The Storm Sigil
After working on the Star sigil, I felt much more in tune with Xin’s aesthetic preferences, which greatly informed the design process for Storm; drawing from my readings of Emergence, and my friendship with the man who inspires Koren’s character, I knew this sigil had to be much edgier, sharper. The description helped me to visualise the basic shape.
a single black circle, from which four sort of narrow clockwise-curved sharp pinwheel blades reached each of north, south, east, and west.
Using Xin’s sketch for confirmation, I made the design somewhat curvier than he’d originally intended. This is partly because I simply felt it looked better, but it also portrays the movement, the spin, that is described when Storm Callers use their abilities. Keeping the “blades” sharp, this worked well with Xin’s vision.
In the Dynamic Sigil Art, we wanted to represent all Storm types: wind, rain, lightning, fire, and quake. These can all be seen in the various components of my preferred version of the Dynamic Sigil Art, Perfect Storm.
The second version, Storm Rift, more closely reflects Koren through Emergence, and is Xin’s preference.
The wind, rain, and clouds were easy to draw, as these are simply brushes available with Procreate, or free downloads which are compatible. The circular pattern of each element of the Storm is to mimic a hurricane, or swirling clouds, which feels fitting for the concentration of weather around a Calling Stormer.
The lightning, however? That was kind of a pain..! Creating seemingly random strikes of electricity by hand proved a challenge for me, as I have an instinct for symmetry and balance. Electricity, lightning, is innately less predictable, and so I found that it never quite looked right in this circular form. Which led me to an idea: the “water” brush.
“But, Kate,” I imagine you say. “Water bears no resemblance to lightning!”
Well, you’re absolutely correct, dear readers! However, the apparent randomness of the ocean waves provides a perfect structure to base the lightning circle on. As you can see in the video below, drawing a circle with this brush as a base, then following the main lines with the lightpen brush (while deliberately having an unsteady hand) allowed me to create this lightning effect. I tell you, the lightning strikes in Storm Rift were MUCH easier..!
Unlike many of the other brushes, the fire brush requires precise movement and pressure in order to create flames which actually look like flame, not just luminous blobs. This took a fair bit of practice, as the nature of the brush is intentionally jittery to mimic the flicker of actual flame. Additionally, the colour has to be precisely right in order to see each sliver of the flame, rather than the entire stroke blending into a pale mess.
The background of the piece, the dark, stormy sky, is created using a series of layers with the cloud brushes in several blue, purple, and grey colours, then overlaying them to really get that tumbling clouds effect. Initially, I wanted to show a few stars, but considering this is more “eye of the Storm,” the stars wouldn’t be seen.
Perfect Storm and Storm Rift gave me an opportunity to flex my imagination and really explore Procreate's features. Much like Koren, himself, it's fun to show off your skills. I hope you enjoy viewing them as much as I did drawing them.
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