On Daggers (Patreon)

 For my first Patreon Post I want to give you a bit of an insight to how I designed the daggers for the tier headers.

The idea for the flower names for the tiers came natural since I‘ve seen a lot of people use similar naming schemes, plants or animals or flowers. I also like the personal touch flowers add. There are some flowers that will always hold a special meaning for me.
At first it was hard to pick certain flowers. Should I give the tiers a seasonal feel (which I do a lot when drawing, I love to do sets of four) or should i just pick my personal favorites?
In the end it was the other way around, I decided what would go into the tiers and then chose a corresponding flower. The thought process was like this:

Dandelion was first. I knew it would be a good fit for the lowest tier since Dandelion is, sadly, often seen as a very common plant and sometimes even as weed. Which is sad because the plant itself has a lot of positive properties. The blooms are beautiful, the leaves delicious and the roots have a lot of healing properties. Dandelions are also one of the first plants to bloom abundandly in spring, which means it is a steady source of food for bees and insects. Dandelion is one of my favourite plants and I wanted the dagger design that accompanied it to have a magical touch. The dagger was inspired by a classic design of a witches dagger, something that might be found on an altar, for helping a witch work in the moonlight and create spells under the stars. I am really happy with the design, it started out with a brighter blue but I feel like the dark night sky is such a good fit for the bright yellow of the Dandelion.

The second tier is named Forget-Me-Not. There was no real thought behind why I chose Forget-Me-Not as the second tier to be honest. I like the flowers, they grew abundandly in the garden of my childhood home, in soft hues of blue and pink. The dagger design for this one came quite natural as well, the unblinking eye and the tears on the blade of the dagger reminding of people or things we might‘ve forgotten or that we need to remind ourselves of. If I had to get a dagger made for myself, it would probably be this design because it has something overly dramatic and I am a sucker for these kinds of things, even though it would probably not be very practical.

The third tier was an easy pick and was oriented on what the tier supplies. It is a tier that offers nsfw content which is why I chose a love inspired theme as well as the violet. The violet is a sign of lesbian love which originates in a poem by Sappho, a greek poet from the island of Lesbos. This does not mean this tier will be w/w content exclusively though, I just love the symbolism and the flower itself. The dagger for this one is love themed and a bit inspired by my love for Sailor Moon. It is kitschy and a different color scheme than usual, which was a joy to work on.

The last tier is named after one of my absolute favourite flowers. Lilac is a very seasonal plant but I try to get my hands on some every season. It has a soft, floral scent that I‘ve never found recreated in perfumes, oils or scented candles (at least not well recreated) which is why it is a fleeting joy but I anticipate it every spring. The dagger design acompanying this plant does not have a specific meaning, like with the violet tier, but it was the first design that came to me. I love the idea of a magical blade, carved from one piece of Jade.

The design process started with rough thumbnails. I was pretty sure about the general shape and details so I started some more detailed sketches right after that. This summer I visited an exhibition with works by Koloman Moser. He was famous for his Art Nouveau illustrations and patterns and they exhibited some of his sketches which showed that he designed most of his patterns on graph and dotted paper, which inspired me to use that for my first sketch of the dagger as well because symmetry is one of my enemies. I then used tracing paper to trace the dagger and add the flowers. After that I used another sheet of tracing paper to ink the whole design. I use tracing paper because the brush pens I use have especially crisp lines on it. Afterwards I scanned it and colored it digitally.

I do not think that any tier is more important than another, which is why I tried to name them all after equally beautiful and, at least for me, important plants. I hope you enjoy them all as well and thank you for your support!