Dedective Duet- Sicle and Ky poster

 

"Detective Duet". Seeing I had both images done of Kyrian and Sicline, I decided to put the two together on a poster, their poses fitting into the image surprisingly well. You can see the images and posts individually through the name links.

I figure two characters together on a page can contain more life than just the stand alone image of them. These two detectives work together, both having their own unique personalities which are better reflected when they stand side by side.

I added in some shadows and words and the poster was done, made to look as a movie or book image. What adventure lies ahead, what shocking cases will these two partners face when Makuta mob rises to spread wrong across the land? Find out it the thrilling mini series "Mata Nui Investigators (MN-I)". :P (That actually is a considered concept. I may make a mini series about these detectives and call it MN-I as mentioned).

 

Because filters are so fun and I wanted to emphasize the poster look, here's the more stylized version of the image, not official, but a fun concept.

And if that wasn't enough, as part of a joke, I made them pink, a reference to a story chapter where Ky stated at least he isn't half fire and ice, which could be pink. The other cheesy twist on the pink is to call them love toa, fighting evil with hugs and kisses. XD

Kyrian Silverwind

 

Kyrian Silver, my second favorite detective from the Matachilli RP, acted by a friend.

Name: Kyrian Siverwind (just Silver on most occasion unless he uses the full combo name of his mothers and fathers last name together, an after thought concept. I personally like the sound of Silverwind, so I kept that first idea as a jingle). The actor changed it to just being silver since not many ice types would have the last name of wind.

Race: Toa

Age: 40

Element: Ice/air, a combo element that makes him a blizzard type. He can use the elements individually, but when combined can make a blizzard on a whim. Color combination of white and minty teal are the results of this mixed element. His glass blue eyes inherited from the ice side.

Mask: Kanohi Volipar (combo of agility and acrobatics, a custom mask that's of stealth and fast reflexes, the name being based off the mask of stealth Volitak, combined with the word parkour). Gives the user cat like reflexes. Designs can vary.

Weapons: Twin elemental swords(both air and ice) and pistol with custom ammo (like sleep dart rounds).

Traits: Mellowed out Air type who loves, and is skilled at solving puzzles. When angered comes down on the person who angered him like an unrelenting blizzard.

Bio:  Misunderstood for not being as hyper as the other air types and decided to move to a place where his nature would be accepted so he could use his skills at solving mysteries and puzzles to good use. Kyrian joined the Ta Koro Guard as their replacement detective and in the end has become great friends with Sicline. Ky is from a Ko-Le border, grew up in a small village with his parents and little brother. Was a standard detective for small town matters in his village, but wanted to try something bigger which would test his puzzle solving skills. He was accepted at Ta guard as a replacement for the former PI Rus who died from lung cancer.

Weaknesses: Low defensive qualities, over thinks things at times.

Strengths: Sharp eye for important details, agile, puzzle solver being able to see the end of a case before even having the evidence to prove it.

Back story

The invention of Kyrian came about to add a spin on storyline in the Matachilli RP. Rus was a former figure acted by another person who killed him off when he shouldn't have.

I started noticing that the law aspect of the story could really pick up pace and add action to the RP, so I discussed the idea with KyC (I'll leave their true name out), and settled on creating a second detective that my character Sicline could interact with.

I helped with inventing Ky's back history and simple reasons for becoming part of the Ta guard as the new detective, there to learn under the skilled Sicline Orvel, who he becomes good friends with seeing their job gives them common ground.

The name Kyrian Silver (wind) was KyC's name choice seeing he would be acting him. Then we discussed element ability, and decided a mix of air and ice would be interesting, resulting in a rather intriguing mix we called the blizzard type. 

The color scheme and attitude of this young, puzzle solving detective ended up becoming a great concept, and his character grew and became likeable very quickly.

 

Here we have the pencil base of Kyrian. Left is the original sketch, the paper wasn't big enough and his legs seemed too short, so I fixed that digitally and stretched his legs and blade out in PSE (right). From there I outlined and colored him.

Note, the final form is of his future self in the RP, and holds details that gives him character traits. The odd ball in his right hand which he looks at with contentment is a puzzle sphere. I also included his double blades, one out of holster and the other not. The blades, and his color scheme with additional metallic paint accents are something that came later in story when he had get new armor after his old set was damaged, and his father got him those blades as a birthday gift.

