Parlor Tricks

Hey kids, look! A super simple drawing (which I had lying around) dressed up to appear to be a real blog post! But at least it's super late as well!

I want you to know that I'm giving myself a judgemental look:

e_e

Fish-Brained Schemer

A whiiile back, my buddy Dylan (AKA Super-Munkyboy) had a contest on the He-Man.org fan-art forums--the goal was to create a new "big bad" for He-Man's rogue's gallery, and the prize was to have the newly created villain drawn by Dylan, Jazyl (AKA Two-Bad), and myself.

The contest actually ended in a tie, and one of the winners was Patreek, who I have previously drawn a fan character for. Here's my interpretation of his character:

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You can check out the thread here, and see the other prize drawings here. Art of the other winner will be posted soon!

The Big O (neither the giant robot anime, nor the tire store, nor the other thing)... Also: Tron, and Happy New Year!

First off--if you're here because of my Tron Calamari post from two weeks ago, welcome! I got a few re-tweets regarding that post, not the least of which were from renowned Twitter maven Bonnie Burton, and the official Star Wars Twitter account! So a big thanks to Bonnie, the folks at @StarWars, everyone else who re-tweeted me, and everyone who dropped in to look at my blog (both new and long-time readers). And of course, another big thanks to my crony Dave, who came up with the title Tron Calamari.

Secondly--I was in a bit of a rush last week, so I didn't get a chance to mention what I thought about Tron: Legacy--so how about a five second review?

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Tron: Legacy (In theaters in 3D and IMAX 3D)

The dialogue was mostly very standard for a special effects blockbuster, with occasional moments of brilliance (often via Jeff Bridges' unexpected moments of channeling the Dude/himself). The 3D was uneven and generally not a big deal--though I've heard a lot of people say otherwise--your mileage may vary, as projectionists at individual theaters may not have their gear properly calibrated. The pacing and performances were strong, and the special effects and art direction were pitch perfect. But most importantly, this movie knows what it is, where it came from, and isn't ashamed of it.

Verdict: Awesome. I had fairly high expectations, and was pleasantly surprised to have those expectations satisfied. A big bucket of black glass, neon piping, and FUN!

For More Computer World Adventure: Track down the original Tron, or watch some Reboot (coming to DVD soon, by the way!).

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And now back to our abnormally scheduled nerdiness:

So, the tradition around here is that I draw up a Skeletor or He-Man (or some version thereof), and post it to commemorate the New Year. Well, I wasn't sure which version to go with, and as I sat here looking at the menagerie of action figures on my desk, it occurred to me that the Masters of the Universe Classics version of Orko (character info/figure) would probably be the only figure I would keep if I had to sell off my He-Man collection. This in turn made me realize that Orko is one of my two favorite He-Man characters (the other being the Sorceress). True, Orko was most often relegated to the role of goofy sidekick, but I always thought he looked cool, had a cool species backstory (he's a member of the inherently magical Trollan race from another dimension), and as a character, he always had the potential for more. Anywaysss... here he is:

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I threw in some costume elements from the 200x version of Orko, but mostly kept his classic proportions. The big "O" on his chest, while iconic, was always a bit too goofy for me--so I styled it as a circular magical ward. Yes, I know, I'm splitting very nerdy hairs in regards to what's goofy and what isn't. Perhaps most significantly, I changed up his eyes, to give him more of an otherworldly quality. I don't think Orko should ever be played as "dark" or creepy, but giving a character an alien look can add a little edge to him, without changing his personality.

I think this is a huge improvement over my earlier depiction of Orko's lady friend, Dree Elle.

Happy Nerd Year, everyone! (Note: that was intentional, not a typo. You nerds.)

Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. My post is here, the entire thread (including some of my previous sketches) is here.

Dream A Little Darkdream

Today's post is for a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here, my post is here. The character is the villain Darkdream from the episode Eternal Darkness:

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In Eternal Darkness, Darkdream cannot survive under sunlight, and is shown to have some kind of connection with Evil-lyn--she is his ally and it is implied that Darkdream has power over her magic wand.

