Sheldon and Daisy's New Year

So, for the new year's here, and I did a pic for it. It's kind of funny' cause I've never drawn Sheldon and his little sister, Daisy, together before; I never realized how big Sheldon is. Hah hah...

Sheldon and Daisy have a very strong connection emotionally, mentally, and often physically, as one comforts and protects the other and vice versa. Now concerning the weather, Sheldon actually prefers the heat to the cold, but he'll literally try to do anything for his sister, so he went out to see the new year's first weather. In this case, snow. Quite frankly, the fact that his sister likes the cold would make him like going out even if he got frostbite and lost his hands or something. It's snowing pretty hard as you can see.

They're brother and sister, but clearly, and I mean clearly, they look almost nothing alike. While Sheldon is pallid with a wide, large mouth and bland blond hair, Daisy is ruddy with platinum blond hair. Daisy doesn't really look like any of her parents, though maybe a smidgen of her mom in the nose and eyes and touch of her father in her easygoing manner. Sheldon takes a lot more after his parents. He looks very much like his mother, and he shares his father's presence. They have an older sister, Ophelia, and she looks like her father. Not to mention they have extremely different faces. Both Sheldon and Daisy work out a lot, but 'cause of Daisy's puffy coat hides her musculature.

Sheldon's wearing only green because Daisy's eyes are are green. He believes that protects him from the "Brown Police," policemen and women in blue after anyone (meaning him in Sheldon's mind) wearing brown. After a while, that just became part of his lifestyle. If you're not aware of it, Sheldon has undifferentiated schizophrenia which explains his delusion.

As I mention on deviantART, I really like this picture. I deliberately made Sheldon look unpleasant to the point of looking threatening to throw people in the story (and possibly readers) a loop. But Sheldon is really a very kind person, and his tenderness shows in this pic with the way he's with his little sister.

This pic's obviously also on deviantART.

Later.

Exclusive Excerpts for the Next Few Days - From Chapter 15

Today's excerpt is gonna be from Chapter 15: Base 026.

When Bay Unit is replacing devastated Russet Unit in New Guinea, Sheldon is not as close to the transport as he should have been when a bomb raid hits and... It's better if you read it. You know the drill, first draft out of context.

There's no strong language in this excerpt, but clearly being bombed, you know, I'm pretty sure that counts as violence. So maybe E10+ would be suitable for this.

***

The night came, and the next day took it over. We assessed their situation, and after the engineers had gotten the radio to work for a minute, Captain Rowery contacted HQ. I wasn’t there when it happened. But I do know they were pulling Ivory away from here. They were moving them to Ethan and Sosa’s vehicles. The ones in the worst conditions were brought in on makeshift stretchers. Raven was next to me, below but not directly under the overhanging ledge of rock. Heimer and the girl I subbed for were moving the last of Ivory’s stuff damaged but reparable. Ethan’s ship was too full with Ivory soldiers and Ivory-owned property, so a number of the stuff was left here. They moved in single file, stepping in as perfect unison as they injuries would allow.

I will never forget how I tackled Raven a full two seconds before the first bomb hit. The noise blew out whatever hearing I had in both ears. Debris skyrocketed into the air and upset the whole Earth. Rocks came crashing into our space just when another went off. The ledge caved and buried shrieking bodies, Raven’s and mine. More screams from above. Ground cracked and sucked in dirt. Another roaring crash wrung my guts and stomach and my heart was about to choke me if it stayed in my throat too long. Raven’s arms bent painfully on my chest, and I knew my over two hundred pounds including the wreckage on top of me was crushing her. So much broken boulder masked us, we could barely see the sunlight. The fourth explosion shoved the stones closer in on us. Fifth and closer. I started feeling sickeningly claustrophobic. The air was hot and close, and I was begging myself not to throw up on Raven’s head. The screams were gone, but the collapsed rock on me was so heavy, I could hardly think about anything else but for the humans not to drop a bomb right on our mound. We couldn’t move if we wanted to; my concentration was in too many different things for me to teleport, and we were better off not moving. I didn’t know how many other bombs there were. I couldn’t hear a thing, and I was terrified I was permanently deaf. But I got my answer soon enough. Tremors. Tremors I couldn’t count shocked the earth into sudden jolts that shifted the rocks into tighter, more painful positions for us. They came too fast, and they went on and on. They would not ever stop. We were going to die if we weren’t dying already. Less light now. Just the top of Raven’s head was visible. I started flickering Daisy, Ophelia, Mom, Father, Da, Jason, everyone I cared about, remembering things we did, fun times, happy times. I shouted when a rock dug into my side and cracked a rib. I clutched onto the last thing I had from my life. A ruthless shot of pain went into my head and shoulder. A stream of hot something flowed down from where the rocks stabbed. Over my right eye, cheek, and down my chin. I tried to tell Raven I was hurt, but all that came out was a whimper. And darkness took over.

