this phrase stuck with me all the way back in june, and i finally decided to depict the imagery it brought to my mind.
i wasn't going to make it explicitly flamengo at first tbh, but eventually decided to -- as both an homage to the indescribably amazing season this team (and especially mr. giorgian de arrascaeta) had in 2025, and also as a thanks for the much-needed distraction the intercontinental cup provided after i received some awful news this month. i do think it still looks pretty good even if you don't know the context, though :)
and here's a version without all the ambiance, so you can better see the armour:
it was equally challenging and fun to work with all these different textures, especially with almost everything being the same colour! it all looked like one black blob before i started the shading lol
finished this light study almost 2 months ago (and started it out all the way back in 2022!) but it feels appropriate to post it after that goal today
the reference is this gorgeous photo by nelson almeida (AFP) of the celebrations after richarlison scored for brazil against serbia in the qatar world cup
started reading the cinderella boy webtoon recently and it already managed to get me out of a real bad art block 🥹 so here's some future!stargoth enjoying their morning
(references - with spoilers for recent free episodes - under the cut)
i was going to give buddy piercings and tattoos either way, just because it looks good, but i debated on whether he would realistically want them (19th century sensibilities and all), and ultimately landed on yes -- i think he'd enjoy the freedom to actually modify his body, after so long stuck as metal. plus his boyfriend thinks it's hot, so y'know.
he has snake bite piercings, because of COURSE he does. i also gave him some more in the ear and eyebrow, but sadly hair and chase covered it up, so i added in a bridge piercing too. tried some hoops first, but they all felt weird, maybe too similar to a keyring idk
the one tattoo i was sure about was his own key form, which ended up not being super visible but is there (i didn't draw it, though, just got from a s2e17 screenshot)
and i didn't want to come up with designs for the rest, so i just got them peeking out from the corners. the ones you can see anything are a sun (was gonna be a moon, but then i figured an eclipse would be a cute couples tattoo) and a violet (of course)
almost gave chase a keyhole tattoo on his neck but it didn't look too good. also, who are we kidding, he'd do it near the heart. did give him an onyx earring, though c:
one of buddy's rings might also be onyx, but idk if that's actually a thing. and the other has a stone that was going to be purple, and then opal (for violet), but i thought of the tattoo and made it a moonstone (i figured chase bought him it -- and also one for himself, obviously). his bracelets are a mess, i have no idea what's going on there
buddy's shirt is my favourite. of course this absolute fashion icon wouldn't go around in public dressed in rags (he's done enough of that already, thank you very much), but what better to sleep with than your boyfriend's old shirt. and the reason it's not too tight (and also so old) is because it used to belong to chase's dad :)
it's a queen shirt because i wanted an older band that mr hollow might've liked (and the evil queen joke was right there), but i also just know, deep in my soul, that buddy would fucking love queen. the drama, the theatrics, the gay??? "but he was born in the 1800s, he likes classical music" well, bohemian rhapsody would blow his fucking mind! not to mention this boy goes around in books literally dressed as adam lambert, i will not hear another word
got chase some swiped back hair, because i love how he looks when he does that, and painted nails, because of course. he's also wearing lip gloss, which is a bit hard to see, but you can definitely notice on buddy's cheek c:
(there's a process video but i won't be able to post it for weeks because my dumb ass used fastpass screenshots as reference here!)
Making her Hellfire debut... I give you... The Ice Princess!
Really enjoyed how this one turned out, so it gets its own post 😊
I already mentioned the references in the original post, but here they are:
'X-Men Origins: Emma Frost' (2010) -- written by Valerie D'Orazio, with pencils by Karl Moline, inks by Rick Magyar, colours by Morry Hollowell and lettering by Dave Sharpe. Editor Nick Lowe.
Photos from the 2006 VSFS segment 'Winter Wonderland of Glacial Goddesses' -- featuring Hana Soukupová (corset), Ana Beatriz Barros (panties/stockings), Adriana Lima (cape), and Julia Stegner (poofy shoulder thing/hair).
As I mentioned, I read a bunch of Emma backstory comics, starting with Emma Frost (2003), and it got me on a character design kick. Before starting to draw Emma's journey, though, I actually went and sketched her whole family!
