Friday Art Post (Historical: Sketchbook 40), and News

I've been slammed this week trying to get the Haley draft done, so I only managed to get about 20 scans done (and that at the last minute!). But I've picked out the three most interesting ones to share from this week's crop in Sketchbook 40 (early autumn of 1998), so here they are!

• Alysha in space - The Alysha stories at this point comprised the majority of the Peltedverse's canon, so pictures of Alysha and the women of the Stardancer are more common. This one looks like it was inspired by the events of In the Line of Duty, from the cargo bins in the back.
• The Sword to My Hand - A lot of my incidental art in this period was for a shared universe I was making with a fellow artist, Kit Steele. We issued a few portfolios together, and this was one of my contributions. (If you've read my short story, "The Blade To Your Hand", then this piece was part of the inspiration for it. I think it should still be available here: https://books2read.com/bladetoyourhand)
• Questionable Canon (Zafiil and Tristan) - I wasn't sure about including this one, except it's notable in several ways. The first was to drive home that not everything I draw ends up canon... sometimes it's me feeling my way toward the touchpoints I want to write later. The longer I put off reaching those touchpoints, the less likely the drawings are to reflect the finished story. This one's an obvious case in point: Zafiil and Tristan never kiss in the novel. Which brings me to the other notable thing about this drawing: it's two characters kissing. I... don't think I've drawn people kissing often. I can't remember the last time I did, actually...?? Which is hilarious, because I often think of my art as too intimate, and yet. Whatever the case, I'm fond of this piece, so I'm sharing it!

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To round out the news for the week:  I'm going to finish up Haley 6 either this weekend or early next week and get moving on editing/formatting, hopefully.

Also, since live chat has been the most requested feature since I stopped offering it, I've decided to set it up again. I'll have an invite next week. It'll be subscriber-only, but if you're seeing this you'll have access.