Diana M. | Vis Dev & Illustration 2023

Veressahir is a project I started a couple of months ago. I'm working on it from a visual development for animation perspective and pouring into it my worldbuilding and storytelling urges. Let me settle you into the story and the world a little before showing you more.

They called it veressahir; it means "magic in the blood". No one knew where it came from or why and no one knows yet. Most of them don't care anymore. 

The world superdeveloped in tiny population centers, hoarding technology and luxuries and leaving the land spanning between them to fend for themselves. Then, there was this new power that came to the light of the world on a petri dish and the only real, immediate urge was not to let it out of their hands. 

Arrogant of them, to assume it ever was.

Suuvira

The capital of the world, they call it. Suuriva is the metropolis and most precious and spoiled city of the Empire of Sortahdis.

The city is elevated from the land and surrounded by a wall in its totality. Divided in districts, Suuvira has a very clear distribution, especially proud of their Innovation hub. On the highest point, the Novasi watches over all of it, where the Council and the elite decide the future of everyone.

At ground level and all around, the Tamat expands, where none of the wealth of the city reach. People there live off the land and the trading with travelers.

Evike

Evike is our protagonist, our antagonist; depends on who you ask.

She was part of the scientific department of the Novasi, she was chief of her division and had the privilege of working in the most undercover projects of Suuriva's Council. Which means she worked on the discovery of veressahir.

She's spent her life working in the most prestigious of labs, she's been on top of the world's capital, she's been the most important person in the building.

Now, she's most wanted in the whole continent.

And in leaving all of what made her life behind, she's finding a world she had never taken a glance at. With more than half of her life lived, she's discovering herself anew.

Evike can't take one single step inside Suuvira anymore, much less near the Novasi. But circumstances are not going to give her much of a choice in returning to the place that saw her at the very top, when she's at her lowest.

Keyframes

Keyframes are probably the thing I enjoy the most creating. Capturing the emotion and action in a character's movement and expression and surround them with an atmosphere and colors that can carry that sentiment straight to the viewer. 

These are some keyframe pieces from various non-related projects.

Illustration

I like to work on illustrations that render a moment of a bigger story. I like to play with elements and convey the story behind the characters. And I like to think about how they got there and why.

Left: I named it "Underwater Curiosity" because it's based on the premise of a rich, obssesed, oppulent man building a house underwater, with ceiling-tall windows for his eyes to drink the secrets of the deep waters. But it never ocurred to him, that on the other side of the glass there was someone equaly curious for him.

Right: the character's name is Aidene and she's a witch. She comes from a family of witches and her power has started developing recently but she's a teenager and lives in the middle of a city and she's having trouble managing the two sides her reality now has. Specially because she doesn't seem to be very atuned to her magic. She can't very well throw fireballs in the middle of her school classes so her family crafted her a magical wooden jar to channel and trap the results of her messy power. At the end of the day, she goes to the top of her building and opens it, letting free everything inside the jar and her.

Bottom, both: these illustrations are the result of wanting to mix classic and modern vampire aesthetics. I wanted a vampire cheeky enough to wear a cross as an earring but also a predator who were more lackey to the blood than stealer of it. A vampire who got on his knees for the one who held his lifeline.

Happy to see you here at the end, thank you for spending time with my art! 

(If you got curious about Veressahir, there's more info about it on my website!)