_Chiroptera_

(( I want mooooooore! *Flutters wings impatiently and shuffles around on the cieling* ))

(( *whines pitifully* Dammit I have to get to class!!! There better be more up here when I get back! ))

Here's my Deviant Art gallery aswell. Wish I could get it into my sig but I'm outta room... My Gallery

I am! Though I don't do alot of Co art, just comic art in general, WonderWoman and StarWars are my main drawing interests.

My Gallery.

Very nice! I liked it!

Absolutely gorgeous... The things I'd do to get a commission from you... Dammit why couldn't I become the creations I've made in CoV?! Then I could just go rob a bank with stalkery powers of death and no one would notice me till it was to late.

Curse my fiscal policies!

Personally, I don't feel a need to make my pictures last that long. I'd rather make new ones instead of spending all my time preserving old ones.
Attachment can be a very nasty hinderence, I don't let myself get attached to my work if I can help it. It's alot more fun to make a new picture than it is to keep trying to keep an old one safe.

LePlumeII pens.
Yay for french art shtuff!

LOL! Oh man the best part is the CoT out there harassing some poor citizen while the Rowr and Valk just sit there eating Ice cream.
Nice work!

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hrmmm...tall order. in a nut shell...a quite a few new artists have shown up...or at least posted again after hiding for a bit. some of the regulars have turned into mini art machines and have churned out some great pieces. Star continues to hog all the sugar. and have I mentioned tons of very cool artwork...really cant stress that one enough. some of the stuff these folks are able to produce, at all levels of ability, simple amazing.

...ummm...not sure what else ta say. welcome back though. ~

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I wasn't hiding! I was paranoid of rejection! There's a difference!
<.<
>.>

Hehe, well I'm glad to see this forum has opened up more! Last time I posted here I got a lot of rough critiques and a severe lack of friendliness!

Anyway... In regards to my policy on commisions, see the description to go with this picture of my friends character Divine Prophet

Well, its been awhile since I posted my inferior art abilities up here to compare just how bad I am compared to some of the incredible artists that reside on this board, but I figure I better give it another go.
Here's my first actual fanart picture CoV wise, I've done plenty of my own characters but not one of the characters that actually belongs to the game, sooooo...
Here's Ghost Widow

Here's some pictures I've done of chars with wings! (None of them ae CoH chars tho)
HawkGirl

WARNING! This one is Not Safe For Work (Bare chest)
Angel

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I'll say it, just to get it out of the way.

Skull Back Mountain.

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I believe you mean Skull Crack Mountain.

NICE WORK!
I can see now what you were talking about in the SG channel last night, Dark.

((Author’s Note:
There are two kinds of stories I usually read, or participate in on the boards, and in game.
Type A. The stories that pit the heroes against the villains in the traditional showdown of good versus evil.
Type B. The kind that deal with the civilian side of a character, showing their thoughts, emotions, the inner character that we don’t usually see when we interact with them.

I’ve decided to contribute with Type C. Criminal Cases. This story will be a mix of both the other two types, no direct conflict with enemies, and no look into the civilian side of my character, but still a look into her head as she works on a case.
If you like CSI, you’ll enjoy this. If you like Law & Order you’ll enjoy this… If you don’t like those kind’ve shows… Well I can’t say how much you’ll enjoy it but give it a try anyway! ))

- - - - - - -

Through the Eyes of the Law

The victim lay on the pavement in a pool of blood, along with other matter; from the looks of it he’d plummeted from his pent house balcony about 15 stories up.

“Poor S.O.B.” Detective Valquez muttered as he tugged the body tarp back over the victim.

Detective Valquez was a Paragon PD homicide detective, like most in his department he’d seen a lot of messed up stuff. Vics with their faces burnt off, thugs pumped so full of holes their bodies couldn’t be identified, and one case where the victim was just some ashes on the living room floor, he was actually grateful now to be at what looked to be a fairly run of the mill suicide case as he and his partner headed up to the victim’s apartment.

“All right, Frank, what’ve we go?” Detective Mason asked as he and Valquez answered.

Frank Chaplin of PCSI looked up from examining the apartment floor. “Victim is Judge Oswald Marx. Suicide notes on the kitchen counter, we’ll need to do an autopsy before hand but the impressions on the carpeting here suggest he got a running start and went straight out…” Frank pointed towards the open sliding door of the balcony. “He needed a running start to motivate himself but he was determined to jump…”

Mason shook his head with a sigh. “Judge Marx, wait isn’t he a federal judge?”

