sarracenian

Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!

Hey,

Just taking some time to thank you all for being my patrons and supporting me for some time now. Having you guys has helped out a lot in terms of drawing and having that support to help out with general living if only for just a bit. Having that in the back of my mind has made me feel just a bit better about a lot of things than otherwise.

Next year, I hope I can do even more. Maybe get some more comics done, and get some new ideas I've been having regarding some Legionary Extraordinary and Moumou and also some Chinese mythology ideas I've been cooking up.
Of course now that I say it sounds like a lot of expectations set too high and future borken promises in some way or another, but hey its better to dream big than to have nothing I guess hahaha.

Qi Dandan and she smokes (WIP)

Recently saw the movie Center Stage from 1992. Fantastic movie, really reminds you how much of a phenomenal actress Ruan Lingyu was back in the day and what a tragedy how everything went down was. I really should look into more Stanley Kwan films.

Can't think of a good transition, so I will just speak for these drawings I had in mind inspired by the film.
Qi Dandan doesn't actually like smoking, but she just does it anyway. Its not a good thing, she will stop somewhere over the course of whatever the plot of the Sakura Wars X game this funny 1927 Shanghai Combat Revue is from.

Request #7 (3rd out of 3)

As requested, the last third of the three arts!

The meeting of all time. Unfortunately:

Requests #7 (2 out 3)

As requested, but here are (two out of three of the) arts! I will get to the third one soon-ish.

Actually never seen Big O in its entirety, have to admit. One of these days perhaps I shall, tho I also have to finish Giant Robo (the OVA AND the original tokusatsu series). So many things to watch, and I still haven't finished watching Under the Microscope in Ming Dynasty either! Ah well.
Also added Minnie May in the drawing with Rally, because there was space for it. 

Alright, now to take a break and time to go watch the newest episode of Doctor Who.

Indanthrone blue presented by Qi Dandan

(Remember to also check the Request Thread!)

I really have tricked myself into doing more digital paintings with these huh. We'll see where this whole bit can take me in the future.

This time around "What if an old anime promo art was also a 1920s-1930s Shanghai commercial poster?"

Like these:

(Definitely check out this article too for some extra contextual info: https://ying-xiang.org/articles/re-examining-shanghai-calendar-girls-gendered-modernity-and-media-parallax)

Specifically this is also made in imitation of the advertisements for Indanthren blue cloths (or 阴丹士林 as it was called), which were very popular in Republican era China. Kinda became a symbol for modern women and intellectuals of the time, since a lot of qipaos and student uniforms also used these blue dyes.

EDIT: ALSO, I just recently figured out what Qi Dandan's theme song should sound like! It was so obvious and was staring in my face all this time! Its the theme song from the film Center Stage (1991)!
The film is based on the famous 20s-30s Chinese film star Ruan Lingyu. Ruan Lingyu is actually exactly what I've had in mind for what I want Qi Dandan to evoke (other than her namesake Li Dandan ofc).

So far I quite like the film Love and Duty (1932) and the Goddess (1934)! It still holds up really well.

Request Thread #7

Time for our 7th Request Thread! where you get to make an art request by commenting below!

This time I will be accepting from All Patrons, Three of my choosing! This time I wanna test out and open up to do not just purely characters but more general stuff too (simple situations like character doing stuff for example)!

Please comment below!

EDIT: Thank you all for the requests! I will proceed from here. I will this time space these drawings out a bit so I don't burn out immediately too soon after TB. I hope this is OK

Ways of sitting

I am back now. Gotta start making up for lost time for con-organizing & resting!

I am still amazed how I tricked myself into practising digital painting just so I can achieve making faux-anime screenshots. The things I do for the bit.

Another request thread soon upcoming, so look forward to that.

EDIT: Forgot to add a painting in the BG. Also a bonus Guan Qinglang getting so worked up over Qin Bailing she forgets herself.

