#general jare

Doodles was a trooper who had been enrolled in a sniper assassin program after completing his basic training. Just before completing his final exam and shipping out, he was caught creating a massive graffiti mural on the side of the facility. He was forced to scrub it off by hand overnight--hardly anyone saw what it was, and there are only rumors about it now. Doodles can be anxious to the point of paranoia, and instead of producing the typical "run away!" type of cowardly behavior, he gets the "low-empathy fight-response" type of coward behavior. He's charming as a defense mechanism to cover for this, has a very sharp tongue, is very artistically gifted, doesn't sleep much, and struggles with vulnerability.

Judge is a medic with slicer cross-training. He was caught breeding and selling genetically modified hounds to wealthy patrons over the holonet. He was literally keeping the first puppies inside of a panel in the medbay. There were three, and the two remaining pups he failed to sell before he got caught were allowed to remain his responsibility, because of their uniquely biddable dispositions and remarkable genetic enhancements. He named them Jury and Executioner. Judge was also selling drugs and gambling over the holonet, but they never caught him for that because he's actually GOOD at slicing. Less good at hiding puppies. He's aloof and standoffish at first and prefers to keep his helmet on. He likes big tight hugs, loud fast music, and being in charge. He's got a bit of the god-complex doctors get sometimes. If his experiments hadn't been so useful, he knows he would have been executed for his defective behavior, so it can take a while to get through his tough shell.

Knower is a capable pilot and mechanic who had a messy affair with the nefarious Senator Tusk's beautiful popstar wife, Seela. He was assigned to jailbird squad after the senator demanded he be executed for his crimes. Knower is sweet, romantic, and just wants to be loved for who he really is... But he just can't catch a break. He's always picking the wrong woman (or man, or creature...) to be vulnerable with, and he's a bit of a relationship parasite. He just loves love, ok!? He's flirty. He's silly. He's dramatic. And he's doomed to be tortured by the narrative because I love him too much.

Theory is fucking shredded. Theory beat the shit out of a higher-ranking clone while they were both drunk, because he disagreed strongly about the tactics that the sarge was advocating for--due to personal experience. He had a history of outbursts, so instead of wasting his skills he was assigned to Jailbird squad. Theory is a bit physically stronger than other clones, not due to genetic variables, but due to his annoying preoccupation with personal improvement. He loves to read, he has a sunshiney attitude even when he's very angry, he respects women, and he talks like an annoying twitter leftist because he thinks he can enact praxis from within the system (bless him).

Sergeant Burner is a former clone commander, who embarrassed himself and an entire system by pissing on a memorial monument. It was dark, it looked like a big rock in the woods, there was no signage... He was demoted to sergeant and shuffled off to Jailbird squad anyway. He considers himself to be a model trooper despite his mistake, and dedicates himself to his new role immediately--and to the general specifically. He considers loyalty to be about the same as love, and confuses the two often. He is having a not-so-secret affair with the general that the squad is well aware of.

This piece took 33 hours to complete, over the course of 19 days. Each hatch mark was drawn one by one with a simple round brush to achieve the blended rendering effect. Needless to say, I am incredibly proud of how it turned out. The effort was completely worth it.

Check out some details:

Fun fact: If I were to pay myself $20 per hour with my fees for the background, multiple additional figures, and rendering, I would have earned $1,110! If I gave myself a discount for using a reference image for the poses, then I would have earned $1k. But this piece is very special to me, so let's call it priceless.