“Yes, he was.” a female voice replied from behind the two detectives.

“Aw crap…” Valquez grumbled as he turned around.

Standing in the door way to the pent house-apartment was a red and white clad longbow agent alongside a man and a woman in dark clothes.

“And a pleasure to see you again as well Detective Valquez.” The longbow operative replied with an amused smile

“You better have a good reason for being here, Raider-1, this is a PPD case Freedom Corps. has no reason to be here.” He replied in what was almost a snarl.

“On the contrary.” The blonde haired man beside the longbow agent stepped forward now, holding up his FBI identification card. “Agent Harrison, my partner Agent Sawyer.” He said as he nodded to the brunette next to Raider-1.

“Oh for the love of- You’re kidding me!” Valquez snapped angrily.

“Judge Marx, as said, was a federal judge. That means he’s under our jurisdiction, not yours. We’ve asked Raider-1 here because she was working on a case with him.” Harrison explained. “And while I’m sure you’re happy to call this one case-closed and go on to the more brutal crimes that seem to happen non-stop in this city the FBI and Freedom Corps think there’s more to this.”

“Frrkrinmph Beutfulf.” Valquez muttered against his hand as he dragged it over his face.

“I’m sorry, what was that Detective?” Harrison asked, his lip twitching slightly to suppress a grin.

Raider-1 watched the FBI agent and the homicide detective glaring at each other like kids on the playground and cleared her throat. “If you two are done trying to decide whose top dog, I’m here for a reason.” She swept past them now, the red and white star-spangled cape billowing around her as she moved to stand beside Frank and examine the carpet. “Were there any witnesses?”

Detective Mason flipped through a clip board of notes taken by the uniformed officers who had first arrived on the scene. “Just one, Misses Mary Sorthem, she was in her apartment when she heard the scream as he jumped.”

Raider’s eyes narrowed beneath her white mask. “Hmmm…” She looked over to Agent Harrison now as she spoke, “Let’s go see the witness.”

Like a little parade the heroine, both federal agents and the two homicide detective’s strolled down the hall and into an apartment where two uniformed cops were taking Mrs. Sorthem’s witness report.

“Mrs. Sorthem, I’m Raider-1, Longbow investigation; I understand you were the one who heard the victim fall?”

Mrs. Sorthem appeared to be in her mid-sixties, wearing a pale pink jogging suit and her dark hair, wisped with silver, tucked back into a bun. She nodded to the longbow agent and smiled, she looked like a friendly woman, the pictures scattered around her home and the nice furnishings suggested she was a fairly wealthy woman with a large family. “Yes ma’am, like I was telling these officers, I was here watching the news when I heard the scream… Poor Judge Marx, he was such a nice man.”

“Around what time did you hear this scream ma’am? During the news report?” Raider asked, now holding a small palm recorder in her hand to tape the witness’s story.

“Yes ma’am, news had been going for… Oh… I’d say about 15 to 20 minutes by that time.” Mrs. Sorthem replied.

“So you heard the Judge’s scream as he jumped, around 9:20?” Raider asked.

Agent Sawyer glanced at the longbow heroine, cocking a brow at the curious gleam in Raider-1’s eye.

“I’d say that’s about right.” Mrs. Sorthem replied. “I heard him scream and got worried, even in a safe neighborhood like this you never know what crazy supers could be about, so I called the police.”

Raider-1 nodded at that, thanking the woman and heading back for the Judge’s apartment. “Mr. Chaplin, do you have any idea how long it would take for someone, falling after jumping over the balcony, to reach the pavement?”

“Well… At an estimate, about three, maybe four seconds… Depends on just how much sped he’d worked up, the more of an arc in his jump the longer it’d take for him to hit…” Chaplin replied, standing on the balcony already and looking over the edge down to the second part of the crime scene.

Raider-1 nodded at that, and then took to the air, drifting out over the balcony and hovering outside observing the balcony itself and then looking down to the tarp covered victim below. “Huh… Three to four seconds… Not even enough time, unless…” Raider’s eyes gleamed in sudden realization, “I wonder…?”

“Wonder what?” Valquez asked in annoyed tone, but by the time his question was out the longbow officer was swooping towards the roof top. He lifted a hand to heads forehead rubbing it slowly. “I hate heroes like this… Ooh, look at me, I’m a detective, I’ve got a spandex body glove showing off every curve and contour, and a fancy international law badge and am to pretty to be a real person, I’m a frikkin’ Barbie doll super bi-.”

