[Sketch for "Shuujin"] ...being Japanese for "prisoner" -- hopefully the reason for the title isn't too abstruse. ;;P This is a rare instance (nowadays, anyway) of me actually illustrating an event that occurs within the timeline of the anime, which means, yes -- ugh --, I have to draw the armor for once. -_-; (There are enough people drawing Evas in armor -- mostly as background elements in pictures of somewhat more popular characters, unfortunately -- that there's really no need for me to bother with it, you know?) If you know your "NGE" episodes in even the most basal respect, you ought to be able to identify this image from episode #02 -- the eye regeneration scene where you get to see part of Yui's sotai ("NGE-geek Japanese jargon" for an Eva's "naked body", essentially) head. I love the idea behind the scene, though I hate its execution -- compared to the exquisite drawings Ikuto Yamashita made for the scene, the final product is downright dodgy. The shape of Yui's head is completely malformed and stylized and it doesn't resemble its actual elegant, and largely human, shape one bit. (A shame Anno never saw fit to have the scene reanimated...) At any rate, I needed a subject matter for a last-minute project in my "Painting I" class, and I'd always wanted to take a stab at giving this particular scene from the anime justice, so I went with it. The painting's still not technically done, even though technique-wise it doesn't aspire to anything especially great, but hopefully I'll get that finished SOME day. --June 14, 2003

[Volleyball Yui] The idea of putting Evangelions in bikinis or other kinky articles is one of enormous potential -- satiric or otherwise -- though evidently one that not too many people have bothered capitalizing upon. I'm the only person that's really attempted such a audacious feat, to my knowledge, and it's too bad, IMO. This is the first relatively-refined visualization of Yui in such attire, prompted mostly by a conversation I had with Morgan-kun (an Evangelion "compatriot" of mine, in case you didn't already know) where he told me about an anime characters bikini "contest" of some sort that was happening at AnimeBoards and how someone had gone and submitted "Santa Barb" (more on that pic further down). But that pic technically doesn't fit the "bikini" concept, so, just for fun, I sketched this one up (with the hopes that I might turn it into a painting or something, but that hasn't happened yet). The idea of a volleyball match between Yui and Zeruel sort of happened on its own (though my brother's vile copy of "Dead or Alive XTreme Beach Volleyball" probably had something to do with it). For a roughie, this isn't half bad (though her head's too small, her torso's too long, and there are some Escher-esque impossibilities afflicting her left arm), and, if you can get past the very idea of an Eva in a bikini, you can get a very real sense of Yui's innate feminity. Or, uh, maybe it's just me... --June 14, 2003

["Both of You, Dance Like You Want to Win!" / Pencil on Xerox paper / 3-07-01] A silly little spin I put on episode 09's rather long title, using a "Skecher's" shoe ad (with two chicks in platform shoes dancing) and my Shogouki/Nigouki "Real" models as reference. For something so old, it's pretty decent, not to mention strangely funny -- Yui and Kyoko actually look as if they're enjoying themselves. >>D NERV should have raised a white flag and made a proposal to Israfel: Split in two and compete as a pair in a dancing tournament against EVA-01 and EVA-02. Let PenPen judge (he's the closest thing around to an impartial observer), and whoever loses has to spontaenously blow up. Gee, I wonder who would win...? --June 17, 2003

[09/16/00] Two very old drawings, closely related, that both depict ideas I had at the time about the "development" of Shogouki (i.e., her growth from embryo to adult in the depths of GEHIRN). This was, of course, long before I knew that the "Eva of Evas" was generated directly from Lilith's body, which somehow resulted in the Marshmallow Woman losing her legs. This is also before I had acquired Ikuto Yamashita's lovely drawings of Yui-sama's head (the most convincing official images of sotai Shogouki I've yet seen), so I was still basing the head shape on that awful, distorted shot from episode #02. Other faulty ideas also abound -- for one thing, I experimented with the idea that Sho had a theropod-style pubic "boot" (just because the pelvic armor seemed to suggest one might be there), though this ungainly concept was, fortunately, short-lived. [The idea did get reincarnated for Azazel's design, at least.] --June 14, 2003 + January 27, 2004

