Princess Serenity of the Sancrien Kingdom, Vampire Turn
The day has finally arrived. I'll have at least one more post today with further details on the site and the publications, but for now this post is focused on art portion of today's activities.
So as per my plans, the website should be up between noon and 1 o'clock EST. Last minute real-life matters have gotten in the way slightly. Nevertheless the website is ready to go. The stories will be up shortly thereafter.
Originally I was thinking I would share this piece;
In the early stages after I started the Book of the Shadows I knew I would have a vampire aspect to Rini and the rest of the Rosencraft, only later my decision to make it a concealed trait that sometimes manifests as opposed to an open characteristic. In any event that led to this image here on the right which, as you can see, was originally drawn on a piece of graph paper. I wouldn't go so far as to call it merely a proof of concept piece, but it wasn't intended as a fully finished, polished piece either. I considered finishing it off to share it, but I started getting other ideas for something a little better. That is what then led to the piece I'm actually sharing today.
THIS piece was started in just the last couple weeks. It is the same basic concept as the prior image, but I consider it to be a good deal better.
The story within the picture takes place in an upcoming chapter of Book III. Essentially Rini finds herself backed into a corner where her normal powers are exhausted to the point she has no choice but to rely on her Lucifer Hawk powers. This causes a transformation that not only leads to her taking on demonic characteristics, but awakens her latent vampiric instincts. I don’t get into the whole detailed fantasy science of it until a few books later, but essentially Hawk DNA is highly aggressive and dominant, forcing other traits to be recessive. Thus, when using non-human abilities and powers predominantly, the Rosencraft tend to take on certain traits more common to Lucifer Hawks, the pronouncement of those features relative to how much of the power they’re relying on. So, at the stage shown in the image above, you see Rini Rosencraft, in her hybrid form, relying on a relatively moderate amount of energy. This entire concept is based on the Bacillus release system in the Trinity Blood story by which the Crusniks gain increased power and changes in appearance based on the percentage of their Bacillus’ power they release.
At the next higher level Rini’s ears would grow out longer, closer to what Abriel Lafiel’s looks like. The wings would become not necessarily larger, but more complex with compound angle upper structure and distinct rib structure, as opposed to the thin and graceful bone structure that is seen here. There would also be the appearance of a tail, long and thin like a whip to spade or fork tipped. And finally there would be a change in the eyes, the pupils becoming vertical slits, and the inversion or change of the iris and sclera pigmentation.
I tried to bring in a few of the facial features of this character.
This is Kaede of the Betterman series. Why would I want to include her features in a picture of Rini? If you know the Betterman series, particularly the ending, then that might make a little more sense. Furthermore there is a relatively predictable reason external to any knowledge you may have about the series at all, but as it would be a spoiler I’ll just leave things at that. I tried to give them similar facial expressions, mimicking Kaede's eyes and lips a bit without making it overly direct.
I’m not quite sure I made it pronounced enough (I look at the picture sometimes and think I did it right, but other times I look and think I should have gone a little farther) but the arch in her back should appear exaggerated. I had the idea that to accentuate the inhumanity of what she is at this moment it wouldn’t do just to have her with these wings and slightly odd shaped ears. Having her arch her back to the point of looking as though her spine is made of rubber, if not broken, seemed a good idea. It’s a fine line because if I definitely go too far it’ll just look comically stupid.
Little things you might not otherwise notice; her eyes and her earrings. For her eyes I know it's very hard to see even on the full sized version, but her pupils take on the shape of vertical slits and she has two sets of iris'. As for the earrings, again it can be hard to see, but the design is changed slightly. For the official artwork, the earrings should feature crescent moons backing one another. Instead I changed it to the Rosencraft's symbol of crescents touching point to point.
Lastly, I know that a lot of Sailor Moon fans who see this will immediately notice that her inverted moon symbol is missing from her forehead. Sort of along the same lines as the “dimples” in Dark Magician Girl pictures for Anzu, when I draw Black Lady pictures for Rini I leave out the moon. I do provide for it in the story at times, along the same lines as the Millennium Eye on Yami’s forehead, or the Geass sigil on C.C’s forehead – it only appears when specifically needed. But the end result is that it doesn’t make it into much of my own artwork of Rini.
So as per my plans, the website should be up between noon and 1 o'clock EST. Last minute real-life matters have gotten in the way slightly. Nevertheless the website is ready to go. The stories will be up shortly thereafter.
