Blog of the Avatar

Stephen was back at the helm for another Pen of the Avatar and this time working with Darkstarr and making his character ready for battle including his Chaos armor. It’s always fascinating watching Stephen to see the techniques he uses. I know very little of Photoshop and it amazes me to see what people can do. I love to see how layers and levels are really used. And I like how Stephen uses the mesh and warp tools. One thing I didn’t expect though was for Stephen to rip Starr’s leg clean off and then put it back again in a different position.

Actually, that was one of the neat things to see was how Stephen can select certain pieces and move them without having to draw the whole piece over again. He actually does this for both legs to try and get a proper pose and even makes adjustments to the head of his character. Along the way a lot of different techniques come into play so even though I can barely make stick figures, I was able to follow along and see how Stephen makes some of that magic.

More brilliant musings about my adventures in New Britannia

• Pen of the Avatar with Stephen Daniele – Spiders
• Darkstarr Metronome–Taking Shape
• Pen of the Avatar 6-11-2013 with Stephen Daniele
• Pen of the Avatar with Stephen Daniele–Female Ranged Fighter
• Pen of the Avatar with Stephen Daniele 6-18-2013
• Pen of the Avatar – DarkStarr Moon Dial in Tribute to Starr Long
• Pen of the Avatar with Stephen Daniele
• Pen of the Avatar Dev Hangout 5/21 at 3PM
• Pen of the Avatar – Darkstarr Metronome
• Pen of the Avatar 2014-05-06 – Standing Stones Splash Art

It’s been months since I’ve been able to tune into a Pen of the Avatar episode and maybe I haven’t missed all that much since the series has been on an extended hiatus. But today, Stephen hit the ground running and showed off a new piece called the Standing Stones. It’s sort of combines Stonehenge with bits from the Lunar Rift. But in the middle of this one we have sorcery going on.

It was a real treat to sit back down and watch Stephen bring a painting to life and show how some key features of Photoshop are used. Let’s not forget the new drawing tablet Stephen has at his disposal which I believe is a massive Wacom Cintiq. It’s a beautiful piece of hardware and due to some technical difficulties we end up getting a very good hands on demonstration of how Stephen uses it. Josef puts the camera right over shoulder which is a little shaky at times, but was still pretty awesome.

I caught the replay and you will need to jump around a little bit since Google+ kept dropping out and lost the image multiple times. It’s good for the first hour and then we start to go over the cliff. Still, it’s worth watching because Stephen pulls together a wonderful image.

Pen of the Avatar 2014-05-06 – Standing Stones Splash Art

More brilliant musings about my adventures in New Britannia

• Pen of the Avatar 6-11-2013 with Stephen Daniele
• Shroud of the Avatar Limited Edition Art Print
• Concept Art and Fan Fiction
• Darkstarr Metronome–Taking Shape
• Stephen Daniele – Pen of the Avatar – Darkstarr
• Art Time with Stephen Daniele
• Pen of the Avatar – 6/4/2013
• Art Time with Stephen Daniele
• Shroud of the Avatar Game Play Demo Video
• Exclusive Darkstarr Metronome: Final Concept

For this episode of Pen of the Avatar, Stephen continued his work on his Ranged Fighter. When we left off last time, Stephen has just completed work on the daggers that would be used for close combat fighting if need be. He also did some work on the boots and felt that her attire needed to be grounded in the elements of nature. The ranged fighter lives off the land and has respect for it, so her clothing should reflect that.

For this episode he took that idea and applied it to her knee guards. As you see from the reference picture, he was using leaves as inspiration. He also went on to add a little more character to the daggers, by changing the style, shape and hilt. We also see the quiver that holds the arrows. And finally, there is the attempt at the cloak she is wearing. The cloak needs to be functional, but can’t get in the way of her ranged attacks. Hmm, bit of a tall order for this type of character.

Again, an extremely fun time watching Stephen put this together and I think she’s looking very good. The level of detail just keeps growing and growing. I can’t wait to see the final product where all the elements are put together, colored and textures added. She will be awesome.

More brilliant musings about my adventures in New Britannia

• Pen of the Avatar with Stephen Daniele–Female Ranged Fighter
• Now is a good time to try archery and ranged attack
• Pen of the Avatar 6-11-2013 with Stephen Daniele
• Stephen Daniele – Pen of the Avatar – Darkstarr
• Pen of the Avatar Dev Hangout 5/21 at 3PM
• Pen of the Avatar – 6/4/2013
• Pen of the Avatar with Stephen Daniele–7-2-2013
• Pen of the Avatar with Stephen Daniele – Spiders
• Darkstarr Metronome–Taking Shape
• Founder Homes and the Female Avatar

For this Pen of the Avatar, Stephen continued work on his female ranged fighter. This is the “Ranger” style character complete with archer’s bow and daggers on the hip.

As we have come to know, things get started with a drink and then it’s off to work. Stephen focused on the “armor” for this character which includes the daggers, boots, knee protection and leggings.

Overall it looks pretty sweet! This character also comes from inspiration from one of the community members. A few weeks ago, Stephen and Gina asked for female images and this is one of the selections. Very cool!

More brilliant musings about my adventures in New Britannia

• Pen of the Avatar with Stephen Daniele – 7/30/2013 – Female Ranged Fighter
• Pen of the Avatar – DarkStarr Moon Dial in Tribute to Starr Long
• The Making of a Female Avatar, The "Double Down on Community" Mission, the $10,000 Challenge of the Avatar, and More!
• Stephen Daniele – Pen of the Avatar – Darkstarr
• Pen of the Avatar 6-11-2013 with Stephen Daniele
• Founder Homes and the Female Avatar
• Pen of the Avatar with Stephen Daniele
• Pen of the Avatar – 6/4/2013
• The Macallan 12 from the Shroud of the Avatar Kickstarter Project. A signed bottle to commemorate the fun!
• Shroud of the Avatar Limited Edition Art Print