  

Above is the line of mask designs I went through for Ky. First design was my own idea, and then after the second design I tried to find ways of making a custom Calix, the original mask Ky wore in story before it too got damaged during an explosion. The fourth design going from left to right, is the design that would have been used for Ky when he wore a custom Calix. The actor himself though liked the first design in the row, so we had Ky's mask changed in the story and he ended up with what we call the mask of stealth.

Like Sicline, I found a painting on DA that struck my imagination and made me think of Ky if he were Human, minus the stubble. This painting done by the highly skilled  mckadesinsanity  is called Without a Word .

I imagined this being exactly what Ky would look like, just make the eyes glass blue.

Embarrassing trivia, I'm captivated by this particular picture. When I saw it for the first time, I just kept looking at it, the gaze of the eyes drew me in. For a moment and even through the days I almost wished this person were real (amazing this isn't a real person).

So yes, I willingly do admit that I found this face attractive, even laughed when I imagined him to be someone who lives near the docks of New England or something like that. :P

Ky also has chibi forms made in the chibi maker on DollDivine. Left is Ky on duty, right is Ky off duty.

I'll note that the coloration placement in the main drawing at the top of this post was partially inspired off the chibi form of Ky off duty.

Trivia: Sonja, who works in the morgue of Ta station, has a slight crush on Ky and calls him a dreamy eyed stick of gum. Ky's nick names range from minty, to Mr mint, or gum stick. The puzzle spheres Ky likes to solve are gifts from his mother which she fills with different kinds of candies, chocolates, and treats, the tumblers resetting themselves every time the sphere is closed. Ky has a highly sensitive sense of taste, and doesn't do well with strong foods.

Sicline Orvel

 

 Sicline Orvel, my favorite icy detective character from the MN-CN-I RP (now called Matachilli). 

 Since the RP first began, Sicline's back history has developed into something bigger and more complex. She's not old for a Toa, but mentally she's quite wise and intelligent, a natural at seeing details and putting clues together.

Gender: female
Age: 35

Element: ice

Mask: customized elda 

Weapons: two specialized ice blades, side weapons including a standard pistol for PI work

Accessories: Duffel bag for travel and carrying files from her work. Holsters for her weapons.

Skills: Very good at sword fighting, can be fast, has a sharp mind, makes good food

Work: Former Lawyer, now a detective of the Ko Koro guard 

Hobbies: Likes to sing classy jazz, knows how to dance because of background experience, reads novels for the fun of finding plot holes in them.

Personality: Though she may come across as cold and callused on the surface, she isn't mean. Her heart has been broken from difficult experiences, the main ones being the loss of someone she loved, later to have her sister kidnapped from her by the Makuta, leading to her living a very lonely life that revolves around her work as a detective (the story has it's happy moments though). Underneath the icy shell, Sicline is a caring, understanding, wise, yet firm figure who will stand by your side to the end, seeing that's what a Toa is meant to do. Only the right people can make her smile, but when she does, it's a warm yet chilling beauty to see. She's more playful within than she lets on, taught by her parents not to let such things show out in public for the sake of not embarrassing anyone.

History

As a child (this RP isn't canon, deal with it) she and her sister Mishka were brought to a wise Ko Turaga, their mother and father wanting them to learn the ways of the Ko Koro people, and grow to be wise, respectful, intelligent, and well rounded in many subjects. She and Mishka were tutored through their childhood by the Turaga of Ko, and seldom saw their parents who went back to the mountains, too busy in their work life to constantly visit or keep in touch with their children.

Sicline and Mishka learned for many years and grew to like the Turaga, then when they were old enough, Sicline's parents returned. Sicline's mother insisted Sicline become a lawyer and carry the tradition, seeing her mother has been a lawyer for many years, defending rather wealthy families with law disputes. Sicline's heart wasn't fully in this subject, but she gave in to the idea in hopes of pleasing her parents who always seem to be unsatisfied. 

For several years Sicline worked as a lawyer, but still her family complained and felt Sicline and Mishka should have a proper home fit for guests, lavish business parties, and comfort to that of the wealthy, seeing their parents are in fact very wealthy and have their grand manor up in the mountains.

In attempt to please their parents, even though they didn't mind living simply as the Turaga had taught them to do, they set out to make a manor of their own just outside Ko Koro. Mishka had some friends who were willing to help them, and the two sisters were both naturals at design, skimming books for inspiration and using their ice elements to develop the outer appearance of the home, carving rooms of ice. Eventually they had what they needed and made an actual manor fit for guests and comfortable for their needs, but still their parents found things to complain about, even after visiting and seeing the place, perfectionists to the core.