My take on the character depicts Darkdream having returned after his most recent defeat/banishment. The elements that I added to his costume are colored to emphasise his connection to Evil-Lyn. Here's just a bit of background info:

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With the help of unseen forces of evil, DARKDREAM stalks Eternia once more! He maintains the ability to put his foes to sleep and control their dreams, but now he has manifested a powerful corporeal body as well, possessing strength to rival He-Man's! Darkdream can no longer be banished by sunlight--though he is still weakened by it. The Master of Nightmares seeks revenge against He-Man, and against his niece Evil-Lyn, who deserted him during his final battle. It remains to be seen whether the Faceless One will choose to intervene in the conflict between his brother Darkdream and his daughter Evil-Lyn.

* * *

So there you go, I just decided that Darkdream is The Faceless One's brother. Makes sense, right?

Blahblahblah, Skeletor Again...

Today I've got Laser Light Skeletor for you, re-imagined as (surprise) a new character. His weapon is a Havoc Staff topped with a humanoid skull as per one of the prototypes. I went with this weapon, and changed his cape from purple to black to distinguish him from Skeletor. His name comes from the Spanish version of Laser Light Skeletor, Ojos de Fuego:

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In terms of color and design, Laser Light Skeletor seems like a mess, if you ask me. He's got a great head sculpt, but his body has all kinds of noodly details that seem very un-Masters of the Universe to me. I streamlined the details, but did my best to keep the general flavor, so that he's be recognizable. I'm pretty happy with the colors on this one... I think the warm oranges and reds play off nicely against the cold blues and blacks. But really, it's the super nerdy background info that makes it all worthwhile...

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PROFILE: His true name and identity lost to the ages, he is addressed only by his rank, SUPREME INQUISITOR, and spoken of in hushed tones by his official sobriquet, THE EYES OF FIRE, a name bequeathed to him by the High Priests of Infinita. Dispatched by the Elder High Priest, the Supreme Inquisitor seeks out and punishes the enemies of Infinita, burning them with arcane fire, and cursing them with ancient spells.

HISTORY: The Supreme Inquisitor gazed out from the observation deck of the Infinitan flagship. The glow of his red eyes was dull and smouldering. Trance-like, he seemed to peer deep into space, a vision drawing him in.

Many millenia ago, in the cold, empty halls of the Central Infinitan Temple, a man stands over two glass coffins. The coffins are the same size--one occupied by a woman, the other occupied by a mere child. The child looks peaceful, but so small in the full-sized coffin. The woman looks sad, but resigned. It is night, and the moons of Infinita shed cold white light into the temple halls, through towering windows and arches. The blue skin of the man, and the two bodies, almost looks silver under the moonlight. Who is this man, and who are these corpses, the Inquisitor wonders absently.

The man's eyes are in a trance, emotionless. Looking at the two bodies, but somehow not seeing them--instead staring past them. He is wounded. His right arm and chest are badly burned and bandaged. He does not move; his heart barely beats beneath his bandaged, charred chest.

Footsteps echo through the halls. Another man, draped in a black hood and cape, approaches from behind. The Inquisitor does not know who this man is either. The wounded man speaks, as if to interupt the other, though the other is silent. "This was my fault."

The hooded man's chalk-white skeletal jaw and exposed teeth glint in the moonlight, his voice is tight with rage... or anticipation? "No. This is the fault of Eternian scum."

The wounded man knows this is not true. But he does not care what is true anymore. "Will it make me strong?" He asks.

"Yes."

"Will it make me forget?"

"Yes."

The wounded man stares past the bodies. What is he seeing, the Inquisitor wonders idly.

The wounded man is tired. That's the closest thing to an emotion that he has betrayed in days. "So be it." Questions float through the Inquisitor's consciousness. What will happen to the wounded man? What will happen to the bodies?

The hooded man walks away, his footsteps seem forceful... or gleeful?

The wounded man follows the hooded man down the hallway. It seems to stretch on endlessly. The Supreme Inquisitor now gazes absently not into the distant past, but at his own dark reflection in the glass, superimposed over black starlit space. In one hand he holds a Havoc staff, topped with a humanoid skull. A smaller humanoid skull is mounted on his belt buckle, flanked by black slabs of stone, carved with Infinitan runes. These artifacts have been with him for as long as he can remember, but he cannot remember where they came from. He touches his belt buckle lightly with his robotic right arm. He cannot remember where he came from.