Kyoko (EVA-02)

Ach, Frau Zeppelin-Sohryuu... Easily one of my favorite Evas. ;;> Ever since I witnessed her gruesome fall from grace -- which I'll have you know I was completely unprepared for (I had absolutely no idea what "END" was going to be about when I first saw it) -- I realized how much I had taken her character "for granted" beforehand, and I've loved her dearly ever since. Obviously, she's one of the more visually interesting Evas -- what with the four orange eyes, blue skin, indigo-colored blood, and all. If you dig a bit deeper -- erm, a lot deeper -- she's actually a very intriguing character, as well, albeit in a rather tragic way. Admittedly, we know much more about Kyoko's Eva innards (ugh >_<) than we know about her personally, though by all indications her human life was fraught with problems, and things didn't get any better when she became an Eva. Poor, poor girl... Nobody else really gives a damn about her, but she has this fan's love, at least. ::hugs Kyoko's big toe::

[Kyoko Akhoth Uniform Concept / 08-20-03 / colored pencil & ink on sketch paper, digitally enhanced] I thought it would be boring to give all of the Evas Akhoth uniforms that basically rip off the design of their kousokugu, so I decided to take a stab at something a little more original. In the story, when it comes time for the girls to have uniforms made, Kyoko states very bluntly that she is not going to don red again -- personal reasons, I suppose. "Let's just stick with our original colors," Yui says. "No need to make this more complicated than it needs to be." Kyoko's awfully stubborn when she wants to be, though, and they only manage to strike a compromise: Reddish-orange. At least it goes with Kyoko's eyes. ^_^

Like pretty much everything else I do, I didn't finish this drawing (note hands and feet >_<), but I think the basic design is pretty sharp. Incidentally, I based it roughly on the coloration and patterning of some spider species or another (an association ultimately derived from the fact that my sister had commented, long ago, that EVA-02's face -- the helmet, anyway -- reminded her of a spider ::shrug::). The face looks kind of off (what little you can see of it, anyway), but the body encompasses some of the ideas I've had for depicting Kyoko -- with somewhat narrower shoulders and wider hips than her sisters, but, to compensate, making her somewhat stockier and beefier. (Though the latter is less an innate physical difference and more based on the fact that she's been obsessively pumping iron since she got to Eden ;;>.) --August 31, 2003

(LEFT) [August 2003] Just Kyoko making one of her charming faces. ::p This marks a time when I finally resolved to draw my Evas with "normal" eyelids. In the anime, their eyes are set in folds of pink flesh, which comes across as being heavily gynecological. While I don't mind the way that this hints at the Evas' femininity, I eventually found the thought of pink eyelids to be rather odd. I started to give the Evas more human-like eyelids -- the same color as their skin, with the "pink stuff" restricted to the corners of the eyes and lips of the lids. Makes sense, no? I definitely like the way it looks much better. --January 27, 2004

[8/11/02] (LEFT) A drawing from a rather rough "BES" storyboard [well, not "storyboard" in the normal sense -- it's like a panel comic, only very crudely drawn] where Kyoko mistakes Sachiel for an angel she's after and starts chasing him -- while viciously swinging a double-sided axe. (Obviously, Sachi doesn't stand a chance. ;;>) Here you can see an idea I had for Kyoko's Akhoth helmet -- looks a lot like her old one, except it has a Shogouki-type jaw setup and the one-way-view teal "goggles" have been replaced with Darth Vader-like "shades". Also unlike her old helmet, this one is easy on the skin (no clamps and bolts holding it on ::p) and can be removed quite easily. (RIGHT) (See?) From later on when Kyoko's called off her assault and is cleaning up the mess she's made. Sachi's actually pretty forgiving, but that doesn't stop Kyoko from giving him one of her trademark dirty looks (she's so disgruntled she gives them to just about everybody), which I think this doodle expresses rather well. --June 14, 2003

