Another "Linkage" illustration

Linkage has been a nebulous original character. They started out as a cisgender boy, and when I revived the character a few years back, I thought they were a trans teen. Imagine my surprise and delight when I decided to make Linkage nonbinary and suddenly, the character became this cheeky little [insert your expletive of choice here] and so much more interesting a personality than my first draft ideas.

Linkage is descended from South Asian
peoples of Old Earth, specifically from several Indonesian ethnic groups. I wanted to showcase Linkage finding out their old earth roots with some headdresses and emblems from different Indonesian cultural groups in yellows, oranges, and reds while showcasing their hacking profession via digital text and Linkage's virtual headphones(they can activate these psychically) are in blues.

My mom told me how she appreciates the fabrics on my characters and that they look like the fabric they're emulating(she sews and makes clothing). 

All I can think about was that time in high school art class when one of the fashion design folks left her seat from the front to walk around and view other classmate's work and she became angered by how dare I, the 'cartoon/comic artist', draw such an incredible dress on one of my characters(who was an anthro cat, no less!). 

The character's accessories and outfits should also reflect their cultural background and sense of modernity in the far future, yet not look bland as scifi clothing tends to. I mean, clothing in fantasy often looks interesting and culturally significant, so why can't science fiction clothes too?

I also love SF book covers which tend to highlight other aspects of the character's life or several characters' lives in the story. 

Here, Linkage has a pet from another world they once visited. I deliberately create my aliens, but sometimes, an alien, or its species, turns up on the fly. When that happens, lI'll use that first sketch as a template to further expand. 

So I will be expanding on this cockatrice-type creature later on!

Hope you liked this post about me explaining my process! You can see the entire slide show from start to finish on my Insta @ Handdrawnbycarmenjr

Until next time, Dear Readers!