All that talk, and wouldn't you believe it? I missed something! (Surprise, surprise.) Turns out in all of my excitement, one of the main things that I was going to do, I, well, uh...didn't. So remember that thing I mentioned in the first blog post for today? I was going to do more stuff.
In particular, the plan was to blog about two things mainly. Disease as one...and art as another. Something I epically failed at, since here I am, just now getting to the art which was one of the largest reasons I wanted to blog in the first place! Well, time to fix that. I mentioned that yesterday, I scanned both the magical girls and my two new Red Hood Rider pages, right?
Well...here they are.
In particular, the plan was to blog about two things mainly. Disease as one...and art as another. Something I epically failed at, since here I am, just now getting to the art which was one of the largest reasons I wanted to blog in the first place! Well, time to fix that. I mentioned that yesterday, I scanned both the magical girls and my two new Red Hood Rider pages, right?
Well...here they are.
These are the magical girls, and the dark magical girl, that I created way back during the power outage, with no references available, out of boredom. You may recall the blog post about them. It's buried by now. Since I didn't get my blog running until late December, you'll have to go quite a ways back into the December archives, but I do believe it's somewhere around December 21st as the day released, and should be marked as being a blog post on...November 19th, I think? Somewhere around there.
God I should have gotten my blog running sooner. Anyway, the point is, these are those magical girls. They're pretty nice characters, fitting smoothly in the Rubyverse. Not a part of Red Hood Rider, directly, but existing in the same universe. There's a lot I wanted to say about them, but most of it has since disappeared from my head, categorized as having been not important enough to store to my long-term memory.
I do remember that, basically, Ariana remains a villain because in spite of her having a power that should make her of ALL people have a HeelFaceTurn, she's a villain because of love, a deep, true love. Villainous love, yes, and a little bit squicky love (Ronan is 28 and she's 16), but love all the same. And because of her empathy powers, she knows the feeling is mutual. Ronan truly, deeply loves her more than anything else in the world, and she loves him more than anything else in the world, and it's through that bond most of their characterization comes.
For instance, when the question is raised about whether it's possible their powers influence their emotions (Ronan's limited reality warping power could, with constant close proximity, cause someone to love him; Ariana's empathy power allows her to manipulate emotions, including having the ability to induce love in someone), they both basically answer that they would do whatever it took to break the artificial bond, and whatever would be left would be left...but they're absolutely certain their love formed without their powers being involved, and since both of them are happy with their relationship, are not exactly willing to push the boundaries. (Particularly since basically the only way to, for absolutely sure, break the hold of their powers is to actually die and stay dead long enough for any residual effects. Not something you'd be liable to do.)
Basically, they're a couple first, villains second. They're also not that bad as far as villains go. They have simple goals, mainly among them being trying to find ways that they would be able to live a comfortable life together, without the kind of judging stares they get. (Because of the aforementioned squick factor in their age difference.)
They hold fairly high standards for villains, though do still see the Simple Stars as an obstacle, one they would remove if the opportunity arose, because the Simple Stars are usually the only thing in the way of them achieving their plans. However, that being said, they would actually prefer to avoid that scenario if at all possible, and do try more low-key methods. It's just that when they see opportunity, they leap at it, no matter the legal or moral implications of their actions.
I quite like them as characters. I also put a fair amount of depth into the Simple Stars, too. Crystal is the youngest of the group, but also the smartest. She's not the leader, but she is the person who plans for the team, particularly since her power of Clairvoyance is actually better defined as seeing the CURRENT future. She likes to cause chain reactions, domino effects, basically setting up Rube Goldbergesque situations, which turn simple things into fun links, where one thing leads to another for a satisfying pay-off.
Dee (the only name which doesn't hold meaning) is constantly-enthusiastic, but as a stealth expert (not to mention, fast, speedy, and using the heaviest weapon of the trio in the form of an ax/crossbow hybrid), she is also a very pragmatic fighter, always going for the easiest route available for the fastest victory, no matter how brutal.
Fiona, the oldest of the group, is the leader. She's the glue that holds the team together, very competent. She's passionate and quite skilled at many things, including life skills that the other girls lack. She is their main link to the world, in fact, somewhere between the role of a big sister and team mother. But what she excels at most of all is combat, where she is their strongest, most powerful member. Her magical bullets are about to par with Dee's bolts in speed and power, and while her sword may lack the weight of Dee's ax, her swordsmanship makes her technical precision skills in melee combat exceed Dee's.
What makes her the most dangerous of the three, though, is that she holds the greatest amount of magical energy, which she can discharge through either of her weapons and thoroughly blast an opponent. This, when combined with her prowess at combat, makes her the most lethal fighter, especially since she's a fierce fighter even when depowered. (Well, their powers are always passively active: Crystal can always see into the future, but she gets more detail and can manipulate events better when empowered; Dee is always fast and light-footed, but her powers turn those to superhuman levels. Fiona's the only one of the three who doesn't really have any depowered skills...but that's because she doesn't need any; she's THAT good.)
It's a fun story, good for a spinoff comic somewhere way, WAY down the line, but not part of Red Hood Rider. Which is what I wanted to show. In particular, the image of the page I finished on vacation.
God I should have gotten my blog running sooner. Anyway, the point is, these are those magical girls. They're pretty nice characters, fitting smoothly in the Rubyverse. Not a part of Red Hood Rider, directly, but existing in the same universe. There's a lot I wanted to say about them, but most of it has since disappeared from my head, categorized as having been not important enough to store to my long-term memory.
