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!

Entries from the Twitterverse...

Note to Readers: The following are a series of tweets I use as a sort of progress report to myself or relevant writer groups I'm a part of.

"Time Tiger" or its full name TIME TIGER:/4846_Chronicles, is a series of short stories I'm working on and compiling together. It began as an idea I illustrated back in junior high. 

Below are the following: tweets(or progress reports to myself) to stay on track.

Two 1/2 pages of that 'spinoff' series... Hilarious that I'm writing spinoffs when I haven't written a significant amount of the groundwork stories yet.😜😖 #amwriting  #amwritingscifi #sciencefiction #shortstories 

A GIRL AND HER CAT

I can't believe how many incarnations this #shortstory has gone through over time.😳 It went from some teen HS manga drama to a mystery-thriller with horror elements...😬 #amwriting #amwritingscifi #sciencefiction

I had to do some #conceptsketches of the main #aliencharacter. Now that I worked out his look, I can tackle the human MC next. I want to work on her headshots and braids. But I #amwriting the story in the middle of this. #amwritingscifi #sciencefiction #shortstory

Trying to revise and update the looks of different #alien species from old notes and previous drawings is fun and tedious at the same time. #scifi #sciencefiction #amwriting #amdrawing #amwritingscifi #amdrawingscifi  IG: handdrawnbycarmenjr 

Worked on a scene from my  near-future #shortstoryseries(3rd or 4th entry) & I find it harder to develop the #technology 80-100 yrs from now versus the #tech I'm developing in my #spaceopera set within the same universe about 2700+ yrs later. #amwritingscifi #sciencefiction

Intrigued! If you want more info on this series and its concept art, you can go on my Instagram @ handdrawnbycarmenjr

Hope to see you there, Dear Readers.