Commissioned Art of Ra'uw'la in Armor
Ra’uw’la Vuwai joins Hequera/Dien in having commissioned art made of them! Woohoo! AR Sullivan was the artist I went with for Ra’uw’la. Although I had went with AR Sullivan primarily for Spellbinder/Farrco, I had planned on Ra’uw’la getting commissioned by them eventually too, as they had done these wolf-ish Humanoid characters. It made sense.
The idea I had for Ra’uw’la’s art was with him in his armor, in a proud position, inside his abode, like a blue-ish cave. He would be kind of posing, as if for a portrait, with his hand on his chest. The armor…well, that was going to be the trickiest part. This is mainly due to the embellishment on the torso’s sides, which I can visualize in my mind but I cannot draw it. They’re like spindly sort of metallic cloth, acting as a quasi-‘vest’. Swirly, candle-like…hard for me to describe.
Here’s my attempt at drawing the armor:
Initial B+W Sketch
I asked for like a black and white initial sketch, whatever the most basic step was, to figure out the shape and such. Unlike Spellbinder/Farrco, I didn’t have clear/articulate drawings of Ra’uw’la so there was going to be more figuring out. And so we began with one!
Big comments:
- Height…he seemed too tall.
- Armor design - add a sort of belt to break up the armor visually and tweak the ‘vest’ part of the armor.
- ‘Bulk’ - I imagined him as being on the lither side.
- Ear position (move it upward, flush with head)
I drew out my comments as usual:
Updated B+W Sketch
And here Ra’uw’la is shorter, less bulky, with his ear tweaked and the belt added. The armor ‘swirly’ bit would be developed soon… The belt I had some comments on, style-wise, but we proceeded to color.
Color Sketch
Everything looked great (with some minor comments), but the armor still didn’t have the ‘vest’ swirly thing in place yet. To try to better articulate it, I attempted to draw it over this the sketch.
Admittedly, still kind of confusing, so AR Sullivan provided two interpretations of the armor:
The left one, the ‘A’ option was definitely more what I was thinking. And so…
Final
And here we are! I really love the background, his eye color, and like his general fury appearance. He looks regal and sad. The armor was tough to figure out, but it worked out in the end. This definitely feels like Ra’uw’la in a proud and respectable position, but having the tease of his deeper, complex emotions.
The only thing from this that I’d need to figure out, in general, is how Wolfen’s legs really work. Like if they have more of a permanent bend to them or not. I’m fine with how this looks, even if it may not, perhaps, be accurate leg-joint wise in the end.
Anyway, thanks to AR Sullivan for bringing Ra’uw’la to life! Super sharp!
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