Sitting Shanghai peeps (WIP)

Had an idea of Shanghai team sitting normally. It was only later when I was uploading these that I completely forgot Mo Xiaocang entirely. Its been a stressful few weeks...

I'll draw Mo later.

Moumou autumn fit

My roommate keeps insisting me that Moumou sounds like a Korok from Zelda (specifically the "ya-ha-ha!")

I don't know how I feel about that

Apologies for lack of Higher tier perks recently. Managing commission work and studies and prepping for Thought Bubble has taken a toll in how much energy I can spend. I will make it up hopefully by November, when everything is smoothed out. But I won't complain too much, only thank you for all your support and patience.

Various Commissions (2023)

Some of the character commissions I've done in recent months. Gemini Sunrise is actually for a specific thing, you will see it when it comes up!

Yedocia in these trying time

Oh wow I somehow completely missed these new Patreon updates.

Another bout of chores to do just before heading to Thought Bubble, so apologies for lack of updates. I've been thinking of getting back on drawing some more Yedocia and Legionary Extraordinary-adjascent stuff again (won't abandon the other stuff tho!)

Also, to nobody who asked, this is now Canon:

Ryoko from the Tenchi Muyo cartoon

There was a bit where I was thinking a lot about Tenchi Muyo and Ryoko for one reason or another. It was like a worm. Gremlin woman.

Bonus antagonizing other women

More Moumous + BLENDER CEL EXPRIMENT

Finally got done with Helsinki Comics Festival... But then next is Thought Bubble. Damn.

Oh well, here is some Moumous. She's probably immune to electricity maybe.

• EDIT:

Out of curiousity, I tried experimenting with simulating the cel anime look with film-grain once again with blender instead of just CSP.

The results are surprising. Shockingly even that minimal amount of digital recreation of real-life cel layering was the exact spice it needed! It still needs some work, but that subtlety somehow creates way more accurate results than I had even anticipated, atleast to my eyes

Various Legionary Extraordinary comics in progress + WIP character design stuff

Slowly coming back to drawing my Sino-Roman project again. Just have a lot of ideas I need to commit to sketches first before I can start finishing them. Which results in a lot of blue WIPs hahaha

That does remind me I really do need to draw more varied character designs. Been in too much of my Old School Anime Girls kick in the past year or so that I should prob start going back to where I was before that (but won't abandon weebism just yet, don't worry!).

Moumou has a cow + WIP

Things been getting hectic here, which is both good and bad, so apologies for the less frequent updates. I managed to squeeze something in between.

I saw a dream once where Cinema Snob(???) was escorting a cow calf for some reason. I decided to change it to Moumou, for obvious reasons. I imagine she has a beef with them.

Thinking of also doing a poster a la old 80s-90s OVAs like Project A-Ko and such. I've only have a concept in mind, it'll prob not look like this because I don't like the compositions, but I will prob keep the Martian Tripods. Those are cool, we've really have not done enough with them tbh

Yue Ying in that Judy Toyota illustration composition + some hair stuff

Based on this Yasushi Yamaguchi/Judy Toyota illustration for Sakura Wars.
Still trying to decide if I like the 1stt or 2nd pose better. Tending towards 2nd if only because its less repetitive than the uniformed illustration I already did, but I also like the 1st pose just a bit more hahaha.

Also some thoughts on Yue Ying and Guan Qinglang's hair

Scandalized

Remember that one WIP I did months ago? Finally dug it up and finish it. Also is this the first time you see Guan Qinglang's backside? Probably. Drawing the crane was fun though, I like drawing little symbols and patterns:

What do you think they were whispering about? What could possibly scandalize/embarrass Qinglang? Comment below, those who can guess what they're whispering about is The Understander* of the Month

(*I have no idea what that actually means)

REQUEST #6

This took a bit longer than it was supposed to (had to work on three commissions + comic in the same time), so my apologies for that.

