Code Name: Swordplay

The lovely Darc of Code Name: Hunter asked me to do a commission piece of her character, Max, with a sword. I am happy to oblige!

I put off sketches until after my big batch of commissions were done - and they were done today. (I'm now looking for more commissions, btw.) That meant it was sketch time! For some reason I decided to go against all forms of logic in my sketches tonight. Not only did I work in ink - using a fancy new Fude pen - but I tried to up the challenge by drawing Max, a character who is not mine, from memory. I had two monitors in front of me, both with a CN:H page open for various reasons (we were actually skyping as I sketched), and yet it was TOO HARD to look up! I ended up drawing eight pages of Max. These are the only results that are not completely horrific.

Do you know what happens when you try to find sword action via Google image search? ZELDA. So many pictures of Link in action! Well, heck, let's copy that! This one was based off art of Link jumping forward and slashing his sword. While I fudged the stance a bit, the big change was the free arm. Link carries a shield.  Max... apparently he flips the bird?  I believe it was supposed to be a "come closer" hand motion, but that doesn't make that much sense with the pose either.  Man, what does one do with unshielded arms?

And then I wanted to go silly. The original sketch was just Max, upset that he broke his sword AGAIN.  But our conversation had recently touched upon a chicken in the Hunter story.  I wanted to imply Max broke his sword doing something silly... and chicken murder seemed obvious after that!  I'm sorry.

It should be noted that this sketch was originally drawn with extra limbs. Once again, I ran into non-sword arm trouble.  The first attempt, with the arm raised, looked like he was disco dancing.  I also had to excise an extra right leg.  Saddest part:  All those extra limbs were drawn, yet I didn't bother to add his tail.

I gotta say, sketching with that pen is FUN - but it's no very smart when dealing with too many unknown elements.  I'll have to spend more time with sketching before things are solid, but it's a start!