This was originally posted to my DA account about 3 years ago. The following description is copy-pasted from there:

My Sand Raider OC, Gravekeep ( I think I have yet to see anyone else create one. I've seen Martian Mice, Catanonians, Humans/Terrans, Plutarkians, and rat OCs, but I don't think I've seen any other Sand Raider OCs, and I've got a few in my fanfics ).

Anyway, for those not in the know, in the 'Biker Mice' universe, the Sand Raiders are a nomadic tribe made up of wild canine species living on Mars. They live in the open desert areas in gypsy style tent cities for ease of moving from one location to the next, specializing in the slave trade, black market, and basically anything else operative outside of the law. They pretty much seem to be modeled off the desert hooligans that populate the 'Mad Max' franchise with a bit of a Steampunk slant.

While their parents may give them a more 'familiar' name used only among immediate family members, Sand Raiders typically 'earn' their names based on their personalities, phsyical appearance, or by their jobs or positions within their pack. Gravekeep was so named because being born to higher-ranking members of the pack; when she was a child her job was to sit for long hours and guard the gravesites of her close relatives, to keep other members of her own tribe from robbing the graves for jewelry they were buried in. What can one say? No honor among thieves.

As Slobber's niece, Gravekeep, a silver-backed jackal, leads the second faction of Sand Raiders. In her mid-twenties, she is extremely cunning, often ruthless, and some would even describe her as borderline psychotic. She's also quite shameless and untamed- often running about assuming nothing but a pair of black-tape pasties is passable as a top. Her most trusted companions are her right-hand man, err, woman, CoalRaker, a female hyena, and her Martian bird of prey, Aphelion ( both of which I also have sketch designs of and will be uploaded at a later date ).

The biggest thorns in Gravekeep's sides would be enGage and Rivet, who were originally kidnapped from their families as children and sold to the Plutarkians for genetic experiments by Gravekeep's tribe and thus, every time they cross her there is conflict as they want revenge and she seeks to reposses them; and the other person she gets really tired of seeing is Rimfire, who has an annoying habit of purposefully seeking out her camp to release recently accquired slaves and steal/confiscate weaponry.

Now that I have blathered enough, this was one of several sketches I did while working out Grave's design. I originally did a flat color of this really quickly to provide to a friend who was in need of art commissions to help pay bills, so I commissioned her to do a pic of Grave with her bird of prey, Aphelion. I decided to go back to the sketch and practice more coloring techniques. Really need the practice and I learned some new approaches I'm really liking, and others that could totally work awesome, but will still require future tweaking to make everything come together ( like, I'm afraid some colors might have ended up slightly off from their original base. Like her hair is supposed to be an orange color, but I'm afraid it may have shifted towards a very fierce redhead color during the process ). For the sketch I attempted to force myself to draw an upshot. When it comes to foreshortening, I probably hate drawing upshots and downshots the most becase my brain just does NOT want to see things in a distorted way when it comes to drawing. It's something I need to force myself to do more for more dynamic artwork. Slowly but surely......

At first I was gonna have her arm propped up on something. Then I was gonna have it raised with Aphelion perched on it. Then I said 'screw it', left the sketch as was, and just focused on coloring practice.

Gravekeep and Artwork © 2013 Kylen Christine Miles
'Biker Mice from Mars' and all related concepts © Rick Ungar and Tom Tataranowicz

Do not alter or redistribute.