["Kyokos Wut ~Anger~" / Acrylic on illustration board / Fall Semester 2001]

WARNING: This painting contains a rather dodgy depiction of disembodied viscera. Don't click on the thumbnail if that sounds overly unpleasant to you. I am officially disavowed of any ill effects to your psyche. ;;p

If all went well, the title should be German for "Kyoko's Wrath". This here's the first of two (or maybe, erm, three, though who knows where the third one went) Eva-related paintings I did for my Color Theory class back in Fall Semester 2001. Natürlich, I had to jump at the first opportunity to put nekkid EVAs in a painting, and that chance came with the Complementary Colors assignment, in which two paintings had to be executed using two sets of, well, complementary colors -- while also depicting one of the Seven Deadly Sins in one and one of them Virtues in the other. "Anger" or "wrath" seemed like the obvious choice, being as I was exceptionally angry at the time (mostly at a certain lad hailing from Wales who hasn't so much as let me know he's still alive since 2002 started, but nevermind that). The first sketch I did actually involved Yui and Barb and took after the whole Shogouki-ripping-apart-Sangouki scene from episode 18, with the difference that, of course, both were naked. ^_^ When it came time to redraw it on the scale of the painting, Yui inexplicably turned into Kyoko, and the incapacitated, maimed Barb turned into a somewhat more appropriate "playmate" for Kyoko -- namely, a harpy-fiend. >::D

However, due to the project's required dimensions and a lack of foresight on my part, compositional flaws kept the lucky harpy-fiend's crooked visage out of the painting, which is a shame, really... The inclusion of the red-lipped mug (and an appropriately contorted facial expression) would have made it apparent that Kyoko's victim is still quite alive as the blue behemoth enacts her (long-overdue) vengeance, providing some additional intensity to the scene. Also, I wish there was considerably more in the way of blood present, if only for the sake of realism -- really, I would imagine it'd be hard to rip somebody apart without getting your hands at least a little dirty. It just didn't happen, though, and paint paranoia probably had something to do with it -- the medium had worked with me for that long, Kyoko looked pretty good, and the last thing I wanted to do was overestimate my own reliability and try putting red all over the place only to royally screw up everything I had thusfar achieved. So I left it alone, and this painting's as done as it's ever going to get.

Still, the concept of Kyoko "reversing roles" from her deplorably unfortunate position in the movie (which in case you didn't know, involved the girl getting stabbed through the head by a doubled-pronged lance, brutally disemboweled, finally killed by being skewered with eight additional lances, and ultimately cannibalized -- fun, huh?) is just so irresistable for me, I'll probably revisit it with another painting further down the road. The scene in "Wut" never happens in "BES" (...or does it?), although, after I did this painting, I came up with a fairly similar scene for the story -- albeit one that doesn't involve any of Kyoko's murderers. Who's the lucky individual to suffer bloody, gruesome dismemberment at Kyoko's hands? You'll have to wait to find out, now won't you? --June 14, 2003

(LEFT) I was going to take this one offline, but the teeth are rendered kind of nicely (it's a fine little grimace), so the pic's staying for now. Dodgy perspective problems galore -- too much of the back of the head is visible here, the forehead protrudes WAY too much (as you should be able to see her other two eyes and all), yadda yadda. Kyoko's been through enough shiznat for me to be doing so much indisgrace to her mug. (RIGHT) Perhaps from Jan. or Feb. 2001, one of the first decent-looking Kyoko heads I did (some of the ones that I used to have on this page are just... ugh. >_<), though I've come a ways since then. Evidently, I still hadn't given up the "double-mandibular-tooth-row theorum" when I drew this, as well. Inset is from some random, otherwise horrifying Nigouki drawing I did (trust me, you don't want to see it). --June 14, 2003