“Eeeeeasy, partner.” Mason said, laying his hand on the other detective’s shoulder and cutting him off. “She’s just trying to help.”

“Hey while we’re at it, what’re you two jokers doing!?” Valquez asked, looking toward Agents Harrison and Sawyer, and suddenly snapping his jaw shut as he noticed Sawyer was not talking on a walkie-talkie.

“Uh-huh… All right, you got it.” Sawyer said into the device before clipping it back to her belt. “Valquez, you’re with me, she wants us to go back to Mrs. Sorthem’s apartment while our partner’s stay here.”

“What, so now she’s a match-maker?” He grumbled as he moved towards the door.

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Sawyer replied, rolling her eyes. When they reached Mrs. Sorthem’s apartment she lifted her walkie-talkie once more. “All right, Raider, we’re here.”

“Good… Take note of the time and tell me what you hear while you’re in there.” Raider replied over the radio before a click signaled she’d turned hers off.


Inside the victim’s apartment Mason and Harrison stood, waiting to find out what would be coming next. A sudden scream caught their attention, both men rushed out onto the balcony to see Raider-1 diving straight towards the ground screaming at the top of her lungs. A few feet from the ground she flipped in the air, landing upon her feet and then pushing off once more swooping back up to the balcony while turning on her comm-link once more. “Sawyer?”

“Radio silence started at 9:48 and 23 seconds according to my watch, we heard a scream a few seconds later 9:48:29, I’m assuming that was you??” The FBI agent replied.

“Yeah. Come back to Judge Marx’s apartment, please.” Raider replied, touching down on the balcony, smirking as she heard Valquez’s voice in the background saying ‘what the hell was that supposed to show?!’

As Detective Valquez and Agent Sawyer re-entered they found Raider-1 examining Judge Marx’s suicide note.

“It’s good… But it’s fake.” She said, more to herself than the other investigators.

“How can you tell?” Detective Mason asked, stepping over to examine the note a second time since his arrival.

“Because Oswald Marx was pushed, from the roof top, 10 stories above this.” She replied, setting the note down.

“Now how the HELL do you figure that?!?!” Valquez cried, throwing his arms up in exasperation now.

“At 9:48 and 29 seconds you and Agent Sawyer heard me screaming… At which point I had reached the 17th floor, not the 15th.” She explained. “Your typical jumper has a delayed reaction as they come to the terms with the fact that they’ve actually jumped and are falling, which would mean the Judge wouldn’t have been likely to start screaming till around the 13th floor.”

Valquez’s mouth opened and closed repeatedly in a wordless stammer as he tried to find anything to say now.

Raider-1 held up a hand to keep him from saying anything incase he did actually find words. “Combined with this, the total time it took for me to reach from the 15th floor to the ground falling at normal speed was precisely 4.6 seconds. The only way a normal human would even notice a scream that brief is if they had been listening for it. But she heard a scream, meaning that Judge Marx was screaming for a long extent, quite loudly, likely in surprise and shock… Because someone pushed him over the edge of the roof.”

“Well how do you know it was the roof and not just a higher part of the building? Valquez countered.

“I know he was pushed from the roof? Because, Detective, while you were looking at the most obvious solution to this case I was looking for everything abnormal; had you gone up to the roof top you too would have noticed that the gravel that covers the roof has been disturbed in several areas, consistent with two people having met on the roof top to talk.” Raider said in reply.

There are some cops you like, and then there are some you don’t. Raider-1 didn’t just dislike Valquez, she despised him. He was the kind of cop who hated paper work, the one that shot straight for the easy answer that saved him a little time from being stuck filling out forms at the office; and he was making her wish she had an excuse to beat him against the wall for being so uncaring for the loss of a man like Oswald Marx. Smothering this inner rage she moved to kneel next to the impressions of heavy footfalls in the carpet.
“Judge Marx moved to the edge of the roof top to look out over the city. Most likely the meeting regarded the case I’ve been getting his help with, the person who met him, another man suggestion by the depth of the indentations in the gravel; was trying to scare Marx off the case. Marx was a stubborn man, he didn’t back down. His opponent was obviously well trained; he attacked, off balanced Marx, and shoved him over the side. He then proceeded down to Marx’s apartment, took this running start on the carpet to help solidify the notion of Marx’s jumping over his own free will and then forged this suicide note which is a remarkable mock up of Oswald’s hand writing from what I can tell.” Raider-1 concluded, standing up once more and looking at the Detective as if to say ‘any other questions?’

