Fan Art and Commissions #5

It's been a while since I've done one of these fan art and commission hauls.  Let's do something about that, shall we?

First up we have this piece by the artist Pelycosaur24.  Inspired by the excellent Neil Gaiman comic Marvel 1602, I wanted to see what Percy Jackson and Annabeth Chase would look like if they lived in the early 17th Century.  Thus we have Percy and Annabeth 1604.

It is always a pleasure to get to work with one of my favorite artists, and this piece was worth every penny.  I had them be Spanish because the Heart of the West always goes to whoever is the most powerful Western nation at a given time.  In 1604 that was arguably still Spain.  Annabeth's outfit incorporates elements from the Kamfrau and Trossfrau of Austria, because they were women who accompanied men onto the battlefield.  That was a suggestion from Pely, who is Austrian herself.  I especially love how the outfits evoke their present day clothes, while still being true to the fashions of the 17th Century.

This next one is inspired by that crossover fanfic I wrote combing Percy Jackson and the Olympians with DJ MacHale's Pendragon.  Well, those might have been the base two, but there are other territories and sub-territories in Halla.  Thus we have Pyrrha Nikos from RWBY and Mizore Shirayuki from Rosario+Vampire, travelers from the territory of Remnant and the sub-territory of Yokai Academy, training with Loor on Zadaa.  I'm very happy to have gotten a quality work at a modest price.  As a bonus, I got Stardust-Phantom, the South African artists who made this piece, into RWBY.

Speaking of Stardust-Phantom, that brings us to our next piece.  A Crossover Christmas Carol.  Starring Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist as Ebenezer Scrooge, Weiss Schnee from RWBY as The Ghost of Christmas Past, Bolin from Legend of Korra as The Ghost of Christmas Present, Nico di Angelo from Percy Jackson as The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, and Grover Underwood from Percy Jackson as Charles Dickens. 

We're blowing a turkey for Stardust-Phantom.  This one's another one relating to that Percy Jackson/Pendragon crossover.  Here we have Silena Beauregard giving Aja Killian some pegasus riding lessons and explaining a bit about the history of Camp Half-Blood.  Aja is less than thrilled at all of the potentially dangerous stuff that goes on at Camp Half-Blood.  

This one is another crossover clothes swap brought to us by BiCOV.  There was no plot to this one, I just wanted to see how they'd look in each other's clothes.  We've got Annabeth from Percy Jackson swapping with Kurumu from Rosario+Vampire, and Reyna from Heroes of Olympus swapping with Ahsoka from Star Wars: The Clone Wars.  Another quality piece at a bargain price.

Sometimes the fanfictions in my head take on a life of their own.  Case in point, this piece from SophiaBlackoodArt.  I don't exactly know how or why I started pairing Reyna and Ahsoka together, it's just one of those things that kind of just happened.  Well, in the Heroes of Olympus it was said that if Reyna found love it wouldn't be with a demigod, and Rick Riordan had considered making her lesbian.  Also, Ahsoka and Bariss certainly had there moments, as though the Clone Wars writers we're doing everything short of making them a couple.  Make of this what you will.

My inadvertent shipping of Reyna and Ahsoka proved so popular I actually got fan request to commission more art of them together.  That's where this piece from an Australian artist named makeupaname.  Here we have Reyna and Ahsoka celebrating Discovery of Puerto Rico Day, which is a real holiday by the way.  The invisible dude is Millard Nullings from Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children.  The dude you can actually see is Nico di Angelo from Percy Jackson.  

Speaking of makeupaname, we're got another piece from her.  We've got Superman, one of the most iconic heroes of the 20th Century, along side Percy Jackson, a hero of the 21st Century.  Superman is passing the torch to a new generation of heroes.  Percy isn't sure that he's worthy, but Superman is assuring him that he will do fine, that Percy made him proud, and that he knows the world will be in good hands.  

