Distressed damsels: Recent "Emp unmasked" DiD sketches, pt.1 (Patreon)

These sketch sets are pretty recent, dating back to 2018 or so, produced during a lull in the seemingly endless grind of struggling to complete Empowered vol. 11. I had a long-standing (very long-standing, as in years) open commission from a friend for some "unmasked Emp" artwork; as I was about to draw a maskless, disheveled Emp for the wrenching final act of vol. 11, this seemed like as good a time as any to get in some practice.

In theory, there was supposed to be some vague indication of a story about Emp running afoul of an evil sorcerer or whatevs, but my friend was fine with raw sketch sets in this format, so I didn't bother with exploring that crap. The poses are pretty strong, though, so I might well repurpose them for use in some "real" Empowered comic pages someday. 

The sketches did have some influence on recent Empowered work, as Emp's disheveled hair and (very!) prominent, boldly uncovered rack from these pieces showed up in the vol.12 excerpt I've been running here. The softer, heavier physique I draw for her nowadays, though, can get outta hand in a hurry, as the undeniably excessive cleavage shot in the upper right corner of the second sketch set shows, Whoops!