Travels of Frona-Book 2

Book 2-front cover.

 Yay! I'm so glad to tell you that the Travels of Frona comic book is complete! 

Last year I started the comic in this month, and completed Travels of Frona- Book 1

Now I'm glad to share its second half this year.

The second comic works the same way structurally as the first, and can be turned into a mini print out comic; glued and folded like an accordion. You'll find more details on the concept in the book 1 blog post listed above.

I'll also note that the Travels of Frona comic no longer stands on its own. Since last year, I've thought up more complex story ideas, which I hope to turn into a comic series revolving around Takanuva. I plan to call it, Takanuva's Travels; more details will be given at a later time. The interesting thing about Takanuva's Travels is that it connects on beautifully to the Travels of Frona comic book; which means Travels of Frona is now a standing two part book that slips in with the many episodes from the Takanuva's Travels series.

Enjoy the panels for Travels of Frona-book 2 (below) ^.~

Front inner page (left) and back cover (right)

Panel 9-page 1 of book 2

Panel 10-page 2 of book 2

Panel 11-page 3 of book 2

Panel 12-page 4 of book 2

Panel 13-page 5 of book 2

Panel 14-page 6 of book 2

Panel 15-page 7 of book 2

Panel 16-page 8 of book 2

Back inner page and cover of book 2

Gorgeous Gelu

 A long time back, I can't quite remember what year, but I think about 2010 or a little before; I took pictures of Gelu posing in slightly fancy garb.

I've always thought Gelu was a rather hansom character; his design masculine yet pretty at the same time... I love it. And he looks even more dashing in a black cape with beaded arm decor of matching color, don't you think?

Materials used: The black cape is made of the same silky black fabric Frona wears as an over skirt. The draping gem decor is a necklace creatively wrapped around the figures armor, and the background is the very same material used for photo shoots of Frona and Natasha.

A fun story concept of what's happening in the pictures.

     Gelu is attending a play at the crystal opera halls, and was invited to try out for a role on stage. The viewers thought the cape and gems looked great, and he may just make an excellent prince for the Bionicle version of "Sleeping Beauty". If he's chosen for that role he'll be given the rare opportunity to touch Frona, a beauty even when not acting. 

      The crystal hall managers, and some of the girls liked Gelu so much, that they asked him to stay for a photo shoot so they could remember him as a possible choice for future plays. Gelu accepts, though doesn't realize that the girls mostly just wanted his picture for viewing on a daily basis. ^.^

Close up pictures from the panel above are displayed (below).

Follow That Trail

 Follow That Trail. A certain other character said this, and was in a similar position, from.. you know it "Eldorado" the movie. 

In a more story clip sense, this is the scene where Gelu was probably practicing as the prince.

Triumphant

 Oh yeah, hold up that launcher and smile, hansom. The dancers and actresses tittered when this shot was taken..... Fan girls O_o Run Gelu!

Closer Look of Triumph

Of course we have to get a better look at his face. And oh how the gems on his arms sparkle under stage lights.

How do I look?

 How do I look? asked Gelu when they first started photo shoot. It got a few laughs, and he was indeed charming in his confusion.

Any Better?

Any better? Gelu asked. No one could answer him for they were laughing too much at his face. Gelu thought he must have something wrong with costume that caused them to laugh, but in reality there was nothing wrong, he was just so perfect for the role of a prince.

This is one version of the story, but I think at some point these pictures could be used for other purposes, just depends on my mood and whether I feel like using them again.

Enjoy the final poster, which now hangs on the crystal walls of the opera halls! ^.^ 

Oh, and FYI, the crystal opera halls and this specific scenario with Gelu, exist in the Life of Lewa universe only.

Natasha, Glatorian Ice Assassin

 This is Natasha. Like Frona The Toa of Black Ice Natasha is wearing a specialty over gown in the above image, made of the same material as Frona's blue robe top. 

Why Natasha is all dressed up...well, in the Life of Lewa story line; I'd say she's wearing an over skirt to one, keep warm. The other reason may be because she's attending the crystals opera halls, being that she's friends with Frona, and may work there as an acrobat now and then.

Also, if you wish to know what Natasha looks like on most occasions, when not wearing an over skirt that is, simply look at the Travels of Frona, book 1  comic. Natasha is wearing pretty much the same things, but on most occasions she doesn't wear an over skirt, just a blue butt flap with the flower weight and pearl sash.

Her pearl and gem encrusted sash may have a significance to her character beyond just decorative purposes. In concept, she may have received the sash as a gift for carrying out a deed, and was rewarded with something lavish which she wears with honor. 

