For as long as I can remember, retro art has always been interesting and far more expressive than most modern styling. I've always wanted to and experiment with it.
I was encouraged a little more after seeing a shojo manga tutorial book showing how much that scene has changed [like, they have the "classic" style which is basically pretty women in dresses that look like absolute agony to draw, the "modern" style which is basically girl meets boy at school ... you get the picture]. According to the book, the retro manga style combines elements from thirties animations and sixties through to seventies clothing. I've developed a slight obession with everything from the early 1990s right through until now, for some reason, and finding that out was pretty much the icing on the proverbial cake for me, haha.
And besides that point, it feels like I've been neglecting Needles. :C For me he's that kind of character that -needs- to be doodled regularly.
There's something about his face that truly warms my heart ... he always has this kinda blank, absent-minded expression, even when he's happy. And he always looks huggable, haha. :3 I have picked up a new way of drawing all the canulas in him [those tube-y looking things], so hopefully they look more hospital-y now. XD
I'm proud of his pose here; the shoulder obscuring part of his face was pretty difficult to get the hang of at first, but I think it turned out pretty okay. <3 His hand came out pretty decently as well - hands are the only part of the anatomy that I can either do really well or screw up completely just lately. XD
Hurr ... the outfit here I like a lot. I picked blue and gray to stripe his t-shirt because they go insanely well together, and plus I wanted to keep going with the shading deal I've got going [although it's kinda hard when most of your markers are like OMGBRIGHT and the only darker ones you have are really old and almost dead, haha - although sometimes it is the other way around, like with the first kind of purple in Needles's hair - that marker is old and dying, but the darker purple is full of life, it's weird]. <3 Although, due to being tired last night, I put dark blue shading where it should've been black. xDDD At least it was a fixable mistake, haha.
The pants .. I wanted to go with black and orange, classic Halloween colours. There are a lot of little pointers that go with that for me, and some of them I'll explain; firstly, I just adore how well the colours gel together. Secondly ... I guess you could say it's because Needles is disabled. And the ignorance of some against the disabled is ... disgusting. So it's my own little hitback: "Oh, you're disabled so you must be a monster" kinda thing, yeah? Because those people -may- have nothing wrong with them physically, but dude, they have some issues to walk around with such a stinking attitude.
The flowers in this one were pretty fun; I'm kinda new to using them as decoration rather than drawing them in a super serious way, like that tattoo I designed a while ago. My favourite one is the brown and blue one Needles is leaning on - I don't really know why, I just like it slightly more than the others. xDDD
Needles is copyright to me, - do not steal or rip him off in any way.