This piece is another one from LadyLoriel.  The Doctor from Doctor Who has been captured by Cthulu.  So, Dream from Neil Gaiman's Sandman has assembled a team of heroes from across time and space to save him.  We've got Percy Jackson, Bobby Pendragon, Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games, and Utena Tenjou from Revolutionary Girl Utena.  They're alert on the streets of an abandoned city as Dream watches over them.  

We'll finish off with another piece from LadyLoriel.  In this one, Inuyasha traveled to the present day to help the Silver Bullets fight crime, but was a bit too reckless with destruction of public property.  So a judge sentenced him to either time in jail or community service.  He opted for community service, which turned out to be volunteering at a summer camp.  So here he is with Skuld from Ah! My Goddess, Arnold from The Magic School Bus and SpongeBob SquarePants.  They're lost in the woods just as the sun is beginning to set.  SpongeBob doesn't seem to mind though.  

Well, I think that should do it for now.  Hopefully we'll be able to do this again soon.  Until then, I will see you guys next time. 

Interview: Pelycosaur24

I'm taking a small break from my Riordan Retrospectives.  I've just gotten a major break with my writing career, and I need to focus on that for the moment.  However, I'm not going to leave you guys empty-handed.  I've got another interview today.  We've having a brief chat with Pelycosaur24 from DeviantArt.  She's made some really nice commissioned art for me, which I'll hopefully get to share with you guys soon.  So, without further ado, let's get started.

1) In your own words, tell us who you are

I am someone with a lot of different interests - which has led to four different university studies (I am currently working on my master’s thesis). My hobbies include experimental archaeology, archery, sword fighting and of course drawing.

2) I understand that you're from Austria. Can you tell the readers a bit about what life is like in Austria?

It is very different than life in America, I imagine, but I am very happy to live in Austria, what I love most about this country is the great balance between modern times and historical presence. Most cities have existed at least since the middle ages and there are a lot of old houses everywhere. But of course, we have a lot of nature too, mostly mountains and forests.

3) What got you into art?

I used to write short stories and wanted to get a better picture of my characters, so I started illustrating my stories

4) Is there any story behind your user name?

I just love mammal-like reptiles, but there is no particular story behind the name

5) What is a typical day like for you?

Since I joined the army 2 months ago, a typical day for me now begins at 6 am and consists mostly of marching and combat training.

6) What historical era is your favorite? Relatedly, what historical figure do you most admire?

That is a tough question, but I think I go with the roman republic. Corresponding with that one of the historical figures that fascinates me most is Tiberius Gracchus. The historical figure I most admire would probably be Archduke Charles, a 19th century Austrian military commander.

7) What is your favorite prehistoric creature and why?

My favorite Dinosaur has always been Iguanodon (also because I love the history of paleontology and the story of how Iguanodon was discovered), while my favorite prehistoric mammal is the cave bear (the most common prehistoric animal in Austria - 30.000 have been found in one cave near where I live).

8) Are there any works of fiction that you're a fan of?

I generally really love Pixar and DreamWorks movies (especially Kung Fu Panda), and I also really like the show Primeval.

9) Any advice for aspiring artists?

Just always keep practicing, and from time to time you can compare your drawings and reflect on your progress.

10) What are you working on at the moment?

I had a rather big drawing project where I drew lots of people from the Chalcolithic and now I am working on some backgrounds for them, and of course I have my Stone Age movie reviews that I write every other week.

11) What does the future hold for you?

Right now, I just want to get through basic training and finish my master’s thesis at the same time.  Then I will see what I do from there.

12) Any closing remarks, and where can the readers find you?

You can find my drawings at my DeviantArt page or on my Facebook page. I appreciate every like and favorite.  

Interview: LadyLoriel

Today we've got another interview from one of the artists I frequently commission things from. She's known as LadyLoriel over on Deviantart, but in real life her name is Sofie. She's an artist from Sweden, and without further ado let's get on to the interview.

1) In your own words, tell us who you are.

Well, my name is Sofie but I’m also known as LadyLoriel and some other names on the internet, though LadyLoriel is the main one. I’m mainly a hobby artist and writer who enjoy working with Fantasy themes a lot.

2) I understand that you are from Sweden, can you tell us a bit about what life is like in Sweden?