“That would mean the murderer planned to kill the Judge the whole time.” Harrison surmised. “Or that he had at least prepared for the possibility.”

“Heh… Just flippin’ beautiful… Longbow and the Feds to the rescue yet again.”

“Not to worry Valquez, we’ll take this whole thing off your hands now.” Harrison said with a smirk. “Raider-1, thanks for your help here, you’ve saved us a couple days worth of investigation to figure out what happened.”

The red and white clad heroine nodded at that, extending a hand to Harrison who took and shook it firmly. “Always a pleasure to work with you Agent Harrison, Agent Sawyer; please, do keep me informed… I liked Marx, he was good man.”

“We will.” Sawyer replied with a nod as she radioed for the CSI team to now move up to the roof and securing it as yet a third portion of the crime scene.

While Valquez grumbled and cursed in annoyance under his breath his partner, Mason, simply shook his head.

“Incredible… Really, I’ve never seen someone put something like this together that fast.” He said, now stretching out his own hand to shake Raider-1’s.

“Heh, well thank you Detective, the air is my specialty; I just know how it works.” She grinned as she shook his hand. “If you ever need help with another apparent suicide feel free to give me a call.”

“Yeah right…” Detective Valquez murmured under his breath.

“Always a pleasure to see you too, Valquez.” Raider said, looking to him with her grin shifting into a smirk.

She brushed past him now as he muttered something incoherent under his breath in reply to her words, moving to the door she glanced back and gave a final nod of farewell before heading back down the hall.

She exited the building a short time later and stepped out onto the street level crime scene, moving to the tarp covered body she gently pulled back the covering to look at the gruesome image of Judge Oswald Marx’s crushed body.
“I’ll find them, Judge, I promise… I won’t let them get away with another one.” She said, looking sadly at the dead law enforcer’s remains and bowing her head in silent farewell before standing up and once more taking to the sky.

- - - - - - -

(( And there we have it. Hope at least a few people liked it, if I get any good response I might even continue the story. ))

I never NOTICED the stat tracker till now! Thanks Jugsy!

That said I HAVE noticed that one of my much older pictures, which doesn't get that many views, is one of the ones that got the most comments and is one of the ones that has been Favorited often. I'm not sure why!

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While I agree that the first is clearly superior (sorry that you feel that your unique drawings was better), I think he was saying that because he DIDN'T trace he was able to come so far. The same point you have been making.

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Hmm..on second read I think you're right.

I thought the first bunch of posters had this straightened out. Tracing and Copying freehand are two entirely different things. The poster was saying that tracing isn't always bad, but then went on to describe a way of working that is NOT tracing. (I misread it after the first sentence.) I think even the anti-tracing people here see the value in copying something freehand. I sure do. But that's very different from actually putting paper on top of a drawing (or a new layer in Photoshop) and just tracing over the lines.

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Okay after re-reading my post I wasn't clear enough.

My point with the BG BW example was that, before I ever evne did the batgirl one I spent week tracing the outlines of batman pictures, and then filling in costume details, backgrounds, etc. myself. I did this mainly as a confidence builder, to familiarize myself with the character. Once that was done I felt prepared enough to try doing the free hand batgirl picture.

As to which is better, upon further study of them I actually withdraw the statement, Batgirl pose is much better really; the only thing I think make me like the Batwoman pic more is that it's coloring is smoother... Yeah I'm anitpicker about coloring. I don't like the streaky lines in the batgirl pic.

Simple, sleek, sexy and with a hint back to the golden and silver ages of comics. I like it!

As Hex Girl said, tracing does NOT always lead to bad habits.

Note that when I say trace, I mean the OUTLINE. I do not mean in anyway to trace the ENTIRE picture. When you trace an entire picture, you really aren't learning anything.
When you trace, you should be doing it more as a way to get the ball rolling in a picture, once you've done the outline of the body do the details yourself, do your best to free hand it all while using the picture as reference.


For an example of what I mean:
This is a drawing I did in 2002 of Batgirl, it was a freehand that I drew while using the actual comic picture as reference. I made my version bigger and made some alterations to the arm position because it didn't quite look right to me.

This is a drawing of the new Batwoman which I did completely from my head, of course, using the classic 'swoop down to grab' bat-family leap.