***

Well, that's it. That's also it for the excerpts. If you haven't read them all, why not go back and read the three? Some of them have mature content, so if you're a minor living with your parent(s) or legal guardian(s), you might wanna check with them first before reading them.

Later.

Trapped in Your Lie

I actually drew this in the beginning of the fall, but I had so much other stuff to work with, I kind of pushed this aside until 12/3 morning. Then I waited until I was finished posting excerpts to upload this particular pic.

Originally, this was part of an experiment I did in the summer to see which worked better as of that moment: my Sakura ink pens that I regularly use or the new crow quill I got. Whichever was the best, I would color. I prepared the experiment by drawing the picture in pencil then scanning it into my CPU. Uploading it to Adobe Photoshop Elements, I turned the grayscale image blue, copied the image, and pasted it to the side of the first image. Then after printing it (much later), I inked it with my usual tools and then the newer ones. In the end, the Sakura pens won out. I'd only ever used a broken in crow quill pen before, so my performance with my new tool will improve with time. But for now, the Sakura pens are the way to go for me.

I realized I would have to give Sheldon's face, seven years-old in this picture, a slightly healthier tint than teenager Sheldon. You'll notice how the youngster flush kinda uneven, but I like it that way. Makes it look more natural and has the vague effect of balancing the red of the baseball lining. But red in his cheeks would make him look too similar to his baby/toddler age, so around his face works better.

The eyes are always a treat for me, and they were fun and quick to do. Because he's fibbing, I wanted to make his eyes stand out with extra shine. To indicate his "Please believe me" face. I did his upper lip in the same layer as his eyes. Overall, this part took me 5-10 minutes.

His hair took a lot of time not only 'cause I had to tailor it down to size, but I couldn't figure out what shade of goldish-yellow to make Sheldon's hair. The light source is coming from in front, clearly, so the main highlights would be in front and the shadows would, as few as there are is Sheldon's hair here, be behind objects in front of the light. His youngest sister, Daisy, has platinum blonde hair while Sheldon has darkish blond hair, so since he compares them a few times in the book, I wanted to be sure there was some distinction here. His hair was more "lively" and less limp than Sheldon's teen hair. I allowed myself more color saturation than I normally add. I must have been at it for about 30-45 minutes.

His clothes were easy, though I used multiple layers for it. He wore this top in another picture, so I didn't have to think about its color scheme. I put orange, did random burning and dodging and then used the Impressionist brush to give it that blotchy look. It's hard to see from here, but it creates a slight texture you wouldn't get if it were a solid color. Then I shaded it with grey in another layer and used the same layer with the jeans. There's actually a texture fill (denim) on the jeans that gives it a better look. His shoes were simple, but it took me a little time to realize I had to factor in the shape of the shoes...

The ball and vase were simple. Just a few minutes coloring and shading. In my Hard Light layer, I made them shiny.

The background I did in another file altogether. I made most of it, pasted it behind Sheldon, and completed our light source effect. There's a faint glow around Sheldon's outline that makes the shadow seem sharper. With the final touches in place, "Trapped in Your Lie" is finished.

Maybe you found that interesting, maybe you didn't, but if you're still reading this, you probably found it at least worth your time, and for that, I'm grateful. Stay tuned for more another time!

Later.

Exclusive Excerpts for the Next Few Days - From Chapter 21

Today's excerpt is from Chapter 21: The Fate of the Army.

