And so it continues! Welcome back to another chapter, dedicated to one of my Paladin-Trainees ^-^

So here we have another very, very important character: Bothanar.
They, just like Esgaron, belong to the Wavecall clan, which is one of the main reasons I decided to draw them and their friends next, rather than Ruindîr.

Welp, so with him now drawn, the list slowly shortens.... (stress is obviously on the "slowly" >w<")

[ sorry for everyone who just saw "[ LIST ]" instead of the image before.... forgot to upload the picture and watty was giving me problems >w< ]

So since they're a very moody, quite bitchy, but also very nice and funny guy ("guy" meant in a gener-neutral way... just needed to stress that), I decided to go with a classical crossed-arms pose, with a more uninterested face. I changed their expression up later on to seem more subtle though >w<

Anyways, the first scribble looked like this and I worked my way up from there:

Since I used a different brush on that last sketch of Esgaron for the lines, and overall found the more loose and sketchy approach ( that I used to have all the time) to be exactly as time saving and efficient as it was before I decided to go to cleaner linework again...... uhh.... i... um... kinda lost myself in the sentence there and am a bit confused as to what exactly I was typing...

Anyways, I was more sketchy again and used a brush, that I ditched out of my process after a Krita-update ruined the effect I loved about it so much, for the lines.
I want to try and make these trainee-portraits just flow overall a bit faster because... I have another batch to come. The list from above is trainee-group 1 outta 3 and I desperately want to draw all of them at least once, including some other important paladins, such as trainers, mentors, etc.

Okay so, as some of you will notice, they don't have the sleeves on their shirt anymore. Why?

Bothanar (also nicknamed "the Both" or simply "Boss"), is... a bit very rebellious. That is also something that's very important in regard of their upbringing and also something I had to get into their colouring as well :D
They grew up as the second youngest of five siblings, in a noble household. Their parents are rulers of the Capitol city and thus members of the Wavecall-Parliament, that consists of the Emperi (fun fact: the Wavecallers wanted to keep the honorary title of the Emperor/Empress gender neutral, since their first leader after the old tiranny was non-binary... so they kinda invented the title "Emperi" since "Empero," "Emperu," and "Empera" sounded rather gendered to the parliament that took that final decision) and the ten most influencial other rulers from within the Clan.

Similar to how our modern democracy votes on parties, the Wavecallers vote on families, that then have that title of region-leader in the lineage for 1 mil. years and can be re-elected as many times after that, as they fancy having the power. Sounds like a long time, but keep in mind that Harath are immortal. And if the family should be found to abuse that power, a complaint can be sent to the emperi-courtmaster, who checks if that complaint is truthful or not. If he thinks that it's true a reelection happens (the family that lost their power can indeed attempt to get reelected). If the family has done several things that are against the overall law, they can be excluded from the next elections and can participate again, if the new applicant is five generations younger than the one that got kicked out.

... fairly complex, ye, but hey! The most important part is: Bothanar was born into a family, that got elected five times in a row, and since they aren't the firstborn they had no chances on being successful in a political career (another nuance of the system, that makes sure that a single family doesn't just take over the entire clan).

So now we have a rich child, who was the youngest one of his siblings (thus getting the most attention), before their younger sister came along and they felt more or less ignored. Hurray!
During their second puberty (Harath go through three of those.... man, desperately gotta get that properly sorted out) they had a huge rebel-phase, where they did stuff like... smuggling alcohol into school (they went to a fancy boarding school for rich kids), sneaking out at night and smoking with friends on the rooftops or going to a pub downtown... stuff like that.
During that time, they were fairly popular, due to their social status and their personality, but also rather feared, due to their social status and their personality. They're the kind of person, who get's really aggressive, arrogant and bossy around people that try to go against them (AKA the good old "my father will hear about this"-type), but is also very funny, considerate and caring towards their friends.
So... you either want to get out of their way, or be their friend. Everything in between just means a lot of trouble and bullying.

Now what the heck does that have to do with my colouring and lineart??

Well, when joining the Paladins, they more or less built a similar structure around them, as they had it at school. During their third puberty they went through another rebellious phase, this one being a lot less dramatic than the last one, possibly because of the environment and because they were somewhere, where they actually wanted to be, and not where their parents sent them to.