The second image (of which I've already posted the Emma bit) is from the scene at the end of issue #6 where Mr. Frost names his successor. It was previously depicted in New X-Men #139, and later again in Dark Reign: The Cabal, but I didn't really take other depictions into consideration - not for this scenes in particular or the characters in general.
I have a pretty solid idea of how Emma currently looks (and I've drawn it not long before starting this), and I know what she's been said/shown to have changed (bleached hair, nose job, breast implants). I took that, and the way the characters looked in this particular comic, into consideration.
I started with the parents, giving them different enough traits that I could mix and match for 4 other characters, and also that Emma could inherit, either to keep or to dislike enough that she'd change them. And then I took those pieces and built the kids. I know that's not really how genetics work, but if I'm (re)designing an entire dysfunctional family you bet I'm taking the chance to get slightly philosophical with it. So:
Winston has brown hair, a smaller face, a hooked nose, small eyes, very thin lips, and a few moles.
Hazel has blonde hair, a longer, thinner face, a button nose, larger eyes, slightly fuller lips, and a more prominent chin.
Adrienne has her mother's hair, face shape, and nose, but her father's eyes and eyebrows, and also a single mole near her lips. She got all her mother's Pretty Girl features, but has her father's cutthroatness. On top of that effortless beauty, she also has a tan and fuller lips, because her appearance is something she takes pride and care in, and is definitely not above going an extra mile for it.
(I know in Adrienne's other appearances her hair is brown, and the common interpretation - or at least the one that made it to the wiki - is that she's a natural brunette who used to bleach it, but 1. as I said, I was going just by the 'Emma Frost' comic, where she's blonde the whole time, and 2. I think it's far more interesting if she naturally has all the things that are iconic - but artificial - in Emma, since she's clearly a dark reflection of her character)
Christian has his mother's hair, face shape, nose, and eyebrows (though harsher versions), and his father's eyes and lips. They're almost exactly the same features from each parent as Adrienne, but he's The Son, he's not supposed to take after his mother.
Emma has her mother's eyes and eyebrows, and the rest is all her father's. Her looking the most like him works twofold: it gives her physical traits to feel insecure about (and eventually change) and creates a direct connection between the two, since he's gonna chose her as his heir.
Cordelia has her mother's nose, eyes, eyebrows, mouth, and chin, and her father's face shape and moles. Unlike Emma, she got so many of the Pretty Girl features naturally, but goes out of her way to reject them. I like to think she probably dismisses all her conventionally attractive traits and instead focuses on small things she's insecure about, like the moles.
And, once again, if you read all of this you get a bonus sketch!
It's from a scene in X-Men Origins: Emma Frost (2010), because I wanted to draw Emma with Hazel before she got sick, but it didn't really fit in the other post (which was exclusively about Emma and starts when she's already a teenager). Not sure how en vogue pinky drinking is atm, sorry if Mrs. Frost looks tacky.
So, early last year I went into a haze and read all the Emma backstory comics I could find -- and it was a bit disappointing to find out there's not much focus in depicting her visual journey from ugly duckling teenager to bombshell blonde. Emma's appearance is so important for both her character and her in-universe history, in a way that it is pretty rare in cape comics, and I was looking forward to see it develop in a consistent way... So I did it myself :)
Better look + rambles under the cut
The references were:
Emma Frost (2003) for her school to university years, and everything in between (#1-16)
Generation X (1994) #24 and X-Men (2010) #13 for her brief mental asylum stay (#17)
X-Men Origins: Emma Frost (2010), X-Men: Deadly Genesis (2006) #5 and Uncanny X-Men (1981) #531 for her early Hellfire Club days (#18-21)
And some random comics from around her 1979 debut, for more accuracy in the original costume (#22)
The focus in choosing what to redraw wasn't really impacting moments in Emma's life or anything, just strictly showing her visual journey. Here's what I tried to make each little sketch say:
1- Young Emma isn't a dazzling natural beauty, and also doesn't really know how (or care) to best present herself.
2- Makeover! This is young Emma looking her best. I really kept the makeup in mind when colouring her, you can probably see when directly comparing both portraits (especially how the lips and brows were filled out). Also, her hair was trimmed and straightened.
3- She took the makeover seriously, this is now how she dresses to go to school. Plus a nice expression and angle.
