Crimson Veil Turns 1 Year Old Today! (Patreon)

I first began work on Crimson Veil back in early December of 2018. I created the game completely on a whim because I was browsing through Steam and it just so happened that RPG Maker MV was like 77% off that day, so I figured, let's give this a try! I played with it a bit and felt like making a short game with my art was totally possible. On March 4, 2019 I posted the first version of Crimson Veil for people to download. Now that a year has passed, I'm certainly glad I began work on this, because it's been a ton of fun to make.

So, to celebrate one year of Crimson Veil, I thought I would share some art of Mila from throughout the years. Brace yourselves however, my old art is REALLY BAD!

I originally created Mila back in 2012 without much of a back story. I was just getting back into drawing since I had a lot of free time in college. These are the earliest sketches I have of Mila. Her design is pretty darn different at this point.

I didn't return to the character until 2014. Around that time, I  had just started learning Photoshop and I wanted to start putting my sketches in color. I once again sketched Mila, this time with a body, and colored it on my crummy laptop with a very basic tablet, which I barely knew how to use.

After this, I began drawing Mila again each January. I would use her as a sort of barometer to measure how much I had improved since the year before. In 2015, I wanted to make a more dynamic pose and I also wanted to start adding in my own backgrounds. I was really happy with the result at the time. Seeing her in this pose really made me want to create a backstory for her. 

In 2016, I drew Mila twice. I drew her in January, keeping a similar style to the last drawing and again in October when I was pushing to complete Inktober (I only managed to get a few drawings done that October. RIP) I was really satisfied with the first image, but even at the time, when I completed the second image, I didn't think Mila looked right. Her hair was too spikey. I got a better feel for how her hair should be after that.

In 2017, I drew Mila 3 times, but for different reasons. The first image was the one I drew that January as usual. The second one I made during the summer, when I felt that my art style wasn't good enough and I wanted to try and switch up how I drew characters. I changed her backstory and wanted to make her an artist. The "Vampire Hunter" version of Mila was just a self-insert character of hers that she would draw in her spare time. I felt like this concept was very relatable to many artists and writers out there! 

I actually planned on turning this into a short web comic! I never got around to it and this idea just seems so strange to me now. I mainly wanted to have a simple art style so that I could pump out more art and do it faster than ever, but I wasn't satisfied with the result. Even drawing in this style still took me a few hours to complete, so I just went back to my usual way of drawing.

In October of 2017, I got around to redrawing some of my earlier illustrations and the one I was most excited to redo was my first ever colored version of Mila. To this day, this is still my favorite illustration of her, even if a few parts of it are outdated and could use fixing. I just think the mood of the picture came out exactly how I wanted it to. It is such an improvement over the original and I think that's why I hold it in such high regard.

2018 is the first time I drew Mila's entire form (Aside from the alt style). This isn't my favorite pic of her, but my goal with this drawing was to get a full-scale drawing of Mila for future reference.  I also established things such as her age, weight, height, blood type, and sign. I drew her with a stone base so that it looked like she was a figurine!

2019 was the last time I drew Mila at the start of the year. I'm basically drawing her all year long now, so its no longer as special! Jokes aside, at this point I was already working on Crimson Veil. I finally began writing the story I had been postponing for so long. All of you should be familiar with this image, since its the first one you see when you start the game! If you've never seen the full version of the drawing, here it is!

Lastly, I want to share some commissions I've made to artists over the years.  I've followed many of these artists for years and have become familiar with their styles. Seeing my character in someone else's art style is always special to me.  I hope you like them!

Original Sketch By REIQ/ Colors made by me!

I met REIQ at a convention in 2015 and sheepishly asked him if he could draw Mila for me. When I gave him the 2015 drawing on paper, I remember him looking at it and saying "Wow! This is so cool, man!" Maybe he was just being nice, but hearing that compliment from an artist I have looked fondly upon for years was something I will never forget. REIQ was actually the one who drew Mila with her top open first. Ever since then, I have been drawing her with that design!

Original Sketch By Magion02/ Colors made by me! 

If you've ever seen any of Magion02's work, you'll know he has a thing for drawing beautiful girls. As much as I would have wanted this to be completely colored by him, I asked him for just a sketch with permission to color it, so that it could feel like a collaborative work.

Original Sketch By em-scribbles/ Colors made by me!  

I feel that this artist doesn't get the attention he deserves. He has his followers for sure, but em's cute, expressive art style needs more love. Practically every sketch he posts on social media is gold. He draws female characters exactly how I wish I could draw them, and for that I'm incredibly jealous.

By 7th Heaven

I think my preference for art styles comes down to how an artist can draw a character's expression. If an artist can get a certain look on a character, I will likely be a fan of the way they draw and 7th Heaven is no exception. He really makes Mila look both cute and sexy in this!

 By Aki Javate

Speaking of cute, Aki is a smaller artist that I've seen post to some art groups on Facebook. She was taking commissions there at the time and whipped this up for me in about an hour and I loved it! I no longer go on Facebook, so I'm not sure if she still posts on there, but definitely look her up if you're interested.

Aaaaand that's it! Hope you enjoyed that trip down memory lane for me! Mila has been a sort of mascot character for my art even before I started working on the game! She's a character I always like drawing and I'm happy that so many of you appreciate her too!  Mila's progression over the years is sort of like my story as an artist and I'm glad to have been able to share it with you. Thanks for sticking this far with me and here's to another year of Crimson Veil!