sarracenian

(Ranma 1/2) Akane vs. Shampoo - 比武大会？比武招亲？

I was worried for a bit there that I wouldn't get this done in time, but I managed.

Hooray.

Also been digging new episodes of Ranma also!

more BSA stuff

been busy with commissions again + hit with minor blues (nothing bad, just loss of energy)

Probably most happy with those Luke drawings. I want to draw more of him, I need more people to like him too.

September(esque) Request: Gavrill Madaraki from Franken Fran

As requested in the Thread!

It's been such a long time since I read Franken Fran, I actually forgot about Gavrill as a character almost entirely hahaha. But then, I vaguely seem to remember never having read it from the beginning and starting from the middle for some reason.

Franken Fran was a fun comic from what I remember. Very sardonic gallows humour, which is good sometimes. Having some misery and cynicism in fiction is always healthy, I think. The cover arts for Franken Fran is funny how they are such blatant, sarcastic honey-traps, intentionally designed to be tricking people.

wip Akane vs Shampoo 比武招亲

Another zine contribution I'm working on.

Was thinking specifically of outfits from 60s-early 70s wuxia/martial arts cinema, which were clearly more Chinese opera inspired. It's kinda funny thinking back that a lot of the classic works such as those by Jin Yong and Gu Long came out in those same decades, so they're probably closer in some ways to what the writers maybe have thought about.
But then, I think Conan the Barbarian's setting is also closer to being high medieval times than the Bronze Age inspired age of high adventure, so it seems literary works do highly depend on the death of the author to find its iconic visual style, sometimes literally hahaha.

I included some references, because I like having those now.

Black Swan Ace short comic 4 - "Under the same sky"

Manage to finish another comic featuring Lan and Luke! This makes it about 60 new pages of comics I've done in recent time, which I am quite happy about. Next up; figure out how to distribute this digitally. Thinking of going with globalcomix, but welcome any suggestions

This one was done with my friend Ella, the eponymous academic (lesbian) roommate I refer to on social medias from time to time, who wrote the story here and is actually the co-creator of these characters also (since she was there to develop the original concepts).

Hopefully she gets to write more some day, so do leave some kind words for her also!

Some of the commissions worked on recently

• Lafiel from Banner of the Stars

• Casique, Heisei Kamen Rider redesign

• Vincent Nguyen's Hardsuit design, front and back view.

another BSA comic wip (pages 2,3, first panel of 4)

Surprise, I was working on another one of this. I have to be fast, because the Helsinki comics festival is coming up soon and I want this to be ready by then.

What a busy time these months have been.

Mobile Police Patlabor!! (2025)

As voted by you, it's Patlabor time. Unfortunately couldn't get this done by the American Labour day, but such is life sometimes. I feel like there's still some stuff I could add, but can't come up with anything quite yet. I'll prob edit them in later down the line.

Did you know Patlabor is actually one of the first "old-school" anime I sought out? I imagine it's prob a lot of people's first steps into knowingly becoming a proper anime oldhead (as in, actively seeking out anime from the cel era knowing that's what it is and not just anime in most general terms, if that makes sense). I still draw Noa Izumi more or less how I did back in the day, which is funny. She's one of the OG favs so I suppose it's appropriate.

wip2 noa izumi and AV-98

A lot of other work to go through, so progress with this one has been slow. Hopefully I'll get it done in the upcoming week or so.

Oni Ranma (Hyakki Yagyō)

Based on this Hyakki Yagyo-themed merchandise costume.

tbh I don't know why, but I wanted to draw something (slightly) different so...

(EDIT: updated with some of the bits from the full revealed design)

Patlabor wip

WIP of the next thing to draw; the Poll winner Noa Izumi (and Alphonse)!

Although, right now I'm currently busy working on more commissions, and the upcoming comics festival in Helsinki, so I might not be able to update this as often as I could

Surprisingly, I still kinda draw Noa Izumi as I used to back many many years ago, when I still had no idea what I was doing with art hahaha

Masami Yuuki's character art is fun to try and replicate.

(Commission) Marie from Skullgirls is on a skateboard that's pretty sick

There's surprisingly a large number drawings about maids on skateboards. I don't know why specifically though, I never really thought about it until basically now.

Black Swan Ace visit a normal zoo with normal elephants

To those who don't understand, I highly recommend reading this story (this is the english translation: https://old.reddit.com/r/creepypasta/comments/ravape/zoo_creepy_pasta_a_recent_chinese_internet_craze/

(And the Chinese original on a easier to browse platform: https://ubmh.wikidot.com/adnmd-dongwuyuan/)

There's a lot of really cool Chinese internet horror stuff nowadays. I hope I get to share some more later on, if I can find any translations of them.

The design is based on the video game adaptation:

Yue Ying doing what she likes

This one's been in my folders for a long time, now it's drawn fully. Do you remember when I wrote years back that Yue Ying likes singing (but not on stage (yet)) and embroidery? Man time is slipping

Black Swan Ace short comic 3

Or, Method-master Lan vs. The Internet Horror Monster Archetype.

it is finally done.

After this I still have one more, and planning to make it into a single collected volume. I wonder if people have been enjoying these two so far.

black swan ace comic 3 wip4 (more preview pages)

Getting close to the finish line with this one! It took a lot longer, and I still have more new comics to work on coming soon! Hopefully I'll get the next one done faster since the Helsinki Zine Fest is also coming up.

