Ok let's survey the damage. First of all, somebody clearly has gotten out of the practice of using a pen. And that somebody is me. Those are some pretty hideous fold-markings on the cape in the front-on rendition, but what makes it worse is that clearly there are no folds there. Otherwise the bottom of the cape would be curved. That just looks like the bottom hem was done really carelessly on a sewing machine and it ate up the light fabric. So let's just forget about that entirely. In the actual illustration, Supergirl's thigh looks like it's either received a massive wound or else is about to burst free of her leg by virtue of its sheer strength. I wanted this Supergirl to be well built but that is absolutely ridiculous for a relaxed pose. Really I think it started out as just following the pencil lines with the pen, which goes back to the fact that I have clearly forgotten how ink works. If indeed I ever knew.What I like about this comes down to a tweak in the character that I think Supergirl really needs. If Kryptonians just happen to look like really square-jawed, handsome, tall, muscle-bound human beings, then it follows that they would all look like that. Supergirl seems to be usually done as a social butterfly in both worlds, somebody waify and sexy and untouchable. This is unfortunate, because if there's anything Superman should have taught them, it's that perfection by itself is boring. Perfection coupled with awkwardness, in Superman/Clark Kent, is what really brings the audeince around. Comic writers, who do such a good job exposing the awkwardness of the teenage condition when they're writing for male heroes, seem to be stuck in the delusion that girls have it all together. I liked the idea that a tall, strong, square-jawed teenage girl might have a really easy time being a superhero and a really hard time being a teenager. Supergirl's main traits don't have to change: she's extremely self-confident, enjoys playing with fashion, and is always a little bit out of step with the world and Superman because she grew up on Krypton (or, a tiny bottle-city model of Krypton. not kidding.) She knows her time spent as Kara (or as any of the Supergirl alter-egos, of which there's about forty) is not really who she is, and so she spends more time growing (and changing clothes, and trying new things) in the Supergirl identity than she does as her human self.
So that's what I tried to go for here. This Supergirl flies around because she just needs some time away from it all. I can see her having a lot of fun with other superpowered people because, for once, she would fit in. But since she's always alien, even more than Kal-El since she grew up on Krypton, the temptation to just get away every once in awhile would be pretty great. So that's where the idea came from.
The costume itself. Does this borrow anything from Sailor Moon? Maybe an itsy teeny bit.
In my defense, I happen to think that Sailor Moon's is the basic female crime-fighting attire, the way Superman is the basic male superhero costume. Sure, "sailor" is a ridiculous theme for a costume, but it makes for an outfit that is both flattering and non-exploitative, graceful and active. I couldn't decide whether or not to leave her top white: it really ups the Sailor Moon factor, it's not very similar to Superman's, and there's the everpresent problem of it getting wet and transparent. Theoretically, it's bad, but on paper it looks very clean, simple and (in a good way) girlish. I completely stole the idea of making the S shield a cape clasp from one of the Project Rooftop entries (and from Sailor Moon again). It's, again, a cleaner look.My younger self would hate me for putting that skirt in there. (My word-for-word reaction to my first sight of Supergirl: "Why does she have to wear a skirt? Superman doesn't have to wear a skirt.") Since then I've seen another side to skirts, and I much prefer the freedom of movement and the flattering look of a good skirt to skin-tight, revealing spandex. The skirt should be a standard Superman blue, by the way; the crayon scanned pretty light. The problem with designing a superhero costume is, of course, that other people will draw it in different ways. So I added the shorts. They're pretty awkward in this picture, looking just a little too long. I don't think they'd really be that long, I just wanted to make it clear that she's not to be drawn as if she's got nothing on underneath (which has been a problem for Supergirl in the past). They're basically what you wear under tennis skirts, so in my mind this is something that is athletic, something that provides more freedom of movement.
The bare feet I again stole from a Project Rooftop entry, I think, the idea being that if your feet were harder than diamonds, why would you bother putting a bunch of destructible leather down there. I changed the sleeves from caps to three-quarters to kind of match the way the bare feet are emphasized by emphasizing the bare forearms.
The cape I'm still not even sure about. I really like the idea of the stripe; bare red doesn't look right, and just the shield looks too adult because it's exactly what Superman has. The shield is made a little differently; I was trying to throw the same Super-colors around and create a fresher effect than Superman gets. Originally the S stood by itself without a back color, and then the back color was red, but I think the blue is the most interesting of these options. I think I can't decide on this until I do Superman later, and then relate them.
But in general I'm pretty happy with this. She doesn't look as big or as strong as I would kind of like her to look, but that's ridiculously hard to draw with a female figure. I'm mostly happy with the perspective on the illustration, and I don't think any of them look absolutely terrible. Clearly I need a better method of execution if I'm going to turn out a well-finished illustration, but the important thing about this is that I just spent about eight pages discussing a crayon drawing.
I'm not sure if that's sad or awesome.
Next up: Impulse.
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