Welcome to the Family: An Outcast's Beginning-WIP

Hosted Games Works In Progress
41

Wow. I’ve only ever owned dogs, so I wouldn’t know what to name a raven :-S
But that name fits! I’m sure Larry is very happy that someone cares enough to name him.
( unlike me, cough cough )

Anyway, I finally have a picture of one of the male characters! Yay!
This is Derrin:

I tried and I think I did horribly, okay, but I still tried!!

…Yep. So that’s my drawing of Derrin. It’s probably not-so-great, but then again, I don’t know. Almost all of my drawings look terrible to me, so I can’t really trust my opinion…ever :stuck_out_tongue:

Other than that, Derrin pretty much has sandy-ish, red-brown hair and dark green eyes, with an even skin tone. That’s how I imagine him in my mind.

42

A tip with the eyes:
For females draw a box first then base the eye inside that box, notice that the eye should not be as angular as for a boy, and draw the upper eyelid as a curving line very close to the top of the eyes.
For males draw a line that would be the top of the eye, and put a “hooking edge” on the right (for a right eye) of the line or on the left (for a left eye) of the line. Draw an outwards pointing diagonal line on the side of the eye opposite from the “hooking edge” now all you have left is the iris.
Examples:
Female:

Male:

43

@LOR

I couldn’t even begin to give you as many tips and examples as nice lil’ Headhunter did, but I have to say that, compared to what I can draw, yours are awesome! Like- I bow down to you, I worship you. They’re so much better than my lanky lookin’ stick figures.
^:)^

And I think you mentioned something 'bout them before, not much… Will Mr. and Mrs. Valence be in the story or is it all centered about the kids…?

Justaquicklittleopiniontypething… This story kind of reminds me of that movie Dark Shadows, excluding the vampire stuff and Johnny Depp… Anyhow. xD

44

@Headhunter180
Ah. Hm. I see what you mean :slight_smile:
I’ll have to try that out. Practice makes perfect, right? And I’ve pretty much always taught myself how to draw, so a couple pointers here and there are helpful, so thanks.

@ClockDS
Hahaha, no way! I’m not that great at drawing, I’ve just gotten past stick figures. I pretty much hated them when I was a little kid, so I never really drew them unless I had no patience otherwise.

Ah, yes, Mr. and Mrs. Valence. Quite an interesting couple…
But yeah, they’ll be part of the story. I mean, they kinda own the entire Valence mansion and are kinda the heads of the household. And besides that, the Valence children have to get their…(once again) interesting…traits from somewhere! In my mind, the entire family all together and in action are pretty funny, just…strange.
Ha, Dark Shadows…
I guess that would make sense actually. And, um, yeah, no, NO vampires, thank you very much! They’ve been done to death, in my opinion (ha ha…just noticed that…). The Valences are a little like the Adams Family but I see how the story can seem very Dark Shadows-ish. It’s got that strange, dark feel to it. I love strange, dark, mysterious stuff so most of my stories are a little like that XD

45

@LOR

No way. I admire your work and, not to mention, the work of others on this site~ I drool over them. Q_Q

I love the biographies of the kids but I find that I love the guardians more. Odd, maybe, but they always have that certain vibe to them that I adore, especially in a mysterious story like this!

And I have to agree with you on that last point. I’d have to say about 90% of all my stories I’m writing have that dark feeling to them. But no VAMPIRES. I hated Twilight before it was cool. C:

46

@ClockDS
Yes, I must agree about the vampires. Twilight basically ruined my former, dark and romanticized idea of the monstrous creatures that drank blood. Totally destroyed the dream.

I find that I basically always need to have some sort of dark feel to my stories, despite the degree, otherwise I get bored with it and feel like it’s too innocent and clichè.

By the “guardians”, do you mean the parents? I’m sure I could add in a character like that, or I could possibly find a way to make Mr. and Mrs. Valence ROs…
But that all really depends. Actually, either of those would be relatively easy to do, in all honesty. My initial thought was that there wouldn’t be interest in the master and mistress of the household, but I could always be wrong. I figured since they were, you know, the parents of all these kids that would be a bit of a put-off…
Once again, I could always be wrong, though.

