Dark Demesne's Runescape Art

[Dark_Demesne]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm a long-time Tip.It forum denizen and occasional poster. I like to draw Runescape pictures every once in a (great) while, and while I used to post each image separately in the Gallery, I thought it might be more useful to have everything together in one spot under Runescape Media. I study Biology and English but I like to do art as a hobby, and I try to improve with every drawing. I've done five major Runescape drawings over the past three years, all in Photoshop. I particularly like translating game figures into an airbrush/photographic style, and I hope to do more of it in the future! In chronological order, my drawings are:

 

 

1. Dark Mage - February 2007

 

 

This was my first-ever piece of Runescape art, done after I'd just gotten Photoshop but before I'd figured out how to use it properly! This was my character Dark Demesne as a mage with black robes, a power ammy, and an air staff. I was still F2P at the time and this was my best mage outfit. I planned on doing melee and ranged variants as well, but never got around to them. Both this picture and my next one ("Dragon Slayer") got into the Runescape "Best of" Gallery 2. (Woot!)

 

 

2. Dragon Slayer - December 2007

 

 

This was my second piece of Runescape art, drawn after I'd finally started to get the hang of Photoshop. I'd gotten membership in July and by this point was happily slaying steel dragons with an antifire shield, whip, glory ammy, warrior helm, and proselyte armor. Back then the abyssal whip really did look like a string of sausages with open air between the pieces!

 

 

3. Picking Whiteberries - April 2008

 

 

Although I spent my first few months of membership slaying everything in sight, I soon discovered my true calling: farming. In April 2008, I got my first 99 in farming and drew this picture to celebrate. My character is supposed to be picking whiteberries from the bush patch in Miscellania.

 

4. Formal Portrait - June 2008

 

 

After getting 99 farming, I moved on to leveling construction, as one of the reasons I'd gotten membership in the first place was so I could build my very own player-owned house. I finally got everything just as I wanted it and drew this to commemorate my newly-installed formal garden. Back then black elegant was my favorite outfit ever, and I wore it for about a year straight!

 

 

5. RuneFest Gallery Competition Entry - August 2010

 

 

After my last bit of Runescape art ("Formal Portrait" in 2008), I didn't produce any new artwork (of any sort) for a long while. I focused on my studies and let my art hobby rust in disuse, pretty much. But in July 2010 I noticed a front-page post about the Runefest Gallery Competition, and I figured I could really use the practice. So I took the directions literally (evil Bob, a flagstaff of festivities, and a golden gnome) and set about trying to remember how do anything in my trusty old copy of Photoshop CS3.

 

The result isn't leaps and bounds better than my earlier pics (which I wouldn't expect, seeing as I hadn't been practicing in the interum), but it was good to draw again. I was very happy to learn that this drawing was one of fourteen winners in the Runefest Gallery Competition, netting me a lifetime membership and a copy of my artwork on canvas! See the news announcement here, and my entry here.

 

 

6. Eek the Spider - October 2010

 

 

After producing my RuneFest entry, I still wanted to keep drawing Runescape art (for practice, mostly, because nothing motivates me like a good contest!). The problem is that it can take days or weeks to produce a single artwork, and after the school year started I was having real trouble getting any art done at all. I was able to scrape together half a day of free time to draw an entry for the Halloween theme gallery, but I didn't have time for my usual style. So instead I made a cartoon-y version of Eek and colored her with relatively blocky, flat layers, without a background or much of a foreground for that matter. Still, I got something done, and surprisingly fast! (Though still not as fast as I would like.)

 

 

7. Halloween Comic Strip Competition - October 2010

 

After making the Eek drawing, I figured I might as well do something for the Halloween Comic Strip Competition too. I came up with a total goofball entry that makes no sense, but I had fun doing it and best of all, the small size made it impossible for me to linger too long on minute details. May have to try more in this format in the future!

[das]

Your talent and skill is amazing, Very few things impress me on these forums, your art however has.

[jimmy_jim]

Those are really great! The detail in your last three is amazing, good luck with the competition!

[Bows]

I personally like the whiteberry bush one the best. :thumbup:

[Dark_Demesne]

Your talent and skill is amazing, Very few things impress me on these forums, your art however has.

 

Thanks, I'm glad you like it! I appreciate the work you and other admins do to give me a place to put this stuff. :)

 

Those are really great! The detail in your last three is amazing, good luck with the competition!

 

Thanks! I like detail, although I tend to go a little overboard, to the point where it can take me two weeks to get a single drawing done.

 

I personally like the whiteberry bush one the best. :thumbup:

 

I like the whiteberry one too. I remember it fondly as the picture where I almost went insane trying to draw 300 leaves by hand until I figured out how to make custom brushes in Photoshop.

