Life Is Worth Role Playing

A random Madeline update. I know this is not a part of any project but at last I have succeeded in a relationship in an RPG. Our beloved Madeline, of whom I've made so many updates has finally found her knight in shiny armour. Barney the Bartender actually confessed his feelings to Madeline and they are both very happy. They'll only have to defeat a horde of cultists so that they can live happily ever after. Luckily Barney has a large family with likeminded relatives. Clanwars and so forth.

The Lovers - pencil, coloured pencil, and ink

The picture captures the moment just before their first kiss. Well, technically it's not their first kiss, but Madeline doesn't remember anything about it, because she was so drunk at the time. I tried to picture the romantic atmosphere of the 1920's London in december at 3.30 AM but I find the picture still a bit lacking. However, I'm mightly proud of the shadowing I used in the picture. I've never tried to do such strong shadows in colours before. There's still a lot of work to be done with it, but I'll keep on practicing. I used pencils, coloured pencils, and ink in this picture.

Gerda Úldurfsdottir

Gerda - coloured pencil, pencil, and ink

Gerda was a charachter that I thought up all by myself for a larp. Usually that doesn't happen in a larp but I was one of the GMs of the game. It was a vampire larp, the setting came from Vampire the Masquerade, so the vampire clans and sects are the same as in Vampire the Masquerade RPG. It was not the first larp I "hosted" but it was the first larp I could invent my very own charachter and be a GM. The first time I was a GM was actually a part two in a series of larps so I played the charachter I had in the first game.

Gerda is quite a typical clan Malkavian vampire. Malkavians are the lunatics of the vampires. They are honestly crazy and their craziness can from one malkavian to another: one can have two personalities while another might see huge and slimy talking slugs in random places. Gerda's speciality was talking with objects. If you have the chance, do play a pc-game called Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines, it shows the difference between vampire clans. For instance if you play the game through with a malkavian you can argue with a stop sign.  However, the malkavian madness isn't necessarily just a bad thing: they can see things from a different point pf view and come up with surprising solutions for difficult situations.

I used ink, pencil, and coloured pencils in this picture. I actually startet drawing this picture in a train and you should have seen the look on the conductor's face when he saw the picture. The larp was held during the winter and thank god it was situated indoors because otherwise I would have frozen with those clothes.

General Kita

Kita - coloured pencil, pencil, and ink

General Kita is not my first larp charachter but one of the most important ones to me. It was my fifth larp and I didn't have much experience as a larper. Yet, the GM decided to give me quite an important charachter as a general. She was in charge of the safety of the people and her role was crucial because there were evil  and strong creatures on the lose. They looked like humans but could enchant one to obey. My charachter thought their only goal was to kill everybody. She hired some guards to keep the tavern they were in safe but nevertheless we ended up having an epic fight in the end.

She is a hot tempered woman who believes that fights should be settled with a fight. Once she was fighting one of her hired guards she beated him quite bad and they ended up in a situation where he was lying on a ground and she was standing over him holding his foot above his crotch. He said to her that she wouldn't do it. When she asked why, he said "Because you're a woman". She had always been bullied because she was female and you can guess that  she wasn't very pleased of the guards comment. You may guess that she landed her foot with quite a lot of force on his crotch. I kind of feel sorry for poor Horatio.

I tried to copy the outfit of Kita here but I noticed that the hand armour was in the wrong hand. Otherwise the picture is quite accurate when speaking of my clother during the game. I used ink, coloured pencil, pencil in this picture.

What on earth is she talking about?

It has yet again been a little while since my last update. I thought that before I showed you some of my larping charachters, I might give you a little info package of the terms I'm using.

Larp - Live action role play. Basically an improvised play without an audience. I often refer to a larp as a game. The game master invents charachters and their relationships and gives them to the larpers/players. There is no plot in a larp just the setting and the charachters are pre-determined. Larp can be a noun or a verb. If you larp, you are playing a live action role play. The players get costumes for their charachters. More information about larping.