I do remember that, basically, Ariana remains a villain because in spite of her having a power that should make her of ALL people have a HeelFaceTurn, she's a villain because of love, a deep, true love. Villainous love, yes, and a little bit squicky love (Ronan is 28 and she's 16), but love all the same. And because of her empathy powers, she knows the feeling is mutual. Ronan truly, deeply loves her more than anything else in the world, and she loves him more than anything else in the world, and it's through that bond most of their characterization comes.
For instance, when the question is raised about whether it's possible their powers influence their emotions (Ronan's limited reality warping power could, with constant close proximity, cause someone to love him; Ariana's empathy power allows her to manipulate emotions, including having the ability to induce love in someone), they both basically answer that they would do whatever it took to break the artificial bond, and whatever would be left would be left...but they're absolutely certain their love formed without their powers being involved, and since both of them are happy with their relationship, are not exactly willing to push the boundaries. (Particularly since basically the only way to, for absolutely sure, break the hold of their powers is to actually die and stay dead long enough for any residual effects. Not something you'd be liable to do.)
Basically, they're a couple first, villains second. They're also not that bad as far as villains go. They have simple goals, mainly among them being trying to find ways that they would be able to live a comfortable life together, without the kind of judging stares they get. (Because of the aforementioned squick factor in their age difference.)
They hold fairly high standards for villains, though do still see the Simple Stars as an obstacle, one they would remove if the opportunity arose, because the Simple Stars are usually the only thing in the way of them achieving their plans. However, that being said, they would actually prefer to avoid that scenario if at all possible, and do try more low-key methods. It's just that when they see opportunity, they leap at it, no matter the legal or moral implications of their actions.
I quite like them as characters. I also put a fair amount of depth into the Simple Stars, too. Crystal is the youngest of the group, but also the smartest. She's not the leader, but she is the person who plans for the team, particularly since her power of Clairvoyance is actually better defined as seeing the CURRENT future. She likes to cause chain reactions, domino effects, basically setting up Rube Goldbergesque situations, which turn simple things into fun links, where one thing leads to another for a satisfying pay-off.
Dee (the only name which doesn't hold meaning) is constantly-enthusiastic, but as a stealth expert (not to mention, fast, speedy, and using the heaviest weapon of the trio in the form of an ax/crossbow hybrid), she is also a very pragmatic fighter, always going for the easiest route available for the fastest victory, no matter how brutal.
Fiona, the oldest of the group, is the leader. She's the glue that holds the team together, very competent. She's passionate and quite skilled at many things, including life skills that the other girls lack. She is their main link to the world, in fact, somewhere between the role of a big sister and team mother. But what she excels at most of all is combat, where she is their strongest, most powerful member. Her magical bullets are about to par with Dee's bolts in speed and power, and while her sword may lack the weight of Dee's ax, her swordsmanship makes her technical precision skills in melee combat exceed Dee's.
What makes her the most dangerous of the three, though, is that she holds the greatest amount of magical energy, which she can discharge through either of her weapons and thoroughly blast an opponent. This, when combined with her prowess at combat, makes her the most lethal fighter, especially since she's a fierce fighter even when depowered. (Well, their powers are always passively active: Crystal can always see into the future, but she gets more detail and can manipulate events better when empowered; Dee is always fast and light-footed, but her powers turn those to superhuman levels. Fiona's the only one of the three who doesn't really have any depowered skills...but that's because she doesn't need any; she's THAT good.)
It's a fun story, good for a spinoff comic somewhere way, WAY down the line, but not part of Red Hood Rider. Which is what I wanted to show. In particular, the image of the page I finished on vacation.
Apologies if the quality isn't the best. After the original was scanned, there were two ways I could upload it: as a reduced-size PNG, or as a full-sized JPEG; the full-sized PNG exceeded the file size limit for CF. JPEGs are notorious for loss in quality, and resizing definitely loses quality, so the question is just a matter of which had less of a loss.
And I think it was the JPEG, so that's what this is. But I didn't see any obvious degradation, so if there's any change at all, it'd probably be in the color of the lines, which wasn't large enough for me to see on quick eyeball inspection. So...hopefully this is close enough to the full-quality version as to be full-quality.
But anyway, this is the finished page. I think you can tell what I mean when I said I only had my own left hand as a reference, plus a few pre-saved references from previous pages. Given those limitations, it's an EXCEPTIONAL page, but again, not perfect. It's the quality I'll strive to meet (or exceed), though! (The follow-through page...well, I...didn't quite meet the standard. It's okay, but nowhere near matching this page. To think I had references for the okay page that didn't go well, and didn't have references for THIS page which...did. Funny how that works.)
So...this time. I think THIS time. I'm actually done blogging for the day. Unless something else comes up, anyway!
And I think it was the JPEG, so that's what this is. But I didn't see any obvious degradation, so if there's any change at all, it'd probably be in the color of the lines, which wasn't large enough for me to see on quick eyeball inspection. So...hopefully this is close enough to the full-quality version as to be full-quality.
But anyway, this is the finished page. I think you can tell what I mean when I said I only had my own left hand as a reference, plus a few pre-saved references from previous pages. Given those limitations, it's an EXCEPTIONAL page, but again, not perfect. It's the quality I'll strive to meet (or exceed), though! (The follow-through page...well, I...didn't quite meet the standard. It's okay, but nowhere near matching this page. To think I had references for the okay page that didn't go well, and didn't have references for THIS page which...did. Funny how that works.)
So...this time. I think THIS time. I'm actually done blogging for the day. Unless something else comes up, anyway!
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