St.F Swimsuit Special 2017-R (Patreon)

I've been looking for an opportunity to retouch this face for years.

It was Chun-Li's birthday recently, March 1st, which led me to reflect back on a couple renditions I'd done of her over the years, including this cover image for Udon's Street Fighter Swimsuit Spectacular annual pinup comic back in 2017.

I bit off more than I could chew with the original, and the character's face never sat right with me. Unlike the other covers I did for Udon, this one didn't quite gel together properly. Regardless, it got approval and went to press.

Despite the issues with the original version, I like almost everything else about this picture. Inspired by Mina's recent bout of cosmetic retouches to old pics, I figured, why not do the same. I'm still alive. If I can genuinely improve this old thing and make it lovely, why not?

There's precedence with paintings and painters from eons past, doing these types of cosmetic retouches to old works. Storied paintings that we see today, may not be the painter's first iteration on a subject, and in fact, may have been altered or remade several times throughout a career to update elements, recontextualize the image, suit a commissioner's tastes, or simply to make them more marketable.

See the history of Madame X for an interesting example of a picture, its iterations and the story around it.

Finally, as much as I'd love to give you the skin on this picture, it was officially sanctioned art for Capcom (via Udon). Unlike most of my cast-off style pics, I never drew a nude for this one, we just went straight from the rough body to clothing. Please accept her as she is, forever beswimsuited.

Later

-Ecchi