Well, I guess peaceful is the best word to use in my case. I live in the north of Sweden in the middle of a forest at the moment. So, as you can imagine I don’t exactly have to deal with loud neighbours or anything like that. Over all I’m not sure how to describe the life here as I never lived in a different country. But I can say that if you like snow and long dark winters, and not a lot of people around then North Sweden is a good place to be.

3) Is there any story behind your user name?

There isn’t much of a story behind the username LadyLoriel to be honest. Loriel was the name of a city in a Fantasy series written by Niklas Krog that I enjoyed a lot when I was younger. So, I started of using that as a name for a character I played when I tried Utopia for the first time about 11-12 years ago. And Lady later became added to it as it was a title I gained in Utopia. Since then it just got stuck with me.

4) What inspired you to be an artist?

I don’t know if there was ever a specific inspiration as much as it was just something I enjoyed at first. I didn’t start drawing until I was about 16-17 and I thought it was fun and sort of relaxing so I just kept doing it and along the way I got to know other artists who in turn inspired me to improve and try new things with art.

5) What works of fiction are you a fan of?

There are a lot, but the first thing that comes to mind is the Locke Lamora book series. I absolutely love those stories and eagerly await the 4^th book now. But besides that I do enjoy J.R.R Tolkin’s work, The Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, and similar Fantasy books.

6) What other interests or hobbies do you have?

Well, video games are one of the things that take my time. Especially when I get a sudden urge to play through old LucasArt or Sierra games, or reply Skyrim. I also do bake a lot (but might also come from that I studied to be a baker)

7) What's a typical day like for you?

It mostly consists of waiting to be called in for work (which can be a day, evening, or night shifts) and looking for a more stable job. And walking the dogs of course. When I have some time for it I do work on art (be it commissions or for myself. Depends on what kind of art day I have)

8) What advice do you have for aspiring artists?

Keep drawing what you like to draw, if someone gives you constructive critic or give you an advice do take it and learn from it. You might not have to follow it, but it can contain a point that helps you improve. And lastly… Don’t shy away from references, they are excellent to help you get a pose down or see how proportions and anatomy work. Learn from references and you will be able to learn to break things down and work without them in the future.

9) What are you working on at the moment?

Well commissions are my main priority at the moment. Got more at once than I thought I would, which surprised me. But other than that, I do have my own project that I work on, there are about 15 of them. I have finally started to write some properly and not just small scenes. I also sometimes draw some quick things for contests and groups on dA.

10) Do you have any plans for the future?

Well, getting a stable job first of all. But, when it comes to my art and writing, I do hope to one day be able to publish one of my stories, and maybe try to learn to draw comics (since it’s a thing I would like to do but have yet to learn).

11) Obviously, I've commissioned a lot of stuff from you, but before you go tell us where other people can commission you and find you?

Well easiest way to contact me would be to send me a note on ladyloriel.deviantart.com/
but you may also get a hold of me at toyhou.se/Ladyloriel
In the future I might also set up a specific email address for those who aren’t comfortable with using these sites, but as it is right now I don’t have one set up.
I also have a page on Facebook, that is rather new, where I can be reached. It’s simply called Art of LadyLoriel

Fan Art and Commissions # 3

Well it looks like the time has come once again to look at some of the fan art that I've had commissioned.  First up we've got a piece by Brazilian artist Desinho.  Actually, its a two-for-one special.  Same art but slightly different.  Based on my fanfic idea Adventure of the Silver Bullets, and that's just what it's called.

From left to right we've got Nico di Angello, Mizore Shiryuki, Mako, Reyna Ramirez and Ashoka Tano.  As you might have guessed, Reyna and Ashoka are lesbians, Mako and Mizore are good friends, and Mako and Nico are gay.  It started out mainly as way to troll shippers, but I came to genuinely love the various parings.  It helps that Nico is canonically gay, and we get some subtle hints that Reyna might be lesbian in the books.  Also, many Star Wars fans have noted that Ashoka always seemed to have more chemistry with female characters rather than male.    

