yuletart | Art for Chrismm!

Entry tags:

Art for Chrismm!

Title: Jane and Emily Roland, of Excidium
Gift for:

chrismm
Artist:

xenakis_
Rating: G
Fandom: Temeraire
Warnings: none
Artist's Notes: Happy Yuletart dear chrismm! I hope you will enjoy my humble gift as much as I did drawing it!
Giants hugs and kisses to my wonderful betas, who shall remain nameless until the reveal :) Thank you for the hand holding and the occasional "OMG WHY ARE YOU DRAWING ALL THE SCALES YOU CRAZY PERSON?" I really have no idea, it seemed like a good idea at the time?
A note about the art: this is Jane Roland pre-scar. I choose to believe she got it at the Nile, which is the battle she is preparing to fly to in this piece.
Summary: Capitain Jane Roland and daughter Emily, of Excidium, on the night before their departure for Egypt to join the forces of Lord Nelson at the Nile.

Note from xenakis_:
ETA: Dear Chrismm, this snippet grew out of my attempt to write the summary for the art. I couldn't finish it in time for the deadline, so you get it for the reveal, instead. I hope you'll enjoy this little extra present!

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(deleted comment)

Thank you very much! I'm glad you enjoyed the piece!

Oh, wow. That's a brilliant idea and I love all the details, and wee!Emily and Excidium looking at one another. And all the scales are awesome -- I would have phoned it in there.

The thing is, once I got started with the scales, I really couldn't stop. Trust me, after three hours, I wish I could have phoned it in! Anyway, I'm glad it was worth the effort and that you liked the piece. Thank you!

Oh, I LOVE this. I love the colors of Excidium and Jane's harness, and little Emily. It's really great.

Hahaha! The harness! Not very practical, but it was fun to draw! Thank you for your comment!

Ooh, the textures and colors on the dragon are awesome!

Thank you very much!

Oh man, the textures really make it.

Yep, flickr is my very good friend ;) Thank you!

Oh wow! The scales! Amazing.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the piece!

Wow, it almost looks like it's been made out of stained glass!

I love the details on his uniform too!

Hahaha! The real stained glass piece was this one (http://users.livejournal.com/xenakis_/5563.html), but yeah, it's a bit of a recurring technique with me... Thank you!

This is utterly, UTTERLY gorgeous. I adore all the details, and the colors, and THE SCALES. You did a marvelous job.

*blushes* Thank you very much!

Ooh, very cool! I love the scales and the eye is beautifully colored.

Bwee! See comment below, I cheated a bit on the eye... but, hey! it works! I'm glad you liked the piece and YAY for us being the two artists to draw Temeraire!

Oh, my God. I just... Oh my God. This is SO PERFECT! Because I love Jane Roland so much, she's my favorite. And all those awesome scales and that gorgeous irridescent texture! Excidium's beautiful, stunning eye (which totally follows me when I move, I love that)! And Jane's uniform, rawr, with the olive green and the brass, and the straps and buckles, and the shading underneath every buckle just so. And she's gazing off into the distance, steeling herself for battle. And Emily is so adorable, petting the dragon. And that horn, oh, man, I love that texture. And the frame matches the trim on Jane's uniform (it's a Virgo thing, what can I say). And the flow of the composition, just pulls me in and then all the cool awesome won't let me back out again. :DDDD

Thank you so much. You rock so, so hard. :DD I'd say I was speechless, except clearly not. But yes--this is so perfect and you are so awesome.

Hee! I keep finding more cool stuff, and getting more excited, so the first paragraph keeps getting longer and longer.

ETA: You know, every time I come back to look at this, I'm more impressed with those scales. The detail, the use of them with the contouring. Even the two round ones on the far right, which are about where snake's ear would be, and snakes do have some larger scales around there. I just. :D

Edited 2009-12-23 16:22 (UTC)

:DDDDDDDD I am so very, very glad you like it! I wasn't sure if you would care for "supporting" characters, but really, THERE CAN NEVER BE TOO MUCH JANE ROLAND, RIGHT? Your comment made me really giggly so THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR TAKING THE TIME TO FLAIL AT ME *glee*

Ok so, a few things about the piece, because I like to babble :D Excidium and his scales were referenced off two or three lizards, I think, and then textured over with photographs of peeling paint and rusted metal, and splatter of yellow and er, maybe a few dozen other things? I went a bit crazy...

