Firebird's Sketch of the Week Series

[Firebird]

Drawing #139 / 2022 Artwork #2: Yesterday was the first Sunday I'd missed dropping a new sketch since beginning my Sketch of the Week series last year. In my defense, this self-portrait depicts how I felt after spending my vacation doing daily drawings and finally completing the first draft script for the EVA-Trek pilot episode:

And a small preview of the EVA-Trek draft script (there's still another two or three drafts to go, I've gotta get this sucker down from 74 pages to 60-63).

 

[Santaman]

Eh, get a glass of single malt and relax!

 

[Firebird]

Eh, get a glass of single malt and relax!

I may have indulged myself a little bit after I got unpacked on Sunday

Probably won’t be doing any drawings until the weekend, just to give myself some time to get back into the swing of things.

 

[Firebird]

And we're back with the first color drawing of 2022, after taking some time to recover from the holidays... and getting readjusted to being back to work.

Drawing #140 / 2022 Artwork #3: Madoka Ayukawa in Kimagure Orange Road's kaiju movie/Top Gun parody episode. It's been nearly a month since the last color drawing I did, so I'd almost forgotten just how long it takes me to color one of these. Altogether, this piece was about 5 or so hours of work. Certainly not the longest I've worked on one, but still pretty intensive.

 

[Santaman]

Nice, the colouring is great too.

 

[Firebird]

Drawing #141 / 2022 Artwork #4: Here's another glimpse into the world of EVA-Trek. The daily pilot's conference aboard the USS Nerv typically involve Kensuke going on for 15 minutes or more about new Starfleet tech... much to Shinji and Asuka's chagrin...

I think this might be the best Asuka I've drawn yet! I'm still thinking about possibly coloring this piece, but as it stands, I kinda like the look of it as it is now.

 

[Firebird]

Got some inspiration yesterday to draw a couple more EVA-Trek scenes, finally drawing some more of the supporting cast (it can't just always be about Shinji, Rei, Asuka, and Misato all the time, now can't it?).

Drawing #142 / 2022 Artwork #5: First Officer of the USS Nerv, Commander Kozo Fuyutsuki, doing a variant of the "Riker Lean."

Drawing #143 / 2022 Artwork #6: Stardate 48312.2 - Shinji wakes up in sickbay 16 hours after defeating the lifeform known as "Sachiel." I did the dumb thing and chose a scene with another LCARS panel that I'd have to hand-draw again, which added at least another hour to the total time spent on this piece. For reasons of my own sanity, I decided to only color the characters this time and leave the background in black and white. I kinda like the aesthetic here, so I may do this for future EVA-Trek scenes I draw.

 

[Santaman]

Looks great.

 

[publiusr]

The cross-over is so fitting

 

[Firebird]

The cross-over is so fitting

Even after all the work I've been doing on the drawings and developing the story/scripts, I'm amazed just how easily it all melds together.

 

[Firebird]

Drawing #144 / 2022 Artwork #7: continuing the EVA-Trek concept drawings with my early takes on some more of the crew - Assistant Engineer Lt. Koji Takao, and bridge bunnies Lt. Sumire Nagara, Ens. Hideki Tama, and Ens. Midori Kitakami. The goal here was a test drawing of these characters introduced in the last couple Evangelion rebuild movies, but reinterpret their look to be more in line with the style that Yoshiuyki Sadamoto used when he originally came up with the Eva characters in the mid-90's. I'm not a huge fan of how the characters look in the rebuild series, everyone looks too long and lanky and generally all look weird, so the 90's style will make everyone look more consistent. I think I still need to do a little more work on Tama because he came out looking a little too generic.

 

[Firebird]

Drawing #145 / 2022 Artwork #8: Got another EVA-Trek drawing in the barrel this week, as I wanted to finally draw Hyuga and Aoba to get one step closer to finally drawing the entire cast. At this point, this takes care of the senior and junior officers aboard the USS Nerv.

Continuing the tradition aboard 24th century Starfleet vessels, helmsman Makoto Hyuga, science officer Maya Ibuki, and Chief of Security Shigeru Aoba hold their weekly poker game... though Maya is getting bored with watching Hyuga and Aoba trying to out-bluff the other.

 

[Santaman]

Nice work.

 

[Firebird]

Nice work.

As always, thank you!

 

[Firebird]

Drawing #146 / 2022 Artwork #9: A crossover between Rent-a-Girlfriend and TOS, mainly because I felt like drawing those beautiful Bill Theiss designs.

 

[Santaman]

Really nicely done, you've got your own distinctive style.

 

[Sgt_G]

So, are you from / living in Nebraska???

 

[Firebird]

So, are you from / living in Nebraska???

Originally from there, but moved away years ago.

 

[Sgt_G]

Ah, I see. I'm not originally from here but transferred in years ago.

 

[Firebird]

Yesterday marked the official one-year anniversary since I made the leap back into drawing on a regular basis. It's hard to believe that I've done nearly 150 pieces in all that time. I hesitate to try to calculate how many hours of work that all totals.

So, how did I celebrate this milestone yesterday? By not actually doing any drawings . 2022 drawing 10 was done mid-week, and I worked on #11 on Friday ahead of time. If there's one lesson I've learned over the past year, it's how to pace myself and give myself some breaks. Okay, maybe I haven't fully learned that lesson, but I'm working on it!

Drawing #147 / 2022 Artwork #10: Marin Kitagawa from My Dress-Up Darling, one of my favorite shows from the current Winter 2022 anime season.

Drawing #148 / 2022 Artwork #11: Remember the last time I went Peak Stupid and drew an internet meme? Well, I decided to embrace the idiocy and spent six hours drawing and coloring that one Misato meme that's been making the runs on the internet lately.