Forceful footsteps in the observation deck. The Supreme Inquisitor does not move. Reflected in the glass, a hooded man draped in black appears behind the Inquisitor. His chalk white mandible catches the light. All else is darkness. The Inquisitor knows who this man is--his mortal master, the Elder High Priest of Infinita, second only to the God-King himself.

The clarity of the vision dissipates, and the Supreme Inquisitor finds himself swallowed up once more by the present, and by madness. He no longer wonders about the vision, not even idly--it is forgotten.

"What do the Eyes of Fire see?" Asks the hooded man.

"I see the future. I see war... I see Eternia burning."

* * *

As should be apparent, I wanted to create very Vaderian mythos for this guy. Hopefully I pulled it off without being too obvious or too corny. A little obvious and corny is okay though.

Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums in my variants thread. The thread is here and my post is here.

Them's Lasers, Kids!

Today I've got another He-Man variant, re-imagined. This one is based on a prototype for Laser Power He-Man. The prototype had a costume that was significantly different from the production version, so I thought it was worthy of yet another new character. Her name is based on the Spanish version of Laser Power He-Man, and I envision her as the cousin of Lazeros, the variant I drew based on the standard version of Laser Power He-Man. Here's Luminosa:

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Her sidekick, X-1060, is named after the product code for Laser Power He-Man, and his form is based loosely on the backpack of one of the prototype versions of that same figure. To answer your question--yes, it did just get nerdier in here.

And it's about to get even nerdier... BACKGROUND INFO!!!

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PROFILE: While a bit naieve and idealistic, and slightly reckless at times, LADY LUMINOSA is nevertheless a bright and determined young woman, with a keen sense of justice. She is somewhat sheltered and knows it--which makes her eager to seek out the world. Luminosa is close to her cousin, Prince Lazeros, who is both big-brother-figure and mentor to her. She has adventured in Etheria a few times, befriending young freedom fighters like Sorciela and Korujito, and finding strong female role-models in the older generation of freedom fighters.

In battle, Luminosa is armed with equipment similar to Lazeros--a synthetic Korodite-powered battle harness, and an energy sword. Her energy sword is actually a conduit that channels her innate powers into a blade of energy far more powerful than Lazeros's. Between this device, and her incredible fencing abilities, Luminosa is very dangerous in melee combat. Though Lazeros is still her fencing instructor, he believes her swordfighting skills alone will one day overshadow his own, and once she learns to channel the full potential of her energy powers, she will be a truly unstoppable force. Luminosa's battle harness is much more compact than Lazeros's, but as a result does not provide as much enhanced strength, and provides no field of protection. This lack is compensated by X-1060, a lab droid modified by Lazeros to generate a portable forcefield and act as a protector for Luminosa. X-1060 is intellectual and fretful, constantly lamenting Luminosa's willful nature and thrill-seeking.

HISTORY: Lady Luminosa was born to a noblewoman, and a low-born, but reknowned wizard. Around her thirteenth year, she began exhibiting the ability to manipulate light energy. Four years later, her ability was growing exponentially more powerful, but she could not control it. Her father failed to treat the problem with magic, and so they turned to science, and to Luminosa's older cousin, Prince Lazeros. Lazeros became Luminosa's temporary guardian, and began overseeing her education while studying her abilities. Using a modified version of his own battle harness, Luminosa's powers have been contained so that she can gradually learn how to control them. However, when it became apparent that Luminosa also had an innate knack for science, Lazeros gladly recruited her as his research assistant. To Lazeros's chagrin, Luminosa (athletic and adventurous, much like her cousin), was more interested in gallantry than science, and stowed away on several of his adventures. After Luminosa had proved herself useful on more than one occasion, Lazeros reluctantly decided that his strong-willed young cousin was enough of an adult to accompany him on his many quests.

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Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums in my variants thread. The thread is here and my post is here.

Three Years and Counting...

I apologize because I'm about to become to become a person who quotes his own twitter, but as I "tweeted" a few days ago:

I've had enough out of you 2009. When is your smarter, taller, better looking sibling 2010 getting here?

