NOTE: If anyone is interested, prints can be made available for this pic. I will not be using the dA print service though; I will post from my own home:

LARGE (a little smaller than an A4 page) = $10 AU
MEDIUM (half an A4 page) = $6 AU
SMALL (approx. 4 x 5) = $4 AU

See my journal for more details: [link]

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CHARACTER: Ororae! ^^

OWNER: Mine for once, I’m shocked. O__O

PIC STATUS: Original character, wallpaper.

MEDIUMS: Photoshop CS (path lines), my Medion tablet (colouring)

DOWNLOADS:

- Background cloud bushes downloaded from [link]

FONT USED:

- “Volt” – download here: [link]

LIFE SAVING PEN TOOL TUTORIAL: [link]

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I've only come here seeking peace
I've only come here seeking me

It seems I came to leave…

In your dream you see me clear,
I have no restraint, no fear,
Powerless I watched from faces I'd assumed.
My purpose set, my will defined,
Caress the air, embrace the skies,
Escape the sorrow and restraint of mortal cities.

Give me time I will be clear,
Given time you'll understand,
What possesses me to right what you have suffered.
I'm in this mood because of scorn,
I'm in a mood for total war,
To the darkened skies once more and ever onward.

So many years I stood among,
the thoughts and tears of those I served,
Among my own I was alone through my own doing.
All the years I walked unknown,
behind the faces I assumed,
Powerless to clear your minds of what you'd suffered.

They fall again.
They fall again.

(Chorus)

There is no faith in which to hide,
Even truth is filled with lies,
Doubting angels fall to walk among the living.
I'm in this mood because of scorn,
I'm in a mood for total war,
To the darkened skies once more and ever onward.

I'd only come here seeking peace.
I'd only come here seeking me.

It seems I came to leave…

~ “Dark Angel” by VNV Nation

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ARTIST THOUGHTS: It’s been well nigh on 3 years since I last drew Ororae, (or “Orora” as I called her back then, if anyone cares which you undoubtedly don’t >_>;; ) and well nigh on a year or more since I last uploaded one of my own characters so I figured I might as well kill two birds with one stone!

I should probably mention that one of the reasons why I don’t draw my characters that often (besides the obvious fangirl bug I’ve been bitten by ) is that none of them are very concrete design-wise, and even this version of Ororae might change later down the track since I very recently gave her a total makeover. Things are also not very concrete where storylines are concerned, hence the reason why I don’t write about my characters or attempt lengthy comics starring them… (crowd: ohhhhh so THAT’S why… )

But to make this description actually informative I should at least say a bit about Ororae since it might be another 3 years before I get another chance… Rambling ahead, skip to the end if you wish…

Ororae hails from an artificial world called Harnora which exists in The Void, and which is held in a totalitarian fashion by the Faelyn race, of which Ororae is a member of – everything under Harnora’s enormous canvas known as the Skye Bridge (which serves as a painted sky) is considered to be the realm of the False-Borns, which basically means any entity differing from the Faelyn race (Harnora’s only True-Born race, supposedly). The Skye Bridge stretches over the entire expanse of Harnora, blocking out any light which radiates from Harnora’s Zenith, leaving the False-Borns in a permanent state of gloom known as The Dusk. The Skye Bridge itself is held up by the enormous branches of the gargantuan Thundyr Tree known as Jorunne, which sprouted from a seed of Void Thundyr unwittingly brought down from the Zenith by members of the Ave’en bird race who flew too high, and brought ruin upon Harnora with their yearning to know too much of the Void. The Ave’ens have since lost their ability to fly, their bones made brittle by The Dusk of their world, but they consider this atonement for their folly and have accepted their silent wasting away in the shadow of the bridge.

There is no wind in Harnora because the Ave’ens no longer fan the skies, and no rain because there is no Empyreal God left in Harnora to weep tears for the broken world. From the moment Jorunne took root and spawned Faelyn from its fruit, Harnora was as good as dead, the world’s Empyreal Gods unable to resist the pollination of that which came from the destruction of The Void. Fyst and Llaria, the Empyreal Gods of the Cardinals (ie. elements) of Mattyr (ie. earth) and Bryath (ie. air) were first to be hopelessly ensnared in Jorunne’s roots. Amarilysa, Empyreal God of Blud (ie. water) was cruelly struck and consumed by the Faelyn before Jorunne could seize Her in the same fashion. Only Shrlara, Empyreal God of Corr (ie. fire) was able to give Harnora a fighting chance by crafting weapons called “Sowurds” from the sands – strange beings of living glass animated by Shrlara’s divine will, which were capable of cutting the otherwise indestructible Faelyn and even Jorunne’s boughs.