Game master - The one organising a larp or a role play. Offten refered as the GM. More information about Game masters.

Role playing game - Often refered to as RPG. Could mean both a certain system of role playing or a game in which players invent their own charachters and throw dice every now and then. The main difference between role playing and larping is that the larpers actually dress up as their charachters and act out the things they charachters do, where as role players merely listen to the game master's story of what's happening and then tell to the GM what their charachters do next. Role players throw dice but larpers do not. Why? Because no-one would throw dice in real life to see if they get their asses kicked in a fight or not. Information about RPGs.

Props - Props are the clothes and accessories the player in a larp wears or has with him or her during the game. If one props someting, one gets the props for him or her self and wears them. One can also prop surroundings of the game: for instance, if one props a little cabbin in the woods to look like a pirate hq, one makes it look like a pirate hq by little things such as empty bottles on the table and a map on a wall.

I'll add more things to this list when I remember them.

UPDATE 1: I added the word 'props' to the list.

Series of Self Portraits - Part I

Even though Project Imagination is still unfinished I start a new project. I'm not going to drop Project Imagination but because there are going to be more and more charachters to add to the project as I get new larping and role playing charachters, this project is going to take forever. Therefore I now launch a series of self portraits to tell you more about myself. I must thank Mesore for brining up this idea for a project.

How do you see me? - coloured pencil, pencil, and ink

The first picture of this project is quite simple and totally lacks imagination. This is the way I wish people to see me. There's me, typically dressed, with a huge grin on my face, as usual. I'm a tomboy in my own way: I really like to dress myself in jackets and wear a fedora. I also wear these unisex shoes which make my every-day wear look a bit gentlemanlike. I would also love to own a tailcoat and sometimes dress up like Mr. Darcy from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. Also my sence of humour is very masculine and I tend to make jokes only guys would understand. However, the shadow on the wall is quite feminine. This is the side of me that is there in the background but I don't usually wish to bring it out. I am a dreamer and I sometimes wish for some very girly things.

I used pencil, coloured pencil and ink in this picture. And by the way, I actually own an umbrella just like the one the shadow has.

Catherine Burdett

Silly me, I still have a few role playing charachters. I guess I have too many of them.

Catherine Burdett is a 90-year-old woman. Wouldn't believe it? Neither would I because she looks like a 26-year-old. As you may have guessed, she is not an ordinary woman. She is a vampire and when comparing her to the other player charachters in the game, she was actually quite old. One doesn't necessarily have to be hundreds of years old to be influental. Me and my friends were playing Vampire the Masquerade rpg and my charachter was part of a vampire clan called Ventrue. The Ventrue are the self-proclaimed leaders of the Vampires and they tend to have power over the society during both day and night.

In the picture Catherine has just arrived to the head quarters of Vaughn Industries. Mr. Vaughn, Catherine's sire (the one who made her into a vampire), informs her that someone had broken into the vault of the company and had stolen something. Just before she came to the hq, a young female vampire, Eleonor came to her appartment saying that her sire had just been killed. So, Catherine became her mentor and she was the one who was supposed to teach Eleonor, how to be a vampire.

By the way, this is perhaps the only occasion when she wears her hair down. Usually she wears a bun. She actually didn't have the time to tie her up after a party in which Eleanor and another newcomer were welcomed into the vampire society. I guess it's good to let your hair down once in a while.

I used coloured pencil, pencil and ink in this picture. It's kind of grey, but aren't all buildings.

Catherine - coloured pencil, pencil, and ink

Dr. Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam-Snout

Doctor Fitzwilliam Fitzwilliam-Snout has probably the most ridiculous name in the history of (at least my) role playing charachters. I'm a huge fan of the series Jeeves and Wooster and the is inspired by this series. There are a couple of very silly brittish names mentioned in the series and that's why Dr. Fitzwilliam-Snout has such a silly name. His best friend is a private detective Gregory Potter-Purbridge (nothing what so ever to do with Holmes and Watson...), who actually is encluded in the picture. At least the light of his lantern is. You see, in the picture both of them are climbing down a small hole that seems to last forever. Greg is holding a lantern while he climbs and Fitz just tries to climb down after him. When they finish climbing down, they find a monster and Fitz, like Madeline, does not even see it. Greg on the other hand loses a bit of his sanity when meeting this human-rat-spider creature.

