ナゼ訳

It's been a while since I did some real pictures of Kuandigin. I did rework the character designs for my Faehen Wesnoth era (Currently on hold--Ahaha I am so bad about obligations), but didn't really go in-depth.
So, while I was bouncing ideas for pictures of Karex around in my head, some ideas for pictures of Jeekawen got in there too--There's a certain amount of overlap between the kinds of poses that would fit those two characters.
Which got me thinking about Jeekawen in reference to the Kuandigin... And I noticed these things:
* He is androgynous
* He has white hair
* He wears one layer of tight or fairly tight clothing with another layer of seemingly superfluous loose clothing on top
* He wears head ornaments
* He fights with blades
* He has control over the air and wind
* He is one of a secretive dying race
* He is more concerned with the well-being of the world (As in, the planet. Now I need to draw him holding a "please recycle" sign) than the affairs of humans
* He is not outspoken
* He takes forever to decide which side he's actually on
* He is opposed to violence, but doesn't seem to mind inflicting it on others
* He wears a lot of white clothing
* He is (At least by the end of the game) a shell held together by his life force, rather than an actual living creature (Haha I think I may have decided by this point that the Kuandigin aren't actually golems. Whatever)
* He is fast and skilled, rather than strong
* ETC
And so, I have decided that Jeekawen is not, in fact, one of the forest people pretending to be a normal human, but a Kuandigin pretending to be one of the forest people pretending to a normal human. Oh yes.

I've been listening to a lot of IOSYS recently. Oyashiro-sama has engaged in much stealing of precious things and drinking of cucumber-flavored beer.

Also, I finally got around to getting pickling working for the Sacred Curry Shooter, and so made the public release of beta 0.8.2 last night. Of course, as soon as I had done so, I went in and fixed several bugs that had been, well, bugging me for some time, as well as adding a much-needed "return to previous menu" function.

Anyway, I didn't submit my last picture picture to I Typed Out That URL From Memory I Am Such A Nerd because I had already submitted two images, but somehow I think myself unlikely to produce something worth asking for critique on before the end of the month, so... Yeah. In you go, Karex.

By the way, in case anyone was interested, her sword is a kilij. I love Middle Eastern weaponry. Also, she was originally meant to be doing something badass (Can that adjective apply to girls who aren't secret agents? I wonder) involving wind and her left hand, but I kind of forgot it until I'd inked everything, by which point it was too late. However, I am going to say that she is doing something badass with wind and her left hand, it's just that you can't see it. Because, it's, you know, like, wind. Yeah.
Also, it has been pointed out in the past that I don't hatch the skin of my characters, leaving their faces and arms looking horribly flat in comparison to their clothing. I attempted to remedy this here, but messed up on the face, I think. Anyway, how does it look? Better? Worse? Going in the right direction, but I need to work on it?

Dirty laundry time! I originally inked her left foot way too big. You can still see it under the shadow. Also, parts of her hair are messed up. Her left hand is, though anatomically correct, in a rather strange position. The blade of her sword and the handle don't quite match up. Her right leg is just plain wrong. Her hips are at the wrong angle. The hatching on the blade of her sword and on her face are a little too heavy. Also, I'm running into trouble with graphite smudges still being on the paper, even after serious erasermashing--I think at this point it's a matter of my getting a better eraser (I use those white ones that come with General's graphite pencil kits) and/or learning not to have to go over my lineart in pencil so many times. Thoughts?

Karex belongs to me... Yup.