I have no idea what to call these anymore lol
In 2006, Wildcard happened! Finally a use for the random instrument choices lol. While I did write them into forming a band in the first draft of book 1, I removed it because it just seemed weird. Mioko still has his flute, and Ace still plays guitar, but forming a whole band is no longer happening canonically.
What ended up "spinning off" Wildcard into a modern band setting was a web forum where we all shared stories and wrote crossovers with each other. One guy had a band called The Outcasts (which was made up of mostly Disney animals) and Wildcard went touring with them.
See? Adorable lol. From an artistic/character design lens, I was still not quite there with different body types. Everybody's just super skinny at a different height, heh. It was still only 2006 tho.
And in 2007 they had matching shirts?? Absolutely adorable lol. Side note I forgot I designed their logo and it's actually still really dang awesome. You can't really see the whole thing but it's a spade on one side and a guitar on the other and "strings" between. Snazzy.
Modern Crusaiders, December 2008
Getting back to the main story, this was both a way to make a cool group shot and also try out new outfits. Always really liked this one; I have a digital version too somewhere.
Angel of the Odd, September 2006
Out of order, but I forgot this one also started off as pencil. I think this was the first drawing of Ed ever; his appearance was loosely based on Steve Balsamo from Eric Woolfson's POE musical, and his outfit similar to what I wore in the old The Raven video me and my brother did in the olden days of YouTube lol. I kept the two-winged motif as tattoos on his back.
It's the knights! The jousting tournament story is one of my favorites, and it really ends up being a pivotal moment for a lot of characters now, so that's cool. Ace tries really hard... and looks so out of place lol.
There's no date on this one but I assume it's around the same time. You get 'em, Sir Gallagher!
Before Ace Gallagher, I was starting to work on a story about Tier Dralcon and his quest to find (and learn the truth behind) the Sword of Ignarathos. I got as far as a chapter and a half before Ace showed up in the Elemental Guardians and I decided I wanted to write about him instead ... but Tier hung around and his story became the prequel/the plot device still in use today! This was probably drawn in 2003.
Speaking of Ace... this is NOT him lol. This is an early version of Bengal, and my goodness, he may have helped inspire Ace. I actually don't remember him ever looking this Ace-y at any point. He later dropped the headband and ended up with shaggy black hair instead. I forgot he was initially an archer (apparently also so was Tier).
Some Tier expression/pose sketches. He's such a baby here lol - though he is only 15. He finds the sword and goes through all the curse stuff, finally losing his life at 17 (which is why Ace starts having problems with the curse when he showed up in ToAG - he's 17 too...). He barely gets a chance to grow that iconic goatee... heh.
Proof I had good handwriting at one point :D I had written out whatever I originally wrote for Tier in my notebook with the drawings.
HERE HE IS! Knee and elbow pads and weird gloves and all, lol. I just realised he doesn't have a headband though! I guess he steals it from Bengal 😂 Anyway he was just supposed to be a random side character in the Elemental Guardians fanfic and he literally took over, so I'm grateful to him in any form haha.
Another early drawing, he now has his signature headband. He does loose the fancy boots and the spiky hair in the (then) final design. Still a wirey little kid tho!
And then we had THE TRIO! Despite Mioko being around longer than everybody in this article, he hadn't made the jump over yet. I originally paired Ace with Athena and Dorian, a blue-haired warrior that I'm not sure had any sort of backstory or reason why he had blue hair. The date on the back was 2004, so I was in my final months of high school here (eep, lol I told you some of this stuff was old and somewhat embarrassing haha). But at least Ace has officially lost the knee and shoulder pads.
By 2005, Mioko and Raeya join the crew (and Allan haha). I was not good at different body shapes or skin tones, so everyone looks the same. In my brain, Raeya was always much paler and Dorian more tan, but I was not yet at a point to convey it well. Still, this picture brought back some memories as the first official group shot.
Before I really knew what was going on in Ace's story, I made these little "character cards" and I kinda laughed. Ace's power is mind-reading? Wow, lol. I'm glad I opted for him to just be a normal kid (...well, you know, "normal" lol)
....So Athena was originally based on the Jill character from the Elemental Guardians. Jill could initially turn into fire-type Pokemon, and later controlled fire when I dropped the Pokemon part and focused on the elements only. It's fun because, as I know I've mentioned before, Gemini ended up taking back the fire control powers and is a "Jill character" so that whole arc came back full circle - and I'm glad Athena ended up becoming her own person after all.
Look at me trying to make Dorian all warrior-y with his pose :D Other than drawing him more stocky these days, he really hasn't changed all that much.
Mioko has also changed very little, even since his days in the Elemental Guardians. How he gets his powers has changed over the years. But I'm noticing I don't remember assigning most of the instruments listed here. When I wrote my little "Wildcard" stories Mioko was not the drummer, so I'm not sure where I came up with these at this point.
Raeya's stayed pretty consistent as well. She's always been a shapeshifter, too. I had some thing with the scars on her face signalling a family lineage or something weird but I've cut that out.
Before I got too far in Ace's story, I somehow got the idea to merge his backstory with Tier and Bengal's story. The first book called "Ace of Spades" was actually going to be mostly about Tier and Bengal meeing a young Ace already on the streets begging and gambling (and stealing) because his mom sorta kinda disowns him to focus on her 'profession.' Due to the curse's scar (and his history with Aurora) Tier knows Ace is his son and finally reveals this to the previously-fatherless kid towards the end of the story. The climax is the 2 adults being sent to kill a dragon for bounty with Ace in tow, and Tier ends up defeating the dragon to protect Ace, but the curse finally takes his life before Ace is able to have any time with his dad.