Closer details of her jewelry and outfit (below). 

Jewelry elements used: a flower pin, and vintage bracelet.

History of Natasha

Natasha's name is typical, yes, but it fits. Natasha's early history started back around the same time as Frona, in the year 2009.

Natasha's character and personality type became more clear as time went on, and she existed as a first time character for role play in Vulpes Toa's dimension.

Her character started off mysterious, and then it became clear that she was a professional ice assassin, who worked for those who could afford it. (Sound a bit like someone? I did in fact develop Natasha's personality type off the character she was made from, Strakk.) She's basically a female assassin form of Strakk, and the only person who can keep her in line to some degree is Frona.

Early History:  The role play episode I remember Natasha in was on Vulpes Toa's dimension. Natasha took a job from not so good people of the planet, and she was then bested by Toa Duncan and his friends. They captured her and attempted to discover who she was, but in her training Natasha would never spill the answer to that. 

      To keep her from running, they put her in a room that had a frequency field next to the exit, which would trigger a bomb collar they put around her neck. They figured she wouldn't attempt to escape, and would stay in the room till they got answers; but little did they know how crazy Natasha really is.

      To preserve her cover and shield her history, she would willingly destroy herself than give in. Natasha attempted to walk into the frequency field, but was saved by her captors, who discovered she's not evil, just neutral when it comes to sides. 

      We also discover that Natasha is a very depressed individual, who's life means very little to her if she doesn't have work or something worthwhile to do. You could say she's a thrill seeker, and enjoys her job.

     

Like any character of course, she has alternate versions, just as Frona does. Which means Natasha exists in the universe of LoL. And if you really want to get technical, every figure Pearllight is friends with, tend to show up at some point in every dimension she travels to.

Basic Information:

Age: Glatorian years unknown (In human years about 37)

Elemental Powers:  Regular ice powers, super good hearing, and the ability to see through any snow storm.

Weapons: Ice axe, thornax blaster with specialty explosive ammo, and hidden spy equipment.

Height: About 7' 

Color: Main color-white. Secondary color-dark blue. Accent colors- gray and ice blue.

Personality: Grouchy and distrusting. Very calculative and cautious to a degree of ridiculousness, cynical and usually right about her gut feelings, has a dry sort of rude humor, is tired and feels most people die from lack of knowledge and stupidity, is logical and rather cold, tends to like lone missions and feels aid commonly gets in the way more than helps (but will join Frona as an exception). She's also rather rough and tough for a woman.

Interests: Enjoys fighting and exercise, likes the feeling of adrenaline rush and does snow boarding during avalanche. Enjoys throwing stars at trees, attending arena battles for the thrill, goes to bars when she feels like having a conversation and finding information, will read for hours but eventually gets tired of thinking and swings her axe around when bored. Most of her interests are in her job; so when she's payed as an assassin, she takes it. And when she's not working as an assassin, she works as an acrobat and fighter in the plays of the crystal opera halls.

Abilities: Her methods of fighting range from direct combat to stealthy distant strikes. Her strongest profession is sniping, and is so skilled in this ability that she can shoot someone on a mountain miles away during even the worst snow storm. She's very quick in getting a job done, and won't kill unless necessary. In most cases she knocks out, ties up, and hides the people who get in her way when she's aiming for a prime target. She's also extremely quiet, and treats missions like a game; feeling there are two ways to win. One way it to quickly and quietly do the job, leaving without a single trace; and if that fails she goes in for direct combat. In most cases Natasha goes incognito for her missions, and disguises herself with nomadic winter clothes, so no one can find her after she finishes the job.

Someday I may make a regular description sheet for all my characters, including the ones now listed. Hope you enjoyed Natasha's back story and small history. ^.~

Frona The Toa of Black Ice

Frona photo poster

These pictures of my MOC, Frona, date back to around 2010/11. 

Frona was created as a character in 2009, but became more complex, like many of my characters, through time. 

The outfit she's wearing in these pictures was made in 2010. The material was given to me by a friend who was passionate in watching me dress my figurines with just a few fabric scraps and creative wrapping techniques. I had an old piece of icy material that Frona wore as an underskirt, then I was handed silky black and blue fabric scraps which then became an over skirt and Asian style wrap top.

Later I added jewelry embellishments to make her look fancy. I figure she wears these clothes when attending special events and such. Someday I may even use these pictures in a comic of some kind (my way of creating back story for anonymous imagery). 

 Jewelry elements used: the shoulder decor is a necklace that I wrapped around her waste, and the skirt weight and arm decor are clip on earrings.

