Sketching: The Girl, the Castle and the knight

Hi there it’s me Khoola the author, artist!? 😅,

Boss Girl saw my sketches that I drew haphazardly from one of my stories, and out of the blue she just said I should draw 😱.

I was like, “”Ghad, this is the Digital Age where Digital Arts are thriving, NFT(s) are Digital Art and we all know what they are worth. So where the hell does my sketches go in place like this?”.

But,

When Boss Girl said “you should draw” with a specific idea in mind. It was an issued challenge, like a Queen saying to her Knight.

"Sir Knight Khoola from the Brotherhood of @hiveph, I Queen @dreemsteem of the Kingdom of Dreemers, acknowledged your skill and bravery and thus hereby give you a challenge... bring me the head(s) of the of the Six Headed Hydra and I want it on a stick!"

😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱😱

Well, after being recognized by a Queen. I said this with all dignity and honor.

"😭 Fine, the hell with it... I'll do it.😭."

Anyway, let’s us start with the project.

_{This is the drawing that started this: The Pirate, The Kraken and The Merrow 👈 here is a link if you want to read the story.}

Laying out the Plan

The Challenge that was issued by the Queen 👇

_{This is the challenge 😨, haven't 'really' drawn in ages and this is a HUGE sketch... I am like Ghad, can I even do this?}

I need to draw a castle with a moat, a girl (note not a princess) looking at the sunset with a knight riding towards her.

I got no idea who is this mysterious girl the Queen sent me (The Knight) to save from the Six Headed Hydra by the Evil Wizard @takuris.. Ghad! I have plot already 😍

ROMANTIC!?

The hell it is! 😍 So it is totally my story writing genre… can make a story out of it.

DAUNTING!?

HELL YES! 😭 but as far as I can see. I can do this in two ways where in I can flaunt my sketching of the castle, the girl and the knight in more detail than just drawing it straight up.

so here is the plan:

_{Unsure if you guys can see my ramblings on paper 😂}

Option 1: Landscape Orientation. Inspired from a book cover. The middle area and general background is the castle and the knight riding towards it.
Sides images: left the Knight looking at the Girl on the right side of the page while she is looking at the sunset on the left hand of the page.

When I said book cover, means you can fold the drawing in the center making the castle in the back end with the title, author and publisher. Front cover the Girl and back cover the Knight.

Option 2: Portrait Orientation: Comic strip style with a short intro story, nuff said 😎

Right now, I am gearing towards the first options which is as hard as the second option but looks way better (in my head at least) but if by any chance you guys have a better idea, please leave it at the comment section... I would love to hear it.

Now, for the castle I have chosen Dunnottar Castle, this I have just randomly seen as a login page on my laptop and like seeing divine providence for the first time, I shouted "EUREKA!".

_{Dunnottar Castle in Stockhaven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. SOURCE}

Here is a link to Stonehaven, Scotland where Dunnottar Castle is found. I have a great sunset picture of it but sadly can't show it here.

Now we go to character creation. First off the Girl, her image will be on the right looking left towards the sunset but for now we will make a rough sketch, so it will be easier for me to draw her on top of the created background later.

Here are some images of the Girl's rough sketching:

Here you can see my frame for the girl, this will serve as our manikin. We will make her a Girl from here. 💃

Breast, curves and arms... now we definitely know she is a she. 😍

First, we dress her up... I accidentally drop some water and now the paper is wet 😭.

Then we make her hair and face... I wont do the facial features yet as that is very tedious (the mechanical pencil can't make such fine linings), a very simple and expressive face makes a character come to life which makes it hard to do, better leave them eyes sockets for now.

And here is a rough sketch or guide for our girl... I was trying to extend her right arm and just hold a lamp of some sort but found it unnecessary.

By next week hopefully I can show the drafts for the knight and castle, and get to the point that I can slap them all together. (although holidays are coming, will try 😭)

_{Our frame for the Knight 💪}

I want to sincerely thank @dreemsteem for pushing me to do this, I am kind of enjoying it .

Also I am thinking when I got home... I could do a 3speak version of my sketching, just for the hell of it 😁.

Thank you for stopping by!

_{All links go to Wikipedia.org. The pictures and the drawings in this post were made or taken by myself, ©@khoola. The Image of Dunnottar Castle is under Creative CommonsAttribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license by Andrewmckie.}