It's basically about the General of the Army sitting at his desk, musing over his army, one of his officers, and human teeth. The General's waiting for said officer to come to his office, but he's hasn't arrived yet. Again, this is a piece of my first draft taken out of context, so bear with any weirdness, please.

Unlike last excerpt, this passage is "rated E10+" and can be viewed by everyone over ten, in my opinion. The only somewhat dodgy thing about it is the fact that he's thinking about death and war, but there's nothing gory or explicit about it. So read away, tweenagers!

How many children was he killing? The youngest paranormal offspring here could not have less than seven years. He had made sure of this. But it seemed the majority of the casualty list he posted every Saturday was comprised of prepubescent children. When he had gone to find said children, many of them had loose or missing teeth. And what of the others he was sending to die for him? The grown men, women, teenagers. How many of them was he killing? Who would return to their families and who would he have to watch buried?

Osiris sat solemnly at his desk, his head turned to the rain-washed window. Ankh should have been here by now. He would never strike the boy, but what would it take to get his Logistics Officer to appreciate the need for haste in wartime? It aggravated him, aggravating being such the appropriate word here because Osiris was always facing one form of irritation or another nowadays. Ankh’s apparent intrinsic need to linger did not help. For a boy with the ability to move at speeds above 250 miles per hour, Ankh did not move very quickly when asked. Ordered, rather. Deciding it would not do to dwell on something that made him angry, Osiris put the thought to the back of his mind and returned to the subject of missing teeth.

What was it like for human-based beings to have molars, canines, and bicuspids detach themselves from one’s gums? Of course, he had had teeth fall out in his early years, but human teeth fell out only once if they weren’t knocked out, and then once adult teeth were gone, they did not grow back. Having had many dental mishaps in his youth yet still equipped with a full set of flush, white teeth, Osiris could only imagine the inefficiency of human teeth. A clap of thunder rumbled quite loudly, and the five pencils, fussily placed exactly half an inch from each other, rolled out of position. He readjusted them without looking and did the same with the other items the sound wave had disturbed.

So few. They had so few paranormals to work with. Paranormals are rare compared to the humans. With over eight billion humans roaming the Earth, less than a million paranormals occupied the world’s overall head count. Osiris always had his qualms about humans, but he did not want to see the population of Earth drop to numbers low, the human creature became endangered and then irretrievable. Paranormality would surely perish as a human derivative if humans could not breed in a vast gene pool. That was why every loss burned like fire. Particularly any dear child who departed from this life before it was their time. And every loss was one less attack inflicted on the Morri. There were many species with special and supernatural abilities, as Osiris very well knew, but the one that mattered was the paranormal aspect. This was the one species that could produce attacks that could affect the Morri unbeknownst to most humans except his special Communications Officer. Ms. Dexter, at least, had a sense of promptness that Ankh somehow lacked in leaps and bounds. Another rumble of thunder caused the pencils to roll, and Osiris positioned them once more.

That's it. I hope you enjoyed this excerpt. There's more stuff to come later on, so keep yours heads up.

Later.

Exclusive Excerpts for the Next Few Days - From Chapter 13

Today, I'll upload one of my favorite excerpts from what I wrote last month. It's from Chapter 13: Pigeon. In basic terms, Sheldon's increasing expertise in his division was getting to the previous top four soldiers, and they overreacted. Sheldon was checking his statistics when this thing happened. Like I've said before, if this doesn't make sense, that's 'cause it's outta context and a first draft. So... yeah. *nervous sweatdrop*

This excerpt contains some low key violence and some strong language. Viewer discretion is advised. Meaning if you or your parent(s) or your legal guardian(s) have problems with this kind of content, you'd probably shouldn't be reading it.

Hope you enjoy it.

***

I broke off, looking around in bewilderment. The room was changing. Changing into the thick, sweltering jungle that we had our first scrimmage in with Alpine. I jumped up. I was more than confused. The ceiling was full of clouds, and trees went in every direction you could think of. “What?” Was this some test, triggered by whoever got a high rank? The base from our first scrimmage was there, too. It stood behind me, small, wooden, and vulnerable-looking. Grass swished under my bare feet. Having taken off my uniform’s pants and vest, I’d also removed my socks and boots. In this bizarre situation I couldn’t explain, I felt naked and as defenseless as the unmanned base. It was strange to think of the base as a person, but the base was like me in that sense. I wanted to share in the uncomfortable feeling. The door swung on its hinges as I pushed it open and walked inside.