But thanks for the wonderful compliment! And yay, the bios actually turned out well…was a little worried about that, haha :slight_smile:

47

@LOR

Yus, same here. Curse you Twilight. T^T

And yep, by guardians I mean the parents. I don’t know, I guess they could always be more in the background instead of completely in the spotlight with the MC and the kids. It’s probably just me; I love the parent figures even if they aren’t mentioned much. Other people might have a different opinion, however, so don’t take my word for it. Lol.

Your welcome dear~ I absolutely loved the biographies and your pictures. This is a thread I’ll be following very closely… And you’re without a doubt one of my new favorite authors, even with just that short but awesome prologue. :wink:

48

Okay. Now, I think ( I think ) I’ve got Derrin right this time.
His eyes are still a little bit wide, but that’s 'cause he’s one of the younger ones of the Valences.

Derrin (take two!):

I hope I did it right this time?

And @ClockDS Haha, thank you! I’m super psyched that what I wrote seems good so far :slight_smile: . Now I just gotta keep it up. Slightly pressuring, but I’ve still got to try especially since I love writing.

So. After @ClockDS mentioned the parents, I was wondering about what other people may think. They’re definitely part of the story as well as the Valence children, but are there any other thoughts or questions regarding them?

49

One problem.
He hath no eyebrows, why?
Sides that it looks pretty good.

50

@Headhunter180
Well, for some strange reason, I don’t usually draw eyebrows unless the character is extremely angry or sad or upset. And the hair usually covers that part of the head so I don’t really think about it. Don’t ask me, that’s just how I work. But I shall remember that when I draw the other guys! And your advice on the eyes was useful, thanks.

51

It’s been a while! I have not been able to do my fan art due to exams and all of those essays to write! So I will draw

Raven

Allyne ( Re-do)

Marjoine (Re-do)

I MIGHT get outlined sketches out by this weekend.

52

Well. Ok. Wow.
I feel like I haven’t been on here in forever.

So, as for drawings of Sorro and Vessan, I pretty much plan to try my best to have both by at least Tuesday. 'Cause it bothers me that getting around to drawing them seems to be taking so darn long.

It’ll probably be easier to draw Sorro than it will be to draw Vessan. I dunno :stuck_out_tongue:

Okay, well I guess I can write some stuff about the other Valences in the meantime.

Here’s some info. on the other Valence children:

Lyfir:
Lyfir seems to be a bit more like the “impossible” Valence in the family, as he’s actually quite considerate and helpful, but very charming as well. Surprisingly, he’s twins with Tome. He and his sister are absolutely nothing alike; in both appearance and personality. While Lyfir is charming and friendly, Tome is cold and emotionless. Though, despite Tome’s lack of understanding emotions, Lyfir always seems to still care about her and would never abandon his sister.

Tome:
This is the Valence that seems to annoy the hell out of poor Sorro, who seems to understand everything except her. Tome is virtually emotionless, only showing few emotions but not really understanding them at all in general. She doesn’t quite understand things like common courtesy, protocol, and anything else concerning how people interact. She’s usually quiet and cold, but is quite perceptive to the point where one may question whether or not her intelligence is average. Tome always follows Lyfir, though, and always listens to him; sort of like a servant. Her mysteriousness is what gets on Sorro’s nerves the most, while the other Valences simply shrug, saying “Yup. That’s our Tome.”

Cloude:
Cloude is probably the only one in which the term “child” would be most appropriate in the literal usage. Even though he’s quite obviously only a child still, he seems to understand everything about his siblings and maybe knows a thing or two more. He almost never talks, making him seem like a mute at times and he always somehow disappears without anyone’s notice. But Cloude seems to have an odd interest with a strange little hand-held mirror…

@trollhunterthethird
Nice to see ya again. Yay! I can’t wait to see your fan art. I hope your essays went well

Oh, and by the way to anyone who may be wondering, this is their age order:
Vessan
Allyne
Sorro
Marjoine
Tome&Lyfir
Derrin
Raven
Cloude

It’s a bit difficult determining the twins’ age, but that’s what it would basically be, I think.

53

When can we expect the first demo?

