Author: Daniel J. James
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Many Swords. A vision of things to come…
Excerpt from Pavilion Remembers: Halo Sky – A vision of Whitney Donovan, Theoarm Seer:
“I see Niel struck down by a sword, I see him victorious by sword, I see him flying. I see him in the confines of sacred space, I see him at the Citadel.
I see swords.
Three swords.
Many swords.
I see… Heroes…
Swords and monsters, and heroes fighting Syn as he was in ancient days.”
This was an early design for the sword Halo Sky I did in March of 2013. The idea was that hatches on the side would open up to release the wings in the heat of battle…
Sometime around 2015, I’d mocked up what I wanted the cover of the book to look like with Halo Sky and it’s wings open. I had every intention of using this design until…
In September 2018, as I was getting to the point of finishing some edits of the book, I decided to add some digital color to the sword, and halfway through I saw it… And when I saw it, I said these words out loud
“It’s a goddamn cow!”
I wasn’t able to not see the cow. Even to this day I can’t help but see the cow in my original design. And so, I went about making a new design. There were a few I came up with, but this one was the one I liked the best. And while I still love this design and hope to use it again some day, it still didn’t have the vibe I wanted. I was going to go ahead with this design. I was pretty much ready to do so. But…
Around the same time in February 2018 I was working on what was then, a series of unrelated stories, and I had designed this sword for one of the characters in that story. This sword was love at first sight…
I wrestled with myself for a while over this one. I didn’t think it was fair to have designed this sword for this story, and this character, and take it away and put it in another story, for another character. It was probably the right call to do so, seeing as how I scrapped those stories, and this sword design might have been lost…
So that’s how I got here, to this design and this cover. I had to change a few things in the story to line up, but this sword design better fits the original vision I had in my head than how I first wrote the sword in the book. Now I can’t really imagine another sword being Halo Sky.
As the vision foretold, there will be many swords.
There are many monsters still yet to slay.
And so, there needs to be many Heroes to slay them.
Pavilion Remembers: Black Orchid is a short story that will pick up where Pavilion Remembers: Halo Sky left off, but will take the story back to a time where two worlds collide and will diverge the Pavilion Remembers series down two different paths.
One road will take the story back to Niel and the monster hunting theoarm people as they try to rebuild what Syn and his army of monsters torn down.
And another road with follow the story of Orrin Mannox and a group of zeno, as they fight to find out who is killing their people and harvesting their supernatural powers!
Friday, March, 7th
Free to read online!!!
Jump into the continuing Pavilion Remembers Series with Pavilion Remembers: Black Orchid, a supernatural story that will see the elite theoarm monster slayer Abini as she faces a cursed being unlike anything she has ever faced before!
Also!!!
Be sure to also check out Pavilion Remembers: Halo Sky, available online at Barnes & Noble and Amazon!
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Art. Stories. Heroes
I made this one a while back, and I love it even more now than I did then. At the time I was playing around with different poses and perspectives. I think I need to do more of this moving forward.
-Daniel J. James-
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Free Commissions!!!
So… I’m currently trying to get into the groove of doing commissions, but the thing is, I cant get into the groove unless there is something to groove on. So, until the end of February, I’m going to be doing Free Commissions. Hopefully I get a couple to get me in a good headspace!
-Daniel J. James-
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Naruto OC
So there was this online group I was in (am in, not sure) and there was a art challenge that was going to happen with the prompt being creating a our very own Naruto Original Character. Somehow, somewhere, someone dropped the ball and the thing never came about, but this was going to be my submission for the challenge.
-Daniel J. James-
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In your style…
Honestly, there was a time when I really didn’t understand what it meant to have an artistic style.
I thought it was about the choices you made and the skills you acquired.
But that’s not it.
The choices you make and the skills you pick up only add to your style.
Your style is your natural rhythm.
The lines and strokes you make without any thought to it at all.
Your style is you quirks and imperfections.
And sometimes your style is the things you wish you could change about yourself, but you can.
I’ve come to understand that your artistic style is your voice. Your style, your voice, your art should always be authentically you.
I love this artwork and this character that was done by Uncle J .
When I saw the challenge, the thing I wanted to express the most when creating the character in my style, was the quiet divinity I saw in the original.
There were times I wanted to go back and change things in my version of the character to match what I saw in the original, but that would defeat the purpose of drawing them in my style…
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Custom Commission Artwork!
Have an idea for a character? Need help bringing them to life?
Let ASH 9/17 help!
Commission the creation of your very own character.
Or
Get artwork of your preexisting character or cosplay!
Have your creation printed on canvas, a t-shirt, a hoodie, or more!!!
ASH 9/17 