["'Mama is watching me!'"] Obsolete as it is, this is still an interesting drawing. It was originally inspired by one of things Asuka maniacally shouts in "End of Evangelion", "Makete 'ranai no yo! Mama ga miteru noni!" or, translated, "I can't lose! Mama is watching me!" [Okay, so the quote in the image is... paraphrased a bit. I hadn't seen the movie that many times.] Well, technically, lassie, you're somewhere inside your mama's thorax, so she really can't be watching you, can she? ::P That aside, I thought it might be fun to "literalize" the quote and put Asuka in front of Kyoko's naked mug (I really do overuse that term, "mug", but bear with me...) -- dodgy as both of them ended up. For one thing, this drawing exemplifies one of my archaic notions about Kyoko: At one point, I thought she had a second row of teeth on the outside of her jaw. There's one shot of her (the head close-up from when the harpies are carrying her carcass around and her brains are falling out >_<) where it actually looks like there is a second row. I took it as fact for a while, but I eventually realized that, far more likely, it's just a reflection of her teeth on the metallic inner surface of the jaw cover. About time I put that dysfunctional visual concept to rest... --June 14, 2003

(LEFT) All the way back from September 2000, this is very old, which pretty much explains everything that's wrong with it ::>. Obviously, I'd never make Kyoko this ugly nowadays (though there is a certain unavoidable grotesqueness to a pissed-off Eva). Back then, I didn't have any of the extensive Eva-related reference materials I do now, so when I felt like doing a "reconstructed version" of that "OMG-Nigouki's-moving-without-external-power-and-look-at-her-eyes-swell-up" shot in the movie, I basically paused our ultra-krippy 10th-generation VHS copy and sketched the shot (albeit at five-minute intervals, because that's how long the stupid VCR let me keep the thing paused). Primitive, yeah, but it's the best I could manage at the time. By "reconstructed", I mean that I attempted to "undo" all of the damage rendered to her poor mug (there's that word again) by the harpy-fiends (which is rather odd, being as her helmet was in place when the harpies flew off her, but was gone, along with large chunks of her braincase, in the next shot -- bloody inconsistencies). I wouldn't mind taking a new stab at the idea sometime -- it would make a nice "sister piece" to "Shuujin" (see above, under Yui), besides. --June 14, 2003

"Naoko" (EVA-00) & "Barb" (EVA-03)

First things first. In the actual anime, these Evas have the souls of, respectively, Rei-001 and Touji's mom. Well, there's no PROOF per se, but I've been convinced (after much toil) that there really isn't any other way. "Naoko" and "Barb" are figments of my imagination, as it were, and I take the liberty of making them EVA-00 and EVA-03's actual souls in "Beyond Eden's Shores" -- but don't think I won't be making disclaimers on the matter. At any rate, these drawings deal almost entirely with the Naoko and Barb of BES and not the EVA-00 and EVA-03 of NGE canon, so be warned.

I draw these two together so much, it's only fitting to lump them together here. The main reason why I associate these two fine Evas (both are them are, without a doubt, among my favorites) is because, erm, well... I think they make an outrageously cute couple. Lesbian Evas -- it's love like you've never seen it before. ::nyao:: And if you think I'm pulling this stuff entirely out of my lower digestive tract... watch episode 18 again and observe how provocatively Barb (albeit possessed by that deplorable fungus, Bardiel) "mounts" poor defenseless Nao-chan (after twitching like she had a really bad itch and doing a backwards somersault and all). It looks even more kinky in the manga -- take my word for it.