The story here is that the Silver Bullets just finished a major mission and these five are going on vacation to San Fransokyo.  Yes, the one from Big Hero Six.  Anyway, let's move on.       

This is a map I had commissioned from Bruce Monroe based on my pal Matt Mitrovich's scenario What Happens Next? Hammer and Cross.  Originally, I was going to make this map myself, but I wasn't confident in my skills, so I handed the reigns over to Bruce.  When this map came out Matt was having a very rough weekend and was going through some self-doubt, but then he saw this map and it renewed his confidence and made him happy.  It is so good when art, especially art I commission, can do great things like that.  It even got featured for Map Monday.  Speaking of commissioned art doing great things.  

Here's a map based on my flag of The Russian Philippines.  It was created by the great map maker Lynn Davis.  Lynn was going through some though finical times when this map was commissioned.  I had always wanted a map made by Lynn, and I wanted to help out a friend, so it killed two birds with one stone.  I mean, just look at it!  It's super professional quality, and Lynn helped iron-out the creases in the scenario.  I hope one day to commission another great map from Lynn in the future.  It also go featured for Map Monday.  

And here we have another creation from out pal Alan Garcia.  This time we have Minami Shimada from Baka and Test as Sailor Mars.  I especially love the little spell scroll she's got.  Not really much more to add on this one that I haven't said about past Sailor Moon crossovers.  So let's move on to the final edition to the list.

To round out the list of commissions and fan art we have C.C. from Code Geass and Sailor Saturn.  You can check out my review of Code Geass over here.  You can always count on Alan Garcia for quality art work.  This might be my last Sailor Moon commission for a bit.  I'm thinking about mixing it up and doing something different next time, but you'll have to wait and see about that. 

There's no honorable mentions this time around.  Well, that concludes another look at my fan art and commissions.  I hope you had fun and maybe we can do this again soon.  I'll see you guys next time.    

   

    

   

Interview: Alan Garcia

I've decided that it's high time I started kicking this blog into gear and seriously committing to it. As the first step towards this I've decided to take inspiration from Matt Mitrovitch and Dave Rubin by interview several people whom I happen to admire greatly, or just anyone I think will be worth interviewing. To kick things off we're going to start with one of my favorite artists from DeviantArt, and one who's art has been featured here quite a few times: Alan Garcia aka Shinoharaa.

Also, side note, if you haven't seen The Rubin Report and all the amazing stuff Dave Rubin is doing then do yourself a favor and check it out. Anyway, let's all give a big Knowledge, Adventure and Wonder welcome to Alan Garcia.


Welcome to Knowledge, Adventure and Wonder. To start, tell us who Alan Garcia is, in your own words.

 Hello! My name is Alan Garcia, also known as Shinohara. I'm a 21 years old Brazilian artist (mostly digital) from Sao Paulo, and I work with anime webgames.  


A lot of what you do is vector work. For our readers who may not have heard of it, can you briefly describe what that is?

Vector artist is something like getting a low quality image and remaking it in a bigger resolution. I use my own style in a 8000x8000 resolution, using what I learned from another artists' styles, mainly from meshugene89 (meshugene89.deviantart.com/), that is my first inspiration.


Your user name is Shinoharaa. Is there any story behind that name?

Actually it should be Shinohara, but that was taken I create an account, so I put another 'A' hahahah. When I was a child, I need a nickname for my in-game character. For some magical reason I chose Shinohara and uses it until today. Currently, I only play with female characters with nickname Ayumi and Usuki, but between you and me, I think that wouldn’t be very much like an artist name for me.

What inspired you to be an artist?

My entire family is made of artists. My mother painted pictures, my brother drew on paper and my father worked with TV commercials. I remember watching my brother drawing Dragon Ball characters and I started too. But I was always bad at drawing something from my mind, so since I was a kid I put the original picture beside the paper and I copied onto the paper.

When I started play Naruto games, I was the one player who was boring with new ideas and layouts, but there were characters in the game that did not have good renders over the Internet, such as drunk Rock Lee, and then I learned in one day using the Paint Tool SAI and started making characters that had no pictures on the internet to use in the game.

