u/Optimal_Front_5401

Time to finish the fight

The titanic battle of the 4th battle ends, but at a bittersweet stalemate, without a lethal hit being prevented, the battle can not officially end. Craw must face a different opponent to move on, his own nerves.

The titanic fight between Craw and Marcel comes to an end as both warriors stumble on their last legs. Will Craw be victorious? Will the warrior spirit be fully unlocked? Will the oncoming danger reveal itself? Find out next time on Craw Beast Log!

Here’s the official map of the setting of Craw Beast Log

The storm has begun, the fight continues…

The fourth of the trials has come. Craw takes the plunge and sees his past waiting for him. In this battle of titans, Marcel wants to see if Craw really has the guts to carve out his will into the world. Perhaps Craw wishes to prove something as well.

After the battle with the pyre saint, Craw must travel to a fated battle at the base of the Basteel. The many fights are starting to take their toll. Also non-humans have trouble with windows. Will Craw survive the plunge? Will Craw be able to face his past in combat? Will Corveld ever be able to find his way out while blindfolded? Find out next time on Craw Beast Log!

1st Anniversary Post Part 3: Vile Kinactus, the Seven Spiked Star of Ruin

This is the last of the 3 anniversary posts, this one will be a peer behind the curtain for the main villain of the story, Kinactus, at least the reference sheet for his non-dragon form. The dragon was conceptualized almost as soon as Craw himself. I believe the first image ever post here was a very scuffed looking drawing of the both of em. The main inspirations for this evil creature is two of the dragons found in Dark Souls 1, that being Seath the Scaleless and Black Dragon Kalameet. Seath provided the concept of a twisted sorcerer dragon who experiments on life itself. I must admit, the resemblance is rather blatant. I would like to say I’ve done enough to differentiate his brand of cruelty from the legendary Seath’s, but that’s for the readers to decide. As for Kalameet, many of his physical traits were used, most notable the one significant eye. I’m aware kalameet’s “eye” is likely just a crystal and he actually has two normal eyes as well, but the aesthetics are way too cool. Even the outstretched horns of Kalameet inspired the 7 significant horns of Kinactus. He is arguably the most important character in the story, he drives the central conflict and he provides many thematic foils to Craw as a character. I wanted Kinactus’ personality to almost act as sort of a extreme version of a “pure evil” villain. This both allows for a fun villain to hate and to root against. I feel that recently morally complex villains have become the norm, I believe that this classic trope has now become novel, but I could always just have a limited consumption of things. The human like form’s design origins mostly comes from frieza and the idea of a beggar. The idea is that Kinactus sees the smaller creatures as so low, he could take the appearance of what is perceived as their lowest and still be above them. The design of Kinactus has many 7’s when it comes to the details. His horns were intended to look like a star. The term “star of ruin” is almost directly taken from a spell from elden ring, but it sounded so cool so I yoinked it. I’m rambling at this point so I’m going to stop right here.

1st Anniversary Post Part 2

The second anniversary post will be about probably the biggest side character or deuteragonist, Cephaly Thrax, the Arachnian Sorceress. I would probably say this is my best designed character, both conceptually and in execution. The origins of this character actually goes back to an animated pilot on YouTube called “Cliffside” made by “Liam Vickers Animation”. Those who’ve seen it before probably know who I’m taking about. In this pilot was a fun character named Cordie, who was a spider like lady who acted as the biggest source of comic relief. This character was a favorite of mine and I was in love with the idea of a spider-based character that is not a centaur or a literal spider. I suppose Muffet from undertale could also be considered an inspiration, especially when it comes to a popular depiction of what I was thinking of, so I decided to conceptualize and put her in the story at the beginning of the third chapter. To be completely honest, one of the big reasons why the character was introduced was also because I had realized that the story had not had a significant female character yet. Not that that’s the only reason, but definitely a decent chunk. Along with that her character both acts as a foil to Craw’s reserved nature and a foil to his purely physical fighting style. Her naturally energetic and theatrical personality provides many times for Craw to “get out his shell”, see what I did there. Along with that having a dedicated nimble magic user allows the reader to see the magic aspect of the world both through example and character-filled explanation. This allows the enemies of the book to properly show their threat when it comes to magic since we can have someone to compare them to. As you can tell from one of the reference images, there may be an expansion to their dynamic later in the story, but you’ll just have to keep reading to see! (An ode to the era of the m/f protags always having a “subplot”, I eat that stuff way too much)

1st Anniversary Post Part 1

The story being told has now reached 1 year of being in progress! As celebration, I will release reference sheet for 3 of the book’s most important characters along with behind the scenes information. As for part one, is the main character himself, Craw. A few fun facts are that the idea of Craw came from a random encounter with a one clawed crawfish during a rainy day. At that moment, I thought to myself “huh, imagine if this thing had like a prosthetic arm that looked like an excavator claw” and that’s kinda it. I kept feeding the idea in my head until I decided to get back into drawing and take a swing at writing. The character was also initially created as a dnd barbarian character, and started making the logs as like an accessory piece to my character, but I liked it so much I decided to make a whole original story around him. It gives me great joy to see all of the progress I’ve made when it comes to both drawing and writing. To any who have read my series so far, you have my upmost gratitude, and hopefully one day I can finish this story and polish it to the point where it’s price point quality. To hopefully many more years of my continued growth and the completion of this story.

Craw faces his third challenge of the five and seemingly the most determined to stop his path so far. Deep within the Pheonix Convent, Craw faces a high octane and vertical fight against the burning duo, the Pyre Saint and her eternal ally, a Pheonix. Will Craw be able to beat the odds, will his quest continue to be put into question, will Corveld’s blindfold cause an annoying itch? Find out next time on Craw Beast Log!

As our hero rests from a hectic fight, Corveld pops up from his little venture to congratulate our hero and satisfy his curiosities. Once Craw leaves, our hero’s allies discuss the nature of Craw’s small burst of power. Will Craw be able to finish the trials ahead? Will the power of the warrior spirit be more harmful than useful? Will Corveld stop eating peanuts so quickly? Find out next time on Craw Beast Log!

Disaster looms…

The second battle commences against the one of the volcano company’s finest specialists when it comes to combat application of magic. He must face the inferno as he deals with this foe and his tar tricks. Will Craw be able to recover quickly? Will Cephaly give in to the power? What did Corveld have to go through in that bathroom? Find out next time on Craw Beast Log!