Blood Phoenix - The Wyrm

It may not seem much to the rest of the world, but this is pretty much a landmark piece for me: it's the first half-decent drawing I've done entirely on Paintshop FROM NOTHING. No scanned pencil linework here. I got tired of colouring my lineworks scanned in at home and of drawing by hand without getting a chance to display, so I tried to find a mid-point. I'm actually really pleased with the result for something that probably took me fifty minutes at most. At any rate, it's a start.

I didn't want to do anything too fiddly or precise, so I drew one of the figures from a graphic novel idea I thought up a couple of weeks ago. I won't go into too much detail, but it's basically about an ex-cop called David Spencer who gets away with murdering some members of a gang who appear to be behind a series of creepy threats sent to his family. Managing to cover his tracks, he thinks he's a free, safe man until he is killed in a car accident. He 'recovers' to find a hefty trial ahead of him imposed by a council of spirits. They've seen the good in his heart from his basic motives and his virtuous work as a policeman, but of course he still has blood on his hands. David is told he must take up the role of a Vengeance Spirit, prowling his home city to enforce justice whenever a horrific murder case occurs. The way this all works is a bit complex, so I'll just say that he has to solve a certain number of these cases in order to be taken back in time to before the problems with the gang and prevent the same dilemma from happening again. The main perk of this is that he will be reunited with his family. If he doesn't complete his task, he will be annihilated. Very nice of the spirits. Numerous mishaps occur along the way, raising a number of questions that might turn David's whole world upside down. Were the threats really from the embittered gang, or another enemy? Is there a hidden agenda behind the spirits' test in which David is but a paun? Is some corrupt friend performing the morally questionable action of encouraging more killings so David can be sure of completing his task? Will he lose sight of his family in becoming obsessed with his job?

Anyway, to complete the task assigned for him, David has two main assets - enhanced senses to help him track down the responsible party in each murder case like a bloodhound and the ability to transform into this huge great horrible wyrm thing for some big time mauling and improved tracking skills. So here be the aforementioned wyrm. I have to say this is probably the most appealing drawing I've ever done of him: there's a rather docile look in his eye, like he'd roll over and purr if you tickled his tummy. Obviously, I didn't have room to fit the whole body in, but four of his six legs feature here. I may use part of this drawing for a cover design at some point. Some point when I have way less work to do for uni ... yes...