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temiel — Relicta Saeculum

Published: 2011-02-21 03:18:48 +0000 UTC; Views: 7732; Favourites: 223; Downloads: 0
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Description Claris's third girl. You might remember Rose and Blancheflor from earlier; this is Saffron, who came along in the 1380s initially, although in this picture she's wearing an outfit more befitting someone in the current time of the story (the 1570s). Contrary to her expression, she's neither evil nor angry.

Here's another of my patented text walls- as always, feel free to skip, only read if you care about "story thus far".

If Rose was like Claris's "sister" and Blancheflor is like her "daughter", Saffron, her third ghoul, is more like a servant than any girl she's kept prior (although, given time, their relationship is becoming far more physically intimate if not emotionally so). Sometime in the 1380s, Saffron sought refuge with the Sisters of the Holy Chalice at Abingdon, having no prospects for marriage in her future. She learned that she had a far better rapport among the dead than she ever had with the living, who find her off-putting and more than a little spooky. Saffron never found herself getting attached to anyone emotionally in her old life, and so she discovered easy comfort with Sister Saint Clair, the order's abbess (read: Claris), who demanded no such thing from her; just for her to be someone who could take orders and occasionally be willing to get fed on ( ). In exchange, Saffron was given a place where she didn't feel any pressure to make concessions to people or get along with them. She adapted very well to living with the vampire nuns at the abbey, going on with them when they were forced to relocate to Normandy in 1537. Since then, she, Blanche and Claris moved on from the order and have settled together in an art-and-book-filled vault underneath Paris, where they all get to wear outfits like this all the time. Rose, unfortunately, is no longer a part of Claris's little coterie, having left in the 1430s to live in London with Gregory and leaving Claris, Blanche and Saffron very distraught in her absence. It wasn't exactly on good terms.

Textures by `Princess-of-Shadows and CGTextures; corner brushes by ~green-eyed-butterfly .
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Comments: 62

ppgrainbow [2011-07-16 20:07:18 +0000 UTC]

That dress that Saffron is wearing looks incredible due to its design. Her hair looks wonderful!

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temiel In reply to ppgrainbow [2011-07-17 22:08:17 +0000 UTC]

Thank you much, I loved doing her dress. I imagine she's often quite fashionable just to keep up appearances, even if deep down she doesn't really care.

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ppgrainbow In reply to temiel [2011-07-17 22:09:54 +0000 UTC]

I agree! She's fun to draw.

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Cofjn7Marikia [2011-06-21 13:09:41 +0000 UTC]

lovely detail

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LeoNeal-CP [2011-04-07 03:34:48 +0000 UTC]

Love this, the colors, the details, everything. Nice job on this~! <3

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solfieri [2011-03-25 10:36:31 +0000 UTC]

She's so awesome omg. I have a strong impression that Saffron got reaaally lucky to have been "adopted" by a vampire community, I don't think a woman like her could have stayed long outside of a madhouse had she lived with humans for the rest of her life.
LOVElovelove the outfit here. I think this is my favourite so far! I love this colour scheme (you have such a great eye to pick the best shades of blue and green ), I love the embroidered details, and that gorgeous jewellery. And I always had a thing for those little 16th century headgears (no idea what they're called, though xD)!!
I've also noticed that the Strange Aeons cast, as a whole, has very different faces from Astral Arcana. Like... as if the "strange" of the title is reflected in their expressions, whereas the Arcana cast, even the most evil, still has a more charismatic, "loveable" aura about them. I don't know how to explain it right, but it was a feeling I got from looking at the two memes side by side (and it's not caused just by the colours XD). Maybe I'm just overthinking it.

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temiel In reply to solfieri [2011-03-25 11:01:59 +0000 UTC]

To be totally honest, she probably would've been (if we're being VERY optimistic) run out of whatever town she was as a witch. Of course, it's possible she could've ended up staying in a normal-living-people monastery, but she wouldn't really have been happy there per se. Insofar as she's ever "happy". Actually, when she was just a little younger, she tried to disguise herself as a boy to go live with monks (and, considering the fact she's got almost no curves to speak of, could probably have passed quite well! ), but she was found out and sent home. I've noticed that with the exception of Rose, most of Claris's girls are, like... terminally afraid of being married.

I'm so glad you like the color scheme! I'm always really iffy about both blue AND green. I was working with a warm palette so long, switching to something cooler always feels like untrod territory. You know what, I actually don't know what those head things are called either, in spite of my ridiculous costume nerdage.