Jane's uniform and harness were really fun to draw, even if I am aware that those straps cannot be very comfortable! And yes, the trim of her coat matches the frame, because I am all about recycling references, or maybe it's also an Aries thing, because I like it when things echo each other.

Emily is wearing crumpled paper. Such a poor, neglected child!

And finally, the eye. I have to disappoint you all with the eye, I'm afraid. It's primarily a photograph. I tweaked the colours and the shape a bit, and added highlights and shadows, but yeah, there a cat somewhere out there demanding royalties for this :P (But hey, that cat is an awesome dragon now, so it shouldn't complain!)

Um, there's also one other thing. When I was getting ready to send this in (a few moments before deadline, of course...) I was trying to come up with a summary, and um, this snippet sort of grew out of it. It was really too raw for me to submit at the time, but it's up at the AOOO (http://archiveofourown.org/works/44579) now, as a kind of surprise addition to you gift. :D

I hope you enjoy it! Merry Yuletart again!

(no subject)

chrismm.livejournal.com - 2010-01-04 07:34 (UTC) - Expand

(no subject)

http://users.livejournal.com/xenakis_/ - 2010-01-04 07:39 (UTC) - Expand

This looks AWESOME! The scales, and the colors on Excidium turned out really great! And the Roland both look so perfect. I <3 Jane.

Yay! I'm glad you liked the piece! Thank you!

This is really cool. The scales and how they change to fit the skin folds and such are awesome. I really like how seeing just such a small part of the dragon, makes his size real in relation to the humans.

I had such troubles figuring out the scale of the drawing. It's hard to fit a dragon in a frame without the humans looking like tiny stick figures :) I actually think the closeup helped emphasizing Excidium's size. I'm really glad you picked up on that :D Thank you!

Woooooooow. The textures and colors!!! And the formal attire! THE SCALES! (No, really, mystery artist... you must be insane! But in the best way!) Gah, these colors are beautiful.

Completely demented, yeah... But it paid off! I'm really glad you liked the piece. Thank you!

Oh my goodness! This is absolutely gorgeous! I can't believe you drew all those scales--that must have taken forever! Well done. :D

It really did... But hey! Apparently it was worth it! Thank you for your lovely comment!

Oh, lovely work. I love the framing and composition so much - the way the eye is drawn from the standing figure along the curve of the horn to the irresistible bright dragon eye (which matches Jane's uniform trim - very nice). The colors are understated and gorgeous, I love the impeccable lines of Jane's uniform, her hand (a small point, but the angle is hard!), and those are some fabulous scales. ;)

:DDD Yep, right to left progression, because WHY NOT? :P I'm really glad you liked the colours. I've always liked the gold and green palette, but fitting a blue/purple dragon in there was a bit of a challenge... Thank you for your comments. I'm glad you enjoyed the piece!

I agree with everyone else--those colours on Excidium are divine! I applaud your patience with the scales, wow,and Jane's uniform is so snazzy. well done!

*blushes* Thank you!

I love Jane's uniform! And her expression. And the SCALES.

I'm glad you liked the piece. Thank you!

Oh, this is lovely! I really like your choice of colours and the scales!!!

Thank you very much!

This is fantastic! I love the muted, vintage look of everything. The composition is great too - love the frame!

Oh, the joys of textured filters, they do wonders, truly! I'm glad you enjoyed the piece. Thank you!

omg *______*

the scales are amazing, and the bone spur!!! and Jane about to fly off to the Nile! ♥ ♥ ♥

Ok so, for reasons that shall not be mentioned here, I am really, really really happy you like this. Like um, embarrassing squeaky noises and flaily dance of joy happy. THANK YOU. :DDDDDDD

Wow, amazing work! I love the eye especially, and the look on Jane's face.

Thank you very much!

wooahh... amazing detail in the scales! And that eye... *shivers*

Emily is a brave girl, indeed, standing so close to it! Thank you for commenting. I'm glad you liked the piece!

OOooohhh, wow. I love the eye and all the colours that make up the purple. Very pretty!

Thank you!

EEEEEEEEEeeEEEE. this is so exciting! I love this series and I love this art! :D :D :D :D I love wee!Emily and manly!Jane. :D

:DDDD Thank you so much!

I love Jane's serious and watchful expression, and pose. She looks so tough and competent, here. Excidium's scales and their colours are beautifully done.

Jane hits my competence kink so very hard in the books. I love her!

I'm glad you liked the scales! Oh, the joys of piling on textures :D Thank you!

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