FanArt_ink.Navigator

MTGinktober plans a trip for Day 29, "Navigator," starring Hanna, Ship's Navigator; Timestream Navigator; and Thermal Navigator!

This had to be the toughest one physically to draw this year--it ate up a lot of time just getting these poses down, especially cuz I had to coordinate them so closely with each other, including Thermal jumping off Timestream's hand, forget about the highly detailed costumes for those two.  Anyway, we managed to get it reasonably polished in the last burst of inking time.  I thought it might be neat to see two navigators hanging out and since one's a Pirate, she might be trying to rip off Hanna by selling her some junk as crucial navigator's tools.  

Fun Facts:  This is Hanna's third MTGinktober appearance.  I wanted to feature her as a nod to my old campaign boss as we're winding down and I'm about to continue campaign volunteering in these final pre-election days--and Hanna herself inspired the whole navigator-swindler scenario we ran with.  Timestream's long been a captivating card I've wanted to draw, so I was happy to debut her here.  Thankfully her complicated costume was balanced timewise with Hanna's quite simple (and weird) outfit, though Thermal's debut also meant more complicated details.

Easter Eggs:  The background is based on the Chris Rallis Hanna art, with its ropes and vessel hints, and then the more jungly background comes Serra Sphinx, after I realized one of the final "normal" Expressions of Magic cards I had yet to draw was a Planar Chaos timeshifted frame.  I don't know if this counts, as it's just a background rather than a discernible figure, but I'm sure we'll have another chance for a full Colorshifted star.  Also I based Hanna mostly on DiTerlizzi's incredible Hanna's Custody.

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FanArt_ink.CollideTime

MTGinktober jams history into Day 17, "Collide Time," starring Hanna, Ship's Navigator and Gerrard, Weatherlight Hero!

I knew I wanted to reference My Chemical Romance with this one from the word "Collide" and making this such a throw-back all around, both Magic-wise and musically, would tie it into the temporal theme.  But this was absolutely such a joy to do, I loved mimicking Gerard Way's chunky style using just my ink set, and it felt like a little love letter to a band that I've held dear for many, many years, and to an artist I admire so much. 

Fun Facts: Oddly enough, Gerrard has only ever appeared as a part of musical references, the last one with Gorillaz.  Hanna's also only ever appeared with an external reference, too, that one being One Piece.  I'm committed to keeping these black and white, otherwise I would splashed in some red marker for the blood, but for the final, I chickened out and just left the background splatter.  I also try to limit digital editing, but the gag was too good not to help out a little, by clearing up some of the tighter lettering spots.

Easter Eggs: A bunch of neat ones--the fake band here is Mercadian Romance, since it looks and sounds like My Chemical Romance (though in retrospect, I shoulda combined the R of both words), and then the album name goes from Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge to Three Cheers for Squee's Revenge, referencing another Weatherlight member (initially, I was thinking Three Cheers for Sweet Rofellos).  Finally, the infamous Parental Advisory warning label gets a Planeswalker treatment.

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FanArt_ink.Heist

 MTGinktober gathers a ragtag crew for Day 22, "Heist," starring Dack Fayden; Vazi, Keen Negotiator; Stangg; and Chandra, Acolyte of Flame!

Man, just cannot get to sleep, but fortunately plenty of time to plan my shot rather than count sheep.  I knew I wanted to do something Bebop, the tough part was casting it.  Do we do another Weatherlight Crew spoof again?  That's clearly Gerrard, Hanna, Karn, and Squee, and would probably be more appealing. But I wanted to match the source looks as closely as possible, so I went with these guys--plus Dack's even a thief, Vazri has suspenders she can slip to match the shot, Stangg's bald/bearded, and lil' Chandra actually kinda looks like Radical Edward in profile.

Fun Facts:  For a brief moment, before I had thought to use Chandra, who now makes her second MTGinktober appearance this year alone, seventh overall, if my count is correct--I was going to use Ib Halfheart, and hadn't gotten too far before we gave him the ax--love drawing his helmet, but he's made a two and a half appearances already, so he's not missing out too much.

 I have never actually seen all of Cowboy Bebop, I don't think--I'd only ever catch it when I couldn't sleep.  And then one night the Yale Animu Club had a screening and I saw an episode there.  But surely I've seen most of the series, and have certainly always been a huge fan of its sheer style.  And, yeah they're bounty hunters rather than heisters(?), but I feel like this is close enough, and no way I'm missing my chance at Bebop parody--there's another spoof I've been hoping for, too, but we'll see if we get a chance at that.

 Easter Eggs:  This was a challenge to sign because I didn't want to mess up the gag, so I just used my name for the "Bandai Visual" part (and Wizards, LLC replaces "Sunrise, Inc.") and put the date in Stangg's beard as Roman numerals so they could blend in better--a little self-conscious making my name so prominent in a piece, but as long as it's diagetic, there's precedent.  This text is based on the oldest version I could find--newer versions have modified text and font.

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FanArt_ink.Chef

MTGinktober cooks up Day 22, "Chef," starring Hanna, Ship's Navigator!
 

This was a treat to draw, as it recalled one of my earliest comics influences, back when I started drawing comics.  I reread the first volume (and chapter, specifically) of One Piece over and over to inspire, but also flat-out teach me how to draw and write comics.

As for the gag, I thought it'd be funny to have One Piece's famous flirt try to charm a Magic character, and in this case Magic's version of the One Piece navigator, Nami.

Fun Facts: Today's page provided by the bonus piece in progress to the post-MTGinktober request for a drawing of Arvad--it wasn't looking good anyway, and I'm happy to sac it to give it another go later on.

Easter Eggs:  Obviously, our guest star is Sanji from One Piece.  The background comes mainly from the Double Masters version, and my signature is carved into the wooden design in the back.  I normally prefer the pre-time skip versions of the OP crew, but went with the neo take for the sake of ease as at this point, that version is probably more familiar to people, but I included a flower on Sanji's lapel as a reference to hana, the Japanese word for flower.

Not normal,

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