Well the new year is here at last. This had better be good! By the way, yes, I'm now "tweeting" semi-regularly. Super inane updates can be found at @jasonhohoho.

As has become a tradition around here, I celebrate the New Year and my Bloggiversary (in this case, my third Bloggiversary) by posting a sketch of Skeletor, He-Man, or some variation thereof. Here's Laser Power He-Man, re-imagined as a new character:

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His name is pronounced like Lazarus, but with an "-os" instead of an "-us." What's that, you're dying for some super-nerdy background info on this character? HERE YOU GO:

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PROFILE: An adventurer, inventor, and aristocrat, PRINCE LAZEROS is something of a hybrid between a Renaissance man and swashbuckler. He puts forth a devil-may-care attitude, though in reality he is a deeply motivated individual. Using his family fortune, Lazeros has developed an array of high-tech weaponry and armor. His battle harness (powered by synthetic green Korodite) mimics the principles of He-Man's own battle harness, providing a personal protection field, and enhanced physical strength; his bionic arm-brace allows him full use of his crippled arm; and his energy sword is a formidable weapon, capable of cutting through metal and stone. In He-Man's absence, Lazeros has become a friend and colleague to Man-At-Arms (the two have a friendly rivalry with respect to inventing), and a trusted ally of Team Grayskull. Lazeros has become somewhat smitten with Teela--this has brought him into occasional conflict with Savage (Team Grayskull's other frequent ally) who is already his polar opposite in so many ways.

HISTORY: Once nothing more than a frivolous young aristocrat, Prince Lazeros's life changed when he was caught in a terrorist attack while visiting the Eternian capital. The attack was perpetrated by none other than Skeletor and his henchmen. Inhaling a dangerous dose of nerve gas, Lazeros was lucky to escape with his life, though his right arm was left forever crippled. Had it not been for the intervention of He-Man, Lazeros and many others would have died. Inspired by He-Man's heroism, Lazeros dedicated himself to bettering the world, and was able to use his financial resources to become an inventor and adventurer. In the years following He-Man's disappearance, Lazeros is one of several young heroes who has stepped forward to fill the void. Dubbed the "Prince of Power" by the Eternian media, his exploits have won him much favor with the public.

* * *

Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums in my variants thread. The thread is here and my post is here.

Cosmic Bookworm

Today's post is for a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here, my post is here. The voting thread is here--I placed second. The subject is Scrollos, an obscure character from the UK Masters of the Universe comics:

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The reference pictures of Scrollos all had slightly different color schemes, but almost all of them included some element of blue/cyan or purple/magenta. However, the picture that struck me the most had an all-green color scheme. At first I tried to combine the various color schemes, but that was too complex a task for my humble coloring skills. I settled on the green scheme, which I'm content with.

On the whole, everything in the picture is supposed to give a sense of a character who is powerful, but aloof and preoccupied with knowledge and information. The floating scrolls and holographic displays are there to emphasize the contrast between science fiction and fantasy that makes me so fond of the He-Man Universe. Inserting some of my previous art into the holographic displays took me a surprisingly long time. Hopefully the details are visible enough to warrant the time spent.

Requiescat In Pace

Today's piece is for Matthew Schultz AKA "skeletoncrew," one of the founding members of COTU, a group that specializes in customized He-Man figures. I didn't find out until a few weeks ago, but he passed away in June.

Matthew was one of the most creative and prolific customizers on the He-Man.org forums. I can't claim to have been very close to him, but I always had a great time comparing notes with him, and talking to him about how he approached his take on the Masters of the Universe mythos. More importantly, he was always gracious, generous, and encouraging of everyone's creative endeavors--a true gentleman and artist. His presence will truly be missed.

Today's piece is a tribute to him, featuring one of the many characters that he created. Matthew's close friend and partner-in-crime at COTU, "galaxy warrior," helped me pick out the character:

Make sure you visit the COTU blog, to see some of the custom figures that Matthew helped create. And do something creative today!