54

@Martin_Brody
That’s a bit of a tough question, but I’m aiming to have at least something in about a month. I was working on it a lot on my laptop, which I can’t exactly use 24/7, so I recently started working on the whole coding/story thing on my regular computer.

55

Sorro:

Vessan:

Cloude:

Here are some more pictures of the Valences :slight_smile:
I don’t really like how Vessan turned out, so I’ll re-draw him later. But other than that, only the twins are left to draw out of the Valence children, which I’m pretty excited about. I’m kind of biased towards them, but I still love all of the Valences, as insane or strange or weird as they may be.

56

Dem Pupils!
In human anatomy the iris is larger the the pupil (but that’s if you wanna be anatomically correct)
A good rule for eyes is like such:
Bad character: half lidded eyes so only bottom half of iris is showing (makes for a sinister look)
Example: Kenzan

Normal/Good character: 3/4 of the iris showing so the eyelids only a 4th of the way down
Cutesy character: iris takes up the ENTIRE eye and the eyes are fully open

57

Well, I can’t help it! I guess I draw in a more cartoon-y, anime-ish style. I used to draw more realistic, and probably still could, I just haven’t done that in a looooong time. Like, around a year or two :stuck_out_tongue: I quit mostly because it annoyed me how cartoon-y AND realistic it looked at the same time, which I didn’t like since I hated how my drawings always came out as a mix like that.
But, in all honesty @Headhunter180 , I think you draw way better than me. I’ve always wanted to draw less…well…the way I draw, to put it simply, haha.

58

I actually *really* like what’s been established about Derrin thus far, right down to his more casual-looking shirt. Sorro and Vessan haven’t snagged me quite the same, but perhaps it’s mostly just because they seem pretty similar at this point, if only in their relatively high self-esteem levels and… okay, the fact that they’re both drawn wearing neckties may not help that. :stuck_out_tongue:

I also like how, at least at the moment, Derrin looks ever-so-subtly like Cloude, and vice-versa. There actually seems to be quite a bit of that good ol’ familial resemblance going on between different pairs of children, (particularly Allyne and Marjoine, interestingly enough) which I think is quite cool. I certainly won’t assume that it’s unintentional. :smiley:

As far as the parents go, it’d definitely be nice to see the full characterizations of the brave (or simply non-chalant) couple that can somehow manage (or, well, mismanage) a household of so many bizarre children.

As for any romantic potential, (despite the fact that they’re supposedly more-or-less happily married, I presume?) I don’t think it could hurt to at least allude to it, if only to *truly* drive home how… interesting the family makeup is. Whether it’s left at that or explored further, hopefully in as semi-meaningful a vein as with the children, ought to be up to you, of course. Whatever the case, romantic under-or-overtones with one (…or both?) of them would unquestionably provide quite a unique dynamic in several different ways. :-?

59

@Shenrai
Thanks for the detailed feedback!
In all honesty, I wasn’t very sure how to draw Vessan so that was mostly just an un-thought-out attempt, haha.

But I’m glad to hear your opinion so far since it would be difficult to only rely on my own all the time. And yes, through the relationships seen in the family (both with each other and with the MC), you’ll get to see that they have quite a unique dynamic all in all. As for the Mr. and Mrs., their relationship is more lust based than love based. Hence the reason for so many children. They do have a sort of bond, though, it’s just not as “binding” as it would be for a “loving” couple. The reason why they can handle such a bizarre household is, well…something I may or may not get into :wink:

I’m especially happy with the resemblances, too, actually. I just find it ironic that all the pairs that are such look-a-likes are extremely different in their personality traits. But they do have some similar tendencies…
I guess the best way to explain how they have such similar tendencies but are so drastically different would be to say that it’s sort of like the two characters from Lord of the Flies, Simon and Roger.

In case you haven’t read it, it’s basically because even though they are both very quiet, one is psychopathic while the other is kind-hearted. Thus my meaning when I say they can be similar, but are very different at the same time. I hope that makes sense?

60

Sorro reminds me of Fred from Scooby-Doo.

Vessan looks like a shill for the big-name brands.

Cloude looks as if he just saw the ending to a Metal Gear Solid game.