Bonus I also added another drawing I did trying to draw as spontaneously as possible, of Lan confronting a 500 year old Chinese vampire (because the older a yaoguai is the more powerful it becomes), inspired by a real-life mummified corpse of Gu Congli 顾从礼 from the Ming dynasty. You don't see a lot of Chinese vampires wearing anything other than later Qing dynasty robes, because that was when most popular folklore about Chinese vampires really started to formalize, possibly due to famines and grave-robbing becoming more common.

black swan ace comic 3 wip3/preview sample pages

The full thing has managed to expand into about 27 pages while I wasn't looking jesus. This has really become a thing that has taken me over.

Still need to figure out how to even distribute this online to people.

Also for a lark, I did these kin onion charts with my friend and editor/co-writer. I usually don't engage in a lot of these smaller kinds of specific fandom/kin/OC art spaces as much (nothing wrong with them, mind, it's just "not me", y'know), but it seemed like fun to do:

Space Cassette Moumou 2025 Summer Camera ad poster

Made for an summer art zine. Moumou done in the style of various magazine ads of the 80s-90s, the kind with people on the beach with stuff to sell (Like the advert below, which the background was the direct inspiration:)

Moumou is esp. fun to draw outfits on. Perhaps I should take in more suggestions and requests for various other clothings to have Moumou wear.
Or maybe another comic? I'd imagine the comic would look something along the lines of those old school picture-books that look like anime cel scans. That'd be an interesting experiment

(if you feel whichever way, do comment below!)

Also, if you are in the Cool Yen and Awesome Primus Yen tier, you can download a PSD file with some more extra variations to play with yourself!

moumou camera advert (WIP2)

Picking up pace with this one. There's still other things to be do but Moumou's colors are there now

also a bonus moumou from another commission I'm doing:

JUNE REQUEST: Nim from the GUNHED

As requested in the thread (available to all Awesome Primus Yen members)!

GUNHED, now there's a good looking film. For the longest time I actually didn't know there was a manga, and by Kia Asamiya too, until relatively recently when I found it from one of the used book shops I like to frequent.

The characters in the manga def have a different vibe than in the film though, but I do like both takes on Nim. I guess there's a reason why Kia Asamiya women are also fairly popular amidst the oldheads hahaha.

Some black swan ace dumps

In the mean time while I'm chipping away at multiple things at once, did a redraw of the original (1st) comic with Lan and Luke, as well as sketchings of two of Lan's extended family. The idea is that since Lan herself is inspired by pulp detective characters, that Lan's mother and father (who I will figure out some other time) would similarly look like they're old-school pulp serial characters.

Except Lan's mum isn't actually around that much so she just hangs out with her godmother instead hahaha.

moumou camera advert (WIP)

Working on an entry for a zine, designed to look like one of the 80s-90s camera magazine ads. And ofc Moumou is a given to do that!

Been thinking if I should try experimenting with other pens and methods over the ones I'm using. There's so many 80s-90s anime style artists now that I'm afraid I'm not catching up at this rate! (if you know any tips, do send them my way!)

Hoping to get this done soon.

Commission: Ryoko Hakubi

Been busy working on some commissions, and get to show one of them here now!

Ryoko lives on as an icon! (Even though I suspect she isn't as talked about in Japan as much any more unfortunately.)

Qi Dandan's Kite Festival

Hey I kinda liked how this one turned out. Let it rest in my folders for too long so figure its about time to finish it. Had a few of Blender color settings to try out, and I kinda liked how they all looked so just gonna post all of them.

I've taken a liking to drawing Qi Dandan it seems. I should prob draw her more happy than despondent (but I like drawing despondent characters!), so she isn't always so blue all the time (haha).

Moumou is on a car

wow Moumou that's dangerous get off from that

Should look into trying different brushes and techniques for drawing these faux retro anime prints. It's still not quite there where I want it to be.

Also attached a .psd file to be played with, as before.

MAY REQUEST: Its Eggman!

Little known secret; I'm actually big fan of Eggman's design. I don't really play a lot of Sonic games, but I've gotten around to liking him specifically. Just a fun villain concept & look.

I dunno how he's actually handled in the overall fabric of the Sonic franchise's existence but sometimes that isn't something I think I need to concern with. Sometimes the vibe is enough.

black swan ace comic wip2 + some character drawings

At it again. Getting a mix of pages done and some that are still being worked on. I should look at Ishinomori comics more often (as if I don't look at them enough hahaha)

(WIP 2) moumou hitching a ride

The perspectives are prob still wonky, but at least it was fun to do. Its good to have develop a drawing habit that's not fast, but just finds the challenge interesting (Now there's a humble brag and half lol)

I've been also thinking if I should make a swimsuit variant of this, like from the previous beach illustration, since summer is nearly here. Plus I liked that coat + hat + swimsuit look.

Would people like to see that variant? Comment below if you would (as well as which of the swimwears you prefer too)

(wip) moumou on a car

she is a menace

a casual Black Swan Ace drawing + new comic wip

Been doing another comic. It's my new favourite thing to work on, and in these trying times you need to have something fun to work on. Although it'd be easier if I just sketch out more stuff with just Lan and Luke hanging out, but instead I always pick the most laborious things instead hahaha

The new comic would be something along the lines of "What if they fought a very modern horror monsters in Mr. Vampire/jiangshi films? And its also Doctor Who (kind of)", since BSA/Lan herself is very much also inspired by bits and pieces I like in Classic Doctor Who (namely the 60s-70s).