Rise to Omniscience: Book 4 Update

Hey everyone!

I want to provide you with an update on the work that has been done so far for “Rise to Omniscience: Book 4!”

I don’t have a title for the book just yet, but there will be an announcement coming soon.

Work on the book has been well underway for quite some time, and it has been quite a while since the release of Skyflare back in July.

Editing of the book is nearly complete, the cover art is well underway, and the book should be available for pre-order very soon.

I’m hoping to have the book released by October 31st, so stay tuned on my Instagram and Facebook pages for an update.

Book 4 in the RTO series raises the stakes more than ever, as you’ll be able to see from the preliminary sketches of the book’s cover.

On the cover is Morgan locked in mortal combat with the Infernal-Bane Lyvern, the monstrous beast from Starbreak. The battle is sure to be thrilling, so make sure to pick up the book when it comes out!

Now, please enjoy some fantastic cover/concept art for RTO Book 4!

Have a great day!

Morgan, the main protagonist from Aaron Oster’s “Rise to Omniscience” series, locked in combat with the Infernal-Bane Lyvern.

Concept art from Aaron Oster’s upcoming “Rise to Omniscience: Book 4”

The Sonic-Cerberus Chicken: From Idea to Creation

I’m very excited to present our second beast feature from Rise to Omniscience. If you weren’t aware, we have an amazing artist, Daniel Simon, who’s been working on character and beast art for RTO. The last time, we covered the creation of the Ice-Bristle Wolf. If you haven’t seen it already, then you can check it out here. Now, please join us as we take a deep dive at the creation of the Sonic-Cerberus Chicken!

Some of you may remember the Sonic-Cerberus Chicken from Starbreak, as it was the first creature that Morgan got to try his signature “Starbreak” move on. It's a chicken approximately 7 feet tall, with three heads. Each head is a different color, and that color carries down the rest of its body, giving it a three-toned appearance. The left head is black, the middle one is light tan and the left head is deep red. It's feet are bright yellow and have a set of wickedly curved claws. It also has a smattering of scales throughout it's feathers, and they extend in a line from their crests to their beaks, providing a sort of crude armor for their heads.

As you can imagine, there is zero reference for a three-headed chicken in the real world, so it’s in cases like this where an artist really has to use to their imagination and creative vision. Daniel started off with a preliminary sketch that looked like this:

Sonic-Cerberus Chicken Preliminary Sketch

Even the preliminary sketch for this beast took a bit of time, as figuring out the positioning of the heads, as well as the effect it would have on the proportions of the body, was quite time-consuming. After this sketch was made, Daniel changed up the pose a bit, to make it look more sinister and aggressive.

Sonic-Cerberus Chicken Sketch 2

I really liked the positioning of the heads in this one, it gave the chicken an almost prehistoric vibe. It sort of reminded me of a dinosaur. (Which is accurate as modern birds are their closest relatives.)

Once we settled on this pose, the lines were drawn on more finely, and the line-work of the chicken became more prominent.

Sonic-Cerberus Chicken Final Line Work

After the lines were completed, Daniel moved on to coloring. He had to play around a bit with different variations of color to get one that looked the best.

Sonic-Cerberus Chicken Preliminary Color

Sonic-Cerberus Chicken Colorwork 2

Daniel and I decided that although we did like this look, it would look better if there was some variations in the color of the wings. It would provide some much needed contrast.

Sonic-Cerberus Chicken Colorwork 3

By changing up the colors of the feathers, it gave it a more natural, chicken-like look. After we settled on this pattern, Daniel made a background, and added some finer details and shading work.

Sonic-Cerberus Chicken with Cave Background

As you can see, Daniel colored in the scales, as well as adding some more shadows and texture.

Sonic-Cerberus Chicken with Cave Background 2

He then added highlights and shadows to the scales of the chicken. He also played around with the coloring of the wings, so one color bled into the next, to give it as much of a natural look as he could.

