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Firebird's Sketch of the Week Series

My brain must've decided it needed a break from the EVA-Trek artwork, because this little gem of an idea popped up in my head this evening (SotW #68 / 2021 Artwork #82), and I just had to put it to paper. Please enjoy this rendition of Homer Simpson as Major Kong riding the bomb in Dr. Strangelove:

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To celebrate the impending season finale of Lower Decks tonight, I decided to do this rather dramatic portrait of Boimler (SotW #69 / 2021 Artwork #83), based off of a piece featuring Shinji from Evangelion. A rather odd reversal of the way my drawings have been going as of late, but I think I like it!

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It was inevitable I'd come back around to EVA-Trek and continue my series of cast portraits. This time I did a drawing (SotW #70 / 2021 Artwork #84) of Ship's Counselor for the USS NERV, Lieutenant Commander Mari Makinami. Somehow, it made sense to make the... weirdest of the pilots from the Rebuild series the Counselor, while also playing with the canon a little bit.

And before you ask why she's wearing glasses, Mari's allergic to Retinax V in the EVA-Trek timeline, so she decided to go with the "classical" look.

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I've now drawn and colored so many TNG/DS9 uniforms that my 70% Dark Grey prismacolor pencil is too short to get enough torque to put through my hand sharpener. Until a new one arrives in the mail next week, looks like I've gotta use an Xacto-knife to whittle it down til there's nothing but shavings left.
 
We've got a double-shot of drawings today because I had a super wave of creativity yesterday for some reason.

Up first is SotW #71 / 2021 Artwork #85. This week on EVA-Trek, Misato and Ritsuko have a difficult conversation with one of the crew down in Cetacean Ops.

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I was so excited to finally have a reason to draw this set after watching the season finale of Lower Decks. I think LDS and Evangelion's art styles complement each other fairly well so that the dolphin doesn't look outta place. Also kept telling myself that I would never draw LCARS panels by hand again after that Starfleet Eva entry plug drawing, and what do I do? Choose a background that requires three of the damn things! All of the panel layouts actually are based off the Cerritos' version of Cetacean Ops. Fun fact, I used a Starfleet delta guitar pick as the outline for the stand-by graphic in the background.

Next up, SotW #72 / 2021 Artwork #86. I started watching Gintama last night, and I quickly took to the show's irreverent and bizarre humor, so I did this extremely quick drawing of the main characters, which took less than an hour to finish:
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Tonight's bonus SotW (#73 / 2021 Artwork #87) presents another EVA-Trek cast portrait: the case of Lieutenant Junior Grade Asuka Langley Soryu.

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If my counts are correct based on my EVA-Trek writer's guide, I've now done portraits of 9 out of 28 listed characters... and there's a high likelihood I'll end up drawing the remaining 19 before the year is over... *sigh* Why must I do this to myself?
 
Did a quickie one tonight (SotW #74 / 2021 Artwork #88). After I posted my Asuka portrait on Reddit last night, I got a lot of recommendations to check out the fanfic "Frontier." Turns out, its author and I are both doing Star Trek/Evangelion crossovers set in Trek's 24th century, although they're setting it closer to the time of ST:Picard. Anyways, I really enjoyed what I've read of the story so far, and thought it was cool that the two of us are working on similar projects, so I decided to do this fanart based on a scene from Frontier.

Captain Katsuragi finds out Shinji has... a ways to go before he figures out the whole piloting thing.
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This was my first time drawing those mid-2380's uniforms from Picard, and I think they look pretty good when drawn like this. At this point, I've drawn Starfleet uniforms from every released series and film except for TMP, Enterprise, and Discovery. Methinks I should find an excuse to draw the remaining uniforms so I can cover my bases.
 
Yay! Cetacean Ops!! And Boimler! Great job with his hair, btw - the shade and highlights look really good.
 
I am very proud to present today's SotW (#75 / 2021 Artwork #89 and NINETY, plus SotW #65 as the cover). I decided to do a test chapter of EVA-Trek to see what the workflow would be like once I get down to drawing the full one-shot chapter this week. I'm not gonna go on a long time about it, so please enjoy "Captain Ikari Day:"

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Had a couple more bouts of creativity the past few days after finishing the EVA-Trek test chapter... when I should have been commencing work on drawing the final pages of the one-shot manga. My constructive procrastination strikes again!

