WCC: World of Warcraft Valentine Cards

   HELLO! Yes, I'm back! And what's more I've got a few WoW Crafting Challenge posts to put up over the next few weeks. I've been trying my best to make as much as I can, but at this point in the challenge, while I am posting number 11 today (remember that I'm not allowed to repeat a crafting medium throughout this challenge), it's getting quite difficult to come up with any new crafts to try. I've got a few random ones, and a few ideas thanks to some artist friends, but I still only have 3 completed pieces, including this one, to go up, and another in progress. It's getting really quite difficult.

   I did say, though, that 15 would be a good place to call it quits, but I don't think I'm going to do that. I have lots of ideas it's just that a lot of them aren't doable without practise, research, or spending lots of money. But I'll see what I can manage!

   This week I've got some World of Warcraft Valentine cards. Now, I'll admit that some of them aren't all that Valentine's-y. I drew them all out with Valentine intentions but some of them...well it's hard to see the festivity, some of them just look like drawings. I didn't add any text to them and in hindsight I think perhaps I should have, it may have helped, but I've put weeks into these - digital art is not a skill I possess - and I don't really want to go back now that I said 'I've finished', you know?

   I made four different ones, two Horde and two Alliance. I had wanted to get them finished a few weeks ago and attempt to sell them but...well I literally only finished them today. That's a little bit too late really.

   For the Horde (get it?) I've made a Troll and a Blood Elf. These are the two that, in my opinion, are the least Valentine's-y. The Troll has a little baby raptor she was given as a present, and while I had drawn the remains of the box it had been in, I just couldn't find anywhere in the image to put it where it would look natural.

   The Blood Elf is sat beside a picnic basket - no, this wasn't in relation to the Romantic Picnic Basket, in fact that had never occurred to me, instead it is just simply a lovely romantic picnic. I'd love one with my boyfriend but we'd have to do it on a boat. The flooding around here is getting simply ridiculous. But look at the water! I really think it looks freaking amazing for my first attempt at digital water. Seriously! Yay! I couldn't repeat that if I wanted to.

   For the Alliance I've made a Dwarf and a Night Elf. Yes, that is a Dwarf. I really struggled to draw her - not only is the pose one I had never once even attempted to draw before, but she's not broad enough. I tried, honest I did! I kept her as short and as wide as I could. Well, sod it, regardless I think she looks awesome. She's a Wildhammer Dwarf; I figured I could make her look more Dwarvish if I gave her Wildhammer tattoos. Did I manage?

   The Night Elf was the first one I drew, and I think she came out nicely. I struggled with the cat, and I'm not 100% happy with it, but I was keen to move onto the Troll. She's clutching a heart - I had some kind of whimsical love theme in mind when I started, but it all sort of fell apart once I'd finished her. The Dwarf is releasing hearts so that's still pretty whimsical, but it's a shame I couldn't keep ahold of that theme for the other two.

   Backgrounds have absolutely always been my weakness, I have never been able to draw, shade, paint or do anything with backgrounds. You'll see that in another WCC piece where I cheated and just printed a screen shot instead of painting it, but I promise you I did try to paint it first!

   In order to attempt to avoid the problem of backgrounds, I opted to grab a screenshot relevant to the race in question and mosaic it in GIMP. The results are pretty good I think, but I let the lines get a little too dark in all but the Night Elf (like I said, she was done first).

   The backgrounds are: a tree in Darnassus for the Night Elf (I had toyed with the inside of the Temple but it didn't work out); a shot of the Isle of Giants for the Troll (I had tried the Lost Isles and Stranglethorn Vale but neither worked); a shot of Thundermar for the Dwarf (this wasn't easy because it ended up being a tall, narrow shot rather than a wide one. I just this second thought that perhaps Aerie Peak would have been better. Bums); and a tree from Eversong Forest for the Blood Elf, which was easy because I decided I'd just go back to the roots (get it? I'm on a roll today) of the Night Elf image and see if there was anything similar in Quel'Thalas.