4- You can see her body. She's scrawny and there's not much in the chest area (though I'm not great at drawing small breasts, so this part might not be as apparent). Wears a one-piece swimsuit and does her hair to suntan, indicating a lack of confidence.
5- This one is a bit of a sneak peek for the next post, and it's all about comparing her and her sisters. The focus is also how insecure she was. It's from right before her father announces her as his heir (and she rejects), which will mater later.
6- What one decides to dress when dramatically running away from home says a lot about you. Plus full body shot.
7 & 8 - At work vs eating out, wearing the same outfit. She's much more confident in herself since leaving home.
9- I mostly just wanted to draw this scene (and I absolutely love how it came out!!), but I also like the comparison between her more natural hair and how it looked fresh off the tight ponytail in #8. Just wavy hair things.
10- Fancied-up! There were probably better ways to show off the dress, and how much more confident she must be to wear something like it, but I really wanted to draw her laughing.
11- Serves mostly as a comparison to #10, but also highlights how the dress doesn't really fit her (both because she's still a bit scrawny and because she doesn't have many shopping options at this point).
12- She's finally blonde!! I wanted the hair to look a bit orange, because this was her first time bleaching it (and probably by herself, since she's trying not to be recognised). Her clothes are pretty clearly stuff she had for work, and we never see her wear anything similar again (though the artist changed here, so can't say if it was on purpose).
13- New portrait, now that our girl has officially gone blonde (now professionally done). She's also lost some baby fat since the last one.
14- This comic was released in 2003, so the fashion is Something. Considering the sliding timescale, though, that's probably not far from when current Emma would've gone to university, so I couldn't miss the chance. And I also used this one to show her wearing a padded bra.
15- A better look at her body (now without the bra, which she took off when getting home). I also thought it'd be cute if she still did a side-part when in private (aka not worrying about being recognised).
16- The end-of-arc full-body shots are basically a tradition now.
17- Generation X #24 and X-Men #13 had conflicting info on whether her hair was brown or blonde at that point, so I went with roots showing (which makes sense, it doesn't seem like they were having beauty days in there), though I admittedly have no idea how long she stayed there nor how much it'd realistically grow during the time. Also, the skin situation isn't supposed to be like this under the makeup all the time, it's just the stress. And I gave her mixed skin, because it's what seemed to make the most sense for someone who had a lot of pimples as a kid but apparently no big issue after that.
18- First day at the Hellfire Club! Her outfit here is still based on the one she wears in the comic, but I kind of reverse-engineered it using pieces from the 2006 VSFS segment 'Winter Wonderland of Glacial Goddesses', just because I thought it'd be cool touch lol. (Corset worn by Hana Soukupová, panties/stockings by Ana Beatriz Barros, cape by Adriana Lima, and poofy shoulder thing by Julia Stegner, who also inspired the hair)
19- New portrait to mark another change. I love her necklace! Jokes aside, I've also given her lip and brows fillers. And she lost most of the remaining baby fat. Honestly, I think this is the one ended up the most Emma, if that makes sense.
20- No way I'd skip on drawing her with a freshly broken nose. Mixed her looks from X-Men Origins: Emma Frost and X-Men: Deadly Genesis #5 because I think it'd be cool if the Charles/Moira and Shaw scenes took place in the same night.
21- The moment she becomes the White Queen. I purposefully drew it on the same angle as #5, as a parallel (told you it'd come up later). Not only because of the significance of both moments, but also to showcase the absurd growth in self-confidence. Also, spot the new nose and the bloodstain.
22- Emma, finally, as she was first seen on comics! I'm not super sure why I decided her shade of blonde would start off darker than how I colour it today, and at first I didn't even know when the change to this lighter tone would happen (actually even considering going back and making everything the same), but I really like how it turned out. She doesn't get a crown when becoming the White Queen, so maybe dying her hair almost white was her own personal coronation.
And if you read all of this you get bonus alternate versions 😊
I've had this pose ref saved for a while and the Superman set photos just gave off the same energy 👉🏻👈🏻
The reference is this photo of Katharine Hepburn as Antiope and Colin Keith-Johnston as Theseus in the 1932 play 'The Warrior's Husband' (and I'd love for people to turn into a draw your otp meme pls pls pls this pose is so good)
And also, of course, the Superman (2025) set photos
