Author: CallyAnn

Smoky Muses

For Loose Canon Vahaadi I really want to play up his smokiness when he moves.  Whenever he summons something from his hammer space or teleports, there’s a sort of smoky haze. Not quite like Eris, where she melts and tween frames look kinda weird. I think before he teleports or when he’s appearing, his features blur out to like a silhouette, and then the silhouette melts or wisps around.

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As much as I love the animation, I don’t think it’s quite right. Vahaadi’s features should become indistinguishable almost the moment he starts to sublime. But this is so cool I had to post it anyway. *Q*

Eris isn’t a perfect example of what I want Vahaadi’s sublimation to look like, but she inspires me. I particularly like the way her fingers are leaving smoke trails. For the record, no, I don’t think Vahaadi’s hair behaves like hers, like it’s underwater. His clothes and hair act pretty normal.

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This gif is closer to what I think Vahaadi looks like when he uses his magic. A smoky silhouette “becomes” him.

I just think this is pretty.

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Vahaadi’s feelin’ 22

Taylor Swift Feelin 22 Gif

You and Amanda have both expressed reservations about Vahaadi’s short hair at this stage but I like it. At this age he worked for the wealthy, exploitative merchant, so he keeps his beard and hair presentable and he’s developed some smooth-talking, used-car-salesman charisma. This period of his life is correlated with his sword, which he stole from a suit of Azaharian regalia as he fled his master’s palace.

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Vahaadi In His Prime

I did this on the Sketch Club app as part of a study of Vahaadi as he ages, since we were thinking the pieces of his soul are going to be associated with landmarks/turning points of his life. This is what he looks like at his oldest before becoming immortal and unaging (this look correlates with the soul piece they find in his lair). So basically, this is the way Spark knows him, and the way I usually try to draw him. He’s about 30.

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Young Vahaadi

These were originally in pencil but I decided to redraw them digitally. This is Vahaadi about age 14, shortly after joining the troupe and before he and Tryvnah got together (or even remotely liked each other).

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At this age, Vahaadi has a FEROCIOUS temper. He is impulsive, cusses like a sailor, and seems constantly on the verge of knock-down, drag-out fights with Tryvnah.  It is a coping method and an attempt at compensating for his small size, weakness and insecurity.

He is really skinny and bony from a combination of a recent, abrupt growth spurt and a poor diet. Years of malnutrition (due to his family’s poverty) has done a lot of damage to his stomach. The gypsy food is richer than what he is used to and he has an ingrained habit of eating too fast, so he has a hard time keeping it down. Stomach aches and vomiting are a frequent and miserable fact of his life.

It’s impossible to guess what he’s thinking when he sews or works at his loom.  He seems to completely shut down.

He still has a few more inches to grow before he reaches his full (albeit, short) adult height.

Young Vahaadi portrait

All the Broken Pieces

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((background to this scene:  Lanthriel was killed in a skirmish when he blocked an attack aimed at Took.  Took has an emotional break-down, and Kala and Vahaadi are so devastated they can’t even come to grips with what has happened.  Ultimately, it’s Vahaadi who convinces the other two that they will have to burn Lanthriel’s body to keep it from being desecrated by ghouls (flesh-eating wraiths).  He prepares to burn the body, but Kala insists that she do it.  She sets his body aflame and then the three leave, unable to bear looking back.