You can see the difference between the two pictures just by a quick look over, Batwoman has more detail, more muscle tone, better shading; it's the superior of the two drawings but I never would have come that far if I'd not started with drawings the way I did batgirl.

Allow me to relate the story of my learning to draw.

1-4: Lumpy poorly structured batman figures.
5-6: Pipe body type over muscled heroes.
6-9: I began tracing pictures from my favorites comics and out of coloring books, typically tracing the outline of a person and drawing my own costume into it.

Sometime around the age of nine one day I sat down with a piece of paper.. and I started drawing.. To my own stunned delight I found myself drawing a very well done anatomically correct picture of NightCrawler that was pretty good for a kid my age.
It was the time I spent tracing, learning via repetition how the body moves, studying various pictures, etc. that helped me the most in learning to draw.

Tracing DEFINITELY helps it's how I encourage any of my friends who want to draw to get started.

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Well that is pretty nifty and all, but once the novelty wears off is it still worth buying an whole extra card that you might not even be using in 5 years?

:-/

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The answer is no. Won't see me running out to buy a card till it's a requirement for some new game I want. Thats my measuring stick for when to update my computer. When it no longer runs the games I want to play, it's time for an update!

1. Do you Role Play more than 90% of the time you spend playing COH?
100% of the time. I get bored when I'm not roleplaying. If I wanted to socialize I'd get on AIM or go out with friends. I play CoH to get emersed into the comic book atmosphere.

2. About how many hours per week do you play COH?
60+ anytime I'm away from college without any work weighing on me.

3. About how many hours per week to you spend Role Playing in COH?
The same amount as Q 2. I'm always RPing, be it at Pocket D or in a mission.

4. On a scale of 1-10, how much do you think your primary toon is a reflection of yourself? (1 = your toon is not at all like you 10 = your toon is a lot like you) 8, my main character is the me I -wish- I was. Outspoken, determined, and willing to do whatever it takes to make something positive happen for the world, even if the people themselves don't realize that it's beneficial.

5. Why do you like to Role Play? (Or why is Role Playing more fun than “just playing” COH?)
To get away from reality. I'm already living life, CoH/CoV is my way to escape, to go to another world where I don't have to worry about the problems of my life or the world I'm in, I can concentrate on saving (or ruining ) the day in that other world.

6. Do you play any other MMORPGs? If so, do you Role Play when you play them?
I do not currently play any other MMO's but I have in the past, I always RP in any MMO that I play, there's no other interest for me besides RolePlaying.

7. To what degree does your Super/Villain Group (if you belong to one) encourage/discourage Role Playing?
The groups I've been in are All-RP groups, meaning you either RP or you don't get into the group. There's no encouragement necessary because there's no one in the group that isn't an RPer.

8. If you are part of a Role playing Super/Villain Group, would your group have a problem with a non-RP-ing observer (tag-along) for an hour or so?
Probably, my groups pretty small and we like our immersion to go undisturbed as much as possible.

9. Can I follow-up with you with more (brief) questions either in-game or via a forum PM?
Certainly.

First off. Congratulations! Virtue is the unofficial Roleplay server so you made a good choice! Secondly, Pocket D is a nightclub, a neutral zone where heroes and villains can both go; and is the main RP hangout for both sides.

You can find RP anywhere on Virtue but Pocket D is THE place to find it, usually on the blue side bar.

The lowest level zones with entrances to Pocket D are Port Oakes for villains and King's Row for heroes. Good luck and have fun!

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Lord Recluse: GEEEET OOOUUUUTT of this sacred roleplaying place! We TRUE RPers are better than you loser casual RPers, like Statesman!

(Ghost Widow enters the room, wearing nothing but a smile.)

GW: Oh, milord, care to join me in the hot tub?

LR: Go away, I'm protecting the RP boards!

GW: ...(sigh) Well, maybe tomorrow night, ten-thousandth try's a charm....

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ROFL!!!

Following this same chain of thought...

Recluse: Lightning Bolt! Lightning bolt!!!

Mako: Dodge!

Recluse: WHAT?! That's bogus I have a +12 to accuracy!
Mako: So what my dodging's +10!
Recluse: My accuracy is 2 points higher, you'd have to roll the dice and get doubles to be able to dodge!
Mako: That is such BS and you know it, YOU'RE the damn dungeon master, YOU made the stupid rules just so you could win all the time!

GW: *Stalks out of the spa room wrapped in a towel* HONESTLY, do I have to seperate you two!?