Anyway, thank you for the requests! Its always fun to draw things you normally wouldn't think of

We have:

Duke Fleed / Daisuke Umon - UFO Robot Grendizer

Sayla Mass - Mobile Suit Gundam

Max Payne - Max Payne (1)

REQUEST THREAD #6

Realized I haven't done these in a while.

Time for our 6th Request Thread! where you get to make an art request by commenting below!

As before, please keep them on the simple side, so nothing complicated like multiples of characters or backgrounds. I'm only taking three of my choosing this time.

Shanghai Combat Revue in Uniform!

It is done! Wow they end up looking so serious now hahaha

I should get to drawing those mechs too when I get to it.

Various Commissions (2021-2023)

Various commissions I've done from the span of 2021 to 2023 that I'm allowed to post. Some are OC, some are existing characters (Like Shi Jin and the Sakura Wars charas) I believe I haven't really posted any of these before elsewhere, so figure here is a good place to put some of them.

(WIP2) Shanghai Combat Revue in Uniform

Flat coloured and everything! Sometimes things always look a bit more off when flat-coloured, but what can you do. Just hope shading will fix things hahaha

Moumou in different late 80s clothes

Found fun images of various clothes from the era (attached). Its fun.

Shanghai Combat Revue in Uniform! + yet another wip

The team is fully coloured now! Also came up with another illustration as I was colouring below, during which I came up with another comic idea too!

Its coming up with new stuff to draw after the other hahaha

Shanghai Team, now in uniform! (WIP 2)

Inked with their primary colors, plus I also sketched some of their robots! Its really fun drawing these uniforms.
I always liked the uniforms in Sakura Wars 1 the best, since it had the best silhouette (the shoulders! The bulk!!) and simplicity compared to some of the later ones. So I wanted to evoke some of that in mine as well. 

And I also always liked the Fusion Suit Samus shoulders hahaha

You might ask why Wu Shuang is a Guntank (without the guns). The answer is simple... 

Yao Yaoling and also the boys

The most ambitious crossover. Why would Heavenly Soldiers look for Yao Yaoling? Who knows.

Yao Yaoling has kinda become a real guilty pleasure to draw. On one hand she's absurd & thus funny, on the other hand if someone else drew a character more-or-less exactly like her, there's like at least a 50% chance I might hate it lol

(The hand sign Yao Yaoling is making is the Chinese hand signal for number 6, not a telephone sign btw)

"Fortify" - Legionary Extraordinary short

God this expanded into 9 pages.

Oh well, at least I got to draw something Legionary Extraordinary this year. I'm actually thinking of doing another, but will have to figure out on what historical topic to do with (suggestions welcomed!)

Shanghai Team, now in uniform! (WIP)

Guan Qinglang and Mo Xiaocang are still the hardest to get right :C

I'll prob draw their mechs too, which should be easy enough (maybe). Since my idea is to mimic more the style of Sakura Wars 1 & 2, their mecha would not really have the same customization Post-Sakura Wars 3 mechs had. Makes them easier to draw at least.

Origin of Moumou the Video Casette Scout

Still need to work on how to make convincing retro anime magazine scan look, but I'm getting there maybe!

One thing I really like is the loosey-goosy alien planets you see in goofier stuff esp. in older anime.
I imagine Moumou's home-planet is just like this all the time (and also Breakin' 2 Electric Boogaloo).

Fighting Storm - A Rider fancomic

LINK: https://sarracenian.itch.io/krfightingstorm 

"Have you seen the Rider?"

Years have passed since his disappearance, and none were left to stop the tank-treads and barb-wire. Yet in the charred forest, behind the smog and fumes of useless industry, a wind blows through...

A tribute to the Shotaro Ishinomori classic, written by Aleksis "Sarracenian" and drawn by the excellent Brian Naughton (@NaughtSoBad)

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Comic is free. Any money is strictly on an optional, pay-if-you-want donation basis.