Lovely Work!

Aa thank you! <3

this looks so fantastic. what an awesome environment and atmosphere. Great work Darb, you are so amazing at backgrounds and scenery

Thank you!! <3 This one was soo lush to work on n try to make it feel lived iiin ^w^

This is soo good! I love the whole scenery ! ^^

Lines are just gorgouse! From characters lines and they anathomy and proportions are just freaking amazing! They poses for evry each character that give them a motion and emotions. Background depth is amazing as heck!
Characters on this art-pice are soo well maded, adding to it thoes colors , shading and lighting to put them in the style of 80s-90s is just a brilient concept! Adding to it a gorgouse elements on the character from they outfit to the small character designe elements [look at that headphone for example that fox got back there] to the caps!
Designe wise it is just gorgouse! Each character here is well maded in this regard with they
uniqueness from races to facial expressions ^^"
And that background it is the best here! Background binds this together soo well!
Thoes tiny detals like thoes fish in the background or that fish box leaning against the wall. To thoes electric boxes, cables and lil thinks like food or spices.

Overall? I kinda out of words ngl ^^'
It is soo detaled, amazing , well maded that i just out of the words. Ya put into it a insane amount of work here! Your free time , part of yourself , passion and dedication and you creat this gorgouse art-pice! ^^ Have fun doing more arts like that and keep it up couse ya doing a godly joob here! ^^ Cheers!

Damn, this is cozy. Love the idea of a Merc/Villainesse indulging in homely Nostalgia.

Thank you!! <3
Yeee, even she has a soft, relatable side! ^^

Great work! Helena looking awesome as ever! Love your art!

Aaa thank you!! ;w;

Lovely art, lovely character. I do also like the background characters, they seem just as fleshed out which is nice.

ee thank you! <3 Yeee, they are fun to do! Can mess with ideas a little, it's nice to imagine their personalities, behaviour as you draw em!

Super lovely work as always!! I love this kind of slice-of-life stuff!
The atmosphere have so much depth! Everything from the look on her face, to the cluttered food stall, to the clothes of the locals. I can both smell and hear it all!

Thank you! <3 Aaaa its my favourite type of piiics! I really should make more, but they can be a bit tricky to pull off for me ;3;
aaa means a lot!! Glad all that came through! <3

Absolutely love their design with the head feathers. They look so chill!

Thank youu! <3 Tweaked her looks a lil back; made them feathers more characteristic to work as a hairdo ^^ Was worth the extra time!

They work perfect. You've gotta do more worldbuildy pics. The background is just top tier.

Neat to hear more of the story! Makes me curious to hear more of what lead to those choices she made.

Thank you! <3 Aaah it's a long story but basically she used her position in the navy to do illegal deals n trading, got caught and had to flee; eventually settled down on a backwater planet as a merc, n formed her own group!

I'm blown away by how much detail you put in your backgrounds.
How long roughly does it take you to sketch and outline them?

Aaa thank you! <3 It's really hard to tell actually; i do like to take my time and my IRL job limits that too ^^' maybe a week worth of chippin away?

So cozy and warm. I'm sure the food is delicious there. The world-building in your text blurb about this piece is sublime. <3

Helena is so relatable, even if she's in such an alien world with a very sci-fi job.

Thank you!! I really appreciate that! <33 ;w;
Yeee, she lives in her own bubble, she may look out of place, but she deffo feels home there ^^

Being AWOL is not fun. One of my trucking buddies was a reservist who carried a Glock everywhere, he was an MP and the pretense of carrying was if he met a deserter he might need it.

Don't like the look the person on the end is giving her....

Ah she's not actively fleeing any more; the world she settled on is a very distant one, with a little Odraani presence, too busy dealing with trading to comb every town of AWOL peeps. She's just a faceless name and a line of ID numbers in a massive data base, plus, she has a deal with the local research team! As for the locals, don't worry about them! Last thing they want is a bunch of Odraani soldiers tearing up the town; it's not their business, they don't care ^^

Yay for worldbuilding, lore, and slice-of-life! (I'm hungry now XD)

Helena looks very nice here Love the relaxed expressions and casual look! And the long feathers too, I didn't notice the black ones the first time!

