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Characters / Ivu

Created: 2024.12.02
Last updated: 2026.04.26

Digital painting of a feminine figure whose skin looks like birch bark and hair falls in curls that resemble the drooping leaves of a birch tree. She wears a green apron on top of an orange dress with red decorative drapery at the hem and shoulders.

The dryads, Ivu amongst them, are caretakers of the forest and some of the most powerful magical beings in the world, wielding shapeshifting growth and destructive fire to drive nature's cycles of death and rebirth ever onward.

Ivu is the avatar of the birch tree and also the protagonist of my long-term game project Flamegrower — in fact, the dryads' magic powers were created out of the game's mechanics.

Extra sketches exploring different balances between nature/gardening aesthetics and a fancy sorcerer's dress:

Four different clothing designs for Ivu the dryad. One is naked. The second wears a long green dress decorated with orange flame-like sigils. The third wears an apron on top of an orange dress with red decorative drapery. The fourth wears an apron with one shoulder strap undone on top of a collared t-shirt, a frilly red skirt, and a straw hat.

Relationships

  • Miriel: acquaintance. The dryads rarely interact with people, but the elves come into contact with them more often than anyone. Their relationship is one of cordial collaboration, both serving as stewards of the natural environment.

Artworks featuring Ivu (5 pages):

Gouache painting of Ivu, a dryad with birch bark skin and a ponytail of leaves in fall colors, laying stomach down on a large branch. She's leaning on her hands and glancing back at the viewer with a wry smile. An expanse of forest, grassland and river is seen far below her.
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Sunbathing

Ink drawing of Miriel the forest elf climbing onto a pile of rubble. Behind the pile we see ruins of tall urban buildings overgrown with vegetation, and in the middle of it all a large building with a giant domed roof. There's a car under the rubble. Miriel is carrying her bow with the string on and a quiver full of arrows, suggesting she's worried about who might be lurking in these streets.
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15 images

Inktober 2025

Gouache painting of Aava, a pale-colored mermaid with black bob-cut hair, wearing a billowing pink dress. We're underwater, but not very deep - the darkness is broken by dim shafts of light from above. She's falling backwards away from the viewer and towards a gothic cathedral tower seen in the background.
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6 images

Stuff with gouache

A grid of four drawings in different styles featuring various characters.
16 images

Art Fight 2025

Digital painting of a woman with birch bark for skin and leaves for hair standing in a moonlit meadow. One of her hands is a glowing ember with a flame held in the palm. The other hand sprouts a twig which holds a marshmallow over the flame.
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Very important application of dryad magic