The Twitter Secret Santa Art Exchange

or

I Couldn’t Be Arsed to Find out about Password-protected Posts and Didn’t Care too Much whether Everyone Knew What One of My Characters Was All About

Edit: I made a separate post with the references when I realized this post became way too long for the poor guy or gal who has to draw my toon. And I didn’t want them to think “My god, when is he finally getting to his references? I don’t want to read through all of this nonsense and whining first.” The references can be viewed here.

Now, after that is out of the way, on to the excitement and whining. And nonsense, but that’s a given with me anyway.

Just a random picture of the Tirisfal zeppelin tower near Undercity.

Wow, that subtitle sounds way less cool and more aggressive than I thought it would. But since the lazyness factor is captured perfectly, I’m just going to leave it there.

…

What did I want to post about?

…

Oh, yes.

I’ve recently rekindled my love for drawing (after I had drawn next to nothing for several years), which is probably at least partly because I love experimenting with my (first ever) tablet. I feel like my sketches and “pencil” drawings have become somewhat better, but I haven’t found my “groove” with colours yet (tips are always welcome; I don’t even care if they’re about drawing, writing, behaviour or drinking). I really hope this isn’t one of my squirrelly flavor-of-the-month things and I stick with it, because it’s really fun to just forget your surroundings and problems and indulge in drawing stupid stuff for a few hours. I don’t know why, but writing doesn’t quite do that to the same extent. Maybe because I don’t have to think too much about how particular words and vernacular expressions could be translated from my mother language into English. But it’s probably more the fact that writing doesn’t come as natural to me. I don’t even remember if there was any particular reason why I stopped drawing when I did.

Anyway, a few days ago, I stumbled across this on twitter. The Twitter Secret Santa Art Exchange.It sounded like something I might like to sink my teeth into (which isn’t to say I’m necessarily on Team Edward; well, I’m not really on any Twilight team, but if Cho’gall was an option, he’d be my pick — the dude is big, bulky, has two heads, looks like he can smash you with his pinky, and the eyes all over his body are creepy as hell; when it comes to picking teams, I guess I’m quite the opportunist if I don’t have a strong opinion on any of it) and so, without thinking much about it, I signed up for it.

Oh, the horror! … Not really, but I have to illustrate my self-doubt in an exuberant fashion because otherwise I doubt that I get my point across (I even have doubts about speaking out about my doubts … huh). Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled at the opportunity to create something for someone else than me. And the precise due date will keep me on my toes about it (I hope — I am terrible with due dates). But after I saw some of the previous years’ art (which can be viewed here: 2009, 2010), I became seriously concerned I was going to disappoint whoever had the misfortune of being the artist  I would be drawn to draw for. I’ll just have to give it my best shot and hope I can surprise myself, I guess.

I’m sure it will be fun (I know I did sound more like I was going to kill myself a minute ago, but I’m really psyched — that is a positive word, right? — at the opportunity). Plus, I receive a piece of art myself, drawn by one of the exceptional artists participating in the exchange. And who can say no to that?

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Secret Santa Art Trade — References

Snippy

Snippy in the Spiritmender set (Spiritmend Robe and Spiritmend Shoulders), probably my favourite non-tier cloth set.

The Character

Snippy has always had a hand for fixing things rather than creating them on his own. As an engineer, that means he was mainly there to repair other people’s inventions and improve their functionality. Since those inventions came from engineering themselves most of the time, he lived a very dangerous life filled with explosions and subsequent shopping tours for new, unburned clothes. Which is why he eventually took up tailoring as his second profession. If he could fix complex mechanical gadgets, how hard could it be to fix his work clothes? Ignoring his initial difficulties, he soon developed quite skillful weaving and stitching techniques (again, based on the ideas of others and refined).

Being good at repairing and stitching things together, it seemed logical for him to pursue the career of a priest when he was enlisted for war. The Light itself has become more of a means to an end and (primarily) a very interesting study case for him. He is not really a devout follower of the Light like many Draenei, but since it seems logical to him that he could only study the Light if he believed in its existance, he believes in it enough to wield it. The fact that this is reverse logic doesn’t bother him at all.

