Sketch Lottery: Rachel Summers

I have talked before about how the first comic book that I remember buying with my own money, Uncanny X-Men #207, and the ginormous(or "bigly", as tiny hands Trump would burp out) impact it had(and still has) on me. Holyfuck, the entire storyline had me read it over and over again when I bought it. And it formed my love for not just comics, or the X-Men, but for individual creators.

And this is probably the first time that I reacted that strongly to a cliffhanger ending...SNIKT...holyfuck...

Soooooo, you can imagine my excitement when I get the email for the 200th Sketch Lottery subject is Rachel Summers!

The way I'm working now is to start with a sketch and then print it out on blue line on the Bristol(wooooo no more light box for Ken). Then I go in with vine charcoal for the gesture, adding compressed charcoal and Sumi ink for the spotted black. An ebony pencil is used for the line work both before and after(for some clean up) after I use a clear oil bar for all of the smearing goodness going on. Last(ish) is a razorblade to scrape and clean away.

Now, the initial thought that popped up for me was to have an angry, bordering on totally losing it, attack Rachel. But one of the things that really sticks out, even now, from that issue was Rachel's hope that she can start to come back. To come back from not only the horrors as Hound from the future timeline, but from the betrayal of her teammates she just committed against the Beyonder. So I went with a transition of haps Rachel/Hound. I'll leave it for you to figure which way she's heading.