WIP Wednesday! (Patreon)

This was supposed to be posted last Wednesday, but I forgot to schedule it. I was pretty overwhelmed at the time, as I was nearing the end of a three-week Annual Training event with my National Guard unit, and I was reaching that sleep-deprived point where I was forgetting a lot of basic, everyday things.

Anyhow, in this I introduce Lieutenant-Colonel Reese, the commander of the 813th Helicopter battalion!

 He is somewhat inspired by my real-world Battalion commander, but as with all the characters in BOHICA Blues, none of them are truly, 100% based on actual people. I like to use bits and pieces of many different people to create new characters-- personality of one, appearance of another, historical background of someone else, etc.

 I end up with a situation where all of the characters reflect someone, to an extent, while also not truly reflecting anyone. That's why Joe Rock (for example) isn't "me", really, even though I use some personal elements in his character.

 Adding the camouflage, of course.

 My real-life Battalion commander is bald, and so that's how I started working with the characters so I could "get the feel of the character". However, I didn't want to make LTC Reese to obviously based on the real guy. I do this for many reasons, from artistic freedom to freedom, to write a character doing what I need rather than adhering to someone else's personality, to avoiding complaints or even charges of libel.

I gave the character hair, and even looked up Google images of "silver fox guys" to get some ideas. I like the results.

 And finally, the shading and background.

You'll meet LTC Reese in an upcoming comic, so stick around!