In recent Herald news, our beloved Orvles is dead, long live Zoidber-- err, Baxir! We will certainly miss the great Bork but he has been busy working on Baxir's background and it is certainly being fleshed out more than Orv ever was, which is always a good thing. Keep an eye out for a character sheet too, I hear that is in the works. Also with a wiki came a sweet new portrait of Baxir below, created by Orv himself, click for the full version!

Speaking of sweet art, welcome to the first installment of the mid-month Praetor report. I fully admit that timely reports are well beyond me (this one is two days late) but the new Herald Baxir appears to be more than willing to keep that in line. :P Plus, today is my n-th birthday, and that's always a good cause to celebrate with a report!

Le Graphics Forums

(or Fora if your name is Mark)

The GFX Forum is now open for business!

What does this mean? For those of you interested in the arts, Orv and I have opened up this forum so that you, and us, can critique one another. This is much more informal than Deviantart, where on the DB GFX forum every thread begs the chance at comments and suggestions of the artwork posted. We are also allowing non-DB artwork to be posted as well, unlike DA where we are keeping it a bit more official-like.

So, we would like to see what other members have created. This can be personal, for DB, and even outside commissions that you've received, and can be both art, music, etc. Everyone is free to post their creations and receive feedback if they'd like.

We hope to be posting winning submissions for competitions when they come up, and with the upcoming creation of the graphics grading policy it should help to bring some transparency into the Herald's office.

As it is brand new, the forum is empty, which means we need your help to fill it! Come on down and let us see what you've got!

Deviantart

As Orv discussed in his report, our Deviantart group is active and new artwork continues to come in regularly. Below is highlighted a couple submissions from our own members. If you'd like to show off your own DB works, make sure you submit it to the DA Group!

Verse Theris

V'yr Vorsa

Atyiru

Baxir

Interviewing: Atyiru

This month I interviewed the young and bold Atyiru who has been with us for just under a year.

Socorra: What medium do you use for your drawings?

Atyiru: some regular sketch paper or notebook paper

Socorra: Crayons, colored pencils, tablet, ink, etc

Atyiru: colored pencils

Atyiru: mechanical pencils

Atyiru: walmart pens

Atyiru: a couple charcoals

Atyiru: (i'm just starting the later)

Socorra: Sweet. Love charcoal <3

Atyiru: it frustrates me lol

Atyiru: but pretty

Atyiru: hope i can be learned with it

Socorra: Why did you choose colored pencils as a first medium? What brings you to use them?

Atyiru: I used them because they were what I had on hand :P

Atyiru: after that, I just liked them better than, what, markers or crayons? :P i can't paint haha

Socorra: Lol

Socorra: What is the most challenging part of working with them?

Atyiru: Honestly? Keeping them sharp. :P I don't have any sharpeners at home, so the colors I use most get dull quickly and then I'm stuck trying to shade minute details (usually irises) with giant freakin' flat tips.

Socorra: Lol fair enough. What's the best part of working with them?

Atyiru: It's fairly easy to shade with them, they're controllable, and they don't bleed through the paper or make a mess of my fingers. Oh, and pretty colors, of course.

Atyiru: btw

Atyiru: what is this for? :P

Socorra: You'll see :p

Atyiru: riiight

Socorra: What do you think about the digital age of drawing?

Atyiru: I think it's great. We can do so much with digital art, not just with effects and styles, but with collaborations and sharing, and there's some magnificent pieces out there. I've heard arguements that digital stuff diminishes traditional drawing, but it's more an apples vs. oranges kinda thing. They're different, but both are fantastic mediums.

Socorra: Have you tried it yourself? Do you see yourself evolving towards digital in the future?

Atyiru: I haven't tried it myself, unless you count Paint. I've never had access to Photoshop or other drawing programs, or a tablet, etc. I imagine one day I'll graduate to digital, because I'd really like to experiment with it once I've gotten better at traditional work.

Socorra: Awesome, thank you for answering some questions. You'll find out why very soon. ;)

Last Words

That's all for now, keep on the lookout for Orv's report in a couple weeks!