Blood Sigil Art Blog!

Reign of Blood

The darkest of the sigils by its very nature, the Blood Sigil is borne by one of three anomalies within the Callers universe. Originally designed with the same elongated spikes as the Star Sigil, I redesigned the sigil with the same view in mind; like Star, I argued that the spokes of the Blood Sigil would be better proportioned with some additional chunk on them. Reading the description of the sigil solidified this opinion. 

It had a single dark circle in the centre, with two curved horns above it, two short points angled diagonally down from either side, and a longer point aimed straight down.

Xin Graves, CALLERS: Emergence.

Yet it was essential that this particular sigil kept more sharpness to suit Xin’s preferences; afterall, the Blood Sigil doubles as his logo, so his guidance has been of utmost importance in getting this right. Rounding the edges of each spoke transformed this sigil from the dissatisfying needles and pincers to edgy blades and horns. 

In line with the abilities of a Blood Caller, Xin requested splashes or drips of blood to be included in the design for the Dynamic piece, and I very much enjoyed this challenge. Opting for dripping blood on the ends of the spokes, I wanted to get the shiny look of red liquid, which I achieved by using (roughly) eight different shades of red to depict light and shadow across blood. This meant keeping in mind the angle of light throughout the process to inform which shade I used to draw each dip and drop. Recently, I updated the blood detail by using a blend brush to smooth the lines created by the pencil brush, enhancing the realism of the blood. 

Guided by the 2D assist grid, the city is drawn in six layers; three black layers of buildings separated by a white duplicate of the layer in front. These white layers were blurred to create the effect of lighting, and forming the multi-layered silhouette of the city of Avenir. (Note: this version of the city was inspired by the initial version on the cover of the first editions of Emergence, and the cover has been updated to this multilayered city from the original single layer silhouette.) In front of the city, referencing the surrounding seas as well as Valon’s influence, is the sea of blood, which is simply a water brush arranged in three sizes, largest at the foreground, to smallest further back. Together, these features help set the scene for Valon’s Reign. 

I’ve always had a bit of an affinity for drawing eyes. Like many, I’m sure, I spent much of my younger artist years pencil sketching eyes on scraps of paper and in my notebooks. However, this meant the change in medium was a little challenging at first. The lines of the iris kept turning out… wrong; too perfect, too messy, not enough detail, not enough variety of colour, pupil too perfectly round… It was incredibly frustrating!

With a combination of inward and outward strokes using an ink brush in various shades of red, followed by the same technique with a blend brush, and multiple layers in order to add filtering effects, the eyes first took form. 

The biggest challenge in this piece was drawing the hands; there’s a reason a lot of artists hide the hands, and I’m no Steve Ditko, as I quickly discovered. So, I needed a way to have these hands in the dynamic without failing at a skill set that I REALLY TRIED to develop… Enter MagicPoser. (Thank you! You saved me!) Now, I only wanted the hands, and since the app is a full body posing app, I had to get creative. Luckily, that IS my forte, and I placed the horizontal figure so that the majority of him was hidden by the ground, leaving only his hands, in my desired pose, exposed. Then I altered the colour, lighting angle and intensity, and used this image in Procreate, removing the background in order to leave the hands in their current position, looming out of the dark. 

Until recently, I deemed this piece complete, but when it came time to write this report - apologies for the delay, by the way, and thanks for returning to catch up with me - I realised that I could enhance several components with some simple techniques. I began blending and sketching on the hands to soften them, add detail, and heighten the contrast. I added light and shade over the eyes, and I used the black base sigil with the red outline as an overlay on top of the 3D metallic sigil to create the dark, high-gloss finish you see here. These alterations really add a tangible edginess to the design which perfectly reflects the sleek darkness of Mr Durey.