I turned to stone when it closed behind me.

“Hey, Lamar,” said London. Menski and Cosario stood on either side of him. Haitus towered above his comrades and me from London’s back. I don’t think London bothered to cover the sneer in his voice with his next words. “You enjoy trying to outclass me, don’t you?”

“Wh-What? No!” I said. It didn’t occur to me to sound braver than I was, and my voice cracked, leaking every old, paranoid insecurity I nearly buried in the barracks. “How did you guys get here? What do you want from me? What? I didn’t do anything to you, really! Really! I didn’t, really!” He crossed the room quickly, and my limbs couldn’t untense fast enough.

“You know exactly what I want from you, you son of a bitch.” He snarled, holding me above the wood floor by my clothing. “You’re encroaching on my territory. This has nothing to do with honor or power. You took what was mine, and I want it back.”

“I didn’t do anything to you! I don’t want anything from you! I don’t want anything!” I was trying to pry his hands off my collar, but a hard yellow shell shielded his hand. “Whatever you want, take it!” Someone ripped me from London’s grasp and clotheslined me with the force to make me spin. A girl’s muscular arms put me in a much more dangerous position. I felt the crook of Menski’s arm compressing my esophagus.

“Don’t you dare patronize us. You know it doesn’t work that way.” She said. She shifted her arms to grip my hair. My chance to escape.

I bolted. They all made a move for me. Cosario shouted, London fired a claw-like arch at me, but I dodged. In no time, I was running into the forest.

“Why are you running, you damn coward?!” I heard London shout after me. “What’s the matter?! You were doing so brilliantly before you weren’t in front of a crowd!” Then his voice disappeared into the crashing and crackling of leaves I made from dashing through the trees and plant life. The side of my face where Menski punched me was swelling painfully. Never good at pacing, I was running over changes in the elevation but also running out of breath. I couldn’t stop running. I tripped and fell over an uncovered root. The seconds it took me to get up brought the pursuing sound of hunters I’d been dreading. My hands and chin dripped sweat.

I saw the other base. The mass lifted from my chest as I closed in on it. But wait. No, it was the first base that I just left. I didn’t want to stop running, yet my lungs seared, and I saw stars and blurring. I rounded the base to the back, but right at that moment, I knew I couldn’t do anymore. Choking on my air, I tipped against the building’s rear, nausea taking over, crawling up my throat. The four 5^th Division soldiers found me by the sound of my vomiting.

“Oh, puking already?” Haitus sneered. I coughed up more bile and looked at him out of unsteady eyes. “How pathetic.”

“Bay Unit doesn’t need weak, cowering boys like you.” London said softly, closing our distance. They were in uniform, I was not. Standing in what was practically underwear, I felt exposed and helpless. Avoiding eye contact, I took a step back and sank. I sat in the grass, knowingly but unable to prevent my drained body from offering London submission through my pose. They weren’t superiors in the Bernstein was. They were my equals. For all I knew, this was as legal as siblings fighting. The tears were inevitable. By now, London was standing above me. “Crying? Again with the crying?! Do you know how many times you woke me up in the middle of the night with your bitching about your nightmares to nobody?! Everyone here stopped crying months ago, but you still haven’t gotten over it! You’re pathetic, too damn delicate, and your skin is thinner than your resolve. If you lead us, you’ll lead us straight to hell, and we don’t need that. I won’t crack like you if I’m in command, and that’s why I can’t let you be a part of this.” I gazed up into the dark eyes, shaking and losing control of my bladder. “The great double ass have doesn’t have anything to say?”

They don’t want to just hurt me, I understood.

“There’re four of you. One of me.”

“You think I don’t know that?!”

“I don’t know what you’re gonna do to me,” I said, openly pleading with him in earnest, “but please… please don’t kill me.”

***

Well, I hope you enjoyed that. Thanks for reading!

For pictures of Sheldon, go to GenreChowderStudios' deviantART gallery. There are a ton of them there.

Later.