[The Evas' Guide to Better Sex / pencil on sketchbook paper / 10-29-03] The title is just a reference to the fact that I based this drawing on a photo of a couple from one of those adverts for "better sex" videos. >::D Nothing too risque -- just Naoko sitting on Barb's lap. There are some dodgy things about this drawing -- Barb's face, Naoko's butt -- but overall it's pretty good. Continuing proof that I just can't get enough of these two. --January 28, 2004

[On Duty] This is pretty typical of my "lesbian EVA fantasy" sketches, of which I, quite oddly, have amassed quite a number... Does the off-beat impulse to draw these sorts of things have any real bearing on my psychology -- or, better yet, my sexuality? I dunno, but I think it's pretty harmless. If anything, my psyche has only benefited ever since I decided I would draw whatever I wanted, no matter how "sick" or "unusual" -- though, inevitably, I end up with quite a few drawings I wouldn't want a whole lot of people to see. ::p At any rate, this particular one is overwhelmingly mild, so who knows why I feel the need to babble justification in this particular writeup... The poses for this sketch were taken directly from an erotic photography book (coming up with convincing poses for one person is hard enough, let enough two interacting in space and all), but, ah, who cares. (It's not like I own oodles of photography equipment and a gargumongous studio where I can have sessions with hired, professional models and take tons of pictures of them crawling all over each other, you know.) This particular scene happens while the two girls are on Akhoth duty (hopefully both the title and the uniforms gave that away). While the two had temporarily split up to patrol one particular area of Eden, Naoko manages to, in her characteristic way, attract the attention of a rather powerful and mischievous individual whom she -- unfortunately, being on the low end of the Evangelion ladder -- cannot handle on her own. Barb, naturally, comes to the rescue before Naoko suffers too much indignity. In the aftermath, Barb, in her loving manner, takes a keen concern in Naoko's well-being, though her girlfriend's evidently suffering from too much of an inferiority complex to be in the mood for it. (Either that or, as my English Comp II professor would say, she has a "headache". ;;}) --June 14, 2003

[Sketch for "Tsutsumi" ("Embrace") / Pencil on drawing paper / Spring Semester 2003]

WARNING: This drawing contains a depiction of female sexual anatomy. If that sort of thing bothers you, DO NOT click on the thumbnail. For that matter, don't read the writeup either.

Ah, what a shame the whole drawing didn't fit on the scanner bed (and I was too lazy to think about compositing or even getting rid of that annoying shadow on the right)... There's a bit more to this one, lots of shaded drapery and such, but Naoko and Barb are good enough for now. This was during a time in Painting I class when I had multiple projects due and I was clamoring for stuff to do paintings of. A lightbulb went off one weekend and I thought, "Ach! Natürlich! Barb and Naoko!" (Yes... Naturally...) I grabbed a small cardboard box, a few articles of clothing, and my two Kaiyodo action figures (of, er, guess) and set up a little still life for myself to draw, putting my favorite lesbian couple entwined in a bed-like setting in front the big, red Core of Love (actually the red side of a plastic Pokeball, of all things). I spent the greater part of the day drawing the setup, though, to increase the intimacy of the scene, I naturally translated the Evas' armor into naked flesh. (But that's okay, of course, as this scene would be happening in Eden, where nudity is so standard that anything not nude is referred to almost alarmingly as "covered".)

The picture itself, while depicting a scene of physical intimacy, is far from the pornographic realm -- unless you have a particularly bad reaction to Naoko's exposure. When I was originally posing the action figures, I had not intended for Naoko's hips to be rotated so far forward, but the placement of her legs dictated it, so I drew it. Actually, I almost relished the opportunity to depict an Eva's pubic region -- it's something I'm sure few people consider, but, if you accept the premise that Evas are biologically female, the matter almost demands some thought. Since Evas betray the mammalian nature of their skeletal structure through the manner in which they are fleshed, I thought a simple setup would be most appropriate -- vaginal orifice, but none of the typical mammalian ::cough:: "furnishings". Really, it makes sense. Evangelions don't have hair or nipples, so it's only natural that they wouldn't have external genitalia. Still, if you ask Naoko or Barb, their sex lives don't suffer as a result. ^_^

