Space Dust

Deklan Jasra

Having had a major nostalgia trip down memory lane recently that raced me through the entire Mass Effect franchise, slammed me body and soul into Kaidan Alenko and then crashed me heart first into Carth Onasi - Raphael Sbarge's voice has a lot to answer for - it seemed somehow fitting to revisit Deklan Jasra.
Aaaall the way back in 2003, following a play-through of one of my all time favorite games 'Knights of the old republic', Deklan was the result of my mighty need to create a character of my own who could hang out in a Star Wars universe and possibly make things float through sheer force of will ;-) But it wasn't until 2005 that he finally found a face via the stand in for Obi-Wan Kenobi in the 'making of' footage from 'Phantom Menace'. It was my first encounter with awesome actor Marc Warren and he has been my template for Deklan ever since.
Mr Warren, I would like thank you from the bottom of my heart for everything that you are and the tremendous inspiration you continue to be. You rock!
We've come a long way since 2005, Deklan and I. And I still love him as much as I did the day I created him. My original older brother. <3

Deklan progress video now on Vimeo

I made a little progress stills video of my painting of Deklan. You can watch it on my Vimeo channel :-)

Hot and bothered

Deklan

I decided to revisit Deklan as I continue working my way through the 29 faces.
He's from a fantasy sci-fi story I started a looong time ago. I feel I should add here that I write purely for therapeutic reasons... should I ever actually finish one of my stories it would be by complete accident ;-)
Deklan is a hyperspace scout and a devoted older brother - yes... I have a thing about older brothers - and through a random combination of incidents, involving a Star Wars 'making-of' clip and the Sting song 'If I ever lose my Faith', he ended up looking like the charming and talented Marc Warren.
As the song goes - 'I could be lost inside their lies without a trace, but every time I close my eyes, I see your face.'
Well, that was the face :-)

Cold in the heat...

Deklan - wip

The weather has been hot lately. Really hot. Proper summer hot. I don't like it. I'm not a summer person.
I'm still struggling with my 'artist's block'... and an infuriating summer cold.
My reaction so far has been to keep chipping away at my paintings, even if I still end up discarding what I've been doing now and again. Here is another wip of Deklan. I've added some more detailing to the face... still experimenting with the apparel hence the cropped version posted here.
I'm gonna go blow my nose now and eat another lozenge.

Decisions, decisions...

Deklan Jasra - wip

Note to self... decide on an outfit before you begin.
Spent most of this evening just deciding what clothes I wanted him to wear. I'm still not sure. I think he's beginning to look like a pirate.
Work in progress.

It gets everywhere, dammit!

Deklan Jasra - wip

Another super quick sketch from last night.

In his capacity as hyperspace scout for hire Deklan spends a lot of time exploring and plotting new hyperspace routes. An extremely dangerous, but also extremely well-paid, occupation. Most of his clients are mining companies who have made fortunes by digging out the riches beneath the barren surfaces of desert planets. As a result most of Deklan's new assignments starts with him standing somewhere under a scorching sun, squinting and thinking 'Oh. great... more sand.'

Oh brother, where art thou...

Deklan Jasra - wip

A slight left turn at the traffic lights tonight as I decided to attempt one of the characters from my sci-fi story.

So here's Deklan Jasra. Hyperscpace scout, telepathic and single parent to his little sister.
Deklan is rather special to me because he's my first older brother. Every story I write seems to have an older brother looking after a younger sister. I have a fantastic little brother and I love being his older sister and looking out for him while he was still shorter than me ;-) But I guess being the older sibling has created a subconscious longing to have someone older to look out for me.
What can I say, I've always made up and drawn my own fictional friends ;-)

He looks the way he does because when I was watching some of the extras from the Phantom Menace - which quite frankly was the only good thing about that blinking film, my inner Star Wars nerd wept at the horror of episode 1, 2 and 3, let's pretend they don't exist, but I digress - and they shot a temporary version of the submersible scene with stand-in actors for reference purposes. And the guy who was standing in for Obiwan just mesmerized me. It was the actor Mark Warren who some may know from the series 'Hustle'. He's done lots of things. Having been lacking a facial reference for my hyperspace scout he just seemed like the ideal choice.

Work in progress.

Enjoy :-)