Sicline and Mishka lived their lives in the manor, having each other for company, then one day in lawyer work, Sicline realized she didn't want to be a full time lawyer anymore, the man she defended actually evil and out of line, her experience in being a lawyer not as skilled as it needed to be that time round. Sicline then turned to her true skill, and became a detective. Her parents looked down upon this choice, but she remained in this job, becoming the most skilled detective around.

Her history gets darker and a bit sad from there, but she meets a new friend in the future named Kyrian, also a detective, and the story goes on. (I may write her full story one day).

This is the rough scan of the mask concepts I went through for Sicline. It was challenging to make a customized Elda design, but in the end I settled with the middle mask design in the top row. The rest of the designs I figure can be used for other characters. Fifth image in top row may become the mask of Irna, the water type in Matachilli. And the second mask in second row will become the mask of Mishka, their powers becoming something else not of the Elda.

Her body form is currently concept, but it seems fitting enough for a rough, on the fly drawing, and I'll probably be sticking with it. Above is the base pencil sketch, did it while soaking my feet at the kitchen table. 

Trivia: Unintentional, but laughable traits I noticed. Sicline is a female ice type, and in the RP has been called the ice queen by a few. Her new friend is named Kyrian, but is called Ky. Her mask is called the elda, but can be mistaken for the name Elsa. (No this doesn't relate to Disney's Frozen film), but rather the 2002 Hallmark film "The Snow Queen". Her name is Elsa, the young man she steals for the mirror shard in his eye is called Ky throughout the movie. I found these coincidences enjoyable.





 If Sicline were Human, which in one dimension she may be, the following images inspired me, helping me design her Toa form and mask. First two images were created by the very talented  Anathematixs  on Deviant Art. Left image is - High Key Speedpaint - an image that still captivates me and is definitely what I dream of an ice type looking like in Human form.

The image below called - Jenna -  is the second inspiration. Combine these two faces and wispy hair together, and this is what I dream Sicline to look like as a Human.

 

"Rain Dance" by gothic-icecream on DA.

   The third inspiration, in concept and without white hair is the above image. I imagined Sicline as a classy lady with a soft, yet sharp appearance like ice and snow.

I even made Sicline chibis in a chibi maker on DollDivine. These chibis and each varying style relate to the story and its episodes. Basic design is made to mimic the above paintings which inspired me. Far left is her at work, middle is her on vacation or off days, and third is Sicline dressed as an ice fairy for a festival. (You'll likely be seeing these chibies and more in a future post).

Record Keeper

 "Record" Keeper. A little pun image which came to mind, based off the scene in "Legends of Metru Nui" where Onewa calls Whenua a record keeper. My thoughts, they never specified what he archived; who's to say he didn't have some odd hobbies. :P

So here we go, Whenua in a sparkly room, complete with Disco ball, record player, and a new record in hand. (So this is what lies deep within the archives). XD Guess Whenua needs to get out more.

This second angle of the image came out because I was trying to minimize reflection in the paper, but the first image is the official piece since Whenua is staring at you and not off to the side.

Behind the scenes: I set up cardboard and scrapbook paper for my background, then added my objects and sticky tacked the Barbie record to Whenua's hand. After that it was a challenge of taking a picture without myself being blatantly noticeable through the reflective background. I only partially succeeded... After the pictures were taken, I cropped the scenes, edited color and background, then added final touches like eye lights.

Run From the Darts

 

 "Run From the Darts", the extra angles from previous photo shoot now illustrated, main angle used in the Dart Bullet Gun-encyclopedia page. See the previous post for the raw base image before editing.

Above is the two way image panel, a way to display both angles in one place (more specifically for easy sharing).

 I chose a Piraka because they just seem to fit the part for something like this. Gelu seemed like a good candidate for being the poor target getting shot with sleeping darts; but more specifically the character choices of these scenes reflect on future concepts for the MN-NC-I RP, where Kyrian the detective (Gelu representing him), gets chased by a rebel Skahkdi across the desert somewhere on the border of Po Koro.

 Seriously though, these scenes were just extras I whipped up for fun, used a desktop image for the background, adjusted lighting, all that jazz.

As you can see above an below, I have the clip images stand alone. The above ones are very subtle in angle, left one being used for my previous image, and right one being used for one of the illustrations.

