Heatherenie

THE STORY OF THE TALEN: This is a random girl i had in my head, but the talen went with her look! but there is NO story of the talen(just that its a talen)

blimy, i dont think i could write as much as the others! but yes i like your art, youve got a good shading technique going, keep up the good work and thanks for the comment on my liv tyler pic, it took me bout 2 hours! xx

You are so right about the wolf Link drawings I did. The first drawing, taken on its own merits, isn't all that "bad" (good detail and shading, like my usual drawings), but when compared to the second... it's clear how much I studied the character and improved in the colors. Using the negative technique means taking a risk every time with the colors. In the first one, I think I shaded it too aggressively and vividly, creating that bright green after scanning, and reducing the overall contrast to the drawing. Whereas the second one has better colors because I studied Link's palette closer and knew which color mixes to stay away from; I shaded it conservatively and lightly, resulting in darker shades and a much higher contrast (you may've noticed his teeth/eyes are a lot brighter in the second). Additionally, having him face the camera like that really communicates personality (not one of my strong points).

And, of course, I'll be looking forward to the upcoming Zelda game. How often is it that you can play a character on all fours, anyway?

Anyway. I assume Link's green wolf fur is because of his traditional green wear. Green clothes = green fur. The chain is actually a shackle (you've seen the E3 game trailer, right? Halfway through, just after Link morphs into the wolf, there's a shot of him in a prison cell-like area struggling with the chain on his leg. Then Midna appears and next thing you see, he's bust out of the castle and taken off).

The markings on his forehead is definitely a pattern, but exactly what, I dunno. And yes, he keeps his earrings in wolf form. (Hey, this Link grew up as a ranch-hand / cowboy, so it's not that weird)

As for time, it kinda bugs me when people keep saying "it must have taken you a lot of time". I ALWYS keep track of the actual time spent working on the drawing (to the nearest half-hour, at least), I write it down on the sketch as I complete each stage (time spent on pic: 1 hour sketching, 1:30h on details, and 1:30h on shading). Plus I say how much time, total, was spent on the drawing at the end of the description. So when I hear "it must have taken you forever", when I've clearly said how much work I put into it, well, that's beyond me. ; )

I thank you for the comment, but I really didn't think about shading it....I'll try to shade it....

Hi! So you take requests? Can you draw me a picture of an elite with a plasma sword? I would really appreciate it!

Hah, you certainly left me a lot to respond to today....

About crits: Yeah, being critical or negative is a lot easier than being positive. It's kinda ironic that even if I can only find one flaw in a drawing, that I'll talk about it (and means of addressing it) in more detail than the drawing overall. *shrugs* I'm kinda weird like that.

As for categories and such, I'm part of FAC's category cleaning crew -- the ones responsible for organizing the category structure and such. FAC has about 3,000 categories to its structure (nearly half of which are for the Anime/Manga section alone), it's a very huge and complex heirarchy, and because of that size, we want to make sure that people use the category system as best as it can. However, it's also true that I can take the job too seriously sometimes, especially if I've been spending an hour or two sorting pictures by the dozen.

BTW, as age goes, I'm 24.

And now for the responses to individual pictures....

- Elemental dragons (all): In the picture descriptions for the fire and ice dragons, I said something to the tune of these elemental dragons not being purely dragons, but more like avatars for higher (angel-like) beings. This distinction applies to all of the elemental dragons in the series, though, and it also means that they don't have to follow all the normal dragon rules.

The elemental dragons are designed for a story mythology I've been writing (I haven't uploaded it though), a sort of sci-fantasy type world. Basically, in the beginning of that world there were eight 'guardians' assigned the task of creating and shaping the world, designing its species (they had a few ground rules to follow, but aside from that they had free will to do about anything), and once all that was done, managing and watching over it. Each one corresponded to a particular element, one that was their primary responsibility to maintain. Anyway, at some point they became too involved in overseeing the world and this started a huge war. Darkness, previously a 'good' element (now 'evil') was the main power going on the offensive, forcing all the other elements into a sort of each-one-for-himself defensive.