History on Frona

Frona was invented during 2009 as a character I used in role play with an old friend who's code name is VulpesToa.

She was the first female Bionicle character I invented, and from that point onward I continued making girl characters for fun.

Frona developed over time; she started as a normal female ice Toa. But then I invented an ability called black ice. Black ice is the coldest ice there is, and Frona had little control over this power when she was depressed or angry. Black ice became known as a Makuta ability, and those who had it in their system, were prone to being evil.

Concept of black ice: The concept idea of black ice is that it's kind of like a virus or infection that occurs in certain ice Toa. It's like a shadow within them that plays with their emotions and makes them exceptionally strong, but very nasty when they use this power. And if I remember clearly, in one episode involving Frona, they discovered black ice was an infection, and tried to rid her body of it. They never fully succeeded; but in later history Frona learns to control it, and therefore is a very powerful ice Toa who has the power of both white ice and black ice; no longer effected emotionally by the two.

Early history- Frona started off as a teacher in a Ko Koro school. Later on she was used in an alternate dimension of Vulpes Toa's world, and fell in love with the still living Toa Matoro. 

       Eventually the series of Vulpes Toa's dimension came to an end; but Frona, as a character, lived on in other dimensions I invented. This is why she shows up in the Life of Lewa series at some point; the explanation to why she's in this universe too, is simple, we'll just say her character exists in multiple fan fiction dimensions. Her history is obviously going to be tweaked depending on which dimension we look at. 

In the Life of Lewa series Frona is a protector of the ice region, an opera singer in the crystal halls, and a great fighter who's friends with Natasha, a female ice Glatorian (her history will be given later). Frona's character is relatively short lived in many series, but she always stands as a main character in my collection.

Basic information: 

Age: Toa years unknown (in Human years probably about 32).

Elemental powers: White ice (regular ice power)/ black ice (infected shadow ice power).

Weapons: Two ice plasma blades and a laser beam blaster in her x-ray and aiming mask scope.

Height: 7' 1'' 

Color: Main color-white/ secondary color- light blue/ accent color- dark royal blue

Personality: Can be playful, takes her work seriously, is slightly more open in conversation than most ice Toa, logical and calculative, prone to emotional anger swings, and doesn't like large crowds

Likes: She enjoys the appearance and smell of blue winter roses, takes long walks in the snow for some time to herself, does ice skating now and then, likes dancing alone, and loves to read books. On the occasion she's open to teaching students what she knows, but prefers to handle people one by one, not in groups. 

Abilities: She's swift, and likes hand to hand combat; but also feels stealth and the element of surprise are good qualities to remember and apply to certain situations. She also can cause avalanche with her opera songs and high pitched notes.

Below is the collection of images from the panel posted, for better viewing.

Back side of outfit

Speech stance

No black overlay

 Without the black overlay, Frona's outfit becomes like a bathing suit. Sometimes she'll fight this way because it's easier to move when not wearing her overlay. The overlay is more to keep her warm when she's not fighting.

Looking into your eyes

 The two pictures of her sleeping have double concepts. 

She's either sleeping in a fancy room, is reenacting the Sleeping Beauty play at the crystal opera house, or is actually dead. When I made this image I had all of those ideas in mind. But to stay away from tragedy, we'll only say she's pretending. 

 I think the sleeping beauty idea fits well..... Now where is prince charming? :P

Bionicle Christmas Party-2011

Full Overhead View

Back in 2011 I set up a very large Bionicle Christmas party scene. It's unfortunate that some of the main photos came out blurred because I was doing this late at night, and my hands were tired.

No matter, I've settled with sharing what I can from the album, and have salvaged and adjusted what I can, feeling it's best to share them instead of leaving them in old files on my computer.

The only adjustments made to the images were small level tweaks, and the additional doorway backdrop, to hide my bed covers peeping through the doorway holes. I chose a nice snowy backdrop, to make the doorways appear to be open and leading out into the snow covered evening.

The full party group (shown from overhead in the above image), is a compilation of fan fiction characters associated with my fan fiction "Life of Lewa". This party scene is actually an entire concept scene for the Life of Lewa story; where friends and family alike gather to celebrate a Human tradition for the fun of it. The following images listed below go into more detail about who the characters are, and why they're at the party.

Right Corner guest

In the right corner, we have mostly friends. The Mahri, Gelu and Berix, along with the two water females, are all friends. This corner shot was the clearer shot I got, so not all is lost.

Left corner guests

In left corner we have family and friends. Lewa and his wife, Tahu and his wife, Pohatu and his sweetheart, and a peep at Moonbreeze (Lewa's daughter) talking with her boyfriend. The thing I love most about these image are the poses and life they contain.