The study of the Light has changed his behaviour quite a bit, even though he is not aware of it. He has gone from the typical gnome (lively, open-minded, overly curious, painfully honest, smiling all day long, and freaking out — both the good and the bad way — about the smallest things) to a much more balanced, calm, diplomatic, and mild-tempered person (still curious, open-minded and smiling a lot, though). This change, however, is not fully carried out, and if his self-restraint fails him he explodes with emotion. He’ll be furious, exstatic or depressed even more than a “normal” gnome in those cases (if any gnome really is normal).

He has a heart for critters and is often seen playing with a moonkin hatchling or an armadillo or has a mechanical pet he’s repairing for a friend next to him.

The Appearance

Snippy is in his late 40s, which in human years equates to something around his mid to late 20s; so he’s quite young still. His face is, for gnome standards, fairly pretty (if no mechanical squirrel has exploded in it) except for the very prominent nose that is the trait of all gnomes, and his calming smile adds to the sympathetic aura he emanates.

Mug shot profile. He doesn't look too happy, does he?

Unfortunately, creating a gnome with a pretty face is an impossible feat in this game. I guess that's what all the facial hair is for.

These are some facial shots so you get an impression of what he might look like.

His very clear-cut hair is more reddish-brown (think fox) than it appears in the pictures, and I imagine his eyes to be azure blue (with a hint of grey) rather than pink (unfortunately, eye colour is fixed to the face).

He is very cleanly and neat (a bit vain, but not overly so), and doesn’t like bad hygiene. He’s a bit of an order (and control) freak and hates irrationality and chaos (which makes him even more angry when he loses his temper and becomes irrational). He shaves daily if there is a possibility to do so (he has had bad experiences with beards and volatile inventions).

He isn’t a very physical person and doesn’t exercise much, which gives him a very lean, but not in any way muscular — almost fragile — look.

The Accessories

Snippy is a gnome of very simple taste. Since he has begun his studies of the Light, he has become more comfortable in robes, to the point where he will wear them almost exclusively (if he’s not tinkering on something). Other than that, he doesn’t wear any necklaces, rings, amulets or other trinkets of sentimental value. It’s just not logical to him why he should overburden himself with things that don’t have a practical use.

Whether you want to portrait him in a tier set-like bombastic and breath-taking outfit or in the simple robes of a priest is entirely up to you. Shoulder pats or no shoulder pats, I don’t care. Most helms I don’t mind. Even hoods that obstruct the view of the face are fine by me. Engineering goggles are fun to look at, and I don’t mind them at all (as long as they fit the picture 😛 ). The only exception is the tier 1 head piece. I don’t want him to have Mickey Mouse ears (the rest of the set is nice, though).

My favourite tier sets are

• tier 5
• tier 6
• tier 8 25 (mouth cloth piece or not, either is fine)
• tier 11 regular (although I don’t necessarily like the veil in front of the eyes — again, no pratical use)
• tier 12 regular (this one probably without the fish-bowl-socket-space-suit helmet, though)

Tier sets I don’t quite like as much (I don’t need a list for them) are tier 9 and 10 (they are fine in themselves, I just don’t like how they look on him somehow). But if you can make those look good, feel free to do clothe him in them anyway.

I have attached a few pictures of Snippy in some of his non-set robes below so you can see what he might wear (pictures vary in color, saturation, hue and brightness to better bring out the colours of the dresses- umm…robes; the first one in the series is probably best for skin colour reference and similar things; note that my in game graphics are not very high…poor old machine can’t handle fancy water).

Concerning weapons, you have absolute freedom. I don’t care if its a stick, a dagger, a mace or a wrench. He can have a weapon or have left it at home (he can sometimes be quite oblivious to these things).

ATTENTION! This last one is Not Safe For Work!! Viewer discretion is advised.

YOU WERE WARNED!

The Picture

Not much to say here, really.

Whether funny or serious, fiercely battling or being spit on his head by a troll, in a majestic pose or petting an armadillo, I don’t care, really. I don’t prefer any of these aspects and am happy with anything you can come up. So, no constraints there. Let your creative juices flow!

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