Reclamation WIP

PLEASE comment if you fave! I worked hard on this.

All right, I'm going to try to take part in the 100 Picture Challenge, or whatever it's called here. Basically, you draw one picture each for one of 100 themes. I just started learning how to draw human faces about two months ago. I was going to hold off on entering the challenge until I'd gotten bodily postures down better, but figured that if I waited that long I'd never get anywhere. So I know I still need a lot of work. Maybe doing this challenge will help me improve, maybe not. I like to hope that maybe someday I'll be able to redo this picture and it'll look a whole lot better. For now though, it's much better than what I could have done a couple of months ago.

This is a drawing of my character, Moon Wolf, from the Manitou Island series [link] This scene is from Part 42 of the second serial, Return To Manitou Island. Moon Wolf, Charmian's former teacher, has been possessed by the evil spirit Chakenapok and has been trying to kill her throughout the story. Charmian, who's acquired the ability to purify people's spirits, accidentally unleashes this power on Moon Wolf...which results in this scene here. She didn't really want this to happen though, as she believes in not messing with people's spirits! I might draw a different viewpoint of this scene in the future, but for now I thought this view best illustrated the theme of "Break Away," as Chakenapok's hold on Moon Wolf is finally severed by Charmian.

This is just the inked sketch. I cropped off a bit of the background for now. I'm planning on filling it all in with colored pencil, as that's the only medium I have, that and a photo program which mangles my pictures when I resize and try to up the saturation a bit. Really need a better photo program...

Anyway...the next theme I believe is "Heaven" and I already have an idea in mind.

This will be scrapped later on when I upload the finished version. Just wanted to put this in my gallery to brag a bit. You can see more characters from this story in my scraps, BTW.

Criticism not desired as I already know all the flaws this has, thank you very much.

*****

And so, how does it feel? Chakenapok mused. The great defender of the Island--beaten to a pulp by her beloved teacher. Her DEAD teacher, might I say. He started laughing. You are the one they call to protect them, yet you cannot even fight off a dead man...?

"He's not DEAD!!" Charmian screamed, flinging out one bloody hand, palm open and fingers crooked. She would have called any and every elemental she could think of--only she was no longer thinking. Instead she shrieked in a fury, as if every thing which had frightened and enraged her so far was struggling to get out. She felt her heart thud hard, then--

Something blasted, slamming her into the tree again. She blinked her blurry eyes in confusion and saw the blinding bolt of light shooting from her palm. What happened next must have been instantaneous, but it was as if it happened almost in slow motion. She saw Moon Wolf's eyes fix on the bolt right as it came at him, and opened her mouth to scream again.

"NO!"

The bolt slammed into Moon Wolf's chest--and she finally saw an expression cross his face, his eyes widening in sheer surprise and his mouth flying open. The beam actually lifted him several feet into the air, the rays at the end spreading out and enveloping him on all sides. The main beam itself, still attached to her hand, flared as if gathering more energy, and the light bubble did the same--Moon Wolf arched and shrieked in obvious pain, the bolt hissing and crackling at his chest.

Charmian clambered to her feet. "No no NO!!" she wailed, flailing her hand and trying to pull the beam back. "NOT THIS WAY! I don't want to do this! Not like this! LET GO!"

The light's buzzing and Moon Wolf's screaming nearly drowned her out. The sight of him impaled on the beam as if on some huge spear filled her eyes with tears, and she had to shake her head to clear them, biting on her lip so hard it hurt. "Moon Wolf!" she cried; then stumbled to the side, then the other way, trying everything she could to break him loose from the beam. She even waved her free hand in front of it, pressed her palm to the ground, and went behind the tree--but nothing worked. It stayed connected to him as solidly as ever, and now she even saw another light flaring from his chest, and stopped to stare up at it. She saw what seemed to be a hole emerge, something glowing inside it--and recognized the sight of his spirit stone. It was glaring blue with a purple sheen, black tendrils snaking all around it like smoke--as she watched, these black tendrils began retreating like spiders' legs, pulling back and beginning to dissipate. The spirit stone throbbed even brighter, then the bubble surrounding Moon Wolf did the same, and his scream grew even louder. Charmian put her hands to her ears in a futile attempt to block out the horrible sound. She couldn't help staring at him though, in a sort of terrified fascination, as the light bubble grew and expanded, just as it had around the Shadow Wolf. It grew so bright that she could hardly see Moon Wolf within it anymore, and in a panic she scrambled behind the tree, covering her head and clenching her teeth, tears running down her face and nose.

I'm sorry--I didn't mean to do it--I'm sorry--!

CRACK. That was the only way she could have described the sound that came next, and even that didn't describe the force of the explosion, as the light flared one last time before giving way, sending hunks of itself hurtling all throughout the woods.

Chakenapok is from Ojibwa mythology. Charmian and Moon Wolf are © Tehuti.