[Den]

They look really nice. Should definitly keep making pictures when you have the time. |^_^|

[Youmu]

I love those pics, especially the Evil Bob one. You have some great talent. :D

[Clay_More12]

Wow, very detailed, keep it up!

[N0x]

how do you make it look so clean and crisp :(

[Den]

Congrats on making the RuneFest Gallery and getting unlimited membership! |^_^|

[Wingless]

Omaigod!

 

Congratulations on the RuneFest win! You deserved it ^__^

[Ronan]

That art is fantastic - I'm incredibly impressed by it, the latter ones in particular. I love the farming ones and their style is just brilliant - you're very talented!

 

And, congratulations on the gallery-competition win! You definitely deserved that with the latest image.

[Dark_Demesne]

They look really nice. Should definitly keep making pictures when you have the time. |^_^|

Thanks, even if I don't have time I'll try to make some! Even if it means opening up a wormhole and destroying the time-space continuum.

 

 

I love those pics, especially the Evil Bob one. You have some great talent. :D

Aww thanks. I had fun with Evil Bob, as his evil grin reminds me of my own cat (although her nefarious activities are limited to eating my plants and stealing my place on the couch every time I get up).

 

 

Wow, very detailed, keep it up!

Thanks, will do!

 

 

how do you make it look so clean and crisp :(

I don't really know, lol. I've never actually taken an art class--all my knowledge is based on trial and error and Google searches if I can't figure something out. The crispness is probably due to the fact that 1) I do the outlines of objects with hard brushes, 2) I keep objects on different layers, so I can lock transparency and do fine work on the edges without the color straying off the object (unless I want it to), and 3) I use 1-pixel brushes on huge canvases (the RuneFest entry was done on a 4300x3200 pixel canvas). Hope that helps!

[Dark_Demesne]

Congrats on making the RuneFest Gallery and getting unlimited membership! |^_^|

Yay!!!!! Now I don't even have to pay in order to waste my time on games instead of school! (Or maybe it'll be the reverse--I won't feel the need to play as much since I'm not spending money on it and don't need to make sure I play my $5 worth every month? Only time will tell...)

 

 

Omaigod!

 

Congratulations on the RuneFest win! You deserved it ^__^

Aww thanks, I'm so happy! :D

 

I was actually really surprised to see that I'd won, because I wasn't sure that a) I was good enough, or b) Jagex even got anything I'd sent. I remember sending off the two farming pics to the gallery in 2008 and never got a reply, so it was hard to know if it was rejection or email problems. (Now I know--it was rejection! Burn!) Sorry if I'm incoherent, I'm just in the process of having a happy heart attack.

 

 

That art is fantastic - I'm incredibly impressed by it, the latter ones in particular. I love the farming ones and their style is just brilliant - you're very talented!

 

And, congratulations on the gallery-competition win! You definitely deserved that with the latest image.

Thank you! I'm about to die of happy. :)

[Dark_Demesne]

Added an entry for the 2010 Halloween gallery:

 

[Den]

Really cool. :o

 

I wonder if in-game eek will have "special" chat with the Halloween NPC's if brought with while doing the holiday event this year.

[Gradeskip]

Very nice! Good luck on wining this contest :D

[Dark_Demesne]

Added Halloween Comic Strip Entry:

 

[Den]

Haha, I saw that one coming. :P

[Frede173]

How much time do you spend on average on each drawing?

[Ruggig]

Truly amazing

[Dark_Demesne]

Really cool. :o

 

I wonder if in-game eek will have "special" chat with the Halloween NPC's if brought with while doing the holiday event this year.

It appears Eek does indeed have a special chat with the new NPCs! Awesome huh?

 

 

Very nice! Good luck on wining this contest :D

Thanks! Although I don't really need to win (already got a prize from the RuneFest competition)--I just really love contests. :)

 

 

Haha, I saw that one coming. :P

What's funny is I drew the comic before I even knew about the "metal" theme of this year's Halloween, but it actually seems to fit!

 

 

How much time do you spend on average on each drawing?

At absolute minimum (for, say the Eek drawing), 8 hours or so. For the more-detailed drawings, anywhere between 4 full days and 2 weeks of full days. I am a REALLY slow drawer--it's a labor of love, not something I could ever do fast enough to monetize!

 

 

Truly amazing

Aww thanks. :)

[Den]

Really cool. :o

 

I wonder if in-game eek will have "special" chat with the Halloween NPC's if brought with while doing the holiday event this year.

It appears Eek does indeed have a special chat with the new NPCs! Awesome huh?

 

Yeah, I found out when I did the event. :P

It added a nice touch.

[Danqazmlp]

I was speechless when I saw the whiteberry bush picture. The detail on the character is so impressive and almost photo realistic. On first glance I did think it may have been a photo. The colouring on her arms is incredible. I like the portrait too, you seem to manage to get emotion into the characters.

 

Do you send all your Rs based drawings in the Jagex?