Anska paints & reblogs

Gale also got an immediate far-side-of-the-face job once I merged the layers down. Maybe one day I will catch the wonky perspective during drawing.

Gale's story is most important to me because to me it is mostly about the relationship of a man and his beloved craft. If you are passionate about something - no matter if it's painting, music, learning a language and being able to express yourself in it - and you get better at it, it can be bliss and become mentor, muse and friend to you, and quite easily your whole world. You might even feel beloved and blessed by your craft herself. Otoh a phase of stagnation might feel like your craft is a cold, unkind mistress, dangling the secrets you desperately need just out of reach - and you have to do everything in your power to climb to those heights because otherwise, you are nothing but the sum of your failures.

I feel the internet does not make it easier because while it offers inspiration and community, it also forces constant comparisons with all the masters of the past and present on to you - there might even be a handy metric to put numbers to your self esteem. So you can easily feel like you have to proof something. Especially if you pursue your thing with professional ardour, this can send you down a very negative feedback loop and make you hunt down those "three little tricks" instead of just enjoying your slow but frustrating growth.

Starting out, this is my vizref board for the three paintings. It’s all a bit small because some of the images should not be reposted, but I hope you can make out the gist of it. If you cannot: Each couple has a section with head turn-arounds, costume references and a few poses I liked for them. For Karlach’s arm I also needed some additional help.

Because I know nothing about dancing, dancing poses were the first thing I had to look into. Wyll and Lae’zel, I imagine as very athletic and dynamic but also disciplined, formal dancing came to mind. (My main reference ended up being this stock photo by Deagreez on IStock )

Shadowheart and Karlach, I imagined to have a lot of enthusiasm but little skill, so I was looking for poses reminiscent of a couple dancing in their kitchen. I was also looking for a lifting pose as a reference to Shads’s fantasies about being carried around. (My main reference ended up being this one) I ended up needing some anatomy help for the arm as well as for the legs, so I searched my reference library for something helpful. (These are the four large ones on the side, they are from Santine Zillah’s couples 2 pack over on Proko. ) 

For Astarion and Gale finally, I wanted to show as safe and comfortable with each other, like they have forgotten the world around them but still a little ✨ magical. This made me think of slow-dancing, but also reminded me of the scene at the end of Family from Buffy in which Tara and Willow float while dancing. It took me a while to find a pose I was happy with. The sketches above are the ones that I liked best. As you can maybe see, I wanted to play with height difference a little, as I imagine Gale to be a bit of a bean-pole and Astarion more on the shorter side - he has that Miniature Spitz energy - and I liked the idea of Gale using magic to bring them to the same eye-level. To me, Gale is all about lifting others up. (There is no real main reference for this picture but several pictures from this photo set by 4x6 helped me out - generally a pretty good source if you have questions about clothing folds btw.)

The painting process from then on was pretty simple. Earlier this year I had experimented with using layer-modes none-destructively, and while this was helpful, it did not bring me much joy. So I switched back to what I did before and flattened down all layers after choosing my colours and and basic shadows, and then continued to paint on top, cutting the figures apart again when needed. For example it was easier to keep Shads and Karlach on different layers because I was still fiddling with the shape and hold of the Shadow 🍑. Karlach’s fire-effects are also on separate layers because one of my dear friends on discord suggested it would be nice for her floofy shirt not to be ruined. (Firegirl deserves nice things too.)