Tekkoshodown 2013

I liked the idea of a phoenix whose feathers were the different temperature colours of flame- blue white for super hot and red for cooler.

Apparently last year’s CCG was such a hit that this year Brian Hagan, of Moon Bunny Imports, got in contact with artists saying Tekkoshodown was back by request.  Tekkoshodown is a convention-wide (Tekkoshocon, Pittsburgh's Anime Convention) card-based RPG, lightly subsidized with funding- so again it was near-gratis, but very worthy work.  Brian specified that while he would like the cards to look nice, he didn’t want anyone spending very long on them.  

As it turned out, 5 weeks in UPMC waiting rooms turned out to be good impetus to do all the cards I signed on for in traditional art- Copic Markers style.  Each card probably took about 2.5-3 hours.  I did the lion's share with the markers, scanned them in to format in Adobe Photoshop, added some details using OpenCanvas, and then saved the kaboodle out to attach to email.

The hardest part of the cards, since kids were part of the demographic, was making 'Monsters' look both epic and friendly.

I want to know why the Nine-Tailed Fox gets it's Japanese name, but the Giant Catfish isn't called "O-Namazu"

I love Kama.  Actually, I love Kusari-Gama, which is a chain and kama combination.  Yes, it is because I watched Ronin Warriors when I was young.

Using the Copics so thick for the scales meant that I had rub-off marker on my palm from it touching the paper. 

How is it only level 36?  It destroys whole boats!

Yurei was a hard one.  It mostly just means a Japanese ghost, which are different than the western idea of ghosts.  So I made her pale with blue, bloodless lips, with full white eyes and sadako hair going on.  There's a spirit bi there as well to indicate her dead status.