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Artist's commentary
Molly the Dastard Ranger
The Siren Sisters were the mascots I designed for SirenRPG, a free and open source TRPG engine. I chose birds as the mascots because the project was named after “Siren”, a bird-related creature in Greek mythology. And because more participants are fun, I designed 4 birds. They are sisters who role-play a Dungeons and Dragons style TRPG game.
SirenRPG has been abandoned. The project never bothered to put the mascots on the website. I might give the birds some roles in Spirit Animals in Disguise.
The names of the birds were inspired by Siren names in Greek Mythology. I chose more conventional names that look similar to the original Greek versions. In age order, they are:
- Agla the Red Siren (Greek: Aglaopheme). She role- plays a dumb knight.
- Molly the Green Siren (Greek: Molpe). She role-plays a dastard ranger.
- Penny the Blue Siren (Greek: Parthenope). She role-plays a lazy mage.
- Trixie the Yellow Siren (Thelxiepe). She role-plays a crafty dungeon master.
Before drawing these birds, I never really attempted western high fantasy designs, and I was unfamiliar with birds. I took notes from @ovopack and @onemegawatt on X/twitter who are particularly good at doing the style. But judging from the result, I don’t think I really learned much — not because of the lacking of attempt, but because of the lacking of observation skills.
The picture still looks okay, although not in the way I expected to be. It was one of the better pictures I created during my low period between 2012 – 2022. I often drew characters too short and too strong at the time. But the bird characteristics covered the issue, which was perhaps why it looked better. Regardless, my creative ability was indeed recovering.