Unfortunately there were too few and the Sowurds, though powerful, were not immune to being shattered. Shrlara was bested and all but one Sowurd was reduced to shards, for Jorunne understood that the Faelyn must be punished for having gone against Jorunne’s will and making a fatal mistake of their own doing – by consuming Amarilysa the Empyreal God, her Blud now ran through the Faelyn where they had once been hollow shells. Inextricably bound to Empyreal Blud, the Faelyn were now capable of being bled of life, and from then onwards they were fearful of the death which Jorunne had permitted to remain in Harnora, embodied by the final Sowurd. No Faelyne would touch the last Sowurd where it had fallen, so sharp were its edges, and so susceptible now were the Faelyn to being cut and bled. Hence the Sowurd remained where it was in the realm of the False-Born, unable to stir to life without the Wurd of an Empyreal God to animate its edges… yet the Sowurd, living creature that it was, remained constantly aware of the suffering which was being wrought upon its world by the Faelyn and deep within its sharpened edges, a bitter hatred seethed and swirled.

The Faelyn in the meantime established themselves in the elevated Ave’en city called Heaven’s Door, so-called because it was the structure in Harnora closest to the Zenith. In time the Faelyn proclaimed themselves True-Born of all Harnora for having Empyreal Blud running through their veins, and The Dusk commenced with the raising of the Skye Bridge to prevent contamination with that which was considered born of falsity. For the first time in Harnora’s history, Heaven’s Door was cut off from the rest of the world, and all was dark and still – a Void within The Void.

All may have remained as it was but for the continued ramifications of the Faelyn sin of eating a God – Amarilysa had been the most rebellious and passionate out of the Empyreal Gods, and the divine will in Her Blud was constantly trying to usurp the will of Jorunne within the otherwise hollow bodies of the Faelyn. In bodies where Amarilysa’s will was stronger, those Faelyn came to know foreign desires and emotions which spoke of greater things away from the rigidity of Jorunne… anger, empathy, ambition and all manner of other feelings for which the Faelyn had no Wurds to describe… and when the urge to break free of Jorunne proved too much to bear, these Faelyn cast themselves out of Further Skye to fall into The Dusk, as far from the heights offered by Jorunne as they could find. These Faelyn came to be known spitefully as “Fall-Born” or the “Fell’d” by their loftier peers, and none were ever taken with force back to Further Skye – after all, a Fell'd Faelyne was a grounded Faelyne, possessed with no means by which to scale the Skye Bridge since Faelyn have no wings. The way back to Heaven’s Door was forever lost to those who willingly fell, a decision not to be taken lightly.

Ororae is the result of Amarilysa’s will breaking forth between two Faelyn in the form of an unknown emotion known as “love”, which compelled them to venture in taboo territory to create a Faelyn child of their own the only way they knew how, and that was to “merge” – two bodies combining to create a single, new entity. Jorunne traditionally holds sway over the distribution of life in Heaven’s Door, and Ororae embodies the gravest trespass which a Faelyn has committed since the consumption of Amarilysa. Imbued with twice the Blud of her peers from her two Faelyn creators, the divine will of Amarilysa is so poignant in Ororae so as to override Jorunne’s will of self preservation, replaced instead with Amarilysa’s murderous desire to purge the Faelyn of what is rightfully her Blud and hers' alone. Ororae is thus the first ever Faelyne who covets the death of other Faelyn, a natural born killer, effectively turning her into the enemy of her own kind… and sensing the abundance of divine will coursing through Ororae’s veins, the dormant Sowurd lying in The Dusk calls out in longing, vowing to rend the Faelyn limb to limb if Ororae would only fall and command it.

The only thing capable of quelling Ororae’s lust for Blud is her fleeting awareness of the “love” between her two creators, whose merged essences still have some sway over her thoughts. It is a spectral emotion at best though, and is yet to have any real influence over the double dose of divine will pushing Ororae towards instigating the genocide of her race.

So that’s what this pic is showing – Ororae falling out of Further Skye to wage a single-handed war against her own kind, by bleeding the Faelyn to death with her Sowurd waiting down below. To do that though, she’ll have to find a way to bring down Heaven’s Door and the Skye Bridge… but that’s another ramble for another future day, and I’m tired of typing. Moving along now…!

TECHNICAL STUFF: Actually, instead of killing two birds with one stone with this one, I killed four – the other two reasons for making this was to figure out Photoshop’s pen tool once and for all, and to get myself acquainted with digital painting via tablet. One massive guinea pig as you can see! The deeper machinations of the pen tool had escaped me for about three years, in which I’ve spent most of the time avoiding it as best as I could , but a little five minute video tutorial (linked to above) changed all of that entirely, and I’m still amazed at the good it wrought. Trust me – if you’re have trouble with figuring out the pen tool, that tutorial works absolute wonders.

As for what I used the pen tool for, I was able to make the lines which forms the hair strands in this pic and I’m eternally grateful that I didn’t have to use a tablet for those… XD;; The rest of Ororae was coloured with my Medion tablet which I got from an Aldi store for a bargain $60 and this was my first attempt at colouring something without line art. (Actually, not entirely true… I was working off a pencil sketch, but you know what I mean! ) I guess I could’ve painted the clouds myself, but by the time I’d finished colouring Ororae I was all burnt out and just fell back on cloud brushes…*flogged for being lazy* >__>;; Applied a Dark Stroke Photoshop filter to get the painted look, and voila!

The size and composition was suitable enough to make the image into a wallpaper so that’s what I did… free to use, though no commercial reproducing of course, and if you need a larger resolution then note me. ^^ Signing off, and sorry for all the rambling if any of you bothered to read all that…