That is a very interesting bit of trivia and very fitting for Alycia. I don’t know that you ever did share the origins behind it before, but I believe you at least let us know that it was something that would mean a lot to Alycia so I didn’t try to muck with its basic overall design and proportions (all for the better it appears).
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Yeah, there was never an opportunity for any payoff in-game, but (shock!) it all meant something. And her self-reminder of her heritage was both a punishing personal reminder but also something that she would not have advertised, esp. in the early AEGIS-controlled days.
(“Ma;am, we’ve deciphered the character she’s wearing.” “And?” “Apparently she’s proclaiming herself the child or heir – of, we presume, her father.” “Ah. Yes, let’s shut that down and have a long talk with Ms Chin.”)
The big challenge was finding the file where I’d written the information (since it was not something I’d put in the forums). 
I appreciate the unexpected adoption of the symbol in this context.
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So when I made these cards, I put a lot of fun jokes and nods to different parts of the games in them. Iconoclast is the unofficial “Rook villains” deck (even though Rosa herself show up in a different environment deck) and Ghost Girl is the unofficial “Ponies” deck because a lot of the Ponies show up as friend cards, allies who show up temporarily to help Ghost Girl out and then skedaddle whenever things get too dangerous. Those are, however, not the only friends that show up.
Manny may have not been in the game proper, but I consider anything from the game and the forums fair game for cards. Yes, everything. What else does that entail? We shall see…
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So since I’m not going to be around for the game tonight, I figured I would show off some more card art.
Equipment is keyword for Sentinels of the Multiverse that represents a piece of gear used by a hero. Once played, they stay on the field and can have ongoing effects. We have several heroes known for their signature gear: Leo’s battle armor, Jason’s nanites, Charade’s various weapons and tech, and even Concord’s keynome.
With that in mind, let’s look at some of Ghost Girl’s equipment (because she’s so well known for hers).
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So artist story time: I had a particular design in mind for Ghost Girl’s “ghost look”, but it looked so drab in isolation. So I said “let’s at least throw it into a full picture before I scrap it and start over.” And I’ll let you be the judge.
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Looks like the right amount of fun to me.
They all look fantastic.
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This is awesome stuff. Thank you!
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So I shared these images elsewhere, but I figured I would show them off in this thread. If there’s anything I love, it’s storytelling through inter-connected images.
The first two are part of a Sepiaverse environment deck while the last is one of Charade’s cards.
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Yesterday: Could not even sketch to save my life. Got angry that I could not even get some eyes to look right, gave up, and watched the Mandalorian for three hours.
This morning: I couldn’t draw well yesterday and I probably can’t today either, so let’s see if we can at least sketch out a nice composition and we’ll deal with colors and anatomy and all that other junk later.
An hour and a half later:
Brain, all I’m asking for is a little consistency here. I don’t care if I’m bad or good at artwork, just pick one and stay there.
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Turns out that you’re good at artwork, FYI
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“Giant Sized Menagerie” indeed.
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Fun!
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The follow up.
(The note about the backup story with the Irregulators references Mercury and A10’s trip at the end of the Menagerie storyline. So not gone forever, just a temporary leadership hole.)
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So there are apparently a lot of graphical effects and methods of doing certain things that I never codified, so I sketch some of them out to see what worked and what didn’t. This is the end result. As will probably be immediately obvious, this was very stream of consciousness so don’t look for any real order (other than the one I labelled after the fact). You’ll also notice I didn’t add anything for Ghost Girl, mostly because I spent like 20 illustrations already figuring all that out on the fly and this is trying to do things right before I move on to the rest of the team.
- 1 - All this really started out as trying to figure out how to best draw Concord’s sword. After a lot of failed attempts, I tried replicating what someone drew on Sablestar’s picture in Roll20 and funny enough it works. I know Doyce has mentioned he really likes this scribble-y style before, so I think of this as a win.
- 1.2 - This one I have sort of codified before, but I also wanted some notes on how to easily replicate it. It wasn’t difficult to replicate it on the spot, but anything that saves 5 minutes of trying to remember/dry replicate on the spot.
- 1.3 - Well, made you hunt for this one didn’t I? While trying to figure out what other art problems I might need to solve, I remembered Concord’s energy duplicates. I always had this in mind for them, I just need drew it out before.
- 2 - Still not 100% happy with how to show Jason’s nanite constructions, but it works… ish. If you’re wondering why I decided to represent it like this, the New Mutants’ Warlock has a lot to do with it. You’d be surprised what sticks with you even after 30 years, since my only exposure to Warlock was a couple of episodes of the 90’s X-Men cartoon.
- 2.2 - So the Q-Disc seems like something that deserves an iconic SFX (like Nightcrawler’s BAMF and Wolverine’s SNIKT!). While likely not as memorable as those, a low, bassy VOOMP VOOMP VOOMP is always the sound I imagined the Disc making.
- 3 - This was more something to spice up the silvery parts of Mercury’s outfit. It’s super subtle, but it makes me think of something like a silvery holographic material which is kind of cool in my opinion.
- 4 - Like the bad handwriting says, completely unnecessary, I just thought this was something silly and cute for Radiance. It does not show up well against her white hair, so I might need to think of something else, but I like the concept at least.
- 5 - Fun story, this is literally the same effect as Concord’s sword, just chunkier. Might add something to it, but it works.
- 5.1 - Wow, have I never draw gunshots/bullet ricochets before? Well, now I have a quick gradient for them in the future.
Opinions. Still trying to figure some things out, so input is always welcome.
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I think that might have been me.
Yeah, definitely has that Warlock vibe (I character I never had a great love for, but, y’know, as you say, “it works.”
It’s more unique than the metallic hissing H-B used for so many things in those Jonny Quest cartoons. I’m cool with it.
Overall, I like all the above.
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So there was a little surprise in my mailbox today.
They were only 90% done (ahh, to still find typos on the card text even after all this time) I really wanted to get a set of cards printed just so I could see what the end result was. And the answer is: amazing.
I identified a couple of cards that don’t read completely well (despite loving how Troll and Facet look on A Little Mischief, the rest of the card is very dark and muddy) so I might redo the artwork on them when I get a chance. Still, getting to see 90% of them look amazing in print was a hell of a feeling.
Also…
Since the printer did decks of 54 cards and I only needed 42 (40 card deck, plus the hero card and the Magus variant card) I had enough left over to get 6 sets of the two Menagerie Secret Origin cover cards made (yes, with the Hiil typo), so if you’d like a set I’ve got extras. The two sets will get mailed out to the Hills once I can get stamps since I already have their address, but if @doyce or @garrett would like a copy too, send me a PM with your address and I’ll try to send them out within a week.
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