FanArt_ink.Gear

 MTGinktober shifts into Day 30, "Gear," starring Akiri, Fearless Voyager and Greasefang's Bike (TAPIOCA version)!  

 This is the illustration I've been waiting for over a year to draw!  I knew pretty much exactly what I wanted to do here, so I even got to sleep in a little, and rest my back, which is feeling better, but still some residual pain, though I expect to make the final day just fine.
 

 

Fun Facts: I've seen Akira many, many times, having studied it for a college course, and I still can't quite remember what it's about or how to describe it, kinda like Ghibli films.  I should probably check it out again some time.  Also, the hardest part of this piece was getting the bike to work in this perspective--there's a slight twist, so that's the only thing that really gave me trouble.  Everything else was mercifully straightforward--funnily enough, the figure was the least of my concerns for once.

 Easter Eggs: This is of course a reference to the famous Akira slide. I like the Citizen sticker since there are Citizens in Magic, but it's just coincidental, though I made sure to include it on Greasefang's bike's tagged up section (which I noticed is made to look like a rat).  I hid the name of my classmate, who's really into Otomo, in the bushes as a dedication.  My name's there, too, but it's a perfunctory signature  Also, I decided to match the shot with goggles, so we went with Pyromancer's Goggles, of course.

Reuxben

FanArt_ink.Ride

MTGinktober rolls up on Day 28, "Ride," starring Huatli and her Raptor!

Heading into this one, I was going to draw Liliana riding a zombie, but that felt too similar to our season one entry for Transport, so I switched to a backup idea, an Akira poster spoof. The only tricky thing was deciding who was most famously a rider, possibly someone from Kaladesh associated with vehicles--but no one leapt to mind so that avenue was out--or Huatli and her dino pal, though we'd be stretching the strict expectation of a vehicle. But Huatli's my homegirl, so I was amped to get her her second MTGinktober appearance (also one of my most popular 2017 pieces).

I knew this would be an illustration with a ton of potential, as my Dragon Ball spoof went quite big, but wow, this one went huge on Twitter, the biggest response of anything I've posted there yet.

Fun Facts: I actually studied Akira in college, at Tokyo University, in fact. I watched the movie innumerable times, and yet I still don't quite understand it or even remember it terribly well! It's quite strange, but I guess college pressures you to churn through so much stuff so intensely over such a short period of time that sometimes it's hard for even stuff you analyze closely to stick with you. One of the deciding factors on doing this piece was it was a salute to my old senpai, the Tokyo Werewolf, who loves Akira.

Easter Eggs: Plugging in stickers was a treat. We've got Akira's air force star patch, an Ixalan sticker, Akira's Canon becomes Vance's Blasting Cannons (runner up was using "Common," but the double M was too lengthy and Catlacan additionally too obscure), and Citizen becomes Azcanta (Citizen is an obscure token in Magic, so I was entertaining keeping it as is). In lieu of a capsule logo on Huatli's back, since there's no reference for her from behind, I just mimicked her front design.

Not normal,

Reuxben