This scene (obviously used for the first illustration) holds a certain menacing, pained kind of feel which I sort of like. Definitely would be running fast if a Skahkdi were chasing me with a tranquilizer gun. :P

Dart Bullet Gun-encyclopedia page

The dart bullet gun and ammo were originally two separate things; the gun being a very old sketch from a purse notebook which I included in my Bionicle sketch dump, and the dart bullets were a concept sketch inspired off the red bullets that came in the Mahri guns. 

The bullets were the main concept. What inspired me to sketch them as automatic syringe like things? It's because during role play I would use the bullets as syringes or darts, seeing they stick and stay so easily in the peg holes of the figurines. That then led to the idea of them being shot out from a gun like a tranquilizer dart (as it's displayed in the lower right corner in the above image).

The gun sketch was an after thought. I sketched the gun and it remained a random weapon concept for a long time. It's not till after I included this sketch in my sketch dump and went through other old sketches like the dart bullets that I found these two random concepts could easily fit together. I figured why not? So I enlarged the gun sketch, slapped on some color, and suddenly it all came together.

I like the look of encyclopedia type pages, they're like a blog post that can be put anywhere. And so, the gun and bullets now have their own small trivia page, complete with example usage photo.

 I've included the sketch dump here. The gun near the center of the page is the dart gun before coloring. (Amazing what a little color does eh?). Right is the bullet dart sketch before tweaks and text.

A little more on that example usage photo in the corner of the trivia page. I set up a place for photo shoot and made the scene. Above is the original, raw image before adjustments.

I took pictures from several angles to experiment, and I always like having extras which tend to turn into their own project. That's right, I'll be posting some illustrations I made with the other two angles of this photo scene, so stay tuned.

Bionicle Sketch Dump

It's true, this is technically the first sketch dump I've actually posted; and yeah, I compiled random sketches of Bionicle related stuff to one spot. 

Some of the sketches in the lower left corner are actually draft images for actual illustrations, one of which I haven't actually posted yet. Other random sketches around the page are all from different years, some of them done in pen. It's sort of just random stuff I use to do, everything from anonymous character ideas to weapons, rahi, and masks of both OC and canon figures like Tahu Mistika.

It feels like I've been spending an eternity holding back my work because I want it to be complete and colorful before I set it out there, but sometimes a sneak peek at the world of sketches can be just as fascinating as the final product, and I'm just now telling myself to try it head on, even if the little cynic in the back of my head says not to. This is coming from my own experience and view on sketches of other artists. Seeing sketch dumps of other artists actually interests me in a way that the final illustration can't. It's that moment of being able to see the gears and concepts, the stuff that goes into art, the ideas which may or may not make it to the "finished" stage of work.

Other artists sketch dumps (such as Kaiba Gal's on DA) have inspired me to share one of my own; and sure it may be like a spoiler to what may or may not be done, but hey, some like spoilers right? :D

I'm planning on taking some of the sketches shown and either making them into illustrations or compiling them onto a different page at some point. I don't really plan on redrawing any of these sketches into final products so much as I may use the sketches directly and just add some color to them. There are plenty more sketch pieces in my files that haven't been shown, but you'll probably be seeing them in the future in both their traditional stage, and newly colored stage.

Fire and Jungle Agori

 Sort of a series I have going on with pen sketches of 2009 done around the same time. These two Agori are some of the few Agori designs I've done (sadly they too have part of their feet not shown....). 

I've always imagined these two as being fire and jungle types, so that's the color scheme I went with, then added them to a rocky desert scene, since after all, Bara Magna was a desert land for the most part.

There could be any one particular story behind this sketch. I'm not sure what's happening in the scene, but I know the fire Agori is speaking about something, his jungle friend patiently waiting and being a watchful guardian.

Strait color on the left and original sketch on the right.

Tarisa-Tarix Inspired Sketch

Tarisa, another pen sketch from 2009, inspired from Tarix's design. 

I added her to a nice watery scene (right), but her pose seemed so stiff and hieroglyphic that it felt like she needed something to balance that factor out. That's why I added a flowing blue cloth she holds in her hands. I figure Tarisa likes to practice movement in water with the factor of drag as part of strength training. 

The original pen sketch (right), colored version (left). Before I added color to the piece, I assumed this sketch must be a male character, but after adding color and detail, I noticed it looked much more feminine, especially the small middle, so I named her Tarisa, a female based off of Tarix.