(also posted here at the He-Ma.org forums)

The Most Dangerous Game

The most recent re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forums featured Huntara, a fan-favorite one-shot character from She-Ra (based on Grace Jones, incidentally). My take on Huntara was pretty direct (hardly qualifying as a re-design, in my mind), and I was short on time anyways, so I skipped the contest. You should, however, check out the entries here, and the voting threads, here, here, and here.

Here's my non-entry, (also posted here):

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The overall result is somewhat Warcrafty and Night Elf-ish, but I don't mind. I think it's in large part because I added pointy ears to her, and made her armor look a bit more baroque (and therefore Warcraft-esque).

Marginal Improvement

At least a little bit of preliminary sketching goes into the pieces I put up here, and in the course of that preliminary work, there's a lot of miscellaneous doodling that goes in the margins. Occasionally, one of those doodles is worth cleaning up and coloring. Here's a more cartoony streamlined take on one of He-Man's foes, Trap Jaw:

I drew Trap Jaw previously, so the colors on today's piece are pretty much cribbed from that, with a few adjustments for better contrast. The changes are subtle, but I can see where I've improved, even if only marginally...

Pun linked to title and first paragraph... accomplished! Time to go play video games.

Serpentine!

Back to He-Man stuff for today's post... the subject is the Viper Tower, one of the Three Towers of the Eternia Playset. This is a follow up to a post from earlier this year.

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I do have some fanbricated (fan + fabricated) background info for the Three Towers, but I'll save it for when I finish the third one. Also I want to sleep right now.

Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. My post is here, the entire thread (including some of my previous sketches) is here.

Predictable Subject Matter

Practicing with actual watercolors this week (not watercolor crayons):

Pelikan brand watercolors; black lines inked with Sakura brush pen. Displayed at roughly actual size.

FOR RENT: tower of untold mystical might, 2000 bed + 2000 bath, spacious, Battle Cats okay, street parking.

Drawn for a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here, and my post is here. The voting thread is here

The subject this time around is an environment--the Three Towers of the Eternia Playset. It's probably a safe guess that the Three Towers were an attempt to one up Tolkien. I however, found myself short of time, and was only able to draw up one of the three--here's the Central Tower of Eternia:

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The subtitle comes from the He-Man mini-comic about the Three Towers.

Landscapes and environments are not my strong point, so this was a good exercise. My take on the Central Tower is an attempt to ground the playset in 'reality.' The griffin statues were gold on the original toy, but I gave made them less eye-catching in my version to avoid drawing attention away from the Guard Lion, who really is the main attraction here. I tried to create a sense of the epic size of this thing... to give you a better idea of what I had in mind--ten adults could stand comfortably abreast in each of the windows located near the top of the tower.

By the way, does anyone else think the Central Tower must be cousins with the Cave of Wonders from Disney's Aladdin?

What's a Skull Man?

Back in the 80's, the action figure aisles were ruled by four archetypes--robots, commandoes, ninjas, and barbarians. Of the barbarians, Masters of the Universe was the most prominent line. A few other action figure brands wisely chose to mimic the proportions of Masters of the Universe figures, and marketed their lesser known figures as being compatible with all popular 5.5" figure lines. Perhaps the best known manufacturer of such figures was Remco--they produced figures based on DC Comics' Warlord, and the companion line to Warlord was The Warrior Beasts--which brings me to today's post.

The Warrior Beasts consisted of a group of beastly humanoids and a few monstrous mounts who could all act as antagonists for your Warlord figures (or other 5.5" action figures). But strangely, in the midst of this group of beasts and beast-headed humanoids, there was a skull-headed Skeletor-esque figure appropriately named Skull Man (not to be confused with a hero of the same name). Here's my interpretation of the character, drawn to fit in with my various Masters of the Universe drawings:

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But how would he fit into the world of Masters of the Universe, you ask? Well, here's some nerdy background info I concocted for Skull Man:

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PROFILE: Cold and efficient, SKULL MAN is not only a mercenary, but an expert tracker and sleuth, armed with a cunning intellect. His hand-to-hand combat abilities hint at extensive training in martial arts from across the galaxy--this expertise allows his him to match up against opponents who would otherwise outmatch him in brute strength. Skull Man's favored weapons are the bow and dagger.