I used ink and pencil in creation of this picture. I'm running out of role playing charachters so I will move on to my live action role playing charachters.

Fitzwilliam - pencil and ink

What did I say about little details...

Yet another sneak peak before I post the whole picture here. Stripes can be a real pain in the... Well, let's just say it takes time to ink the outlines of the stripes. I'll post the picture later today.

Stripes but, alas, no stars.

A bit more Madeline

And now for something completely different. It's a bad habbit of mine that I simply have to draw something when I get an inspiration. I happened to be role playing last night and Madeline, of whom I have told in my last post, went out with Barney the bartender and they both ended up quite drunk. Nothing bad happened. They just shared their first kiss when Madeline was getting out of the car of another bartender, who promised them to take them home. She was so drunk that she decided to kiss him and he blushed as hard as one can blush. Unfortunately, she doesn't remember that. However, Barney does.

Barney & Madeline - pencil sketch

I quickly sketched this during a lecture. (Yes, I know I'm a bad girl because I didn't pay attention to the lecture.) The only reason why I decided to update my blog with this is Madelines expression. She looks totally drunk and exactly how she should look like after a sherry and an absinthe. Not that Barney wouldn't be drunk.

I shall now continue the Project Imagination, but I simply had to post this.

Madeline Smithers-Sheffield

Madeline - coloured pencil and ink

I don't do this usually but today I simply have to double post. Me and my friends were playing Call of Cthulhu yesterday and I got a huge inspiration for drawing. My charachter's situation is namely quite exceptional. Madeline Smithers-Sheffield, a 1920's dance girl from London, has had incredible luck with the "evil spirit" that is chasing our charachters. She has completely avoided the dementating attacks of the spirit (which I cannot name even though I off-game know who it is, for my friends read my blog and don't wish to be spoiled). However, she has got a dilemma of her own: there are three men who are interested in her at some level and she doesn't know what to do.

In the picture one of the men, a sweet scottish bartender Barney Sweetham has given her the best whiskey he has and she didn't take it as strongly as I had hoped. She was totally drunk and even kissed Barney on his cheek. After that Barney carried her upstairs to a sofa on which she passed out and had the most freudian dream about all of the three men: one against a minibar, one on the deck of a yacht, and one on a pool table. That's why she is blushed. It's a shame that I couldn't draw the blue garter she accidentially showed when she was moaning in her sleep. You can guess that Barney was quite red when he saw her.

I (surprisingly) used ink and coloured pencil in the picture. Notice the pale pink background, which is hardly visible. It is supposed to reflect the feelings going through her head at that very moment.

Ri’dzaeln Wehlagharlyn

Yet again, another little pause has passed and I have drawn yet another charachter of mine. Ri’dzaeln Wehlagharlyn is my first Dungeons and Dragons charachter. Some say one should always start role playing with D'n'D but I'm a horrible player and I didn't. It's a fun rpg nevertheless. Ri'dzaeln is a drow, a dark elf for those who don't know what a drow is, who has left the drow society and become a druid. And yeah, drows tend to have long names with a lot of consonants. Those, who know anything about drows, know that it is extremely weird for a drow to leave his or her society. And no, this charachter actually wasn't inspired by Drizzt Do'Urden, perhaps the most famous drow of all time. She just happened to got caught by humans and then she became an outcast, even though she had a drow fiancé.

In the picture she is just leaning against an old tree and thinking what on earth was she doing with a halfling, an eldar, an elf, a human, and a thiefling in a forest on an epic quest (halflings are like hobbits, eldars are elfs who can teleport, and thieflings are kind of half demons). In few seconds from the moment in this picture she reveals to the others that she is a drow. Drows aren't really accepted in the world on the ground where as under ground they have a very high stand in the hierarchy of different races. However, the others were surprisingly okay with her race.

