DASHRIN

This is another EQ2 wallpaper signature that I did. It was a fairly spontaneous one. I was on the train home from Bendigo (visiting my parents - thanks for asking). I had run out of graphic novels to read. My brain was broken from doing layouts and I just wanted to sketch something. The lighting for a portrait came to mind. What you see before you is a rare pen sketch done with a bic biro. It's been blown up a bit and coloured on Photoshop.

Dashrin (the character name of Lee - see the dragon post a couple weeks ago) is my guild leader. Without sounding too geeky (god, why do I bother trying to be cool?) a guild is a large group of people who all play together. It is the guild leader's job to moderate and co-ordinate (in this case) about 100 people to play nicely, fairly and co-operatively. Truth be told it's a thankless job. Countless hours spent each week organising people instead of playing. No pay, and very little thanks.

Except this picture. Thanks Dash.

NEXT: Wow! that's my entire backlog that I'd put aside on my break! In a moment of procrastination between Zero-Genesis pages (going well, thanks for asking. Will you see any? Not whole pages. But just panels and highlights here and there) I have planned my next 6 weeks of daily posts... And I haven't even considered scanning in artwork that I actually drew by hand.

THUNDERSTAB

I'm a big believer in rewarding altruism. I play an online game called Everquest 2. You run around and meet up with other people in a Lord of the Rings-like world and kill stuff. There are ways that other people can help you. Very powerful characters can help weaker characters.

Nowhere else in my life have I found so many people who are so selfless with their time, advice and help. One in particular was a guy whose chat handle/character is the assassin called Thunderstab.

He basically took me and my friends under his wing and helped us level through the game, making the impossible merely challenging.

As thanks I drew this up for him.

HATE!

As a card carrying uber nerd there is a certain minimum of nerdly things I have to do to maintain my nerdship.

One of the ways that I keep my nerdship is by playing online computer games. Everquest 2 to be exact. Why not World of Warcraft? Cos I can't be bothered with dealing with armies of 13 year old phat lewt idiots.

So playing Eq2 I've met a group of people who call themselves "Aurora Australis" (the online, ingame term is a "guild"). They welcomed me in, and one of their more powerful members, a guy by the name of HATE who plays a lady monk took a week of his time to watch over my character so that I could progress at a rate far beyond what I could do myself. The week of his help ended with his birthday. I asked him what I could do to repay him. He joked that a picture of HATE in a bikini would do.

I wouldn't do that, but I did say I would do what I could.

In game she normally wears full pants and a top as the clothing design is refreshingly conservative. So I decided that she needed some "creative tearing" of her costume so that HATE could enjoy the feminine wiles of his character.

So thanks for all your help HATE, and happy birthday buddy!