Sketches: Artwork In Repose

A cartoonist doesn't publish everything he draws. The signal-to-noise ratio for PG-13 is about 1:30; for every thirty pictures I draw on this subject, one will be inked and added to the page. Sometimes they're just for personal amusement, or character design, or sometimes they're legitimate ideas that end up getting worked to death. Whatever they are, this is where they come when they have the talent but not the tools; PG-13's Evening At The Improv, so to speak. Lovin Year One: Not the first picture of her ever drawn, but this is chronologically her earliest picture; this is what she looked like before becoming pregnant. Notice the platelike feet, a hallmark of my sketches. Lovin Arises: Here it is, the very first picture of her. Originally I planned not to have any 'recurring' characters outside of Ramona and the Ninpuchan, but something in her smile spoke to me and made me want to explore the character. The finished version of this picture has the word 'dragon' all over her clothing, but this one has an actual dragon embroidered right on the tummy. Akira Arises: Eventually I figured out what it was that made me like Lovin so much; she was basically my idealized image of my own girlfriend. Not wanting to leave Ms.FH out, I drew her idealized form of myself: slimmer, with a beaky nose, and a bit more androgynous. When I showed her the picture, she stared for a minute, then took it into our room and locked the door. I think I succeeded. Lovin Today: A few sketches of costumes I was designing for her to model, including a birthday suit. Lovin's "official" job is spokesmodel for Big As A House, an up-and-coming chain of maternity boutiques. Model Magic: Yet another of Lovin's outfits, coupled with a more detailed image of her company's logo. Those who have been watching PG-13 for a while will have noticed my fondness for women standing in profile, looking pleased (if not absolutely delighted) with their own enormity; I think this stems from this picture, from Lennart Nilsson's "A Child Is Born," which fascinated me as a little one. Mesozoic Lovin: A pre-Lovin character with braids, because Ms.FH had braids at the time. I particularly like the onomatopoeic navel-pop sound. More Cosplay: One of the first Lovin & Akira cosplay pictures, this one has them dressed as Josen and Camille, the primary characters from Ms.FH's primary comic book. Notice that Lovin is only just barely pregnant in this picture, and Akira looms over her like a shrieking roc. Swimsuit Season: I worked on this for a long time before giving it up; it was going to be an image of L&A at a water park, with Akira making some sort of bargain with the lifeguard: "Let her go down this water slide, and I won't toss this dead rat into the splashdown pool." Never came to fruitition, but I love the cracked-egg swimsuit. Karen & Kittens: Karen is a heretofore unseen part of Lovin's life; she's her midwife, who specializes in herbal treatments, holistic healing, and doing what feels good. She'll eventually appear, but her look has changed somewhat. As for Lovin's picture here, this was a silly one-joke bit I decided not to go with. Carin' Karen: A planned picture, featuring Karen taking Lovin's temperature. Since Karen is a commie hippie granola type, she don't need no mercury thermometer. I would have inked this picture, but I got the proportions wrong; Karen's supposed to be about a foot taller than Lovin. Here she looks like a member of the Lullabye League. Carryin' Karen: Here's Karen today; I guess she must have gotten sick of waiting for me to introduce her, and gone on with her life in other paths. This may have been inspired by a Sherman's Lagoon strip: "Maybe you should find a doctor who isn't exactly like you." Fan Art: Malon the Melon: This predates my Cremia picture; it's a two-part growth sequence for Malon, as she goes from big to bigger. Just kind of off-the-cuff wank fodder. Princess in Profile: Another example of that favorite profile pose; this time featuring Princess Lydia Gravidia, the mascot of PGN Network, before it became Manga Bellies and Nikka stepped up to mascot status. This was a sketch to help me learn to draw her costume for the "Farewell PGN" picture. Weighty Washuu: Sketches for a planned image of Washuu, before Sliptide submitted his own and saved me the trouble. I added the words in PhotoShop, since the second image makes no sense without them. Special Guest Stars: Despite the resemblance, these characters are not variations of Lovin and Akira; this is a three-part growth sequence featuring Nimmy Bunyan, and her would-be boyfriend, Trent Denmark. They're the stars of my primary non-fetish story, Tangled Yarn. Notice Nimmy's withered, haggard look in the first image; she's normally plumper than that, but I made her (and Trent) spindlier to create contrast. Alternate Heat Mama: One of the Robot Mamas that I had an idea for, but was beaten to the punch on. Stephen's version of Heat Mama was better anyway. I think this one is black-- which means I need some practice in drawing fuller lips. Also notice her leopard-skin pillbox hat. Alternate Gravity Mama: Stephen beat me to Gravity Mama as well. My sketch shows a much altered costume, and a more pleased-looking Mama, and a very iconic Dr. Light. His line is something like, "Unbelievable! You haven't gained a pound!" Other Original Characters: Rabbit Test: An early sketch of Bunny, the heroine of "Stork Derby," a story which still has not been fully realized at the time of this writing. Bunny's evolution is still ongoing, so she may look very different when you see her next. Sumo Yui: A pregnant wrestler, inspired by a character created