The Masked Shrike

Very nice indeed! Beautifully done, she looks great.

So I couldn't help myself and I had to have another piece by Brandon McKinney. This time, he took on PinUp Girl, and boy howdy!
PinUp Girl by Brandon McKinney

Fabulous. Congratulations on a beautiful piece!

Thanks for the kind words! McKinney is swell. He was kind enough to add in the jodphurs/breeches (how I wish we could have them in the costume creator--those Goldbrickerwhatever guys have them, lucky NPCs).

Heh, Hericane, the Shrike only really loves punching Nazis...I mean 5th Columnists. Or Council as a weak substitute (sort of the margarine to the 5th Column's butter).

I can't stop myself from doing this again....

I've become a CoH art addict!

And I don't want to be cured.

I now worship Brandon McKinney as an art god.

The Masked Shrike by McKinney

I don't know what to say. She's utterly perfect. Praise McKinney with great praise!

Yes, not digging the new thigh high boots.

But I am digging this piece. Such great attitude!

Love the pose! So dynamic.

I'm having some pieces done by ~undergrounduno --all four of my 'main' CoH characters.

You can see the artist's page here: ~undergrounduno

The first one up is PinUp Girl.
PinUp Girl

Undergrounduno has done a swell job, she's cute as a button. I can't wait to see the others!

Love her expression!

I am absolutely gobsmacked by how much I love this piece.
Masked Shrike by Meshsmoother

He also very kindly sent me the inks-only version, which is beautiful in its own right:
Masked Shrike inks

His DeviantArt page can be found here:
Meshsmoother at DeviantArt

He is a wonderfully talented and patient artist. And I am positively giddy over this piece. Thank you Meshsmoother!

A brand new piece and my first by Meshmoother. What a lovely person to work with!

PinUp Girl by Meshsmoother

No.

Okay, the friendly and encouraging reception I have recieved here and on Deviantart has inspired me to start drawing again. It's been *many* years since I've picked up the pencils, and I am so rusty! But here is what I have come up with this last week:

Bloomer Girl

She's an emp/elec defender of mine on Protector, a member of SPI. Alas, this is so wonky and screwed up because I was just all wobbly and uncertain. Hopefully things will improve as I start drawing more.

And here is the first part of a small project which will have at least one more part. This is just a sketch, a work in progress, but I am really happy with him so far:

1917

It's an 'alternate world' version of a friend's character on Victory, as an ace of the Great War. There will be a WWII version as well. Still have a bit of work to do refining this, and then I'll color it. I'm already feeling much more confident again.

And I have purchased my very first commissions ever, and I am so excited! I can't wait to see them

Thanks again to the nice people here.

I'm so sorry to resurrect this old thread, but I haven't been able to get back to the forums until tonight, and I wanted to reply to the friendly comments.

Thanks for the kind words about my artwork and The Shrike's outfit! Powerforge, I guess I never thought of it as a 'good' CoH costume, it's so simple. I actually have the outfit in real life and have had some fun dressing in it for Halloween RPG sessions (though I hope those photos were burned!) I really was stunned by CoH's character creator and how easy it was to make a near-perfect version of it in-game.

EchoedRespite, thanks for the ideas about ways to make a 'flight helmet' in CoH; I will try that. I'll have to make another request for flight helmets and jodhpurs in the costume request thread

Krocket, The Masked Shrike lives on Victory, that's my home server. Maybe I've seen you around?

Zekiran, yes, I do love Elfquest, Pern and superheroes! Always glad to meet another person who does. I actually took your Otherforest test a while ago, and it was cool. I wish we had Elfquest and Pern MMORPGs, I'd never leave the house...

As for pencils, I think I like them because I am a control freak, and they don't get away from me like other media. I've tried oils, watercolors, acrylics and pastels, but I always go back to pencils.

You guys have inspired me to break out the pencils and paper again! This is a neat forum. Thanks for the welcome!

Howdy there! I've finally decided to tentatively delurk here because it looks like a fun place. I even got myself a Deviantart page since I guess to participate, ya gotta share. It's a mixed bag with lots of drawings from various games I've played and stories I've written over the years. I'm just a dabbler and a doodler who likes to draw her own characters from time to time.

There are a few drawings of my CoH main, The Masked Shrike. They're actually from her days as an RPG character, but here and also here are a couple of screenshots of her. I'm amazed at how closely I was able to replicate her in CoH!

(She's all glowy 'cause her powers are light-based. Invulnerability is so perfect for her!)

Anyway, I'm excited to be here and I am planning to commission some pieces soon. I think it would be really cool to see other artists' conceptions of my beloved CoH characters. So many talented artists!

Hopefully I'll be inspired to start drawing again.

Samuel Tow says:
[ QUOTE ]
It's pretty silly to compare video games to flight simulators. I wish we could hear from an actual pilot that has trained on a flight simulator, but even then I'll bet my piggy bank that it wasn't just like the real thing and they did have to do some adjusting and adaptation to the real thing. An that's the US Army's simulator that has your seat rolling all over the place, not an office chair and a 17'' flatscreen.

[/ QUOTE ]
Well, I'm not an airline pilot, but I am a pilot (COMM/ASEL with an instrument rating). I can tell you that I CANNOT fly computer flight sims. I've tried. There's no 'seat of the pants' feel, no peripheral vision, no sounds, heck, no smells. Flying is a lot more than just what shows up on the monitor. (And yes, I have seen a guy walk into flight school and proclaim he was an expert Microsoft Flight Sim pilot and therefore would be an expert pilot...here, first learn how to steer with your feet and then we'll talk. Keep it on the centerline, babe!)

Yes, I have trained on a typical static instrument flight simulator (which we, wits that we are, call the 'stimulator'), which is useful for learning and practicing various approaches and procedures. It's great because it will record your 'flights' and print out your flight path. When 'under the hood' or flying 'in actual', you don't want to trust the 'feel', just your instruments. Your body can and will lie to you. But even then, there's nothing like the real thing, baby.

We'll always be dealing with hysterical knee-jerk types, whether it's axe-wielding prohibitionists, the Hayes Code, the Comics Code, Rev. Wildmon going after Mighty Mouse, Tipper Gore's lyrics crusade...but then, my years of playing D&D have surely turned me into some sort of debbil-worshipping baby eater, according to Jack Chick, so what do I know?