And during that phase they just did more or less whatever they wanted, as long as it didn't break all too many rules, which included cutting off the arms of some of their shirts. Why? Because they thought it looked at lot cooler and they felt rather ridiculous with the arms on.
Did they get in trouble, because the shirts should be re-useable by the next trainee, as soon as they grow out of it? Yes. Yes, very much. But they didn't care, because it looked better that way, and they felt more comfortable.

Similar to that, they also liked to wear non-piecring jewellery a lot :D
Which is also forbidden, since it may cause a hazard during training and might make less-privileged trainees jealous (the Paladins attempt to create as much equality and toleration as they can amongst the trainees, since bondage and good relations is very important, and they know that everyone has a different upbringing and background. And whilst racism, sexism and queer-phobia isn't as much of a problem in the south as it is in our world, class-differences, families and the ability to influence magic are categories that can be very much discriminating, to the point that people would fake their entire lineage in order to have better chances in life).

Bothanar did indeed take their jewellery off during classes, but always ran around with wrist- and ankle-bracelets, necklaces, and chains on their trousers in their free time, no matter how often the trainers told them off for it.

Now to the colours! You can't really see it, but the Both has dyed hair and an undercut with a pattern. Traditionally, the Wavecallers are known for long hair, as it was easier to take care of at sea and when working at the docks. And whilst the Trend of short hair from the more northern clans does indeed slowly get more popular amongst the southern clans as well, it is nearly expected for rather noble families to follow the traditional image.
So their hairstyle is essentially a huge "fuck you" to their family.

Their overall palette was rather easy to decide. Pale, more yellow-toned skin, ligt blue eyes, black hair. Fairly typical for their athmospherical region and family.

Fun fact on the side: their skin colour is more or less the same as Cevs hair colour >w<

After filling in the flats, I went back in to add some necklaces, the dyed hair, as well as some pearl-bracelets... the entire jewellery-idea came to me after filling in their shirt, which is why I didn't export the "proper" flat colours in the end.

This would also be the first time for me to draw pearls, so... that was cool! And I think I did a pretty good job as well... all hail the tutorials that pinterest has to offer... they're worth gold!

You're probably wondering how it came to be that Bothanar joined the Order.... so here we continue with their backstory ^-^

After graduating they returned back home.... that was a rather unpleasant thing for them, since they didn't do well in their final exams, because of lack of studying and an immense hangover.
Their parents were furious at first, since that might affect the families reputation, but calmed down pretty quickly, as they realised how Bothanar had a little existential crisis and just... didn't fit into the path of life they wanted for them. They still weren't happy, as Bothanar really didn't look too good on their family tree, but they tolerated them (more or less) until Both decided to finally leave for the Paladins, since his parents belonged to the few intolerant people towards being queer.

Random fun fact: to the question "Why'd you join the paladins?" he also always answers with "To be the stupid, arrogant, genderless, people-fucker I am and be intimidating enough for people to respect my identity. I also wanna learn how to finally kick my big brothers ass for stealing my cooky when I was 123 1/2 years old. It was the last chocolate-chip... it laid on a piece of paper with my name on it. The cook even made an effort to draw a boat out of chocolate on the top of it. And that bastard just ate it. Directly in front of me. I tell ya, that's some childhood trauma right there. Who cares if Uilossons parents beat him, that cookie still haunts me in my nightmares."
(... yeah they always have to insult at least one person towards the end and make fun of their trauma, simply to express their dominance for the sake of expressing their dominance.)

... and that's how Bothanar packed their stuff up again and left, together with their dark-pink dragon called Coral, for the Angelwing-Clan.
They got along really well with a lot of the other trainees, but within the first week they also started a strong rivalry with nobody else than Ruindîr. And this precisely is the reason, why they are so important, but let's first discuss as to how this rivalry started off, before we delve deeper into their role in the story.

Okay, so Bothanar is rich and noble. Ruindîr too. Both have parent-issues, both joined the Paladins as a form of escape, both are intelligent and good at magic. You'd think that they'd get along well, since they are so similar, right? Well, that's what Ruindîr thought, that's what Bothanar thought, that's what everyone thought, until they got to know each other better.

