We’re in the final days of this year’s Jack Kirby Tribute Month, and this week’s theme has been characters who grew up in Granny Goodness’ Orphanage, that wonderful institution on Darkseid’s Apokolips. Today’s prompt is Lashina, member of the Female Furies.
Her combat specialty is the use of the various whips or lashes that are part of her uniform, which she’s very quick to unfurl and use. Her design is simple, but visually striking (pun unavoidable; sorry)! With such a simple design, you’d think she’d be easy to draw, but I found that not to be the case. I ended up doing it twice here. After I got my first drawing done and inked, I realized it didn’t look right, so I redrew her body a second time, mortising out the original and replacing it with my second (improved) drawing.
Hope you enjoyed my take on Lashina. And feel free to tune in again tomorrow to see our next visitor from Granny Goodness’ Orphanage!
Lashina seems to have lived many lives through her presence in the floppies and in a selection of the animated series. I have not seen the animated interpretations, so your take on her is inspirational to motivate me to give it a look. I like your take a lot better than the Superman Animated series. You give Lashina more “personality” with your art. I am curious about the use of the term “mortising?”
Thank you.
As always, I’m glad if something I’ve done here sparks curiosity in people to go back and look these characters up.
“Mortising” is a term that dates back to when art was physically pasted up. It has to do with what I did here: taping another piece of paper over a portion of a drawing you don’t think quite works, redrawing it, then using a sharp knife to cut all the way through the two pieces of paper (Make sure you have a cutting board below before you try this at home, kiddies!). Then, you can swap out the original piece for the new one, and they fit together exactly like jigsaw puzzle pieces. You tape ’em together on the back. Now that everything is done digitally, I don’t know how often this technique is used anymore. But knowing how to do it served me well here.