You probably didn't see this sketch coming - Kimiko dressed up as Asuka, bandaged up and with a damaged eye, on the floor next to a hospital bed. Well, neither did I. Inspiration hit me around 12:00 last night. It just seemed like such an odd thing to do, and the idea had real emotive potential.. So I decided to draw it.

The groundwork came to me when I was rooting thru some old backup CDroms (I am a collector of the worst sort). I have dozens of CDRs labeled 'Anime' - and I'm actually pretty good at keeping all of my images in some sort of order. I root thru them looking for things sometimes. The image that caught my eye was a scan from "Evangelion in 3d", a book dedicated to Evangelion models. There is a very VERY sweet little model of Asuka in bandages from the Eva movies (I'll add a link to the image here later tonight). Kimiko is basically in the same pose, and we even get to see her with her hair down (in case you were wondering how long it was ^_^). I ended up pouring a lot into this drawing - don't know why. I guess i was just inspired.

Drawing is a funny thing. These days I can sit down and do a drawing for the weekly sketch, even when I'm not particularly sure what to draw (much like last week's sketch of Ayu's Daughter). The real fun is when i have an idea that is really inspiring. Of course, this can be bad - i finished this around 2:30 last night, but I'm pretty happy with the results. Between this and the color version of Erika i finished Saturday, it was a pretty good weekend, art wise.

The 'bandaged girl' image from the eva series is a pretty potent one, and it's been drawn and copied ad nauseum for years - you wonder what is so potent in this image? To me, the bit in Eva where Rei is suffering as much as she is is kinda overkill. For this drawing, I gave Kimiko a sad look - that in combination with bandaging that represents perhaps physical pain, sitting uncomfortably on the floor... these elements combine to have some real emotive potency. Is Kimiko just acting? Is this cosplay? Why would she pose for this photo?

I had been thinking that perhaps i should hide most of these drawings of Kimiko and Erika until that start showing up in the comic more. but in retrospect, I think that it's ok. For both Kimiko and Erika, an otaku in Japan probably would come across images of them from time to time, either in photos in some game. So really, you know just as much about them as the Japanese fans would (if they really paid any attention to them - right now neither one of them are 'known' at all). In that light, a photo like this of Kimiko cosplaying as Asuka is not that unusual at all.

A quick apology - I am very sorry to everyone about email - i have not answered anything in weeks. I think i just need to take a day and slog thru the email box. I read all of them as they come in, but i tend to be so lazy about answering them... gomen gomen! There is nothing i like better than hearing from everyone. :)