By all accounts, this is meant to be the cover for Part 2, but it could also work as its own piece. Always found it interesting that a younger Elf King appearance-wise is almost indistinguishable from Trellis, bar the scar in book 2. So, this is a manifestation of one of Trellis's greatest insecurities and fears, sharing a face with such a monster, that he wonders if he's a monster himself. The comic eventually also touches on this.
The Elf King is known for his rare, silver eyes. And why I draw Trellis's eyes as half "silver", half blue, it's as if Trellis has incorporated his father's wickedness into himself the same day he inflicted the scar upon him, and thus Trellis's belligerent and benevolent nature has been at war since. The whole symbolism of dual nature and everything.
Also, some tidbit: 500 years prior to the current time, Gulfen's civil war split the country from East and West. EK hails from the West, Trellis's mother from the East. The West's symbol is the stormbird, the East's is the serpent, which are the symbols in the mirror's borders. Hence, Trellis's origins are also at conflict with one another.
A while back, after the release of book 9, I started chatting with @motherstone (an INCREDIBLE artist, even if you're not an amulet fan you GOTTA check his art out) and he shared this idea he had for a comic that he wanted to make but didn't really have the time to at that moment.
And me, lowkey loving the concept, proposed the idea that I make the comic for him as a gift.
This is the result.
-Concept credits go ENTIRELY to motherstone, from Emily's and Trellis' designs to the script
-I did the art and modified a bit of the script
-And obviously, all of the characters were created by Kazu Kibuishi and belong to him and Scholastic, along with Amulet as a whole. This is fanart inspired by the series.
*announcer voice* and with that, the 2023 season comes to an end!
Based on this tweet
notes:
wow, this might be the year where I made the least amount of artworks! I somehow managed to eke out at least one work per month, which is something. Busy otherwise, the current state of the art community with AI and such... That certainly didn't help in motivating me 💀 and I've been busy desperately trying to share information on twitter.
that said, I think I've reached a level of skill enough that I opted into taking my time when drawing to carefully craft it than ending up sloppy bc I prioritized being finished. And I ended up liking that slow process better. It's nice being able to look back at your art and not be filled with regret because you could've done it better.
I am in the process of drawing stickers to sell!! It's taking some time because I'm not just making for one fandom, and making prints and photocards is also part of the plan. I think I'm making good progress though.
Day 12: Niche Interest. Hello Amulet fans 😌 might draw him or other Amulet characters again one day. I love how expressive this lil freak is. Freak is a affectionate term ✨
Hm. Yeah, this was a needed distraction from the atrocity called Waverider. 💀
Notes:
Really needed an excuse why I draw the stonekeepers using elements in my art, ended up getting carried away!
[1] The outfits they're wearing is around post book-4 or 5. My rewrite I jumbled things around, so technically in this timeline he should be wearing his armor in the og series. It's intentional he looked uncomfortable in it. It's a revamped design of his fit in book 6.
[2] Magical fire can only be dispersed by magic. It'll burn forever otherwise. Guess what Emily used on Ippo.
[3] We never really see Emily be silly or undignified, and to me, that's what she was lacking on why she didn't leave much of an impression nor appeal to me. this is an attempt to make it seem like she's still just a kid learning and stumbling and getting into embarrassing situations.
Still haven't finalized the design on Max, but I have some idea. If you noticed, he has the same collar as Trellis, meaning Trellis borrowed some Cielan attire before discovering a healer's robe, which is more elf-like attire.
[4] Trellis's magic may seem silly or trivial than say, what Emily developed to give her advantage in combat. It may also give you the impression he just did it to have an easier time for chores. But if you dig a bit deeper, that's extremely useful magic, especially for a society like Alledia.
[5] the Elf King didn't show up on the other scale because we don't know his level of skill. Other than that, he's insanely powerful.
[6] Every other stonekeeper can manifest both if they're skilled enough, but Trellis was the first to perfect a defensive style and do it consistently.
[7] Just a nice lil joke. Also, Max is wielding an ice pickax that can split into two or combine. Very dangerous.
You can tell I've been rereading wha and dungeon meshi for this.