The other elements basically allied with Light, the ruling element, and fought back. It was during that time of the world that "magic" was invented -- basically, each guardian allocated a small portion of their elemental to the human (and other) races for use as weapons of war. It was a dangerous idea, but since Darkness was the first one to develop 'magic', it became inevitable that all other elements would create their own 'magic' to use as a defense. (As a rule, magic could never kill)

Ultimately, Light won over darkness, but the price was very high, much of the world was ruined, and they had broken part of their own responsibility for maintaining order. As punishment, they sealed themselves away from the world.

But, seals are eventually broken, and .... actually, I talk about it so much it's a wonder why I don't write out the story itself. Heheh.

Anyway, with regards to dragon proportions: I have a big gripe about dragons being too serpentine, with their necks and tails being too long, so that's why all my dragons seem to have the same size of tail. It "feels" like the right tail length to me. Same thing with the wingspan, I'm not particularly fond of dragons having overly large sized wings (or overly small, either) so I try to pick a size that feels reasonable to me. And BTW, my dragons are generally gliders. (The feathered dragons are the only ones capable of 'true' flight) Like eagles, they can't generate a stable amount of lift to fly with, so they depend on their large wings to keep them from falling out of the air, and the wind to do the rest. They can glide for long distances under no wind (depending on how high they take off from), but when there's a good breeze or a few thermals to take off with, then they can appear to truly fly.

And the reason why all of my dragons have wings? Because wings are one of the characteristics of being a dragon. Even if their wings aren't that useful for flying or whatnot, it's one of the marks for being a dragon, so they have them anyway.

And, finally, the air-elemental dragon is actually considered a "she". Not that it's easy to tell with a reptilian, but...

The thunder-element dragon has yellow/orange colors because that's how I originally envisioned the elemental dragons. I uploaded their original (4 year old) versions to my gallery (page 4), you can use it for comparison if you'd like.

I know the sword went into its back it's just the way it looked. it was very colorful i like blue and purple colors they are very tranquil and calming. Any way you have lots of creative ideas and I admire that...keep it up you may reach 400 pics!

Harsh? You? I don't see it. Besides, whenever I leave a comment on a picture that doesn't really talk about the picture itself, I always worry if I'm being too harsh myself. I see you commented on a lot of my pictures though, thanks for that as always. Do you know that FAC artist pages list their pictures in order of the oldest first? It's kinda ironic that our older stuff tends to be viewed/commented more than our newer stuff (especially when one has a lot of it. Me for example, I've been drawing for several years, that's why I have over 100 pics in my gallery. There are artists with even more pics, I think DG-Sama must have over 400 by now!)

So, anyway, I do have some responses I'd like to give about the picture comments. These are them:

- Manticore picture: I more or less thought it up out of thin air. I was originally planning to draw a gryphon, but my creative process must've took a left turn at Albuquerque or something because that's what I ended up with.
- Dracan (dragon-people) pic: Why do I like dragons so much? *shrugs* Because... I just do. It's like asking why some people like cats, or dogs, or cars, so much. It's really hard to explain a favorite.
- Aerissan (bird-people) pic: I hate hybrids. I also hate shapeshifters. They're cliché. The aerissan is basically just a highly intelligent, cultured (on par with humans) if bird-type species. Reason why they don't wear clothes is because their pelt of feathers is pretty thick already.
- Andrake 2.0 picture: Andrake's sword is supposed to look flamey (rather than 'furry'). It's an energy sword; you know, like a lightsaber. Very powerful, very dangerous weapon.
- Quasar MLP: Believe me, I already dealt with the "butt-sword" comments. (That was the first thing my sister pointed out when I showed her the initial sketches, and we broke out in rioting laughter). Anyway, if you look closely at the sketch (very closely), you may notice that the sword separates into two halves, one for the tail and the other for the blade. Quasar actually stores his sword on his back in pony form. That midunderstanding is perfectly understandable.

So, that's about it.