Greetings From Familiar Faces

Overall these pictures of gathered friends and family from the Life of Lewa series are fun, even in their imperfection. They seem to tell a story, one of remembrance and unity; and in some ways a sense of duty and the fact that that Toa have a duty to care for their children now, 

not just their villagers.

Greeting Couples

Above, Lewa and his wife Venimbus greet friends. Lewa of course keeps in touch with the Nuva leader; how can he possibly forget Tahu, who married Gali at some point. The ladies are of course dressed nicely, decked in pretty fabrics and a few pieces of jewelry.

 The image above (right) is a small close up of Moonbreeze speaking with her sweet heart, Sobrono. Lewa of course keeps a close eye on the two, knowing Sobrono wishes he could touch Moonbreeze.

To the left is Pohatu and his wife, Poroka. The two talk and share a most odd but delicious drink

 of eggnog.

A Fun Party Angle

The fun party angle above is actually kind of interesting to me; the way it displays figures running after each other and captures them out of focus the closer they get to the camera, makes the picture feel more realistic. Also, the figures to the left are invited guests; those two lovely ladies are Princess Marine (a figure introduced in the very first chapter of Life of Lewa), and Kiina. Both are friends with Lewa and his family.

Are we Late?

The Mahri, at least three of the members from the Mahri team were invited to the party. They were a bit confused about what Christmas was, and wondered if they were running late for the celebration. I added them in simply because the scene needed some extra guests.

Berix was invited to the party (above left and right images). He decided to give his hand at portrait painting, and gained a "stroke" of luck when Gelu showed up and served as a model. (In personal silliness, I made Gelu serve as the model because I think his character is hansom).  

In the left image, Kazi chats with Gelu, and critiques Berix's painting skills, just to pull his leg. 

Left image is a clear middle shot of the party floor; and right image is the food table, 

just to show all its goodies. I even added a mini tree to the table for extra festive decor.

Running Children

In the image above, Harmose (Sobrono's little brother), is playing a game of tag with a jungle friend. The balance of these two was so fun to pull off. And no, these characters aren't Agori, they serve as children in this scene.

Paluthero Chugging Soda

Last images are close ups of Lewa's son Paluthero chugging down soda. And to the right in above image, Erozion, Paluthero's brother, is trying not to roll his eyes at his older brother's habits.
To me side view is funniest, but I also include front view for laughs.

 Set Details:

The way I made this Christmas scene was by placing a cardboard base on my bed and covered it with suede fabric. Then I surrounded my party floor with a cardboard prop which has door holes and windows. To make it more festive, and less unsightly, I draped a gold curtain over the main wall, to add a Christmas party feel to the room.

Props: I took a cardboard box and used it as a table, then draped a scrap piece of fabric over it as a table cloth. I then filled the table with Barbie and dollhouse food, and completed the scenery by adding a small tree as a center piece.
From there I added a large tree as a main decoration, then filled the room with my chosen characters, and posed them as desired.
For figures holding objects, I used sticky tack to keep it in their hand. Paluthero holding a soda can was pulled off with this method.

Just like that I got my pictures. And now to tell a story with them (for another time).

Proportionate Pearllight Suits

Pearllight form 1

Last month I decided to work on drawing Pearllight over my fashion forms to find out how my character would look when drawn over exact proportions. 

I found that she looked kind of funny when drawn accurately. In fact, in my eyes the cuteness level ended up rising more than expected, and her character seems to appear even more innocent than I thought she would.

Pearllight form 2

 I actually prefer form 2 over form1. Could have something to do with the pose; but in either respect, I like the way they turned out. 

The part that was hard to figure out was fitting the shoes. In some ways the height aspect of my character isn't quite accurate enough in these pictures. Her platform shoes are suppose to be seven inches thick, and her feet are somewhere on the inside high above the base. But, I couldn't figure out how that would look over my forms, so I drew them more like an actual shoe; not some high tech, spring loaded platform boot.

Above and below are the pencil drawings and inked images. Pencil versions (left), inked versions (right). Both pictures were drawn on marker paper, inked; and then colored with Prismacolor markers, and jell pen.

Jell pen was used for the gold sections of the suit, and a few silver spots; the rest was marker.

I'll admit it; it seems I've been in a big Pearllight craze lately. And I took this all a step further by designing my characters under suits. Since those are more of a fashion statement and not so much a robot thing, I've blogged about them on my art site here (pending). Feel free to check it out and see what Pearllight wears under her suit. ^.~