[Lunatique]

This is the finalized drawing for a painting I'm working on. Just wanted to get some feedback before jumping into the next stage.



She's from one of my stories. If you are interested in the background info to better understand the context of this piece, here's her story:

Who is Scythe Wolf?

Ask any warrior worthy of his blade in Middle Land the name "Scythe Wolf," and you'll get the following description:

Roughly two years ago, a mysterious young girl stunned the Giang-Hu scene (the martial arts underworld) with her lightening fast scythe fighting technique and her ethereal beauty. Many men admired her beauty, yet they also feared her skills. She is aloof and dislikes attention, but despite her petite frame and her avoidance of crowds, her presence is hardly inconspicuous, due to the seven-foot scythe she wields, and an entourage that consisted of a pack of wild wolves.

Those lucky enough to be considered a friend by her, knows her as "Lulu," a nickname derived from her real name, "Chen Yue-Lu."(word for word, �Yue� means Jade, and �Lu� means Dew. Chen is her last name.) If you ask the few friends she has, this is what you'll learn about Lulu:

Lulu doesn't trust people easily, yet when she does, she will protect those close to her with a fierceness one would be foolish to challenge.

Lulu's parents were once disciples of the Uh-Mei clan, but having been disillusioned by the corruption they witnessed, her parents left the clan and began their lives as vagrants. Around the time of Lulu's birth, her parents had befriended a pack of Wild Wolves when they protected a newborn litter of wolf-pups from a hungry tiger. Since then, the siblings Lulu grew up with had been that litter of wolf-pups. It was during that time, Lulu's parents developed the "Wild Wolf Fighting Technique," the result of their intimate understanding of the wolves.

Lulu had been taught the Wild Wolf fighting technique since she was able to walk, and not long after reaching her teens, she mastered that technique and began developing her own fighting style. Lulu was her parents' pride and joy, and they loved Lulu more than anything in the world.

During her fourteenth birthday, the family had stayed with a dear friend of Lulu's parents, who was a black smith of legendary fame, and the maker of the best weapons in existence. When Lulu showed an affinity for an old scythe she found in the barn, the black smith forged a scythe that was tailor made for her, redesigned from the traditonal scythe into a deadly weapon. Since then, Lulu had incorporated her scythe, which she named "Black Wolf," into her own fighting style.

During the family's travels, they had taught a number of students-all vagrants like themselves. It was first offered as a gesture of friendship-a way for fellow vagrants to defend themselves in their travels, but soon, the word spread, and people began seeking out the family to be taught. The family never cared much for formality, so no real structure was ever created for the students. The family continued traveling, leaving behind a trail of disciples that they asked politely not to follow them around or treat them like clan masters. The family always stressed that their teachings were based on their friendships with fellow vagrants, not for fame or obedience like the famous clans they despised.

When Lulu was sixteen, her parents were murdered during a trip from Nanjing to Hsa-Men. Lulu was out in the woods hunting for food at the time, and when she returned to her dying parents, they uttered with their dying breath, "Uh-Mei," the name of the clan they had left long ago. After her parent's death, Lulu vowed to track down their killers and avenge their death, but Uh-Mei is one of the largest and most respected clans in Giang-Hu, and she has no idea where to begin.

When the vagrant friends caught news of their teachers' death, they banded together and called themselves the "Wolf Pack." The pack vowed to find Lulu and help her avenge the death of their teachers, but no matter how fast they traveled, they were always a step behind the young girl's trail.

Now, two years later, the Wolf Pack had grown in number, but there was still no sign of Lulu, except for the stories of her travels that has been told by fellow travellers of Giang-Hu. At this point, there were more new members of the Wolf Pack than the original students, and to them, both the name Lulu and Scythe Wolf seemed more like a mysterious legend than a real person. Even though the new members never met the original teachers of the Wild Wolf Technique, their names still inspired a sense of revere.

Now, Scythe Wolf's whereabout has been discovered, and the Wolf Pack began traveling day and night to reach the girl some have began referring to affectionately as "our beautiful alpha wolf."

Lulu and her wolves:

Lulu is respected by her wolves, and holds the rank of the alpha wolf. This, by default, prevents her pack to breed new litters�which is a good thing considering their situation. (Only the alpha male and female wolves are allowed to breed in a pack, and since Lulu is human, the pack won�t have new members, unless Lulu gives up her position as the alpha wolf.) Lulu does not tolerate violence shown to the omega wolf by her pack, and she managed to rid her pack of the terrible habit of picking on the omega wolf.