And yeah, I think you're right about the SA cast as opposed to the AA one. I wanted most of the Strange Aeons characters to have either a very specific look (Claris, for example) or at least be more "realistic" than the Astral Arcana ones, in part because in spite of few of them actually being human, they arguably come from a setting that's more "realistic". There have been things like faeries and werewolves and this one weird wizard showing up, but they're VERY few and far between. The faeries, incidentally, have totally retreated from the mundane world and so now nobody can go there anymore. Claris was in Faerie once, and weirdly enough most of them looked human. Or like variants on existing animals. BUT ANYWAY, yeah, no, I can't tell whether that effect was CONSCIOUSLY intentional exactly, but I like the really stark difference between the two. One of the things that really struck me as I was doing both memes was the HUGE difference in palette and character design. Just looking at both versions without even knowing the characters, I'd voucher a guess that the AA people have a LOT more fun. You know what I love, is how by comparison, the most "serious" character in the AA cast is Farael; in the SA cast, it's, um... everyone.

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JadeLiChen [2011-03-06 16:21:57 +0000 UTC]

Now I want to know what made Rose run off with Gregory! Anyway, the dress is just beautiful and all of the details are just exquisite. Amazing work as usual.

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temiel In reply to JadeLiChen [2011-03-06 16:27:39 +0000 UTC]

Ongoing tensions between her and Claris, alas. Claris has been taking the poor girl for granted FAR too long, and when she took on the other two girls she had an unfortunate tendency to neglect Rose; plus, she'd been sort of freezing her out for a while since the had some pretty big disagreements about how Claris was handling the "so you got dumped" problem. When Gregory came by on one of his visits to the abbey, Rose was like OKAY YOU DON'T NEED ME ANYMORE SEE YA, and they rode off into the sunset (sunrise?) together. Since then I'm sure they've been having a WONDERFUL time.

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SailorDarkness [2011-03-05 13:51:43 +0000 UTC]

Oh, I LOVE the outfit!

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temiel In reply to SailorDarkness [2011-03-13 22:19:03 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! I've really been loving these Elizabethan-era dresses. The guys' outfits from that era can skew a little goofy, but the lady outfits are FAN-FREAKIN'-TASTIC. I did one the other day of Claris in a really Italianate-style dress... Awesome fashion. Woohoo!

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SailorDarkness In reply to temiel [2011-03-13 23:13:32 +0000 UTC]

I agree! I totally love the women's dresses and you draw them so well!!

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Asarea [2011-03-03 10:49:40 +0000 UTC]

I really love her strict look - and it's totally understandable she's preferring to stay with the vampiric nuns I'd prefer that too

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suburbanbeatnik [2011-02-24 15:44:06 +0000 UTC]

I love the richness and subtlety of your coloring! It's pretty awesome. Plus your costume knowledge is first rate.

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temiel In reply to suburbanbeatnik [2011-02-24 16:50:45 +0000 UTC]

Thanks much!! I was going for a slightly more muted palette with her in particular because she's a pretty dark character. I'm definitely going to do a Claris done up in this kind of getup, because it's costume-porntastic.

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suburbanbeatnik In reply to temiel [2011-02-24 16:57:56 +0000 UTC]

I think it would look luscious. Though I imagine a character raised in the middle ages would find these "newfangled styles" to be somewhat absurd. I bet she'd hate corsets!

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temiel In reply to suburbanbeatnik [2011-02-24 17:23:15 +0000 UTC]

Claris I think is fairly apathetic about them, since she's spared the irritation of having to eat. Or breathe. She can last a very long time doing many things a normal living person would lose patience with quite quickly. Saffron, I think, likes that they augment her shape. She's very thin to start with and doesn't have much of a bosom, so there's relatively less cinching, pinching and flattening involved. Blanche probably likes it a little less, but again, she doesn't have many curves to speak of so the discomfort factor is lessened.

Rose, on the other hand, probably does hate them. Their only redeeming factor is the fact that they can give you cleavage... but cleavage wasn't really a huge thing in England, so her relatively big boobs get smashed down quite a bit. NOT THAT PLEASURABLE. (I'm sure she'd have been right at home in last century's Italianate dresses, though!)

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suburbanbeatnik In reply to temiel [2011-02-24 18:02:41 +0000 UTC]

I used to play "Vampire: The Masquerade" at my old college-- it was so much fun. I played a hippie girl who was 'embraced' on an LSD trip back in the late '60s, so I played her as really spacy and out of it. It wasn't the most serious campaign, but it hilariously awesome. Who's your GM?

16th century stays were so... tube-like. I bet Rose will be very happy when the 17th century comes, and plunging necklines come into vogue.

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temiel In reply to suburbanbeatnik [2011-02-24 18:07:33 +0000 UTC]

Oh oh, what clan? Now I'm curious. As much as I love all things VtM being DARK AND ANGSTY (as it is with Claris and etc), I also have a soft spot for when it doesn't take itself seriously. It's good in many flavors.