With time I started to get better and people started asking me to do a specific character. With more and more requests, I began to see the future in the business and began to charge pretty cheap for the arts. When I received more than 20 requests and took months to finish all, I decided to raise the price, and fortunately the people have recognized my work enough to continue the requests.

I can say that I am very lucky to work on two things I like and still be able to connect both.

You're obviously a pretty big anime fan. Do you have any favorites?

ANGEL BEATS! Oh, sorry. Yeah, I love the animation and the music from Fairy Tail, the characters from Sword Art Online, the history from many. I really like Naruto, maybe because I know every name on the anime. It’s like how some people know the name of every Pokémon for me hahah, but I admit I never watched entire classic saga. I saw only until the fight between Lee and Gaara. Yeah, I never watched Orochimaru invasion, or the famous Naruto and Sasuke epic clash on the Valley of the End, but I watched Shippuuden since the very first episode, every week, including the infinite fillers

But definitely I have two favorite animes: Angel Beats and Steins;Gate. Angel Beats is really fun, beautiful, exciting, sad but perfect! Steins;Gate, with issues about time travel and John Titor, holy shit, my mind blows up!

What can you tell us about the Brazilian anime fandom?

Well, I can talk about the players from the games that I work. They like everything, but they are crazy about the famous ones like Sword Art Online, Shingeki no Kyojin, One Punch Man, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach. You know, the main ones. Hehe!

What's a typical day like for you?

Well, I wake up 8am, go to work and back home by almost 8pm. I have from 8pm until 2am to do what I can. Play. Draw. Parachute jump. Anything. When I have a really big commission list, I try to focus on it, but without inspiration is really boring and it never ends, so I play something (STAR WAAAAARS NOOWWW).

When I’m inspired, sometimes I start and finish on the same day. But sometimes, if it’s a hard one, I can take 1 or 2 weeks, and that kills me.

What's it like making one of your crossover commissions?

I love it. I love the challenge of drawing it, and when someone comments that both characters have something in common, like the seiyuu. Btw, right now I’m drawing 5 crossovers that I always want to do, just keep watching.

What are you working on at the moment?

I’m doing some characters that I always wanted to draw (secret), some Hot Spring ones (oh, I miss drawing those) and maybe some Disney ones (I love Disney hahah). Oh, and my brother told me to trying draw League of Legends Splash Arts in anime style. Well, we will see, hahah.

Any advice for aspiring artists?

DO IT! JUST DO IT! Don't let your dreams, be dreams! Yesterday, you said tomorrow, so JUST DO I---wait, that's not mine, LOL. Well, you draw bad? No problem. You need keep going, improve, learn. You just became better if you never stop! As the famous quote says, an artist never ends an art, it just abandons. Never is good enough, so you need to know when stop and start another, better than the first one. Try new styles, improve the same. Find your motivation!

Well it was really great having you over. Before you go, where can the readers find you if they want to commission you or drop a donation your way?

Thanks for inviting me! Just access my DeviantArt account Shinoharaa (shinoharaa.deviantart.com/) and keep watching my journal. I open the commissions for 1-2 weeks every time I finish the commission list

 

Fan Art and Commissions #2

I think it's time for another showcase of fan art and commissions so let's get right on it.  Our first commission is brought to us courtesy of Swedish artist LadyLoriel.  Its another one based on The Adventures of the Silver Bullets fanfic, in fact, that's its title.  Let's take a look at it shall we?

I know that many of the characters look a tad off, but that's real a result of the artist's particular style more than anything else.  On the whole I'm very happy with the way this one turned out.  Great to see my vision come to life. I especially love the order everyone is in and how, even though the artist didn't intend it, Al and Mizore look like they're holding hands.  Anyway, who's up for some maps?

This map is based on Easternized World from The AltHistory Wikia.  It was created by Bruce Munro, a very famous map maker in the online alternate history community.  Easternized World is an alternate history where East Asia, rather than the West, became the dominate colonial and cultural power of the world.  It remains one of my favorite alternate history scenarios and I love the ways Bruce put his person style on it.  You really do want to check out the Deviantart page for the full description Bruce provides.  