And at first, they did indeed get along great! Ru, being very introverted and observative, whilst Both is very extroverted, yet considerate seemed to also be a great mixture, since Both could theoretically ramble on for as long as they pleased and would always be patient when Ru would want to say something.
They also just instantly bonded over their parent issues, and the pressures of being as noble as they were, since none of the other trainees were quite as high in social status (yeah, there were some other nobles there, but none were like... children of the leaders of the clan other than the two).

But then... well we all know how the answer to "What's the greatest enemy to the good?" is "the better," right? And... well Bothanar always was a special case. They were the leader of their friend-group, they were the baby of the family, they were the rebel to the teachers and tutors... they always were the special one and always got the attention paired with that.
And suddenly this other kid comes along and Both realises how inferior they feel towards Ru.
[This is all written from Bothanars view on Ruindîr... just wanted to warn ya >w<]
Both have parents that are leaders to the state, but Ru's mother is dead and his father is the main advisor of the king (that's at least what Ru told everyone), and not one of the more minor members of the parliament. Both of them were rich, but Ru had more money than them. Both had issues with their family, but Ru's issues were more dramatic. Both were intelligent, but they felt as though Ru was smarter. Both were great at magic, but Ru was way better than him. Both wanted to join the paladins for escape, but this was Ru's childhood dream. Both had creative hobbies (Bothanar likes dancing, building house-models, architectural drawing and tarot reading a lot ^-^), but Rus hobbies were more precise and he was exceptionally good at them(singing, poetry, writing, mechanical drawing and building, language studies, research on ancient cultures, bone carving). Both had their rebel-phases in their puberty, but Ru rebelled more. Both went to a boarding-school for noble children, but Ru finished as best of the year.
... I think you slowly get the drill.

So Bothanar started to grow jealous and out of insecurity and inferiority they started to make fun of some of Rus comments. This then built up to full-on bullying, as Bothanars friends started to join in and they found, that whilst Ru had a great mind, he was unusually small for his age, and thus a lot weaker than most of the other trainees, causing him to have issues keeping up in training.

During the entirety of "Paladin," Bothanar takes the role of Ru's rival, playing the antagonist in the first few books and later on just being someone Ruindîr fears.
More interesting though, in my opinion, is Bothanars relation to Cevrond and their role in "Legend."

You see, Ûndaer got along great with Gathrodor and Heledhanar, who also were close friends of Bothanar. So our glorious trio hangs out a lot with Bothanar and their gang.
Everybody either likes Bothanar, but doesn't want to get too close friends with them out of fear, or hangs out with them, because they see what is happening to Ruindîr and don't want to become their next victim.
Makes Bothanar sounds rather mean, doesn't it? Yes indeed, because they are at times, but most of all our guy is lonely. Nobody dares to get too close, or to upset them, since Bothanar is the one more or less in charge and could (in the eyes of the others) always get their parents to come and take care of their problems... (Bothanar was embarassed by his family, so they lied quite a bit about their relation to them... hehe).

And whilst there were indeed trainees that had nothing to do with them, they still were well respected, except for once person. And that person, was nobody other than Cevrond.
You see, everyone else grew up in a normal family, got taught the normal values of the southern continent, etc. BUTT Cevrond here, got raised by a single father, who is an illegal imigrant from the east, and gives a fuck for social status. So Cev simply never learned to give more respect to others, because of their status... well, he did indeed learn to respect important people, but before everything stands a person's character. If one talks to the king, one should obviously be polite and all that, but if they're a rotten mess, then why should you treat them with much respect?? (Being savage, whilst remaining polite is indeed something that Fer mastered... >w<)

So Cev here, doesn't give Bothanar any more respect than Cev thinks he deserves. And that used to be quite a lot of respect, but after a while, and with the Ru-situation developing in the background, that respect was lost completely.
And Bothanar liked that. A lot. Because... well, whilst they are arrogant and self-confident, they are also riddled with shame and doubt. And having someone finally show their actual opinion towards him, was refreshing and wonderful for Bothanar. So Both tried to hang out more with Cev and learnt quite a bit about his family and personality, admiring our blondie quite a lot. And out of admiration and the comfort of being around someone honest, blossomed a crush. And as soon as Bothanar was aware that he was slowly falling for the overachieving flower-shop-boy, he attempted to get his attention a bit more, inviting Cev to drink beer on their balcony with the guys, going downtown on weekends, and all that good stuff... essentially making sure that Cev was always around the gang in hopes of maybe changing his view on them.

