【Weapon Design】Become a Weaponsmith ～Wand Edition～

I love fantasy settings.

Weapons throwing off sparks, magic spells flying back and forth.

Mysterious potions reviving lives.

From fights between humans to friendships across races and species.

I truly love the world of fantasy that we will never be able to experience.

 

Every character controlling magical powers definitely owns a wand.

……Maybe not definitely, it can also be an enchanted book!

I’m sure those weapons tend to be used to aid their magic skills instead of a physical attack.

One of the best things about a wand is the unique shape that doesn’t prioritize its handiness, durability or strength.

 

This tutorial will introduce you to beautiful designs for the wand that spice up this unique genre of weapons even more.

Wanderful! (since I will be talking about the wand!)

I’m aiming to turn this article into a reference material to suggest various wand types to all of you.

I hope this helps you with your future weapon design!

▼Become a Weaponsmith　Season 1

【For Beginners】Become a Weaponsmith – Casting & Minting ～【Weapon Design】

https://medibangpaint.com/en/use/2021/11/how-to-draw-a-weapon-casting/ 

【For Beginners & Intermediates】Become a Weaponsmith – Equipment Edition 〜【Weapon Design】

https://medibangpaint.com/use/2021/12/how-to-draw-a-weapon-equipment/

 

▼Previous Article

【Weapon Design】Become a Weaponsmith ～Bow Edition～

https://medibangpaint.com/use/2022/03/how-to-draw-a-weapon-bows/

 

Wand Types

When you think of a wand in the fantasy world, what kind of wand do you imagine?

I’m sure there are people who imagine a long, human sized wand or a short wand of about 30cm size.

 

In the general term, they are all generalized to a “wand” but in anime and games, they are often categorized with names like “〇〇 rod” or “〇〇 staff” etc.

Apparently they are all just wands in Japanese, regardless of their roots.

If you want to name your weapon too, it would be fun to look into this even further!

Since walking sticks are called “wands” in the world of fantasy, the standard name would just be “〇〇 wand”!

There are also other items and weapons like grimoires, magic circles and talismans etc. that are often used in magic settings so I will introduce the ones I can think of!

 

Casting

Now that we have a general idea of the wand types, let’s start designing the actual weapon!

It becomes much easier to draw them when you have a theme so choose something typical.

I will start off with attributes/elements that I also introduced in the Bow edition.

You can also design weapons with an animal or plant motif!

As I said earlier, these will not be used for direct physical attacks so you can design it any way you like.

The same can be said for grimoires too, you can draw with various motifs.

However, since it is a “book”, the difficulty here is that you can’t really change its shape drastically.

I don’t really know whether it will be practical but I also drew one with a little opening trick.

Although you can see the differences the best with a change in the book cover design!

 

Equipping

Now that the wand has been designed, let’s equip the weapon!

These are basically ideas for the character’s postures.

The standby posture or attacking posture during on battle mode or how it’s held during off battle mode etc. They are effective for when you want to draw a single-shot illustration. 

 

……Well as for the wand though, I think the only battle style would be to hold it in hand……

But there’s holding in the front/at the back during off battle mode and holding with both hands/one hand during on battle mode, right? right!

A combination of a wand in one hand, a book in the other exists too!

I think the standard for off battle mode would be to hold them on their back, like with other weapons!

Since the wand is a magic weapon, you can leave it floating in the air too.

Now the weapon design is complete!

It really depends on you whether you want to equip the weapons but I introduced them since I have a feeling that most readers would want to imagine them with a character.

 

Wands that are often used to help with magic skills.

It might not be really necessary depending on the kind of piece you are working on but I’m sure the wand with its variety in size and design will be a key item for characterization.

With your unique design, let your cute or cool wizards hold a gorgeous wand!

 

Lastly, I refined one of the designs I liked, so I will include the image below.

Thank you for reading this tutorial !

（Text・Illustration／時計）

Twitter @Clock1231