The pack:

Alpha male- �Grey Star�
Beta male- �Dirt King�
Beta female- �Snowy�
Aunts and Uncles- �Lazy Bug� �Sleepy Head� and �Rooster�
Omega- �Baby�

[ May 19, 2002: Message edited by: Lunatique ]

[lady z]

I liked it a lot
except for 2 things 1)her left arm, it just look like it's ending nowhere, i think you should add something more, let us see the rest of the arm. I think it's too long, too -picturing the rest of the hand, it looks like (well, at least to me) like it's gonna go down to he knee.
2) the lower left wolf is in a weird pose, I just couldn't understand what's going on with his legas there.

[NiM]

Very nice.. REminds me of Princes Mononoke Hime

[Steven Stahlberg]

Drawing looks great so far.

I love the original twist you gave the traditional 'lone hero on revenge-quest' story - the pack of 'disciples' following her trail, always one or two steps behind. But don't have them call her 'our beautiful alpha wolf', unless that's a really short and sweet phrase in chinese (I don't know if you're aiming for a chinese audience or western). In english it's a bit too long for an affectionate nickname, maybe something more like 'Mother Wolf'?

[Basement bound]

This could end up being solved in the painting stage but I thought I would mention it. her left leg, the pelvis area/upper thigh look off or ungrounded they almost don't have any weight to them. Otherwise it is a great compostion and great story.

JA

[faeklone]

I actually agree with most of the comments above. My comment is that the arm we see is a little too long. IT should terminate into the elbow roughly where the hand begins. Also her head looks a little funny, maybe not in the right place or at the right pivot point. And also the breast looks a little funny due to it's shape. It isn't as teardrop shaped as you would expect it to be.

Kewl poc overall, and it does remind me of Princess Mononoke. Display the painted version when you get the chance.

[Lunatique]

lady z- Yeah, you're right. I had more of the hidden parts of her arms showing in the rough sketch, but left them out in the final drawing. Her arm IS a bit long, isn't it? Don't want people to start calling her Scythe Monkey!

That wolf's paws are half-assed drawn in. I'll clean it up in the painting.

NiM- Really? Lulu can kick her ass any day of the week.

Steven- When I wrote this one, I made sure everything would make sense in both Chinese and English. I grew up with quite a bit of martial chivalry stuff(which Chinese kid didn't?), so writing this kind of story didn't feel forced to me. I think having the benefit of growing with western style fantasy helped to give the story an unique spin.

"Our beautiful alpha wolf" is more of a description than a nick name. It's like us referring to Spooge as "resident master of sijun."

Basement bound- you mean her left thigh/butt needs to be lower?

faeklone- I agree. I'll fix it.

[Lunatique]

Here's the basic colors and shadows blocked in really rough to get the general atmosphere across.



Some of the problems you guys mentioned I fixed, some I didn't--yet. I'll get to them in the painting stage.

More C&C?

[Basement bound]

Yeah I think it does have to be a bit lower unless that the rock/hill that she is sitting is pushed out. I think that the mound looks like it is tapering out gradually towards the viewer. Thus causing the profile postion of the girl to look like it is not quite right. Let me see if I can explain this right. To me it looks like her left cheek is not touching the mound. Same with the left foot, looks like the heel is touching but not the rest, kind of a floating feeling. If the foot was extended rather than flexed it would look like it is resting on something.


Hope that helps
JA


[ May 19, 2002: Message edited by: Basement bound ]

[Lunatique]

ahhh... gotcha. Good call. Now I understand.

[Light]

I like this a lot. Did you do this out of your imagination or use some references?

Either way.. this the sketch is top notch.

[gLitterbug]

Sweet stuff Lunatique! I especially like the scythe, so please make it stand out a bit more, the blade is so dark right now

I didn�t read the text yet, hope you can forgive me, but I just came home and it�s 4am and I just wanted to reply. I�ll read it tomorrow probably.

[Lunatique]

Light- I've loved wolves all my life, so I have a good knowledge of them--including a big archive of wolf pics. So, I'm definitely not short of references for those. For Lulu, I based her pose on a fashion mag pic. The model was very skinny and lanky, with a different outfit, and in a weird position with her legs. I had to redraw a lot to it out of my head to fit Lulu's body type and her sitting position in the scene.

[James Bradford]

nice - i think you should try to include some variations in line weight, that could help out since you like to keep the lines in the colored versions. i like the shadows alot, and in you're last one too.