And then, one weekend-evening when they were in town partying, Bothanar was confident enough to attempt to kiss Cevrond, but was very harshly rejected, needing to find out how Cev first of all is into girls (but still open for whatever may come along), but most of all doesn't like them at all. And that hurt. A lot.

So now feeling very very hurt indeed, they kicked Cevrond out of the clique without telling anyone what happened and pressuring Cev into not telling a single word. Cev was visibly not giving a shit for their threats, but admitted that he found it awkward enough to be kept a secret forever, so... that was that.
From then on Bothanar had the tendency to also make fun of Cev a bit, especially of Cevronds family, which did indeed earn them a broken nose when they went too far once, whilst also making sure that it didn't escalate as it did with Ru. Because deep down, the Boss still had feelings for Cev and essentially just wanted to show him, how hurt they were, without really wanting to hurt him.

So yeah... a lot of tea to be spillt and boiled on the "Legend"-side of things, including the terrible irony of Ru and Cev becoming best friends later on. Simply because... um... whilst Bothanar grew to properly hate Ruindîr, they still compared themselves a lot to him and thought, that they were very similar. So when Cev and Ru became best buds, sharing a room and everything, Bothanar only felt a little bit much as though Cev ditched them for the "better version" of them. And that hurt a lot too.

Man.... I really rambled around a lot in this one, didn't I? Welp, Bothanar is one of my favourites, simply because they play a huge role in both of the main paladin-related series and appear later on again in "Phoenix" (a small series in planning, talking about Calphen, Cevs little brother, and his time at the paladins) as the glorious Trainer Riptide.

Anyways, here's the final drawing we've all been waiting for >w<

When coming to the shading, I had a lot of fun working with a softer lighting from above, and another minor, warm lightsource from the side ^-^
It didn't go as well as I hoped it would, but nonetheless I enjoyed the drawing a lot and am very happy with the end result. I will definetely experiment more with lighting in the future and want to be a bit more dramatic in some of my pieces.
I also wanted to give a huuuuggeee thanks to the folks on discord for helping me choose the colour for his hair-dye. I probably would've gone with the light blonde either way, but the blues and greys also looked hella cool and it helped me relax a lot when it came to the shading later on.

As said above, this was my first time trying to draw pearls... it went well, even though they look a bit too shiny and less matte, so that's something for me to look out for in the future.

I also exportet the transparent png and added Bothanar over here with the three other lads, in the hopes of being able to create a full line-up of trainee-group 1 sometime soon ^-^
For that to work though, I'll need to probably throw two or three characters into one picture at times, because..... I'm a slow artist.... I take ages for everything... and this will be a never ending process if I don't somehow speed things up.

And whilst viewing this thing again... remember how I said that I think to have finally found Cevs face? Yeah... I realise now that I nailed it nearly spot on, if it weren't for his nose, that I made a bit too long... gotta shorten that in the next drawing, but then I think I've gotten it >w<""

[i maybe should've tried to make the lighting in Bothanars piece more similar to the other three... welp, just gotta draw enough characters in between to make it look normal]

Wow... congrats for making it so far in another one of my ramble chapters ^-^
>>wraps you in a blanket, sits you down in a beanbag and gives you a nice tea<<

I have realised how I am currently throwing more character- and story-related information between the work in progresses, as opposed to actual art-related things. I won't stop to ramble about my OCs, no worries.. I just love it too much, but I just wanted to ask, if you fancied more parts, where I just talked about the drawing process and my thoughts on techniques... like... in addition to all my lore and story rambling. My chapters obviously are somehow anyways 10 times longer than in most artbooks I see, so another page or so won't harm >w<

I hope you stick around for another while, make yourselves comfortable in the treehouse that Mith made over there >>points to tree-house that stands in the middle of the chapters and waves up to Mith<< , and have a nice time when- or wherever you're reading this ^-^