Alan is my GM, as he is with pretty much everything. Solo games yeaaaaah!! The plus side with having your fiance as your GM is getting to LARP all the romantic stuff, hehe.

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suburbanbeatnik In reply to temiel [2011-02-24 18:15:38 +0000 UTC]

My character's name was Mary Lou Gaensterblum (I know, probably the least vampire-like name ever), and while she was a Toreador, I was told I played her like a Malkavian. That was a very... very... zany campaign. The highlight was when I drove a car through the window of the student union. (I failed my driving roll.) Let's say that our vampires were not very good at staying out of sight.

LOL, LARPing romance! That sounds awesome. Speaking of which, have you seen Spoony's review of Mazes and Monsters? [link]

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Luminanza [2011-02-24 13:52:31 +0000 UTC]

Your characters are always so interesting.. I think this looks just an old painting of a royal, a bit frightening one!

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temiel In reply to Luminanza [2011-02-27 16:00:39 +0000 UTC]

Oh, thank you!! I'm glad you're getting that "old painting" vibe off of this one. She's always struck me as the sort of person who'd look pretty ideal in one of those, all stiff and posed and formal.

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Luminanza In reply to temiel [2011-02-27 16:44:09 +0000 UTC]

exactly; )

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Suupashi [2011-02-22 23:05:46 +0000 UTC]

Such a severe face. I mean my god, she looks like quite the intense woman, the kind whos always got something rolling around behind those dark, seemingly quick looking eyes. I do not think she looks evil or angry in this picture, more like you've caught her unawares and she is more intent on finishing her thoughts then addressing you. I must say I love her dress. It feels actually.. historical. I know that sounds like utter stupidity but sometimes when you see a character in a certain time periods garb it just looks there, not like was actually part of that time period you know what i mean? Her dress here seems heavy in some places, lighter then others and i do so love how it makes her seem restrained and refined. Beautifully done

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temiel In reply to Suupashi [2011-03-13 23:56:52 +0000 UTC]

Argh, Suu, I'm so sorry it took me so long to respond to this! I'm always this way when I get really long, awesome comments and I read them before I get time to respond... they get buried under stuff. But I'm so glad you like her!! She's definitely meant to have that very severe, intense expression pretty much all the time, lol! And YAY, I'm super pleased that you like the dress. And yes, I TOTALLY know what you mean, actually! I see a lot of illustrations that are meant to be "in period" but it's obvious that they're actually just historically INSPIRED, not going for accuracy. Movies are guilty of the same thing a lot of the time, where you can tell the clothes are kind of altered to make them more appealing to a modern eye. Fortunately, with this whole set of characters I've been able to indulge my historical costume nerdery to a rather insane degree, and I'm loving it!! Thank you so much.

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Suupashi In reply to temiel [2011-03-16 23:02:27 +0000 UTC]

Oh its my pleasure! Dont worry about taking forever, real life and everything usually gets in the way of things we like to do eh?

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LaughingAstarael [2011-02-22 21:20:39 +0000 UTC]

She's so creepy but she looks so good in that dress, omg. I'm sorry Rose has left, but at least these three are still together... Teal and copper, oh god yes.

Is Leland still being a dickhead at this point, re: being gone?

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temiel In reply to LaughingAstarael [2011-02-24 04:00:44 +0000 UTC]

YAY, thank you!! I was hoping she came off at least a little creepy. She's... a bit of a puzzle. Not sure if Claris is better off in her company. O__o

And yes. Yes, he is. At this point he's been a dickhead about it for almost 300 years. In all fairness, however, NOBODY she knows has heard anything from him in all that time, so it's possible he's in real trouble. Still, no excuse. If he'd stuck around, he wouldn't be in whatever mess he's in. Humph.

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LaughingAstarael In reply to temiel [2011-02-24 15:44:17 +0000 UTC]

Haha... her own little Wednesday Addams, yes?

Jesus crist, Leland, just get your shit together already! I agree with Claris on her assessment of the situation, lol.

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temiel In reply to LaughingAstarael [2011-02-24 16:13:58 +0000 UTC]

Lol, yes, that about sums it up!! I never really thought of her that way, but it's a perfect analogy.

I KNOW RIGHT. Seriously, man, get your head out of your ass.

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LaughingAstarael In reply to temiel [2011-02-26 01:41:16 +0000 UTC]

xDD

Leland must have won a medal for dickheadedness by now.

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JenniferMN [2011-02-22 04:26:23 +0000 UTC]

I love all the details and rich colours you chose for the gown!

