Catherine the Great!

The chain wrapped around her body is inspired by Sansa's outfit in Game of Thrones season 6 or 7 -- it's been a while and I don't remember which one it it was. It's an impractical detail on top of an impractical outfit.

I changed some other slight details about her dress -- there's a gold hemline that runs up the zipper and around her collar. I really like how her hat sits on her fluffy hair too.

Looking at this illustration now, I notice that the bangs look nothing like Catherine's usual hairstyle. Her hair has always been asymmetrically parted and then swept to the right (with I imagine a lot of product to keep it that way).

Her hair in this drawing is more reminiscent of Natsumi/Kamiko's typical hairstyle. I'm not sure why I made it that way, but for a while I was more into giving these ladies bangs rather than parted hairstyles.

Her face is very pulled forward, like her head is elongated, that's one thing I dislike about this drawing. With the hair fluffed out and the volume pushing backwards and her face pulled out, it makes her head seem really wide.

If you're curious how I'm able to do the U.S. Great Seal insignia, it's one of the few cheats I've got for her. Years ago I did a large scale ink illustration of just the insignia so I could composite it when I needed it. It's one of my first time saving measure which I use from time to time.

I suppose another one would to be to remove it all together and opt for something simpler, which is something I'm thinking about since she's in the comic.

I originally drew this on my iPad during a period of time when I was exclusively using that to make art -- mainly because I was too lazy to sit in front of an actual computer.

The only reason I'm back in front of a computer is because my iPad battery has lost most of its charge making it difficult to do long art sessions on it. But in return, I'm back to being able to use all of my tools -- Blender, Clip Studio, a full wacom tablet, and really the sky's the limit. I also have access to all of my older art and photography to draw inspiration and actual assets from.

Webcomic Anthology Progress

The anthology entry is only four pages, but at this point it feels like an eternity as I head towards completion on it.

I would like to get it done this week.

This is also why I'm stalling for time with Catherine pin-ups. I don't quite have the next chapter of Magical Girl Kamiko put together. So please bear with me a little longer.

One thing I'm doing for the anthology entry is more color work.

Currently a lot of new Magical Girl Kamiko pages are in black and white and maybe one day that could change to color. As I type this, I realize one complexity of it is that backgrounds would need to be in color. For now, I feel like I can get away with quicker backgrounds because it's all grayscale. Drop in a gradient and you're done. No need to worry about what color it should represent.

On the other hand, I should take up the challenge and do color so I can explore how to do backgrounds in color and push myself.

Anyhow, that's all for today. I hope you're having a great Saturday!