Arison Nakaru

Hey everybody!

This page is dedicated to a faithful reader who joined along on my quest of writing a book from the very beginning. Her name is Arison Nakaru, also FanFictionist at her beginnings, and over the months we have learned to know each other a little more by mailing and sending self-drawn pictures or photographs to the other, and keeping daily contact by PMs.

She is a very good artist but due to a lack of computers and proper scanners at home (even the ones in the local library suck!), she has never gotten the chance of showing what she can do. After sending me, all the way from Michigan to Switzerland, some great drawings of the characters in her main story 'Shadowed Mask', most of them OCs, I proposed to exhibit her artwork here on my blog since I've got a decent scanner and computer at home.

One thing she wanted me to precise is that the pictures exhibited here are not entirely drawn by herself. In order to make things easier, she copies or traces certain existing pictures to set the bases correctly, then adds the features of the characters she wants to draw, like pointed ears, clothes or hair. This is in my opinion a very good way to learn how to draw properly, since I've done the same when I started drawing. And I'm still doing it with persons I have never drawn before to learn how they are built, or to draw a little quicker to prevent sketching away for hours until you are pleased. 

Starting at the beginning: Ari thought about what Link's parents might look like, and here the fruits of her imagination. Minato to the left, here around 16 of age according to Arison. His future wife Serenity owns Link's long Hylian ears that I so love, however they are absent on Minato. Why is that so? I asked the artist, and she answered that Minato is a late descendant of the Hero's line, but it has been mixed with human blood. Minato is the Hero of Time's descendant, but his Hylian ears have been lost to time.

This is where they are probably around their mid-thirties. To talk a little about their names, they are well chosen by the artist. Minato is Japanese and means 'harbour', and Serenity means 'peaceful'. Ari is still looking for middle names for them, which would be something like 'strength' for the father and 'light' for the mother. This is very fitting because, since they are parents to the Hero, both meanings play a very important role in Link's life. He has to 'harbour his strength' to defeat Evil and needs 'light' to guide him to peace through the darkness. 
In any case, Arison did a wonderful job in creating those two characters. I've always wondered what Link's parents might be like, and her pictures showed me a fitting example for them. 

Let's continue with the third generation:























Isamu is Link's son in Arison's story, aged fourteen on the picture just above. You can clearly see who he takes after by the long ears, the tell-tale haircut and general shape of his face. Yet he has something of his mother, the darker hair for example, and if you look closely at his eyes you see a blue rim belonging to his father and a golden-brown centre from his mother.

 Isamu grew two years, and to the right he is with sixteen. Looks really cheeky and defiant, don't you think? Valuable traits he has inherited from his mother and father, no doubt!

But Isamu is not alone. His sister Sayuri, here sixteen, owns her mother's beauty and grandfather's round ears. From Link I see her bangs over her eyes and the hazelnut-blonde hair colour.

I find it quite interesting how the ear shape varies with the different generations and persons. Both children are wonderful and have so many looks from their father and mother that make them both unique, both so obviously son and daughter of the Twilight Hero and his wife.



By the way, who is Link's wife and lover? Who is Sayuri's and Isamu's mother? Well, only Ari and I know :)

Link from The Wind Waker. Here, she can proudly say that she did not trace the picture before. This one was drawn when she was around thirteen. 

Minato and Serenity around 16

Minato

Arison in Manga Form

Arison's Manga Form Expressions

This picture is an interesting one. The lineart is from me, but I send Arison a copy and she coloured it out. It's from my first chapter 'The Lone Hylian' where Link meets up with his bird friend. I'll probably make a Photoshop version of it with a background once I've got the time. But thanks to Ari for colouring it!