This one took longer than I'd like but I think the results are pretty cool! Ended up taking another unwanted pause in my art for abit due to other projects in general, plus other real life factors X_x

The initial idea for this was more complex and I would like to do it but so far all my "multi frame" ideas remain on the back burner, and there are a variety that I dont really mention but I think all have cute dynamics between the little group I have. They'd just be tons of work given they'd need each character done multiple times in sequence which I'm still scarred to take on.

But the idea is first panel is fanciest and all cool, its Sass smoking a cigarette in private and its essentially whats depicted here. With the next frame her being attention getting perked looking over as like an "oh shit" surprised look when she gets caught doing it by Leif. Hard cut to a final bit of em yammering angry at her, Leif's got like the little tablet computer with a diagram of lungs and what not scolding her for how comically unhealthy it is, while Pal's also present with an air filter or such and is noting about how the smoke effects the ventilation system, which I think is a hilarious juxtaposition of priorities, not that Pal wouldn't discourage it otherwise but for a joke its cute.

Then I got the idea that thanks to her cybernetic leg she has a shockingly bad ass ability to be able to essentially extinguish one on her thigh which is a striking visual I wanted to pursue even if I can't do it justice. . . Especially since I had originally envisioned the leg as a "hazard" variant that'd be resistant to such surface damage.

In general I dont condone smoking at all (although I think as a visual it is very cool, especially when rendered very dramatically.

At first I thought it wouldn’t really fit her character, but it could be a fun detail that she picked up smoking as a cope during her Misery Chapter™ before she got augmented, which is when the positive parts of her life start again and she’s able to reclaim her role.

Considering how much her life sucked at that time, it makes sense she’d pick up a vice. It could make for a cool contrast with the present, where she’s kind of picking it up again after things have improved. There's still that sense of relief sort of, but seeing how it’s kind of burning her leg, even if she’s resistant to the damage now unlike when she had missing parts, makes her think about how she doesn’t need that relief anymore.

Now that she actually has a lot of positive things in her life, she finally has something to lose in the long term, especially with the health complications it brings, which could make for a slightly overcomplicated but interesting somber mood. (Although maybe I'm just over thinking it lol I should probably have a post which elaborates more on her backstory on here like I did for AF)

But yeah from an art side, the lighting is naturally amateur but I'm happy with my results I wasn't expecting it to come out at all so for it to look as cool as it does for my capability on essentially a whim is very nice. It pulls alot of inspiration from a game's art style I just adored and was thinking about all the way back when doing her first depiction, so its super satisfying to have it sorta resemble it at all even if like beginner quality :D

One notable tweak made just for this piece is her jacket has a secondary black coloration, which contrasts way less against the darker background compared to the usual green, looking very nice in this piece. For as cool as a tweak it is though it kinda has the inverse problem against a brighter background so I'm not sure if I'll do it in other pieces but its definitely a nice look in the right context.

Really do need to figure out backgrounds eventually, this would definitely have been amazing in context of like a viewport to space or some maintenance area type atmosphere for the lighting. Even the gradient turned out rough with visible banding ...