The Evas didn't go 100% smoothly into their fleshy counterparts, and, with the painting itself still unfinished, there are some bugs yet to be worked out. Many are simply anatomical -- strange as the Evas look to most people, virtually every element of their musculature is identical to our own, and I have quite a bit to learn considering human anatomy... Others relate to my own ideas of how Naoko and Barb should look. In BES, the individual Evas can no longer be identified by virtue of helmet design or paint scheme -- only by eye count, nostril location, and skin color. As a result, I've decided to help matters out further and take the liberty of varying their actual body builds, which is actually rather difficult to be consistent about. Naoko, being the oldest Eva (and, to borrow a term -- translated -- from "Photo File: Adam", the most "primitive"), and one of the less prosperous Evangelions battle-wise, seemed like the natural choice to impose relative "scrawniness" and smaller stature upon, though it doesn't really show here. (Luckily for her, though, she is outdone in the "physical weakness" category by the harpy-fiends.) Barb, by contrast, I made the tallest Evangelion, with relatively elongate proportions (though not quite as exaggerated as in episode #18) and, compared to Naoko, physically much stronger. Of course, that doesn't show here, either, though at least I can use the excuse that it's because most of her is covered by Naoko. ::p In the final, Naoko will be slimmed down quite a bit (and, as Morgan-kun pointed out, her hips narrowed a notch, as well), and Barb's facial expression needs some tweaking to get the effect I really want. We'll see how it turns out (if it ever turns out at all)... --June 14, 2003

["Santa Barb" / Pencil on paper, colored with PhotoShop / August 2002]

There's a somewhat convoluted story behind this image, but I'll try to condense things a notch... Back in late August, 2002, Morgan-kun alerted me to a silly ChitChat thread at AnimeBoards where someone had posted a pinup-style fan image of Asuka in a kinky Santa Claus outfit (probably by "Tony Tiny World", though I don't know for certain). All pretty typical, stupid stuff (though I've always had ideological issues with males in their late teens and beyond slobbering over semi-provocative pics of both physically and psychologically immature 14-year-old girls -- real or made-up). Of course, it wasn't the Asuka pic per se to which Morgan wanted to alert me (I am straight, after all -- no, really!); it was the fact that Black Knight (a ravenous AnimeBoards poster who has some sort of strange infatuation with EVA-03, which is made even stranger due to the fact he believes she's a he <O_O>) had posted a response where he insinuated that he'd rather see "Evangelion Unit-03" (being as "EVA-03" is too difficult to type ;;p) in a Santa outfit. Black Knight, naturally, meant that he wanted to see the typically kousokugu-covered EVA-03 wearing the kinky outfit, but that's just so dysfunctionally pointless! Naturally, I seized this opportunity to portray an otherwise naked Sangouki in an adaptation of Asuka's outfit, and have a decent number of people see it, too. The response was, if anything, disappointing -- "unique" and "disturbing" were the most common responses, and, far as I can remember, my multiple-purpose visual satire didn't evoke anything really "thoughtful". Nothing too surprising, but, still, disappointing. At least the image wasn'tcompletely forgotten by the AnimeBoards community (see the writeup for "Volleyball Yui" further up).

This image started out as a pencil drawing (which might have benefited from some further refinement, but nevermind), scanned in and colored using my typically "lazy" method -- the "Multiply" paintbrush setting in Photoshop. (I'm not too big on creating pictures entirely with the computer and, even when it comes to using the computer just to color a black-and-white scanned image, I tend to just let the original pencil or ink lines show through. A nauseating number of people seem to be really skilled at creating these lush, smooth, colorful, clean images with digital paint, though that's a world beyond me at the moment. I can hardly get physical paint to do what I want it to as it is. And, on a more aesthetic level, while I think a lot of digital paint imagery is excellent, just as much of it seems to end up with a sterile, has-been kind of overall appearance. You know, it lacks something basic that you would automatically get by working in the physical realm. Or maybe it's just me. Still, I'd love to know how Tony Tiny World and other peeps get their pictures to look as slick as they do.) And the background, well, it's actually just a photo my sister Shannon took of an ice-covered parking lot which I messed around with a great deal (though, in the end, it still looks like, well, a parking lot). "Santa Barb" really lacks any sort of digital refinement, but I suppose that wasn't really my goal. My only real purpose was to put Barb in a kinky santa outfit, so, well, that's what I did. ::} Some anatomical elements look a bit dodgy -- eyes are too big and the torso and thighs are way too long, though arguably such exaggerations lend themselves to a picture of this type. ::p Next time I do an Eva picture like this >::D, I'll be sure to get it right.

