Avatars by Sialia

Well. I didn't think this was possible, but here it is.


Thank you for making me stretch on this one.

Thank you also for the mock up, which helped, lots.

This accidental double post being replaced with another random thing that crawled across my desk.

I don't explain 'em, I just draws 'em.

What is it with the fashion for transparent things that are so darn hard to do?

The book and slime thing has me a bit stumped. If there was a previous version of this avatar, I'd like to see it. I've tried the book from several angles, and it just doesn't seem to be "reading" well.

I mean, apart from being covered in slime.

There is probably some sort of psychological block invovled, because every time I try to work on this one, I relive the horror of the time a swamp creature backed up through my kitchen sink and ate my rhyming dictionary while I was away in NYC. When I got back to the Fenway, my poor old tome was covered in black and white fur, and drooling.

And for those of you who are curious, no, this wasn't in gametime. That apartment had some serious draininage and mold issues.

But the woman who got it after me had the joy of seven feet of raw sewage when the Muddy River ate the T, and that pleasure was never mine. I got off with a small puddle of slime on the kitchen counters and floor. That beast ate her whole . . . everything really.

It nearly got her boyfriend too, when he insisted on wading through the sewage full of live wires to rescue her cat. He must have made some fabulous saves.

me is pooped. done for this weekend. more next.

Maybe watching the "Salt is bad for you" advert from the UK (done by a CGI slug) and also drawing the slime in lines not sheets.

Very nicely done, Sialia! Just the way I was hoping it would turn out.

Hey Sialia, I'm sorry if this is being pushy but...

something with an eagle or a hawk would be hella cool. If you could have it grasping an arrow that would be my dream Avatar!!!

Thanks, you are doing some seriously cool work here Sialia. Mad props

This thread has the best title on the ship, blast ye, an' much 'o the best cargo as well. Yarrr.

Sidekick said:

Hey Sialia, I'm sorry if this is being pushy but...

something with an eagle or a hawk would be hella cool. If you could have it grasping an arrow that would be my dream Avatar!!!

Thanks, you are doing some seriously cool work here Sialia. Mad props

Click to expand...

Well, I haven't been able to get this to work at 64x64 yet, and I'm too tired to do more tonight. But I thought you might like to see the rough sketch, just so you know I'm working on it. Bandeeto says the legs are on in a ridiculous torque, as if it were snowboarding on the arrow. And when it's small, I can't tell if it's an eagle, a vulture, or a parrot.

But this may have to wait a bit--tomorrow is back to work, and next weekend is all booked up already. So rest patiently--I haven't forgotten.

Nor the request for the dragon in sarape and hat, but the rough of that isn't cooperating either. That hat is darned hard to do. It looks flat, but there's not really a straight line in it--it conveys the illusion of straight and flat without being either. It's a round, dented thing. And it has to sit on the critter's head, not hover above it. Beats the heck out of me so far, but perhaps it will come with time.

While we're waiting, why don't you both tell me about your avatars, and what they mean.

Sialia said:

Nor the request for the dragon in sarape and hat, but the rough of that isn't cooperating either. That hat is darned hard to do. It looks flat, but there's not really a straight line in it--it conveys the illusion of straight and flat without being either. It's a round, dented thing. And it has to sit on the critter's head, not hover above it. Beats the heck out of me so far, but perhaps it will come with time.

While we're waiting, why don't you both tell me about your avatars, and what they mean.

Click to expand...

The story behind the avatar. Sounds like it should be the title of a new thread.

Meander is the name of my first character. He was created as a fighter in D&D before the release of AD&D. He was from a prominent family who had a legend of being descended from a dragon. Since he was going out adventuring he didn't want to use his real name so he chose to go by the name Meander.
Throughout his adventuring career he has always had a fascination with dragons as well as being a bit of a gambler. He would collect any and all tales he could find of dragons and gather the group to go track them down. Not to slay the dragon, but to try to get the chance to talk and discover more lore about them.
In the course of adventuring, he came upon the remains of an alchemist's lab where there was a potion labelled simply My Masterpiece. His gambling nature prompted him to say 'Why not?', so he drank it. It was a potion of immortality.
This was about the time the group was switching over to that new thing called AD&D. Meander got ported over as a dual-class fighter just starting out on the path of wizard. Between his fascination with dragons and his burgeoning mystical abilities, he started gaining more and more draconic attributes until he acquired a Wish as a reward for a services done in removing a circle of Lich Lords from some kingdom he and his associates were passing through. The wish combined with his nature to transform him into the Iconic Dragon his family had descended from so now he is a wandering dragon archmage.

Meander has, as PC and NPC, survived transformation into every incarnation of this game called Dungeons & Dragons wandering through world after world and edition after edition acting as sort of a magical knight errant.

As for the Avatar, Draco is obviously for dragon and Meander means to wander aimlessly. What better way to represent the Wandering Dragon than transforming him into the old west movie knight errant of the Man-with-No-Name?