Ri'dzaeln - coloured pencil, pencil, and ink

I used coloured pencils, ink, and pencil with Ri'dzaeln, but I left the background black and white just to create contrast.

Natalie von Adler

Natalie - coloured pencil, pencil, and ink

The first time I ever played the Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay I was actually asked to play a noble woman. Thus, Natalie was born. She was just an ordinary noble woman with a younger admirer until she allowed him to take her home in his carriage. After that she ended up having an adventure she is glad she has survived. I have also played this charachter in two larps and after this I can say that not many women in the nobility have killed undead and demons, be cursed, and live after this. I'm mighty proud of her because she has survived, even though she should not have any sort of surviving abilities.

In the picture she is sitting in the carriage of Henrik, the young man who adores her. Some moments after this they both black out and an epic adventure begins. I used coloured pencils, ink and pencils in this and I'm quite proud of the colouring of her hair.

Oh my, I just realized that those trees aren't growing up straight. Oh well.

Merenwen Telrúnya

Merenwen - coloured pencil, pencil, and ink

Merenwen is an elf woman, who is a typical redhead. She has fire in her heart and she totally shows it. She actually wasn't an original charachter in the role play she is from, but the game master was kind enough to include her in his game. Merenwen used to have a very long hair but she cut it in order to look a bit different, because she and the rest of the group were pronounced outlaws. This scene is from quite the end of the game campaign, when she discovered she could not live without Elwin, the blonde elf in the picture (who also happened to be a general of the army). At first she could not stand him because he tried to hit on her way too much. In the end, however, they end up getting married and having two children.

I tried to use some bolder colours in this one but I guess I still have a long way to go before I have truly mastered the use of colour.

Anna-Freyja Tammilehto

Anna-Freyja - pencil

Anna-Freyja is a young woman who was abducted by a fairy. She lived twenty years in the fairy world, Arcadia, before she managed to escape. By that time part of her soul was replaced by fae magic and she had turn to a living porcelain doll. Of course a normal person could see her just as a normal person but every fairy and anyone who had ever visited Arcadia saw her true form. In this picture she and her friends have just made a narrow escape back to Arcadia and she finds a little girl, who's apparently lost. The girl looks quite normal and that arouses the suspicions of Anna-Freyja's friends. She, however, insists that they take the girl with them back to the real world. Perhaps it's better if I won't tell, what happened to the little girl.

I used just one pencil with this picture and added the butterflies to add some magic to the picture.

Mariam

Here's a charachter originally from a story me and my friends thought up, but after that she became my role playing charachter. Her hair changed a bit for the game, but the personality still is quite the same. May I present: Mariam. Mariam is a young woman who knows that guys like him and she can take advantage of that information. Sounds cruel, but that's how she rolls. The young man in the picture is a kind of a friend of hers, Theon. He was played by my friend. They are in their favourite spot in their home village, the rosegarden. This picture is basically from the day before a bunch of nasty shadows attack the village and after that they attacked every night and killed people. Unfortunately they were hiding in Mariam during the day, for she was half fae (she found that out during the game), and that almost got her killed. As the elders of the village told: never go to the forrest, it's full of fae and other evil things, like shadows.

Mariam - coloured pencil, pencil, and ink

I used coloured pencil, pencil, and ink in this picture and as I said in my last update, I will never draw as many roses as I did for this picture.

Roses, roses...

It's bee a while since my last update. I was visiting my parents, yet again, and had a larp to attend to. It was great fun to cry my heart out, because my husband had drowned. Okay, that sounds pretty creepy, but live action role playing is actually quite fun.

I'll never draw this much roses again.

Here you have a sneak peak of my next work. The flowers are supposed to be roses and there are quite a lot of them, so it's taking time to draw them.