Underrated Shows/Books that I will never stop recommending (might add on more later):
1. A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket (Netflix Series/Books): Brilliantly made, beautifully written, amazing actors, amazing for bookworms like me (Esme is a queen fr 👑)
2. The Unlisted (Netflix Series): Amazingly crafted, top-tier plot, suspense keeps you on edge, very lovable characters (Dadi, Kymara, Jiao and ESPECIALLY Bua are so lovable bro SKJAKKSJAS 🥺)
3. The Mystery Series by Paul Moxham (Books): Very addicting, albeit corny yet still enjoyable, gives old nostalgic vibes even though I'm Gen Z lmao (Amy x Will SHIPPP 🚢)
4. Amulet by Kazu Kibuishi (Books): Beautiful graphics, tragic beginning, good character growth up until book 6, ending was absolute horseshit BUT it's a really genius concept, just wasted potential (Riva is such a badass I love her✨)
5. Maze Runner (Books/Movie Trilogy): Gripping mystery, terrifying ahh jumpscares, very likeable characters, well-written villains/morally-gray characters (Brenda is such a queen, but I'm always gonna remain a Teresa defender 🗣)
Hey gang! I hate the colors on this one (I literally NEVER use colors so… yeah, those are privy to change), but here is part 1 of my (more thorough) Trellis redesign!
(I warned you, the colors are an eyesore 😭)
As I’ve mentioned before, this design is inspired by Ukrainian, Bulgarian, and Middle Eastern clothing.
The neck piece is a Lemko seed bead necklace
The face paint is inspired by Croatian hand tattoos and North African face tattoos- they serve as blessings, and different symbols mean different things. The line down his chin is standard (almost all elves wake up in the morning, say their prayer and draw their chin line), a blessing from Vrasuta the sun goddess, and the symbol on his forehead is a blessing of luck (most soldiers use this one)
The armor on the arms is inspired by middle age middle eastern armor- “beetle shell armor” very hard and matte armor plates that are both decorative and functional
The pants and shirt are inspired by vyshyvakna (as well as the sash)- If I could change one thing about this drawing, it would be to make the sash less ugly, and reverse the blue and white
The boots I saw only once on a drawing of a Bulgarian folk outfit (I apologize I do not remember what they are called) - but I think that they would be “sand boots”, very light and airy, yet it’s almost impossible for sand to get in
My AU takes place in a 1940s-1950’s setting, so I added a couple of more “modern” touches, like an army chest vest and some… I don’t know what to call them, leather bracers?
His signature weapons are two retractable Shashkas which channel his stone power. He was always sent on stealth missions, so long range weapons aren’t really his forte
Throughout my sketches I write his name as Tręlis (tree-less), which is his name in my AU, but I’ll keep using his canon name in my posts so I don’t confuse anyone.
Part 2 will be his palace clothes which is a little less story centric and a lot more self indulgent because I just like dressing boys up in pretty outfits 💪
The biggest thing that pisses me off about book 8 of Amulet, Super Nova, is the confrontation between Ikol and Emily is anticlimactic as fuck.
She took off his mask and he died?! That’s it? Are you kidding? My elementary school self didn’t even like that which is saying a lot because most of the time when I was a kid, I couldn’t tell the difference between lazy writing and good writing; all I cared about was cool visuals.
There wasn’t even a fight scene, unless you count when Emily electrocuted some of the palace guards, which wasn’t even a fight scene since she DID NOT have to struggle at all. She pulled off his damn mask and he disintegrates like a vampire in the sunlight. And I have said this once and I’ll say it again, if it was that easy to defeat the elf king/Ikol, WAS HE EVEN A DAMN THREAT? Answer: F NO!
What also frustrates me is that it wasn’t a big deal. Again, the entire point of the revolution was to take down the elf king and when they learn that he is dead, they don’t give two flying monkeys’ asses about it. And it’s frustrating because they had so much build up from it, even from the very first book, which did not give a lot of information of the world around them, mentioned and talked about how treating the Elf King was. And you’re going to tell me, that the big threat now is some stupid shadows?!
Verdict? Super Nova made terrible choices that created bad writing from a storytelling perspective and makes me want to scream.