So if I understand well she's basically blocked on the planet?

Aaa <3 Glad you likes! <3
Yeee; we usually see her smirking, looking confident and such; this is deffo a moment where she's letting her guard down to show a more 'human' side of her <3 And yeee! They are a relatively new addition; gotta make them feathers add to her looks ^^

Kiiinda! She can trick the systems with a name change, fake papers, - which she can do if needed - but for a shore leave she wont risk that; only if she needs to travel somewhere for a deal or important meeting.

On the topic of Helena's 'human' side, I think that one of your previous illustrations with her and Meredith diving together also does a great job of showing her 'humanity' to other people who are genuine and honest towards her.

Maybe Helena overhears all the juicy tidbits for her next caper from the patrons at the joint she regulars!

Also, the Odraani navy has an arrest warrant for Helena? Didn't she ran quite a few operations for different branches Odraani before? Or did the branches that hired her aren't aware that she's a deserter?

Aah thing is, the Odraani is incredibly corrupt; the local research team needed manpower to secure locations, gather samples or just do the dirty work; local mercs are much cheaper to hire than to ship in, supply a bunch of Odraani troops, not to mention the mercs knowing the waters much better.

Being the best equipped merc team, they got hired, and one of the benefits was Helena's (and some other crews') warrants being overlooked ^^

Well, I guess there's always a loophole for shrewd fortune-seekers like Helena to exploit, and being former military, I think she has a good grasp on the inner workings of the Odraani administration to avoid raising suspicion! Clever

Aaah tru! she can get useful info and insight about the local events/waters, though she has a looot of informants too!

love all the details of the background and clothes!

Thank you! <3

Can almost smell the seafood broth bubbling away, the spicy tickle of briny/marsh air adding a background note to everything. The near rumble of conversations all around and snippets of words from time to time mixed with traffic that echoes down narrow alley ways. A strange but comforting feeling, like bringing out an old coat from storage for the first time of the season kind of feel just looking at the picture. Very well done indeed.

Aaahh this is perfect! Thank you for sharing!! <3

Wow this is really freaking sweet.
Everything from the lighting, colors and the shot of the diner bar is kick ass.

Thank youu! <3 ;w;

so effin good yo <33
that setting just feels so damn real and lived-in!
an i really love how you upped the contrast on Helena, making her nice n clear but while still firmly existing in the environment <3 smeggin perfect!!

Thank you duuude! <3
So glad to hear man! ;w; Was mega fun to do something more lived in, not just a sterile metal corridor ^^'
Aaa glad it worked! her base colours were kinda same-ish to the enviro; was tricky to make her the focus, but happy to hear et worked! <33

This just got me wondering, why did Helena abandon the Odraani? Did she have a grudge against the pact or did she just not fit in with the pact? I wonder what made Helena disappear from the Odraani.

She was caught embezzling supplies to the black market back when she was the quartermaster of the Army, and bailed out to form her own mercenary group

Ironically, the Odraani is still hiring her even though she has an arrest warrant over her head

Niiiice

Thank you! <3

If the Odraani is still hiring her, I'm thinking that the Navy hasn't warned any of the other branches about her, she assumes a different identity for when she get hired to do work for them or the rest of the branches think that the Navy is over-exaggerating.

Aaa it's something else! The local branch of the Odraani is a civilian-ish research team; they realised that hiring local mercs is much cheaper than shipping in Odraani armed forces, so the station commander did exactly that, later pocketing the difference.

Helena's team got hired too, being the best equipped, trained bunch; and part of the deal was to overlook some warrants ^^

Really cool glimpse into the world, and great piece!

Thank you!! I reaaaallllyyy need to do more, introduce the world and such!