Shiven at night

All of the new pics of Shiven seem to portray her wearing more or less casual clothes (like a boob tube and pants or singlet and skirt), so I figured I'd draw one of her in a darker, I dunno... sorta gothier outfit. The Rant Archive has a pic of her in a velvet and fishnet dress, but that one's still a little bit more on the more formal side. Besides, I drew that pic so long ago (to be the "New site coming soon" image... you know, when I first promised the redesigned site in May) that it doesn't seem like a new pic anymore.

Anyway, so I wanted an image of her in something that really says "Princess of PMS". I'm not exactly sure if I achieved that with a leather bra/skirt combination... but nevertheless I like the image because it's the first one that I started incorporating simple Photoshop effects like the Bevel/Emboss layer style into my images, to give it a 3D feel without looking too digital and glossy. In this pic you can see how I used that effect to give her boot plates, chains, and the metal plate over her skirt some depth and thickness. Afterwards, I got lazy and used that for the bra straps and detailing too; instead of adding the shadow by hand like I used to do (and not too well, I might add).

Shiven's skin in this image is still pretty flat with minimal shading involved, because well... I dunno, it's still a cartoon, and I'd like to keep it that way. With my shitty drawing skills, I'll never be able to come up with a really realistic face (and even if I did, I wouldn't be able to shade it realistically anyway) so had I made her body really well-rendered and 3D, it would totally clash with the flatness and cartoony nature of her face. With that in mind, I kept her entire body pretty 2D (I mean... look at that shitty belly-button!) to retain the cartoony feel to her.

Yeah, and she's also got that leather belt over her knees again, just like she does in the velvet/fishnet dress image. I'm not sure why I like that, but I sure as hell like to draw it a lot. Maybe it's got something to do with Iori rom King of Fighters, where he's got that cord tying his knees together.

Lastly, she's wearing a modified version of the Seashell pendant, which has been incorporated into a velvet choker... she must've taken/stolen the pendent from Amy or something. That said, I wonder why it's still dangling from a loop instead of just a single cord, since it's now attached to a choker? My bad.