It was an interesting attempt, as it takes a bit to wrap one’s mind around the borderless look that the series maintains. Details become light or non-existent as well, and it’s an exercise in understand which elements are important and which can be removed.

I wholly enjoyed it, however, and will probably try to work a few other WoW characters like this sometime in the future.

Here’s the result, “Demon Hunter Tharion.”

Warcraft | LoreCrafted: Hooray! Hyjal! … Wait, What’s Hyjal?

With Blizzard’s recent preview of the upcoming Mount Hyjal zone coming in Catacylsm, I figured I’d cover some of the lore surrounding the places and beings mentioned in the aforementioned preview. If you’re curious why some of us are excited for to see Hyjal, read on here!

We had a death in the family on Christmas Eve, and we’ve been scrambling to get arrangements made and the funeral planned. It was unexpected, and a heavy loss for all involved, so there’s been little to no time to do anything unrelated to this.

I still intend to relaunch Rusted soon, but January 4th may be too soon. I also intend on resuming work on MADNESS AND INSANITY and getting the “Yoggyopolis” redesign up. But, again, this Monday isn’t looking likely.

LoreCrafted, too, has seen a dearth of posts, not because of lack of subject matter, but because of lack of time.

As the aftermath of this event settles, and as Christmas resumes (albeit, greatly delayed) for the rest of my family, I’ll be getting things back into place.

I thank you all for your understanding. Be well and be safe.

RIP Dr. Milagros Gallego
Beloved aunt to my brothers and I.
Beloved sister to my mother.
Beloved daughter to my grandmother.
Beloved wife to my uncle.
Beloved mother to my cousin.
And beloved friend to countless others.
May God speed your soul to a peaceful rest.
You are missed.

The pictures she posted as reference were her personal avatars, so I sketched together an amusing Christmas-themed pic that tries to showcase some of the personality seen in other works. At least, I hope it conveys some of that personality.

Merry Christmas, Ginny!
I hope you like the pic! It’s an honor to have come to know you and I wish you the best in all things in the years to come.

The Netherbane Chronicles will be (if ever actually executed), a non-regular comic posted to my World of Warcraft guild site. I bounce between wanting to sketch it all or wanting to do it using Photoshopped screen-captures of in-game models. We’ll see how it all turns out eventually, methinks. Below is an incomplete sketch of the first page. The roughs are really rough. The darker lines are the in-progress portion.

Yeah, I still have a lot of recovery to go…

It should be noted that I’ll be contributing a special art print from MADNESS AND INSANITY (one of my two web comics) as well as a handcrafted Cuddle Me Yoggy plush toy. If you’d like to contribute something, please visit Azeroth United for more information. Or head on over to Lorecrafted and use the Chip In widget to … well, chip in!

Oh yeah, the Halloween / Hallow’s End comic for MADNESS AND INSANITY was posted yesterday. A higher resolution version of that picture will be posted here later this week for anyone who may want a wallpaper.

Finally, I fixed the DNS issue that was pointed RustedComic.com to the old LoreCrafted site. That comic will be relaunched shortly, as well. I just wanted to get the domain issue fixed first. Rusted’s not dead by a long shot. I just needed to re-evaluate my workload and adjust some things. With that done, I can lay the foundation for the future of that story.

This past Monday I had the honor of being the first guest over on the For the Lore podcast, hosted by Roger (@forthelore), Joe (@lodurzj), and Enrique (@spoonwolf, who wasn’t present due to real life matters). The podcast itself covers the lore of various different games, but World of Warcraft is definitely one of them.

The episode can be downloaded here for those interested in listening to me babble incessantly about Warcraft lore, roleplay, and storytelling.

You see, she used to climb atop Tharion’s head and use his overly tall nelfbutt as a watchtower against enemies. Lokker, in his infinite (and sometimes frightening) wisdom… seems to have constructed a more “rugged” version for her to use.

…with eye beams.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JEZ!

*grins*

In all seriousness, it’s a great honor, and I’m both excited and nervous at the same time. The interview is scheduled for Thursday, September 3rd, at 9:30pm PST.  You can find more information linked below, behind the big Twisted Nether badge. Come check us out and listen in your favorite random internet blogger with the name “Tharion Greyseer!”

Yeah, at 8pm I was fine. By 10pm I was sneezing and coughing like no tomorrow. I’ve been down and out ever since…

And to top it off, tomorrow I fly out to Anaheim, California for BlizzCon! Yay? Indeed, yay. Although I fear how the flight will go with my sinuses treating me like they are. Regardless, this is BlizzCon, folks: a new potential World of Warcraft expansion, another chance to speak directly with the Blizzard recruiters, and another attempt to get my iPhone signed by Chris Metzen himself this time (last year I successfully snagged Samise’s sig).

For those interested in BlizzCon, but can’t make it out to Anaheim, there’s always TwizzCon! TwizzCon is the virtual convention I set up for the World of Warcraft Twitter community. It’s a way for many of us to connect virtually, over Ventrilo, webchat, and Twitter to chat up the events of BlizzCon and the like. I’ll be live blogging the show as much as I can, but I need to rely on the community members to keep up the basic activity as well. So if you’re interested, feel free to stop by the site!

Speaking of Warcraft (since that’s currently where my focus remains at this point in time), a new lore speculation article will go up on LoreCrafted in a few hours of this posting. It covers the “leaks” about Expansion 3, and has some simple justification for the potential choices made.

I’m keeping Rusted rolling, although I fear that BlizzCon may interfere with Page 4’s release next week, but we’ll see. I’ll also be developing some characters and a short story framework for BattleCorps, since I spoke with some of the Catalyst Game Labs crew at GenCon and discovered that one of my most favorite settings is in dire need of short fiction authors. That potential opportunity has me truly excited!

As it stands, though, there hasn’t been too much new on the artwork front outside of my web comics (Rusted and Madness and Insanity). Hopefully I can slide back into the groove once again when these conventions (and a move from an apartment to a house) are all settled and done.

Until then, folks, be well!