As you’ve probably seen me write a number of times by now,
Rini was one of the original inspirations behind the BotS series, back when it
was merely a short story. I had in mind back then casting her and Anzu in a
much darker light – having it really be a chore to deem her not evil within the
story. But as I got to writing I changed tactics a bit. Rather than making her
so dark that her not being evil might seem a contrivance, I wanted to
accentuate her persona with dark elements.
So, for example, I note a few times that she is obsessed
with swords. I generally note often how she will say things with a sly, narrow,
or weary gaze despite a thin smile. These are common
characteristics/expressions of individuals in anime who at the very least
feather the boundary between good and evil. As the series progresses I ended up
not using this as much as I should have, though there remain times when I do
touch back on it, framing it mainly as a bit of overzealousness. The shift in
focus away from Rini as the primary driving focus of the story from my original
plans was the main culprit.
In the early stages after I started the Book of the Shadows I knew I would have a vampire aspect to Rini and the rest of the Rosencraft, only later my decision to make it a concealed trait that sometimes manifests as opposed to an open characteristic. In any event that led to this image here on the right which, as you can see, was originally drawn on a piece of graph paper. I wouldn't go so far as to call it merely a proof of concept piece, but it wasn't intended as a fully finished, polished piece either. I considered finishing it off to share it, but I started getting other ideas for something a little better. That is what then led to the piece I'm actually sharing today.
THIS piece was started in just the last couple weeks. It is the same basic concept as the prior image, but I consider it to be a good deal better.The story within the picture takes place in an upcoming chapter of Book III. Essentially Rini finds herself backed into a corner where her normal powers are exhausted to the point she has no choice but to rely on her Lucifer Hawk powers. This causes a transformation that not only leads to her taking on demonic characteristics, but awakens her latent vampiric instincts. I don’t get into the whole detailed fantasy science of it until a few books later, but essentially Hawk DNA is highly aggressive and dominant, forcing other traits to be recessive. Thus, when using non-human abilities and powers predominantly, the Rosencraft tend to take on certain traits more common to Lucifer Hawks, the pronouncement of those features relative to how much of the power they’re relying on. So, at the stage shown in the image above, you see Rini Rosencraft, in her hybrid form, relying on a relatively moderate amount of energy. This entire concept is based on the Bacillus release system in the Trinity Blood story by which the Crusniks gain increased power and changes in appearance based on the percentage of their Bacillus’ power they release.
At the next higher level Rini’s ears would grow out longer, closer to what Abriel Lafiel’s looks like. The wings would become not necessarily larger, but more complex with compound angle upper structure and distinct rib structure, as opposed to the thin and graceful bone structure that is seen here. There would also be the appearance of a tail, long and thin like a whip to spade or fork tipped. And finally there would be a change in the eyes, the pupils becoming vertical slits, and the inversion or change of the iris and sclera pigmentation.
I tried to bring in a few of the facial features of this character.This is Kaede of the Betterman series. Why would I want to include her features in a picture of Rini? If you know the Betterman series, particularly the ending, then that might make a little more sense. Furthermore there is a relatively predictable reason external to any knowledge you may have about the series at all, but as it would be a spoiler I’ll just leave things at that. I tried to give them similar facial expressions, mimicking Kaede's eyes and lips a bit without making it overly direct.
I’m not quite sure I made it pronounced enough (I look at the picture sometimes and think I did it right, but other times I look and think I should have gone a little farther) but the arch in her back should appear exaggerated. I had the idea that to accentuate the inhumanity of what she is at this moment it wouldn’t do just to have her with these wings and slightly odd shaped ears. Having her arch her back to the point of looking as though her spine is made of rubber, if not broken, seemed a good idea. It’s a fine line because if I definitely go too far it’ll just look comically stupid.
Little things you might not otherwise notice; her eyes and her earrings. For her eyes I know it's very hard to see even on the full sized version, but her pupils take on the shape of vertical slits and she has two sets of iris'. As for the earrings, again it can be hard to see, but the design is changed slightly. For the official artwork, the earrings should feature crescent moons backing one another. Instead I changed it to the Rosencraft's symbol of crescents touching point to point.
Lastly, I know that a lot of Sailor Moon fans who see this will immediately notice that her inverted moon symbol is missing from her forehead. Sort of along the same lines as the “dimples” in Dark Magician Girl pictures for Anzu, when I draw Black Lady pictures for Rini I leave out the moon. I do provide for it in the story at times, along the same lines as the Millennium Eye on Yami’s forehead, or the Geass sigil on C.C’s forehead – it only appears when specifically needed. But the end result is that it doesn’t make it into much of my own artwork of Rini.
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