Sonic-Cerberus Chicken with Cave Background 3

The coloring was nearly complete but Daniel decided to change the color of the underside of the left wing from red to yellow. This was done to provide more contrast, as the leftmost head was blending into the wing too much and was becoming lost.

After this change was made, Daniel sent us the final version of the Sonic-Cerberus Chicken!

The Sonic-Cerberus Chicken, from Aaron Oster’s Starbreak: Rise to Omniscience Book 2

In this final piece, Daniel changed up the color of the eyes, added some effects, and tightened up the lines and colors.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this weeks deep dive look into the creation of the Sonic-Cerberus Chicken! Please stay tuned for the next one! If you enjoyed this post, please leave a like, comment, and share with your friends!

Book Update - Power: Buryoku Book 1

Hey everyone! I’m super excited to announce that Power: Buryoku Book 1 is currently in the editing stage!

Buryoku is a departure from Rise to Omniscience, my previous series in several ways. Buryoku is a fantasy, cultivation series, and it’s going to be truly awesome!

 In it, you’ll travel along with the protagonist, Roy, as he embarks on a fantastic journey. Along the way, he’ll encounter many fantastical beasts and hilarious characters, as he tries his best to amass the power he needs to survive in his world.

I sent the book out to some beta readers and the response has been tremendous, with many of them praising the character development, magic system, and world building.

In this post, you’ll also see a picture of Aika, one of the main characters, whose role has yet to be revealed! There’s also artwork of Roy on the way, so stay tuned for that as well!

Look out for Power: Buryoku Book 1 when it launches in September! I hope to have a concrete release date soon!

If you enjoyed this post, please leave a comment and a like, and feel free to share it with anyone else you think might enjoy it! Keep on being super!

Best,

Aaron

Aika, a main character in Buryoku, the upcoming series from Rise to Omniscience author, Aaron Oster

The Ice-Bristle Wolf: From idea to creation

So for all of you who have read Supermage, you know that one of the defining challenges for Morgan was his battle with the Ice-Bristle Wolf. The wolf was technically at a rank that Morgan couldn’t possibly hope to beat, yet despite that immense challenge, he persevered and overcame it. In addition to being such a defining moment, the wolf is also among the coolest beasts visually in the series. In the coming months, we’ll be doing a series of posts where we describe the creation of new beasts in the Rise To Omniscience series! The awesome artist behind the artwork is Daniel Simon. His work is really awesome, and you can check out his work on his website, or follow him on Instagram or Twitter. Now join us as we take a deep dive into the Ice-Bristle Wolf’s creation. Enjoy!

The description for the wolf is as follows. It’s a massive wolf, with icy blue and white fur, and ice-like teeth and claws. Its body gives off a blue aura, and it’s able to harden the fur on its back, making it sharp enough to cut steel. So, initially, we started off with a preliminary sketch on paper.

Ice-Bristle Wolf Paper Sketch

After the sketch was done, we moved on to the line work for the wolf. It went through several revisions, filling in the finer details of the wolf, trying to make it appear as lifelike as possible.

This was essentially the final line art of the wolf…

… but we just wanted to change the positioning of the fangs so they were more inline with the face.

After we settled on the final line art, we began the process of coloring the wolf. Since there wasn’t really a real-world creature to reference, Daniel just went with his imagination and creativity.

We took the basic line art of the wolf, and added blue shading, as well as darker shading on the snout.

We then added light gray shading on the main body of the wolf to give some contrast.

We then colored the eyes, claws, and fangs, and also added more colors to the body of the wolf.

At this point, the coloration of the wolf was almost complete. We added glow effects to demonstrate the icy aura of the wolf, and added shadows to the underside to make the effect more prominent.

Finally, after all adjustments were made to the coloration, we added a wintry background, some shadow work, and the wolf was complete!

We really hoped you enjoyed this deep dive into the Ice-Bristle Wolf’s creation! You can look forward to the next piece in the series, the Sonic-Cerberus Chicken, in the coming weeks! Please like, share, and comment below if you enjoyed!