The Plant Sigil
This sigil had the most redraws, right from the start. I’m not really sure why, but I just couldn’t seem to connect to the piece, it’s Land, or the inspiration, despite loving the main Plant character in Emergence. I constantly found myself drawn to literal examples rather than symbolic. I even drew a forest scene at some point - you may find this later on. Even the basic sigil design was oddly complicated for me. Isn’t it strange what we get caught up on sometimes?
"a single dark circle with one long narrow leaf pointing upward and two shorter narrow leaves hanging from either side, similar to the leaves of a spider plant"
However, I strongly felt a shift between this piece and the Storm artwork; from the edgy to the gentle. The sharp, to the soft. The powerful to the delicate, although Plant Callers are far from delicate.
In discussions about this piece, Xin described the “leaves” of the sigil as “kind of droopy”, like those of a spider plant. Which sounds simple enough, doesn’t it? Except, the middle “leaf” had to stand upright while also matching the kind of curve expected for the plant - in my mind, at least.
Longer. Shorter. Fatter. Slimmer. Curvier. Pointier. I tried many combinations across all three leaves, and it took a long time for Xin and I to agree on the design. Eventually, though, the angles, shapes, and positions finally felt balanced, and thus our current sigil design bloomed.
Further challenges arose in the Dynamic Sigil Art (DSA), posed by a need for balance between wilderness and prettiness, harsh nature versus gentle growth. It was excruciatingly frustrating that I seemed to either embrace one or the other, but never both, certainly not simultaneously.
I’d used Mira and Koren to influence the designs for Star and Storm, yet… that would not work for Plant! Aaron simply refused to cooperate! He is, after all, a fighter. Rugged and favouring the wild, he just didn’t incorporate enough “pretty” for the basis of the balance.
In the first Dynamic Plant Art (DPA) I designed - which Xin and I agree is gorgeous, but unsuitable for the purpose - “pretty” took on a life of its own. I very much overcompensated for Aaron’s ruggedness, and ended up with a beautiful white wreath, symbolic of Selva’s Mother Tree, adorned with vibrant orange lilies, inspired by those found on a Pandanus plant. This particular flower is now part of the Emergence cover! Look around the title; see those tiny orange blooms? That’s the lilies!
Around the wreath, I also drew vines with thorns. You can see these around the version of the Order Charm Ring found on the cover. Most artwork I have drawn finds a purpose somewhere; Xin insists on as much, never wasting dedication to the craft or the resources built. (Just part of the reason I love working here!)
Other versions of the DPA that I attempted include an entire Mother Tree drawing, a really wild and edgy thorn/vine version which is inspired by poor Stephen Wheatley, and a white version of the same, which was supposed to reflect the Mother Tree. Remember when I said, “This sigil had the most redraws”? Yeah. It’s been a lot! But, I’m stubborn - no, dedicated - and this is my project. So, one way or another, I was going to make it bloody work!
With much guidance from Xin, whose patience was surely tested by my inability to bond with this piece, we finally built the DPA you see here. And the previous pieces weren’t an entire waste; they’d given me the chance to work on drawing wood, shaping leaves and branches, and developing a sense of growth.
So, what was it that moved me past my mental block? Marissa Marigold.
Xin Made her my link to Selva, Plant, the Mother Tree, and the overall aesthetic goal for the DPA. This gave me a lifeline to my knowledge of Pagan lore; in a similar way to Pagan ideology, Plant Callers revere the Mother Tree. They are about nature, above all else. Marissa is the embodiment of motherhood and nature, and forming a link with her character gave me something to relate to. From here, it was much easier to add wild to pretty, using fierce protection as the inspiration for the tone of the piece.
Drawing the trunk and branches had to be done in stages, combining a total of four brushes for the final effect; the hemp and sable brushes, the technical pen, and the airbrush. Although there are brushes specifically for wood effect, I found these didn’t look how I envisioned, predominantly due to the patchiness of the brush; they needed a base behind them or they’d have transparent parts. So, I opted to use brushes that aren’t necessarily for drawing trees. Layering these different brushes, erasing excess, and adding shading with the airbrush allowed me to build the final effect you see in the DPA.
Now, eventually, I understood that Xin wanted the branches to look as though they grow from the sigil itself (I originally interpreted this as “around” the sigil). Once the branches were drawn, I simply needed to add shading in the right spots so that it looked like they pierce the sigil and grow from the spaces. A layer over and a layer under with shading shaped around the bases is all it took to give this three-dimensional protruding look.
The leaves, thankfully, are also a brush, although this one - Snow Gum - required a little alteration to achieve the effect I desired. Using the brush setting, I increased the spacing, amped up the jitter, and used this brush on several layers so that I could manipulate the shade of each layer, adding to the three-dimensional look of the tree.
The Snow Gum brush also creates the majority of the DPA’s background, built in multiple layers each with their own colour adjustments for depth. Adding branches and shadows, the final look adds a pretty wilderness that Selva is renowned for.
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