Wow, it's been a really long time since my last weapon. Things just kept getting in the way, like work, movies and blogging about them (Iron Man 3 and Star Trek: Into Darkness last week), and family. Usually I can get one done in a week and a half even with distractions, but this one had all those little lines. They weren't hard. They were just annoying and every time I would choose the distraction instead.
The pattern I originally drew on paper was craggy, but the tool I used in iDraw (pencil, I think it was) automatically smoothed the lines even on the lowest setting of 0, which I assumed meant no smoothing but doesn't. So, I started the pattern from scratch two more times to find the right look. Turns out I had to do it the hard way, by creating each turn manually as a new point with the bezier tool then later choosing which ones I wanted to smooth. I also then had to connect some lines and separate others in order to color them correctly. This might be the most complicated simple weapon I've done. And, if you look close enough, you can see I ended up going with different styles for the handle and blade. The handle looks somewhat veiny, while the blade looks more like crackling.
This was almost called Raptor, which is now the name of a different weapon that actually has a bird on it. Funny thing is Raptor was originaly named Talon. They were just a bit mixed up. Then @kevinphiggins said that this one looked like a talon, so I had to use it.
Original: April 21, 2006