HISTORY: The enigmatic mercenary SKULL MAN operates under his own rules, sometimes working for the forces of good, and sometimes working for the forces of evil. He has his own motivations, but those motivations are as unknown as his true identity. He has been known to operate in Skartaris, but most recently has been sighted on Eternia, allied with the Raqquill Rqazz's personal army, the Warrior Beasts of Berserker Island.

* * *

Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here and my post is here.

Ape in a Cape

Drawn for a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The subject is Gygor, a never-made concept for a He-Man toy, as described by a former Mattel employee. Read up on Gygor, and check out the other entries in the challenge's thread. My post can be seen here. First round polls are here and here. Final poll is here.

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It was tough making the colors from Gygor's description work. Maybe they don't work? On the other hand, the description of Gygor's colors very much paralleled the garish colors of Battle Cat, so maybe if the colors don't work that means they are working? Anyways, I designed Gygor's helmet to mirror Battle Cat's as well. The guns are all modelled on Stridor's armaments. The chair mounted on Gygor's backpack should give you a sense of his scale.

A garishly colored giant gorilla decked out in a cape and high-tech energy weapons... hmmm... something's missing. Oh, I know--how about some supplemental nerdy background info, written by yours truly? Here you go:

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PROFILE: Standing at well over 13 feet tall, the ancient being known as GYGOR is one of the most powerful entities on Eternia. His physical strength surpasses that of He-Man, his wisdom rivals that of the Sorceress, and his knowledge encompasses aeons of Eternia's rich history. His helm is made from the hide of a powerful prehistoric Eternian beast, and he is outfitted with a battle harness powered by an enchanted gem. The harness is armed with two heavy shoulder blasters, two hip mounted stun rays, and rotating light rapid fire blasters mounted on the back turret. Gygor rarely needs to rely on more than his brute strength and great wisdom, but he has also demonstrated powerful spellcasting abilities from time to time.

HISTORY: Gygor was already ancient in the days of King Grayskull, and in fact, records indicate that Gygor was a staunch ally and advisor to the legendary king. Allegedly, in modern day Eternia, Gygor has been sighted travelling towards Castle Grayskull. Has Gygor returned to aid the heroes of the land in the dark times that have descended upon Eternia? Only time will tell...

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That Girl(?) is Poison

Today's post is for yet another re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here, my post is here. The first round voting threads are here and here (my entry didn't get enough votes to proceed), and the final vote is here.

Apparently, in an issue of the UK He-Man comics, Hordak disguised himself as the "Dream Mistress," and tried to deceive Stonedar... Stonedar didn't fall for it (lucky for him). [Place your own cross-dressing joke here]

I chose to interpret the Dream Mistress as a shapeshifting entity who works for Hordak as a spy and saboteur. Here she/it is, in both Horde (right) and non-Horde (left) garb:

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The non-Horde version isn't significantly altered, so I threw in the Horde version as a re-design (or alternate costume, at the very least). The pose is rather generic, pretty much just a minor variation of a standby that I go to when drawing women (or shapeshifters that look like women). I was a bit short on time for this one.

The Big Oh-Two

(Posted early for the New Year)

So, I've now been at it on this sketchblog for two full years! Please, hold your applause until the end of the post. I just want to take a second to thank anyone and everyone who's dropped by to take a look or leave a comment. I hope you all stay tuned, I've got plenty of nerdy sketches left in me yet.

And on that note--I started this blog with an illustration of Skeletor, so here for my second bloggiversary, at last, is Skeletor's mortal enemy, the hero of Eternia, He-Man:

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My take on He-Man is primarily drawn from the cartoon version, but with a few minor creative liberties. I rendered the red elements on He-Man's baldric as Korodite crystals, and made the straps on the baldric a darker color. I gave him slightly longer, more unruly hair (with sideburns), instead of his original, inexplicable, pageboy hair cut. I wish I hadn't drawn the legs so hyper-elongated. But I am happy with how the colors came together.

Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. My post is here, the entire thread (including some of my previous sketches) is here.

Horrible Post Title #063885: Owl or Nothing

A quick note about the posting schedule for the rest of the year... the second sketch for this week (normally scheduled for Friday) will go up on Wednesday December 24th. Friday, instead, will see a bonus post featuring something that's a tiny bit different from my usual fare.

