The Littlest Bladesinger

Perhaps you don't understand him, and I cannot pretend that I fully do, either. But, I am quite certain there is so much more than you're willing to give credit for. Yes, he is different. Yes, at times his antics seem peculiar, but I can see passed the momentary confusion. At the least, I am willing to trust that he means well by his gestures. You might see scars and hear no words from shut lips, but I have always been willingly watching, willingly listening. And you have no idea on how much you are truly missing out on for not doing the same. You have no idea how precious a gift it is to be let in on the inside. If even just a little. ~Arabae Ouss'rahel

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Perhaps alternatively this might be named "the masks we wear"

managed to bust this one out in time haha!! even with storms and rushing back and forth to try to help a friend learn how to level up his sorcerer for dnd intervening on time I tried to get this done asap...after all, Veld and I share the same bday [well his player at least lol! not sure about HIM himself] and since that is so crazy-cool to me I HAD to try to draw her a pic And I knew just what I wanted to draw ever since I'd fallen in love with the "littlest bladesinger" screenshots taken of Veld doing a sword-dance. They were just such gorgeous poses and screamed to be drawn. And through discussion the idea of such a pic as him dancing with his true self silhouette in portrait behind him had come up and it was too irresistible. I knew I wanted to draw this image for his player. And what better excuse than a b-day?
This is only the second time I've tried drawing this squirmy lil guy so hopefully he looks decent Lots of trying to reference screenshots and zooming on the lil bugger's face to try to get MORE screenshots to piece things together lol.

And yes, that is his "true self" somewhat faded in the back as mentioned. A lil fact Arabae has yet to learn but I've been allowed to be privy to The notion of a drow cross-dressing and convincingly pulling off such a role is one that I would normally frown on. It honestly takes a really convincing tale to actually WORK. After all, a male that might try to live as a female in the underdark would soooooooo be slaughtered for daring to try to lift his position. I don't see Lolth being amused by such antics for very long. It's just a death sentence waiting to happen. And the idea a female would want to be disguised as a male would just seem...demeaning to herself. But with the intricacies of Veld's past and the fact she was born on the surface as an Eilistraeen and ...had a streak of really traumatizing happenings before she ended up back on the surface only to be found by males that did wrong by her...the idea of trying to hide her female-self as a male thinking it was "safer" actually works. The character is very convincing and a highly entertaining individual to interact with that's for sure. If you can get him to speak to ya, that is, and not just glower lol.

I could perhaps say more but do not want to indulge too much of the mystery that is Veldrinus. Besides, I [and Arabae] am still learning the twists and turns of THAT maze haha!!!!

HAPPY B-DAY HUN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hehhehehehe April 19 ftw

Enjoy




sketch - [link]
lines - [link]
base colors - [link]
inspiration - [link] // [link]
and if you want musical accompaniment, here's the link to Arabae's song for Veld = [link]


Veldrinus ©
image © me, Val B.