Distressed damsels: HUSHED HALF-ELF, pt.2 (Patreon)

Following up on last week's Hushed Half-Elf installment, here's more from the rather goofy fantasy/ RPG DiD premise that I'm using mainly as a test subject for art techniques both analog and digital.

Speaking of experiments, the image above was just a trio of damsel-y figure roughs drawn in the iOS app MediBang Paint, using the misnamed "pencil" brush that I do so love to sketch with. Ah, but then, whilst screwing around with the app's text functions, I tacked on some paragraphs setting up the basic story idea (such as it is) that I'd idly developed in the meantime. 

Yeahp, the still-unnamed Half-Elf was cursed with bondage by a vindictive sorceress, not unlike Emp from Empowered. (In fact, suspiciously like Emp.) The long-term consequences for her—and the entire world around her—will be much worse than anything Emp faced, howeva. (And yeahp, as seen in the earlier installment, she was notably less voluptuous before being magically cursed.)

Speaking of curses, I worked up a character design for the envious, vindictive witch who unleashed way too potent a curse on our hapless heroine:

And here's another MediBang Paint test image, this time trying to rough out a comic page of the Half-Elf (unsuccessfully) trying to escape from a harem. Note that the app's lettering functions don't include underlining or italicizing of individual words, hence the awkwardness in the word balloons:

And another distressing figure rough, also in MediBang Paint:

So far, so damsel-riffic, but I was already getting bored with tossing off DiD roughs. That's when a new story wrinkle occurred to me, and the premise began to legitimately interest me. 

See, the idea was that, early on, the hapless Half-Elf gets rescued by another member of the adventuring party she once belonged to (before being "damsel-ified" by the curse). Turns out that she and her magic-using rescuer had mutual crushes on each other, charmingly awkward confessions ensue, and one incredibly if not tragically starcrossed romance follows.

So, let's meet the Half-Elf's mage girlfriend:

Long-term fans might recognize the holstered spellbooks from a much older fantasy RPG design of mine; worry not, someday I'll post that earlier stuff here.

Anyhoo, whilst struggling to draw a notably more zaftig protagonist than usual with the busty Half-Elf, I liked the idea of drawing her girlfriend as a much shorter and skinnier lass. (Also, the idea of a seriously ripped-looking magic-user seemed like fun.)

So the poor mage spends her time chasing after her perpetually kidnapped lover, so they can share brief but magical interludes together before the curse strikes (yet) again and they're torn from each other's arms. Below, another tossed-off MediBang Paint sketched page showing such a rescue in progress:

And a pencil-sketched page, showing a similar scene:

("Cuddlebunny" is a bit of a ripoff from Empowered vol. 12, but what the heck.)

At a recent convention, I cranked out a good 6 pages of story notes for this unpromising premise at the hotel bar. I won't inflict the whole lot on you folks, but here's a hand-scrawled sample: 

Haven't done much with Hushed Half-Elf in the last few weeks, but I might still use the premise for future art tests. See, I can't really do experimental material for Empowered, as that series (desperately) requires finished, ready-to-publish artwork; so, down the road, you might see s'more tossed-off, "what if I try this?"  material with the long-suffering Half-Elf* and her endlessly-in-pursuit girlfriend. Uh, yay, I guess?

*A closing note: The title was originally Hushed Elf, but adding the more alliterative "Half-" note of mixed-race human/elf status helped A) to explain her initial, pre-Godcurse curviness; and B) to get away from the fantasy trope of the 400-year-old elf who still acts like a g-d teenager.