ART WAR | 2D | 1000 Yard Stare | Crystanubis

[Crystanubis]

I don't have a name for this character yet, so instead I gave myself a prompt/placeholder/missionstatement to work with, along with a few brief notes.
Before we get to that, however, let's get the personal details out of the way:
Crystanubis/RMJZ, Matthew Joseph Andrews
wataru (dot) kannuzuki (at) Google's unimaginatively-named electronic mail service (obfuscated for spam protection, feeble as that may be)
about.me/matsugawa
@matsugawa (twitter)
@Matthew Joseph Andrews (Facebook).
I hope I'm doing all of this right; I'm not used to forum contests and a lot of it feels very counter-intuitive to me. However, a long-standing New Year's resolution of mine is to get out of my various comfort zones, including artistic and social ones.

Anyway, back to the contest: the overarching theme of this "champion" contest is some way to bring peace to the warring tribes of Fantasy and Sci-Fi. When I read that, the first thought that crossed my mind is the line from Thor about magic and technology being one in the same. So, what I'm picturing is a kind of Merida/Sombra synergy; a warrior maiden with some fancy, glowing Tron-like tech (and a sexy punk haircut to go along with it). I do have a proper name in mind, but I want to save it as a surprise. All I'll say on it is that I want to avoid the cliche of feminine sounding names, namely that accursed Indo-Germanic "Ah"-ending that I now can't unhear thanks to H. P. Lovecraft griping about it in one of his letters... Merida... Sombra... Clarissa... Sarah.... Lara... Stella...!

minimum size: 2048x2048, programs employed: Autodesk Sketchbook and Procreate, likely developed primarily on my iPad with an assortment of styluses, though I may end up using a full desktop version of Sketchbook, maybe even Photoshop and/or Illustrator for final compositing. Kind of want to experiment with a 3D background via Blender or Terragen, but I think that may interfere with the purity of the 2D aspect. I don't know, maybe she can be standing atop the vanquished carcass of some polygonal nightmare, but that may be a little too pointed and in the wrong direction.

I think that's a good starting point. I'll repost this on a few other social sites of mine, hashtags included, and then see where this goes.

[Crystanubis]

First real "draft" mostly focusing on composition. I tried to set up a color palette, but that will have to wait. Notes doesn't have much of a color wheel.

[auneakeffect]

I think I see where you are going with the color pallet you chose. I'm partial to pinks and purples myself, so you already have me sold.

I like the the blue lines on the sword...are they going to be glowing? thats the impression I got, like glowing glyphs or something. That's pretty cool

[HorizonDweller]

I love the sense of solemnity the pose inspires, it has strenght .... and it is really good to see this in a female character. great job man.

[Crystanubis]

I need to get better about checking in and updating this post. I'll try for a once-per-week minimum, whether I've got anything or not. I made a drawing that isn't quite related, though it counts as something of a dry run in terms of the logistics and quality I'm going for. Normally I don't use a lot of layers or spend a lot of time on cleanup, but for this one (called "Miss Havoc and her Staff") I tried to push myself.

[PetitChat]

The idea of the poisend like skin is really cool. Her grin is really mean. I like that Unfortunately your design lacks some details and she's wearing just a green dress. Maybe you should add some jewelery or armor? And don't be afraid of drawing hands I know she's not your champion (saw that too late ) but maybe my comment is still helpful