Warriors can be softies too !

I must admit I didn't have any concept when I started doodling this one, I just found a picture of two muscular dudes kissing and thought it might be sweet to draw them, in a more semi-realistic way.

But I've never had any interest in simply redrawing a picture, I think our job as illustrators is definitely to add some fantasy to reality -and seriously, these guys didn't have nothing interesting, no dreadlocks, no pointy ears, no bodmods, not even long hair! What is wrong with porn companies, seriously?- so I went for two feral kind of Elfs... or Orc... or whatever may suit your imagination. Because humans are so damn boring !

Background time ! Still trying to tame this new software I got, ArtRage... it's a best-seller on iPad but I still suck at digital painting. It's not a reason not to try though, perhaps I'll eventually become better ? ^^" It seemed interesting to show these two brave warriors, probably strong and merciless, sharing a sweet moment. But kissing underneath waterfalls is so mainstream ! (Waterfall... mainstream... ok, ok I shouldn't even try ! XD) Better show your affection on the battlefield right ?

We already saw on the sketch they were from different species so I emphasized this by giving them different color schemes. In the end I keep wondering myself if they could be warriors from enemy tribes who ended up falling in love... Oh c'mon I know I'm way too romantic for my own good okay ? At least, it's still sexier than Twilight or Romeo & Juliet ! ^^

Hang on in there !

A little something different today... oh well not so "little" actually. ^^ Here's an illustration for Atraius, who commissioned me to do a kind of portrait of him except a little bit "enhanced" ; yes he send me pictures, you dirty birdies !  He wanted to look happily surprised with his new anatomy...

... aforementioned anatomy led us to some tasty discussions about inches versus centimetres, by the way ! ^^ The very first sketch pleased him enough so that he didn't even requested a single edit and it was a wrap so fast ! I am quite happy with the result, Atraius was different from the boys I usually draw and a more normal silhouette was a real pleasure to draw, especially the cute cherub look ~hey, I'm just sayin' that in a very artistic way, okay ?-.

Posted here with his permission of course, hoping you guys enjoy the view as much as we did ! ^^

Happy Birthday Dinosaurprince !!!

Today's a big day and even when you're on the other side of the world, you can celebrate ! Dinosaurprince is turning -I don't know what age and that's not important ^^- and I wanted to do a little something special to thank him for all of his hard work with us artists all year long. So here it is ! A short one-page comic featuring Romer and Apis, his sexy OCs.

I picked the two of them mostly because I craved to draw Apis myself after coloring Leon de Leon's version of him a few weeks ago. To match the Egyptian atmosphere, Romer and his Ankh necklace was the best choice (IMHO) and since Matthew already told me he liked my version of this character, I hoped it would please him too. ^^  

I must admit I was kinda lazy on the background but after searching for lots of Egyptian cities architectures I didn't find anything as satisfying and "typical" as a good fuck in the desert. All the inside shots wouldn't have looked stereotypical enough and I wanted to keep people focused on of the characters after all. 

A funny side effect (or dramatic collateral damage ?) was that, after searching for pics of architecture of Ancient Egypt, I found some screencaps of the game Pharaoh. If you know me well, you know I'm a real junkie for this game, I love it to pieces ! And after these days my productivity dropped to its lowest level because... I started playing again ! LOL Fortunately I'm able to post this today and I'm quite proud to wish Matthew a VERY, VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY !!!

Maât's Law

This all started with a doodle. I had had a tough week, just needed some rest, needed to relax all by myself, without my boyfriend nor anyone. So I just crashed on the couch, grabbed my sketchbook and let my red pencil play while watching the (awesome !!!) grand season finale of My Little Pony. I really, truly didn't wanna think about what I was doing, I was pretty sure it was gonna be one of these sketches that suck so much you just rip them off your sketchbook. And this little dude came out of nowhere. I won't make a revolution by drawing Egyptian Cyberpunk for sure, Stargate and Enki Bilal did it wayyy before I did but well, since he was better looking than I expected I kept on with this concept.

When cleaning and inking him I thought one of the most cyberpunk deities of the Egyptian mythology was probably Maât, goddess of Justice. According to these (religious fanatics ^^") Egyptians, when you died, you were presented to Maât who put your heart in a scale and if your heart was heavier than her feather... well, let's face it you were screwed and you deserved it, you impure bastard ! Your heart was given to a monster who joyfully feasted on it.

So yes, Maât supposedly was a girl but that never stops us, right ? I thought it would make a nice story for this illustration to tell and here I went.

And he just created a new feather... will your heart be to heavy for him ? Looks like he's judging you anyways. Do you have anything to hide ?

R'lyeh Station

I did this picture about a month ago I think, while I was reflecting on my eternal love for cyberpunk movies and atmospheres and the growing steampunk trend these days. I decided to draw a male cyborg with lots and lots of details because the contrast between smooth skin and electronic wires or technologic devices is always a win/win ! Of course this isn't as cool as Ghost In The Shell but it was my main influence for this one, especially the "hair" -now you must know I'm a sucker for dreadlocks- and the parts where his body's openings reveal his sci-fi anatomy.

Since I wouldn't have much room behind my dude to place a good ol' cyberpunk background I thought I should insist on an aggressive one-point perspective with a vanishing point right in the middle, like the center of a target. It's a kind of perspective that never look natural in "normal" situations so I tend to avoid using it, but sci-fi is definitely the land of "let's screw up architectural rules" and I thought it'd be good to give the train a feel of motion and fastness. 

Was inking a bitch ? Oh yeah it was. But that was funny too, because as you can see, I could add many items to the composition when working with "clean" pens. Sure, the line art always erases a sketch's spontaneity but for this kind of city representation is there really spontaneity ? Not for someone as nervous as me, alas ! ^^ 
Oh and, for some trivia, my boyfriend had left open some "thing" he was trying to fix, I don't remember what exactly, that had a printed circuit board so I used it to draw the symbols on my boy's skin.

After inking and while coloring all of those wires and cables I realized all of this was very Cthulu-esque, the invasive technology is mostly symbolized by electronic tentacles so this is when I decided to name this illustration R'lyeh Sation as an homage to our dear octopus God. And it was actually a very good thing because after struggling for hours on the background colors, I decided to go for a green atmosphere that would match the cyberpunk lighting and the colors of R'lyeh the Dead as described by Lovecraft. It kinda saved me from banging my head against the screen. ^^