adamwarren
patreon
Distressed Damsels: A late-90s sketch set, revisited 20 years later
🕑 Added 2019-11-20 14:00:03 +0000 UTCSo, last week, I posted a loosely drawn commissioned sketch set dating back to the late 90s, featuring a vague scenario of Dirty Pair's Yuri victimized by hotel-suite laundry drones controlled by villanous superagent Shasti.
Wellp, after being contacted by the fellow who commissioned the original sketch set, a few years ago I revisited the premise, and redrew it with a somewhat different, more contemporary approach. (Also, being pressed for time I went "straight damsel" on this version, with no backgrounds, no text, barely any laundrybot indication; nothing but DiD, in other words.)
More specifically, I revisited the Yuri drawings with the softer, heavier and, let's face it, more conspicuously racktastic physique I've been using for Emp from Empowered in the lat few volumes. (The commissioner had, shall we say, noticed the trend approvingly.)
Yeah, can't say that this fuller-figured physique is canonically appropriate for a genetic upgrade with a prefixed somatotype (in my idiosyncratic version of the DPverse) like Yuri, but what the heck. An odder detail, in contrast to the greater, ah, fullness visible elsewhere on her, is that I'm comfortable nowadays with drawing much flatter hair on my characters. That, too, is a recent tend in my artwork.
Anyhoo, check out the original sketch set below (and above, in the gallery), if you like:
Lot more body in 90s Yuri's hair, but rather less body elsewhere. (Ahem.)
The old set's voiceover by Shasti is a helpful place to leave off, I think, because next week we will see an actual comic-format commissioned story (of sorts) depicting the "Escape and Evasion" class she taught. (SPOILER ALERT: Poor Kei and Yuri wind up neither escaping nor evading.) Stand by for serialization, folks, not to mention the chrome short-shorts that directly spawned Ninjette's outfit from Empowered! All this and more, in next week's "School of Shasti!"
BONUS DiD CONTENT, ADDED AT THE LAST MINUTE: And finally, here's a rather random DiD image, excerpted from an upcoming Empowered vol.12 page. See, I accidentally drew Emp's butt too small (gasp!) in the original panel, and did a quick Photoshop mock-up showing what the proper proportions should have been. However, when I sent along the "before/after" montage, I used the ubiquitous Drake meme to identify which was which, to the confusion of several folks on the email chain:
Wellp, turns out the Drake meme isn't quite as ubiquitous as I thought, for several people asked, "Who's the guy in the orange jacket?" So, I went back and added clarification for the meme-challenged:
That's all for this week, folks!
Comments
Adam Warren
Gotcha covered on that one already, as I did a similar revisit to another 90s Kei sketch set (for the same guy) fairly recently.
Strypgia
I definitely appreciate Emp's fuller curves, and it's very interesting to see the art develop. Yuri does feel more fit to be fit (haha) given she's a genetic-engineered secret-agent/hottie, but it's still cool to see her get a curve-boost too. Heck, this makes me want to commission a set like so for Kei or both.
Adam Warren
Had a lengthy response, but my flaky-ass, on-and-off DSL just ate it. Oops! Anyhoo: thanks for the kind words, as always.
Adam Warren
An excellent point re: the Photoshoppery!
Frank Innes
Imagining Emp's horrified, "Did he just f--king PhotoShop my butt BIGGER!??" reaction. Also I already said it on Twitter but I shudder to think what a more nefarious creator might try to slip past such a meme-illiterate editorial chain.
KranberriJam
Very cool to see a modern retake on an older sketch. I love all your artwork and I REALLY like seeing the evolution of your style. I think it really shows someone's growth and maturity when their style changes, as they are continuing to learn; far too many artists get set in a style that sells and refuse to change or expand, leading to, I think, very stale and lifeless work. Okay, the use of that meme just made that edit WAY too entertaining. XDXD
Warren Beall
While obviously being a fan of both, I do have to admit your 90's era stuff had a bit more appeal for me than the current incarnation. Being raised in a generation of 80-90's era comics I was perhaps pre-programmed to enjoy both the Big hair and trimmer girl aka Jim Lees mid 90''s X-men (who had plenty of both). Its fun to see how things can change over time. When you do a art request again I might ask for a jim lee era Emp just for the fun of it.