by Seru (which should explain the kitty ears). This is a somewhat different form of sumo than the traditional Shinto ceremony/sport; each wrestler is dusted with powdered sugar before entering the ring, and battles continue until one player's water breaks. Shoeshine Girl: An unnamed pregnant bootblack. Inspired by a passing line from the MST episode Prince Of Space, making fun of their smocklike work shirts: "Hey, bootblack, congratulations! When are you due?" Hairies: I was on FurryMUCK for a while, and MFH was too; she was Potpurrdi, a fox, and I was Bashi-Bazouk, a guinea pig. Potpurrdi's finest moment was when we met Brian Burke at BotCon 2000 and he drew her for MFH. Anyway, Potpurrdi was quite willing to become pregnant in cyberspace since she didn't want to in real life, so we had a nice roleplay about that. Notice Bashi's delighted yet somewhat unbelieving expression in the second image. Rotate Spindle: An unnamed character, showing back, profile, and front shots. Notice the permanent kink in her spine from leaning back to give her bottom ribs some room. I think I drew the skeletal structure for these first, then filled out the flesh afterward. Ravenne In Repletion: Another two-part growth sequence featuring Ravenne. This was based on sketches for a Ninpuchan story I wrote for Stuffed Online: the story was completed quite a while ago, but the images don't seem to want to come. The Merman Prophecies: Probably the earliest image in this group, which is why the artwork is so charmingly shitty. This is a series of sketches for an illustrated story I was planning on writing, about a schoolgirl, Ramona, and her best friend, a merman named Hakk. They're sex-friends; they don't date, but they have sex occasionally. Of course, when Hakk enters his mating cycle, he ends up impregnating Ramona enormously, moreso because his race, like goldfish, grow to fit the size of the body of water that sustains them. The only thing limiting Ramona's growth is her much-too-tight swimsuit. Ludicrously, she tries to go to school the next day, encounters trouble in the form of a horny ex-boyfriend, runs back to the ocean in tears, and Hakk calmly takes her to a spot where the pregnancy can come to term. I don't think I'll be finishing this story, but you can look forward to meeting a younger, chunkier Ramona in Brigadier Swirl #2; she's Alexis's kid sister. Brigadiers In Sketch Little Ramona: Here's Ramona, her age reduced from 17 to 11, and her best friend Cushion, looking astonished at her big sister's new shape. Oh, if only you knew what was in store for you in six years, honey... Comparison: Alexis and Sammy getting a little competitive over whose belly is bigger. This was a sketch for one of the 'slice of life' sequences on the last page of issue 1, but was discarded on the grounds of being overly blatant fan service. Flea!: Ms.FH practically threatened to hurt me if I didn't draw this. I was hesitant, since I'm really afraid that people will assume Sammy's a redneck (she is nothing of the sort), but eventually I gave in. This picture was inspired by a weird little Warner Brothers cartoon about a goofy little Appalachian flea searching for a nice fat dog to bite, singing this song and dressed not unlike Sammy is dressed in this picture. Look At Me!: Alexis wearing something skimpy, I'm not even sure what. This may have been another idea for the last page of the first issue... I don't even remember anymore. Sigh. Size Queens Creamy Girl: For a long time, this was the most stupendously, colossally overpregnant woman I'd ever drawn; in fact, I had no idea where to put her legs, so I solved the problem by putting her in a wine-barrel hot tub. This picture is one of the few I've drawn that actually grosses Ms.FH out; she says the woman looks like a living creme brulee. The Great Pumpkin: Meet Kabocha, a character I created for a roleplayed story called "The Scorched Earth." She is a samphire-- animal and plant and person all combined, into a sort of chlorophyllic catgirl with three tails. As you can see, she is also the single most fertile individual in her species. Being part plant has its advantages; her bone structure alters itself to better accomodate her pregnancy as it progresses. Giant Royal Thunderbelly: A three-trimester growth sequence for Kabocha. Notice that when her womb starts to outgrow her abdominal cavity, she becomes taller to accomodate it. Also notice that her breasts now serve as armrests. Fuck-ups Toooooo Big! This was an attempt to learn to draw on a larger scale; most of my drawings are about 4 to 6 inches tall, but this one took up the whole space of my 9 by 12 notebook. As you can see... it didn't work. At all. Big Trouble with Miss China: Remember how there was a contest to design a swimsuit for Miss China on Alumineko's Balloon-Bomb? I made an attempt to enter, but the only passable picture I drew of her was this one, wherein she is naked. I don't remember what I was getting at with the swimsuits, so I don't show them here; they looked sort of like Mickey Mouse pants. I also don't know who the squirrel-like guy in the background is. Negligible Weight Gain: Just an off-the-cuff sketch where I tried to capture the look of hair being caressed and lifted over the head, like they do on shampoo commercials. I missed, badly; her hair looks like a Smurf's hat. The Maternity Prayer: Kind of cute in its ludicrousness, I place this sketch in the 'fuck-ups' because it was the very last sketch I drew at work; the next day, an unpleasant encounter with an irate customer led me to a mutual parting of ways; I didn't want to work there any more than they wanted me to. Can anyone spare some change?