Next week, however the second sketch will go up a day early, in the wee hours of New Year's Day (Thursday), as has become a tradition here.

I'm sure you're all terribly enthralled by the ins and outs of my post scheduling. Here's today's subject, She-Ra's ally Kowl, in both cartoon and toy forms:

As is my custom, I repurposed the significantly differently-colored toy version into a new character. Corujito, as best as I can figure, means "little owl" in Portuguese, which is how one of the international releases of Kowl was named (using my Sherlock Holmes-like powers of deduction, I'm going to guess it was the Portuguese and/or Brazilian version). I decided to spell it Korujito, just to give the name a bit more of a connection with Kowl. Korujito's gem and title derive from the play feature of the toy, which I guess was some kind of color-changing gem that 'answered your questions' with different colors--I suspect it was a mood ring-like decal, like the old faction sigils on Transformers. But I digress.

* * *

PROFILE: Kowl's young nephew, KORUJITO, is a "chosen one" of their people. He was born with the ability to divine possible futures through the Oracular Gem, an artifact used by seers and oracles throughout the history of Etheria. Korujito is but a child, however he is wise and serene beyond his years.

HISTORY: Korujito is part of an emerging group of young heroes who have become protectors of Etheria while She-Ra is posted in Eternia. The rulers united under the Rebellion consult Korujito's clairvoyant powers when they are faced with grave decisions, and his serene counsel has been invaluable to the stoic and conflicted protector of Etheria, Starburst. Korujito is a frequent companion of the impulsive Princess Sorciela, and Kowl seems to spend an inordinate amount of time keeping the two of them out of trouble.

* * *

Kowl is also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. My post is here, the entire thread (including some of my previous sketches) is here.

And Korujito is also posted here on my variants thread

Pretty (Dangerous) in Pink

Hang on--here comes another convoluted nerdy ramble from yours truly. I like to make things complicated, don't I?

There's another re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The subject this time is Teela, as she appeared in The New Adventures of He-Man. This version of Teela had almost no resemblance to previous versions--however, I liked the character design so much that I decided to just draw a straight-up interpretation rather than a re-design. Because I didn't change the design aside from a few details, I didn't enter her in the challenge, but I did give her a new name and persona, and post her in my variants thread instead. The post is here. And while I didn't enter the re-design challenge, there are some awesome entries, which you should definitely check out.

Less talking, more super-hott space-amazon with sword:

click above for larger view

I'm happy with how this one came out, especially her somewhat relaxed-yet-ready-to-kick-ass pose. The colors (which are loyal to the source material) are somewhat cliche in their "girliness," but ultimately I think it's a good color scheme. I can take no credit for the great details of the costume--the slick-looking sword, the arrowheaded scabbard, the multi-pronged helm--everything was present in the original design.

The new moniker, Leeta is an anagram of Teela. I do have a bit of a backstory thought up for her, but it requires me to reveal some other plot points of my own concoction, so presented below is a bare bones version of her bio. And just in case anyone is keeping score at home, in my interpretation of The New Adventures of He-Man, Primus is merely a distant planet, not a future locale requiring time travel.

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PROFILE: An invaluable member of the Galactic Guardians of Primus, LEETA is a Paladin belonging to the order of an ancient warrior goddess. Having shed the headstrong recklessness of her youth, Leeta is a disciplined master warrior, with amazing sword skills, and strong leadership abilities. Her strength and speed appear to be significantly beyond 'normal' levels. Leeta is a friend and frequent sparring partner to Mara.

HISTORY: Not long after Leeta first joined the Galactic Guardians, He-Man and Master Sebrian were able to negotiate peace between Primus and Denebria. With true stability established, He-Man was finally able to begin his long journey back to Eternia. Years later, the people of Primus discovered that He-Man never made it back to his home. Indebted to the Eternian hero for bringing peace to their solar system, the leaders of Primus and Denebria assembled a joint task force to find the whereabouts of He-Man. Leeta was one of the first to volunteer, and acts as one of the top lieutenants, under the task force commander.

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