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temiel In reply to JenniferMN [2011-02-27 16:18:58 +0000 UTC]

Thank you! I'm really glad you do. I really love doing research into the kind of colors that were used for clothing in any given time period. Or any kind of costume research, really, it's all such fun.

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windyautumnmoon [2011-02-21 23:01:03 +0000 UTC]

Beautiful, Love her outfit!

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raka-raka [2011-02-21 21:39:23 +0000 UTC]

I ship RoseXGregoy's romance!!!
This girl is a little more creepy though. The pic is awesome, I mean, it's the subject which is a little...gloomy! o_O

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temiel In reply to raka-raka [2011-02-27 16:14:36 +0000 UTC]

AWWWW yessss, me too. I LOVE RoseXGregory together (I call them "Rosery", lol!! ). I've been trying to draw them being romantic, but you know. Sometimes things just don't formulate. -__-

Saffron, though, is definitely creepy. She's got some pretty serious issues. O_o I do kind of worry that she might do something untoward one of these days.

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kanako91 [2011-02-21 20:40:07 +0000 UTC]

Rose went to live in London... with Gregory? *O*
I'm curious!

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temiel In reply to kanako91 [2011-02-27 16:17:47 +0000 UTC]

SHE DID!! She left Claris, it was so sad. But really, Claris was kind of asking for it. She'd been taking Rose for granted for a while, and paying more attention to the new girls (even though she always loved Rose best). Gregory came to the abbey to visit fairly frequently (every ten years or so), and on one of his visits, she just... told Claris that "I don't think you need me anymore, so I'm going to go off with him". And she did. And now they're totally living it up and probably having all sorts of fun. I've been meaning to draw them for a while, but alas, it hasn't come together yet.

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kanako91 In reply to temiel [2011-02-28 10:59:21 +0000 UTC]

So, I hope to see some RoseXGregory art They inspire me A LOT! *O*

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TheCursemaster [2011-02-21 19:37:26 +0000 UTC]

Woah *_* This is really cool, and the clothes are simply awesome! You're really good in drawing fabric

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crowfood [2011-02-21 17:07:23 +0000 UTC]

What a gorgeous dress. @A@ She's so pretty! <3

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temiel In reply to crowfood [2011-02-27 16:36:30 +0000 UTC]

Thank you much! I've never been HUGELY fond of the clothing in this period (especially for the men... doublets are nice, but I can totally do without the poofy-butt pants! ), but I'm starting to gain a new appreciation of it now that my characters are actually THERE, you know?

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crowfood In reply to temiel [2011-02-27 17:16:33 +0000 UTC]

Yeah! You're welcome. You certainly manage the details wonderfully! <3

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Igloinor [2011-02-21 15:57:44 +0000 UTC]

Reminds me of that Bolein Movie I was watching like week ago. Very historically, do U usually use some refs to draw such nice dresses?

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temiel In reply to Igloinor [2011-02-27 16:55:45 +0000 UTC]

YES, I've been watching a lot of Tudor/Elizabeth movies lately to get in the mood for this time period. Lately I marathoned through The Tudors, both the Elizabeth movies, The Other Boleyn Girl, Shakespeare in Love... you know how these things go.

I don't usually use direct photo reference exactly, simply because a lot of times when movie costume designers do costumes, they'll tweak them so they're more attractive to a modern eye. I have a LOT of books about clothing through history, and most of the pictures in them are illustrations that I look at to get a sense of what the general trends and colors and silhouettes were like, and then I kind of design independently picking and choosing the elements I like. I don't know if that answers it, but I hope so!

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Igloinor In reply to temiel [2011-02-27 18:06:16 +0000 UTC]

Sure, I understand such things about movie makers. But I mean some pictures from that times, maybe engravings and paintings.

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temiel In reply to Igloinor [2011-02-27 18:09:17 +0000 UTC]

Oh definitely, yeah. I find it easiest to reference from books that have since been written about the subject because they often show the whole figure, but if I see a nice in-period portrait I'm all up in that. For instance, the sleeve caps on this dress were inspired by this painting: [link]

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Igloinor In reply to temiel [2011-02-27 18:28:59 +0000 UTC]

Oh cool, that is what I was asking.

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Queen-of-Daemons [2011-02-21 09:19:21 +0000 UTC]

"art-and-book-filled vault"
I think I just had a happy littl heart attack at this. If I was immortal, I'd want a MASSIVE library all my own.... *happy sigh*

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temiel In reply to Queen-of-Daemons [2011-02-21 12:22:01 +0000 UTC]

Hell yes!! And the additional good thing is that eventually, once we hit the present day, she'll own all this priceless stuff from way back when. Of course, I doubt she's going to go selling it all, but she'll sure have one very well-equipped future house.

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