And here's another scenario from the AltHistory Wikia that I had Bruce cover for me.  This one is called Aztec Empire and it features a world where the Aztec Empire never falls.  Its a really interesting scenario, thought you can tell at times that the author was young and inexperienced, and I like how Bruce was able to iron out the creases with his take on the scenario.  Again, check out the Deviantart link for the full description for the best experience. 

Here's one from our pal Shinoharaa.  It's Kurumu Korono as Sailor Neptune.  I case you're wondering the answer is yes, I do intend to commission a full set of sailor senshi and then some.  Well I can't think of anything else to add about this one, so let's move on.

And here we see Kurumu's loving girlfriend...er, I mean "cousin" Milly Ashford as Sailor Uranus.  I really think I did a good job with my selections of these two.  In Code Geass it's pretty much stated that Milly, and most Britannians for that matter, is bisexual.  Meanwhile, Kurumu certainly had her moments with Mizore.  Speaking of Mizore...

I'll conclude this post with an honorable mention.  Mizore Shirayuki as Sailor Mercury.  I didn't actually commission this one, but I certainly looks like something I would have commissioned.  This is the one that lead me to Shinoharaa, never in my wildest imagination did I expect to find such art for so cheap a price.  And the rest, as they say, is history.

Well, that's enough art for one blog post.  I hope you had a great time as usual, and maybe we'll get to do this again soon.  I'll see you next time.    

  

  

  

Fan Art and Commissions #1

I thought I'd take this post to share some of the fan art of my works and art commissions I've had made.  I've got a few, and they're ever growing, but I decided that five was a good place to start with. First up we've got some fan art based on Adventures of the Silver Bullets, the fanfiction magnum opus I never got around to completing.  These two were created by zeneria29, a very talented artist from Thailand.  She might have trouble with English, but she knows enough to get by and is a very sweet person.

That's Percy Jackson and Kurumu Kurono.  Yes, I didn't intend to ship them, but I wound up doing so anyway.  Hey, what the point of crossover if they don't eventually lead to crossover ships?  Well, there's actually a lot of other reasons I like crossover fanfiction, but crossover ships are always a bonus.  Anyway, let's move on to some more commissioned art. 

We've got Princess Celestia, Shrek, Urd, Holo, L and Elsa.  This would have been from L's days at magic school with his harem, yes, even Shrek and Princess Celestia.  If I'd gotten to that bit it would have essentially deconstructed Harry Potter and related series, and thrown some new twists onto the harem genre.  And who would L have ended up with?  Why all of the above of course!  Now then, let's move onto covers of my maps.

You may recall a map I made entitled The Saracen and The Cross, about a world where the Crusades are a success.  Despite some good ideas it did have it's flaws.  However, one of the map makers from alternatehistory.com created this map based on my map.  I love how it retains many of the ideas from my original map, but it also expands upon them and adds even more new and great ideas.  He also made this really long write up about this world, and if I find it I'll be sure to link to it.  Still, look at all the text on that map.

These next two are created by a very talented artist named Shinoharaa, real name Alan Garcia, from Brazil.  I mean would you just look at the quality!  It looks like it might as well be official artwork.  I was hoping to raise awareness of Spice and Wolf, and I figured no better way than Holo in a Sailor Senshi uniform.  It also a voice actress joke, unintentionally (for Sailor Moon Crystal anyway). 

Yet another winner from Shinoharaa.  This time with Urd as Sailor Pluto.  Yeah, you're probably detecting a pattern here.  When I commission something I usual go for something I couldn't get just anywhere.  I know what I'm a fan of, and the artist I contact know how to bring my visions to life.  That's all.

Honorable mention goes to the Flag of British Korea I collaborated with Laqueesha to make, and which can be found over at Alternate History Weekly Update, as well as over here.  Well, that's enough art for one blog post.  I'll be sure to do this again in the future.  I hope you enjoyed this tour of some of my fan art and commissions.  Until next time.