Victory Laps

Sometimes you come up with a new character design for a piece and that’s that, you don’t really think too much about it. And other times you can’t help yourself but to come up with lore on the spot by accident. Especially during the time that it takes to finish the piece. So meet Gabrielle, the cheetah and Fabi, the Falcon. So here’s some light lore for them. It's been a little bit of a while since I worked on this so I’m a bit fuzzy on the details. This lore is optional of course lol

Gabrielle started running and exercising after a break up with her boyfriend a couple of years ago. She got in really good shape and got to meet cool people, especially Fabi who quickly became her rival. Gabrielle takes their feud a bit seriously unlike Fabi who takes it more like a game.

Fabi has been running her whole life and even won some races but never got beyond local and city competitions. She has a lot of fun competing with Gabi and actually likes her a lot, but she’s afraid to get closer to her cause she has had a crush on her for months.

She keeps their feud alive as a way to be closer with her but she knows that she would get nowhere with her, especially after she saw the way Gabrielle’s been looking at Samuel the Trainer. Fabi wants to figure out her feelings or get over them before she can get closer to Gaby and be friends at the very least. So their feud will have to be enough for now.

It’s basically like a sports anime plot. Lol.

Compels me though.

Did you notice I mentioned Samuel, That’s Samuel, Diana’s brother who works as a trainer. I swear at a point he was about to appear in this piece. He was going to blow a whistle to start the race but he was messing up the composition so he had to go. That’s how he got involved in this story.

Also there’s Fabi who was either a prototype or a younger version of the girl Diana had a crush on in a comic of mine. So you will see more of her. In the past. Also, good news, she had a happy ending in the end.

This is a picture I had had in my head for years before I did it. Easy concept to be honest. Cheetahs and Peregrine Falcons are the fastests animals on the ground and air respectively. So let’s have them racing.

The background for this piece is inspired by two places. The race track of the gym in my college and a park I live close by. Mainly the small building with the graffiti. Which also features the “Yes” Graffiti that’s plastered all over the city my characters live in. The outfits on the characters were designed to emphasize their rivalry. One covers her legs while the other covers her top. Besides, one uses darker colors than the other.

One of the things I really like about this composition is that it can be viewed in two different ways. I designed it a little bit as an album cover. In fact the title I chose comes from an album. “Wax Fang’s Victory Laps”. Another cool thing about this piece is that the process for this was clean enough. I actually was able to document it So next to the piece you’ll find a steps sheet for it. You may be able to see where Samuel was supposed to be.