Gale Vanguard

A group piece featuring, from left to right, , my own character, and

Whew! This took a while to complete, but I'm proud of how it turned out. Taking some lessons learned from producing my previous group commission piece, Blazing Knights, I altered the way I went about drawing this. Many troubles I had in producing BK occurred in the inking stage, mainly because the surface of the paper I used had degraded over time and didn't accept the ink as smoothly. So, this time I made a point of planning out the figures and details in advance before making the under sketch, and then moving into inking ASAP. While in this piece I went back to more of my traditional techniques, I did use a little bit of ink mixed with water to color in Za's iris.

Like the BK group pic, the position of each figure, details such as facial expression, and the contrast between the three figures are all in there for a reason. How this piece contrasts with "Blazing Knights" is also significant, if you want to take another look at it. Spot that symbolism! My concept for the group was to have them and significant items for sort of a sideways "S" shape, looking down from a slightly high angle. However, as I progressed with the sketch and tried to incorporate the various elements Dave and Za wanted, things seemed to settle into a more standard perspective; blarg. While not quite what I had envisioned at first, the basic shape is still there if you follow the right features.

While I had all the details I needed for Dave and Za, Matthew's pose was up in the air until just before I started drawing. Getting his connection to Dave established was relatively simple, but I was really stumped as to how to match that with Za because of her positioning. A hand down at the hip or on her belly would send the wrong message, as would leaving the viewer to assume he might be grabbing her breast. The problem resolved itself, however, when I reworked Za's hair. The way it sweeps back first had me draw it much larger in back, in turn making her head look too big. After some changes, and with a clearer view of her arm, I finally had somewhere to put Matthew's right hand.

Well, I hope you enjoy it as much as I had fun drawing it. As always, comments and critiques are welcome!