HatU - Lourdes (and bonus steampunk stuff)

Alright, 'nother main character of the series, this time, one of the major females of the cast. Meet Lourdes Poids (pronounced "pwah"), resident voodoo witch of the Underground.

Born in Haiti, she was raised by her mother and aunts when she moved to the Lousiana Bayou as a young girl. However, an unfortunate occurence involving a strange black mist caused her to flee from the swamps and wind up on the streets of San Francisco. Being found by Hayden and a few of the children of the Underground at the time, she was brought into their society, where they bonded, remaining close friends ever since.

As an adult, she owns a corner shop called "The Mojo Alcove" and proves to be a very valuable ally to the hero - aiding him with her knowledge of potion making and alchemy as well as general voodoo. (Though it should be known that necromancy is her weak point - making undead armies isn't her specialty, though she has a few tricks up her sleeves for spiritual communication and exorcisms) It isn't wise to make her angry, unless you want to be turned into a hideous beast or rendered to a pile of ash.

She has quite the flame for our hero, but only problem is he's too stupid to ever notice. Even then, she still remains fiercely protective of him, and is pretty much one of the only women able to put him in his place should he act reckless... which is quite often.

I know you guys may be thinking - no, she wasn't inspired by Princess and the Frog. Surprisingly enough, one of her main inspirations was Mz. Ruby from the Sly Cooper games. |D And of course, my love for some aspects of the voodoo culture.

And yeah, gotta do a more recent full body pic of her soon. Out of all the females I have (for this story, at least), she's possibly my favourite both character and design wise. <3



Lastly, I said that I was gonna post a bonus piece here. I love Abney Park's music, and listening to their song "The Clockyard inspired me to try my hand at a more steampunk version of Hayden. I've had the design in my head for a while, so it's about time I got it down on paper.

This version of him can't transform into his beastly alter-ego, but instead, he wears metal claws over his fingers and his overcoat is tattered to the point where when it flaps about in the winds, it looks like the wispy trails of a phantom's body. (The goggles are also black with blue-tinted lenses, lawls.) You could say this was loosely inspired off of an old comic tournament I was in known as "Rogue Skies" - where the main theme was air pirates. Some of the people joining did steampunk versions of pre-existing characters, so I figured I'd be all nostalgic and give it a shot.

Maybe I should try steampunk'd variants of the other members of the cast? Huh.. it's a thought.

Also I got myself some mini pieces of Bristol today, so I've been trying my hand at some custom made "artist cards". I may scan them at some point, because it's been a loooong time since I've last done something in a fully traditional medium since like.. 2005. :I

Random - Character bits and bobs

Well, for this, I don't really have art that can be completely CATEGORIZED properly per se, but I have a couple sketches this day. <3

The first is another fancharacter from my aforementioned friend's race, serving as a sentry/war-drummer. She's fairly new and goes by the name of Nakoda. Her design also underwent a couple minor changes to have it fit with that race's continuity. Not sure how I'll implement her as a character yet, but hey, having to keep watch constantly wouldn't be... exactly fun. |D; (And the red stuff is warpaint. She also has a drum baton wrapped in her tail so she could beat the drums, nyaaaah.)

The second is actually something from a race of mine, the Tachmallu - which are a race of squid-based humanoids with an affinity for music. (More information will come on them in another post, since they're one of the sentient races in HatU) This particular one was designed as another NPC for another friend's campaign, going by the name of Tennant. He, along with his four siblings, run a chain of stores known as the Oceanus Co., selling goods and novelties from all over the universe, including goods from their home planet. Not sure yet if I'll have the Oceanus Co. integrated into the plot of HatU yet, but there'll be time to decide. Hopefully the DM will like NPCing them out.

The last image is the logo of their store sign. |D Another friend of mine helped me design it out. Desupuuuuuus. When all the other siblings are finished, I might post them up and explain a bit more about 'em.

Kind of blegh tonight. Like.. in the mood to draw more tonight, but not sure what. But I suppose this suffices for now.

EDIT: The Barbarian chick's name is now Nakoda. For some reason... it seems to fit. |D

HatU - Hayden (pt. 1)

WELL, I think I should get to finally gaining a habit to updating this thing daily. Seeing as I've been trying to draw more, I think it's time to touch this thing after TEN DAYS since the last post. :|

Anyway.. as stated in the little flavor text of this blog, the project I'm working on is a universe known as "Hayden and the Underground", which in essence, are a collection of short stories about a superhero and his friends/colleagues/allies/etc. either going on crazy-ass adventures or just doing their best to eke out an everyday living in a futuristic San Francisco. Most times, if not all.. it's usually a mix of both.

Because hell, if you live in a time where superheroes, aliens and god-knows-what else coexist in the same place, everyday is most likely going to have a highlight. |D

Getting down to the post, this is the titular character of this little universe - Hayden Rosencranz.

Hayden is what he likes to call a "freelance superhero", basically going around to where he senses trouble and restoring order when other heroes are off all willy-nilly elsewhere. Y'know, dealing with not only cries of help around your domain and world, but distress calls from different planets and even alternate dimensions.

Sound like the ordinary superhero fare? Aaah, but there is a catch.

He's not one to take his job as seriously as others of his profession would - he's cocky, crass, a ball-buster, and quite rude among the ladyfolk. Often, his jobs would result in him sometimes getting beaten, screamed at, or even chased out of a province. One would be led to believe going around and restoring order is a reward in itself, but for Hayden? It's a way to make his money to get by, whether or not the end result is desirable.

And what powers make him so "special"? It's not what he is on the outside, but really... what lies beneath.

I'll go more into his initial development, origins and whatnot in later posts. For now, enjoy a couple sketches, for there's more to come later~.

DnD - Arkish Things

Oh... oh jeez, along with the intro post, for first art post.. where do I start?! I have so much sketchy art I can show, but so little time.. so I suppose I can start off with a character I've done recently.

I was in a nautical theme sometime back due to one of the DnD campaigns I'm in, and one of the characters I submitted as an NPC was Ark - a denizen of a friend's race called the "Changers", which are humanoids with polymorphing powers. Depending on the caste they're from, the Changers take on attributes from their respective group. Ark himself is a Druid Changer, which enable them to take the form of a single animal, as well as its "were" form. His animal form is that of a ray - not sure what KIND he is exactly, since he's a mix between a manta (for his size/body structure) and a stingray (for the barb in his tail and the lack of the "lobes"), but hey, rays are one of my favourite sea animals regardless.

Character-wise, he's part of a pirate crew as its second mate and a master at swordplay. He's native to Ireland, so he's got the accent to boot. XD And he's a ladies' man at that. Prior to his nautical adventures, Ark had a bit of a questionable past back in his homeland, but that's gonna be kept a mystery for now. <3

It doesn't help that Pirates of the Caribbean music made me get in the mood to draw him more often. Freaking pirates. :I

...and yes, his hair and eyebrows are absolutely ridiculous.

Intro Post OHMUHGAWUD

And so... I finally got around to making my new art blog. Neat, huh?

So.. hence the title, expect to see some concept art for Hayden and the Underground, which is a comic I plan to do at some point in the future. So this will be a general dumping ground for stuff related to that as well as other things, such as unfinished art, sketches, and stuff in general that I may or may not put up on DeviantArt. |D

Might try to make a new template for this thing, but for now.. thanks for stopping by! More stuff will be imminent, so be patient - I'm still setting up house here after all. <3