Elendraug's art

Elendraug

Well-known member
Sep 1, 2021
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Smile Bakery
elendraug.neocities.org
Pronouns
he/him
I tend to write more than I draw, but if there's anything that motivates me, it's that you gotta make the rarepair art you want to see in the world. ❤️🖤

I spent like... fffour? five? years without access to a drawing tablet, and got back into digital art last year with GIMP, and honestly fell in love with its default chalk and pencil brushes.

I have other doodles and more finished pieces for various characters that I'll add to this thread at some point, but here's a roundup post of the more polished Jr./Gaignun fluff I've drawn since last summer.


Full view (collage)

AO3 series for my Xenosaga fanart

AO3 links for each piece, clockwise from the top left, which contain image descriptions:

[ x | x | x | x | x ]

As a bonus, here's a traditional pencil illustration from 2016 I did for my fic speed of dark, which I've been told sells the ship:


This feels like a callout post for myself with how much I want them to cuddle each other and nap, lmao. I just want them to be cozy!!
 
This is beautiful!

Thank you! It's been great getting back into digital art after years of not really having the right setup for it. Even with traditional media/sketchbooks/etc it's tough to find the time, scanning is its own ordeal, and erasing sufficiently is obnoxious compared to digital.

Drawing human bodies interacting is a daunting challenge (the majority of my doodles and sketches are of individual characters for that reason) but my determination to depict them being affectionate with each other is more than enough to get me to push past any insecurities I have about my art and to keep practicing anyway. I try to remind myself that my younger self would be in awe of what I'm creating now, so that's encouraging in its own right.

Recently I've decided to embrace the more sculptural sketchy underlayers and leave them intact (if at a reduced opacity) as part of the finished piece, since I'm rarely happy with my inking/lineart, and also trying to wholeheartedly love the scribbly doodles that I wouldn't typically share because they're not "good enough" to post. But hey, we're all excited to see concept sketches and sketchbooks from other artists, right, so why not? Time to love our own stuff. Here's another bonus, gaignunjrscribblecuddle.png:

A doodle of Jr. and Gaignun from Xenosaga, drawn over a GIMP art palette that's black & white & red all over. Jr. holds Gaignun as Gaignun rests his head on Jr.'s chest. They both have closed eyes.

Maybe I'll post some progress shots of some of these, too. Just gotta find the time to hold still and do it.
 
These are all so gorgeous and affectionate, and I think the sketchy/gestural quality of the line work adds to the feeling of intimacy and like, emotional sincerity if that makes sense? Anyway, I love your art and I love seeing your sketches and works in progress too. ❤️🖤

As a bonus, here's a traditional pencil illustration from 2016 I did for my fic speed of dark, which I've been told sells the ship:

can confirm, that is the fic that got me to ship them (seriously it's so good I love how you write them together ;A; )
 
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I've had this open in a tab all day and I may as well just hit post, HERE'S SOME MORE

Sketches
Sketch of Jr. and Gaignun cuddling, again.

I only draw one thing, okay​
Sketch of Jr. and Gaignun cuddling, showing the surrounding workspace in GIMP.

More than half of my GIMP files are something along these lines​
Sketch of Jr. and Gaignun cuddling, yet again. Jr. gently touches Gaignun's face.

Sometimes Gaignun gets green lineart instead of black/grey​
You guessed it: sketch of Jr. and Gaignun cuddling.

I JUST WANT THEM TO HOLD EACH OTHER​
Sketch of Jr. napping on his and Gaignun's bed, with a large Z to indicate that he's sleeping.

I also want Jr. to nap as often as possible, canonically his sleep is not restful :c​

WIP/progress shots
Progress sketch of Jr. and Gaignun cuddling.

I redid where Gaignun's arm wound up resting...​
Progress sketch of Jr. and Gaignun cuddling, with a closeup on Jr.'s shoulder blade.

...because I was enamored with the happy accident that was Jr.'s shoulder blade​
Progress sketch of Jr. and Gaignun cuddling.

soft.​
Sketch of Jr. and Tony leaning in to kiss each other.

Jr./Tony 👀 that I should finish​
Progress sketch of young Jr. and Gaignun cuddling.

I used a different pencil brush for this and was digging the texture​
Progress sketch of young Jr. and Gaignun cuddling.

When they're the same height you gotta color their hair early so you know who they are lmao​
Progress sketch of young Jr. and Gaignun cuddling.

Raglan/baseball tees are such a good look​
Progress sketch of young Jr. and Gaignun cuddling.

Pictured: when I almost gave up on their hands​
 
AAAAAAAA I adore them ;A; It's so cool to see your process with these! I love how the affection and gentleness in the poses comes through even in the earliest stages of the sketch. ❤️🖤 (Also I had no idea we could do tables on here??? That rules!)
 
These are all so gorgeous and affectionate, and I think the sketchy/gestural quality of the line work adds to the feeling of intimacy and like, emotional sincerity if that makes sense? Anyway, I love your art and I love seeing your sketches and works in progress too. ❤️🖤

can confirm, that is the fic that got me to ship them (seriously it's so good I love how you write them together ;A; )

Thank you! I love them 🥺 😭 ❤️🖤 I'm glad to hear my decades-long affection for them comes through. My art may not be THE BESTEST EVER but I'm still proud of my work and I care A Lot.

speed of dark was my return to Xenosaga after years in other fandoms; sometimes it just takes a while to work out how you want to say the thing, and that fic in particular remains dear to my heart. Thank you so much for reading it. It expresses what I'm trying to get across in a way that otherwise comes out as "THEY!!!! LOOK AT THEM!!!!" when I'm not trying to put it into prose, lmfao.

AAAAAAAA I adore them ;A; It's so cool to see your process with these! I love how the affection and gentleness in the poses comes through even in the earliest stages of the sketch. ❤️🖤 (Also I had no idea we could do tables on here??? That rules!)

And thank you again! As you mentioned earlier the gestural aspect I think is what helps convey the closeness/intimacy as the... support structure upholding the other finer details, I guess? That's my experience from life drawing classes, anyway. Getting that initial gesture for the spine is what sets up the rest of it for success.

YEAH you can use the visual editor or BB code to do it! I think I need to adjust the way I defined the width to scale the images down, though, because defining it by pixels makes it warped on mobile. My initial attempt wouldn't let me specify a percentage, so maybe I just need to define both, or apply the width to the cells instead of the IMG tags. I'm still tinkering with what BB code will let me do vs HTML.
 
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That is a lovely drawing, and I like to think it's from the point of view of someone looking at him with tenderness and affection. ❤
 
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happy 9/26 (9 to 6), here's my magnum opus

these are actually from last august and I kept telling myself I'd fix their textures etc before posting it but haven't had the time, so here they are anyway. life is difficult and we all get a little messed up, sometimes you clip through your partner's mesh while petting his hair, it's fine

Animated GIF of Jr. petting Gaignun's hair.

render in blender/eevee, GIF via GIMP

Still image render of Jr. petting Gaignun's hair.

render in blender/cycles

I had 0% prior experience in ripping models/textures, 3D modeling, rigging, any of it, but @whyfish and I figured it out together through the power of OTP. I needed to see them holding each other ❤️🖤