluge December Part 1

    “Hey! Get up!”

    Link rolled over under the small fur blanket that Layrel had given him two nights ago. The ground was warm beneath him, yet the outside air was the strong, airy cold of morning. Wind swept snow outside of the small, miniscule cave in the river rocks that was only large enough for him to crawl in and lie down. Truett did not seem to mind the cold, as the fairy kept flying around outside, shouting at him.

   “I said, get up!” Swooping down next to him, she pulled on his ear until he propped himself up on his elbows, the top of his head grazing the stone above. Slowly he threw the blanket off and pulled on his cloak instead. He had not bothered to even take off his boots last night, and had little to pack. Rolling his blanket together last and tying his pack with leather straps, he set it down beside the miniature cave and walked out and down to the bank of Zora’s River.

Legend of Zelda: Deluge November Part 11

    It was an hour before dawn. The earliest grey and pink lights of dawn were touching the sky, while the world below was mostly illuminated by the soft glow of the moon, which was just disappearing behind the white mountains in the west. Link had awoken himself early, even before almost all of the castle household. He had packed the previous night. Truett refused to get up and instead stayed sleeping, now inside of his hat, in which he had poked appropriate, tiny holes for air. Now as he stepped out onto the snowy castle grounds and headed for the city, he could feel the warmth of Truett's glow and the faintest of drafts inside his hat. The sensations were not uncomfortable, but rather strange, and he had to resist the urge to scratch his head or shift his hat around.

Legend of Zelda: Deluge November Part 10

     Link was walking back to his quarters. It was late in the evening now, and while he had avoided the knights all day, now he checked each one he passed to see if it was Bolek. From Princess Zelda's reaction, apparently only Durmuni, Dolo and he had known of the monsters' abduction of Auru. Everyone else was convinced that the monsters had done no more than raid without plundering, causing very few causalities and a lot of property damage.

    Even as the Princess forbade Link from searching for the monsters and Auru, he had decided to do so anyways. The moment she closed her study door, he immediately turned and walked away, disappointed at her inability to help him, making him all the more resolute in going to search himself. Still, as he left, he could feel the eye of the black-clad woman who served Zelda following him. She did not say anything, yet Link could not help but feel as though she knew what he was thinking; it took all the courage he had not to run away from her piercing gaze.

Legend of Zelda: Deluge November Part 9

  "Come on, Link!"

    Auru was gesturing for Link to follow him onto the large, frozen pond that sprawled across their path. The pale winter sun peeped out behind grey clouds, casting the frozen woods and the two boys in a clear, cold light.

    Walking uneasily out onto the ice, Link tried to stay on the patches of snow to give him some traction. Looking up at Auru's smiling, freckled face, he said, "I don't know if going this far is a good idea."

  "Oh come on. If we keep going, we're sure to find a fairy fountain. Don't you want to see a fairy again? I read all that Purel has about fairies, but I'm sure that it's nothing to actually seeing it!"

    "I guess—"

    Link froze, hearing a loud cracking noise. The ice beneath his feet seemed to move on its own. He and Auru both looked down. The ice underneath his feet was riddled with small, spreading cracks.

   Desperately he looked back up, but did not move, his seven year old body paralyzed. He had never even been on any frozen body of water before. After all, Zora's River never froze over fully, and his association with ice was limited to puddles and the floes that came down from the waterfalls in late winter.