SotW #76 / 2021 Artwork #91: Shoya and Shoko from the film/manga A Silent Voice. I watched this for the first time a couple weeks ago and absolutely adored the touching and emotional story. Since I started this not long after finishing the EVA-Trek pages, I was a little burned out, so I opted to not go full-color or fully-shaded. Instead, I went for something sorta in-between, and I think it kinda works.

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SotW #77 / 2021 Artwork #92: Nino and Itsuki from The Quintessential Quintuplets remind you that it's flu shot season - a quick prick is less painful than getting sick!

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SotW #76 / 2021 Artwork #91: Shoya and Shoko from the film/manga A Silent Voice. I watched this for the first time a couple weeks ago and absolutely adored the touching and emotional story. Since I started this not long after finishing the EVA-Trek pages, I was a little burned out, so I opted to not go full-color or fully-shaded. Instead, I went for something sorta in-between, and I think it kinda works.
- I agree. I really like the black & white definition of Shoya and Shoko against the somewhat hazy, muted coloured background :bolian:
 
It's been a real busy weekend down on the ranch at Studio Firebird! In addition to the three four new drawings posted below, I also commenced production on EVA-Trek, and finished the first two (of 11) pages. They're looking pretty good so far, and I think if I keep going at this rate, I'll have them all finished with plenty of time to spare before they go live in the back half of December each day to round out the year.

While working on all this, I was in the mood for some 80's anime this weekend, which led to two of these drawings. I've been binging the classic Kimagure Orange Road, which fit the bill for exactly what I needed. Perhaps after I finish that today, I'll do another Maison Ikkoku rewatch to complete the cycle.

SotW #78 / 2021 Artwork #93: Kyoko Otonashi and Soichiro from Maison Ikkoku. This is the second time I've drawn Kyoko and the third I've drawn Soichiro. Not sure how, but I find drawing that shaggy dog delightful and he comes out looking perfect each time.
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SotW #79 / 2021 Artwork #94: Madoka Ayukawa from Kimagure Orange Road. After I finished this one, I was kinda floored at how closely my art came to looking like it came off an original animation cell from the series.
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SotW #80 / 2021 Artwork #95: A glimpse into the pit -- er -- the artist's studio, at the moment his editor suggests he take a break from working on EVA-Trek to draw something Halloween-themed today. It... does not go over well.

The fun of this one was all the little details I snuck in all over the place. Zoom in for a closer look!
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EDIT - not sure what got me motivated to yet another drawing this evening, but now I've added SotW #81 / 2021 Artwork #96: Chizuru Mizuhara from Rent-A-Girlfriend. Had fun doing this, but once I got around to doing the ink for her hair, I remembered "dammit, I hate drawing hair!"
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Had another full week of artwork to keep me busy in the run up to my 100th drawing for the year, which will be coming tomorrow. I can't believe I'm hitting that milestone after nearly 11 months of this - I never thought I'd stick it out so long, and at this point, I don't see myself stopping doing these drawings. Maybe slowing down to just one a week at least - cranking up production to 3-4 a week is kinda draining my energy more than I'd anticipated.

SotW #82 / 2021 Artwork #97
: After finally pulling the trigger on getting the entire run of Ranma 1/2 on blu-ray this week, I tried going to a monochromatic manga style for this drawing of boy-type Ranma and panda-type Genma Saotome.
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SotW #83 / 2021 Artwork #98: Felt like giving a little love to the perpetual peeper and lascivious lush Yotsuya from Maison Ikkoku.
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SotW #84 / 2021 Artwork #99: Kyosuke, Ayukawa, and Hikaru from Kimagure Orange Road, but drawn as the "distracted boyfriend" meme. This is probably the absolute dumbest drawing I've ever done, surpassing the Last Main Character Supper I drew a few months ago, but it was fun to come up with, so c'est la vie.
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Welp, not only did I hit the 100th Sketch Of the Week today, I also got yet another drawing done beyond that.

SotW #85 / 2021 Artwork One-Hundred: I decided to revisit the sketch of James Garner I'd done for the very first installment way back in January to see how my skills have evolved in that time. This time, it actually looks like Garner, so I'd say I'm on the right track this time.
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SotW #86 / 2021 Artwork #101: Crewman Shinji Ikari celebrates finally being promoted to the rank of full Ensign in commendation of his performance aboard the USS Nerv.
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