[And, yes, I'm aware that this pic's title is a pun, though it didn't happen intentionally. In case you missed it: Santa Barb(ara). You know, like the city. Hah...hah...hah! ::p] --June 14, 2003

["Carrying You ~Fortitude~" / Acrylic on illustration board / Fall Semester 2001 ]

This painting looks a bit dodgy today, mostly because I've gotten so much better at drawing the Evas, though it's a significant enough achievement for me art-wise. The sister piece to "Kyokos Wut", though the complementary colors scheme -- a requirement for the Sin/Virtue project in Color Theory class (see the "Wut" entry for more info on that) -- didn't really work out too well here. As you can see, whereas the yellow actually has some sort of balance with the purple in "Wut", orange ended up dominating "Carrying", restricting the blue to the 'coals' of the ground alone. <<sigh>> The way the piece evolved, I just couldn't find many places where blue worked. So it goes.

For whatever reason, I initially struggled when it came time to do my Virtue. The Sin had come with no effort at all -- I had already been in an irate state of mind, so a PO'd Kyoko ripping something apart just sort of materialized on its own -- but I was positively stumped on the Virtue. None of the Virtues, in my mind, associated quite as vividly or, erm, colorfully with any visual images like the Sins did. I threw a lot of ideas around, originally trying to avoid more nekkid EVAs (it was painful business, trying to explain to Smith-sensei or my classmates that, say, the big blue ßi†©# was, in fact, a big blue ßi†©# -- i.e., "Well, er, that's actually not a guy... It's, er, hard to explain..." ), but Naoko and Barb were clamoring for a spotlight in one of my paintings.

The scene I ended up depicting (with some decidedly quirky anatomical choices ;;p) doesn't actually happen anywhere in "Holy Shito!". [Though, since I did the painting, I added a sequence to the story where Barb gets "sick" -- a development added originally as "fan service" for a friend of mine who is into that sort of thing -- and Naoko gets to carry her debilitated partner around for some time. A reversal of "Carrying", though appropriate considering everything that Barb does for Naoko in "BES".] If anything, the painting represents Barb's adamant devotion to her 'Nao-chan' -- and the strength and, ahem, fortitude of Dr. Caraway's character itself -- in spite of all the bad news that's happened to her (not limited to the chain of ill fortune begun with her participation in EVA-03's 'Contact' procedure), she forgives, adapts, and mightily marches onward with life no matter where it's taken her (I know, at times she can be a nauseatingly optimistic character ;;>). It's rather a shame that her facial expression here doesn't really convey much of what I wanted it to (and the distracting lack of basic symmetry doesn't help). --June 14, 2003

["Longinus no Yaridovich" / Pen and marker on sketch paper / October 2002]

"omg its in colr!" This one emerged out of a chat session with Morgan-kun. (He seems to help inspire some interesting ones, whether he means to or not. ;;>) We were talking about "Super Mario RPG" and how all of the Weapon Bosses' original names all incorporated the Japanese word for the weapon each represented. For instance, Yaridovich (written in katakana YARIDOVIHHI; "VIHHI", believe it or not, is how the Japanese phonetically pronounce "-vich") -- my favorite character in SMRPG for reasons I'll never know -- is based on yari, "lance". And the only reason I know that, without consulting a Japanese dictionary, is because yari has been ingrained into my brain by "NGE" and its Longinus no yari (Lance of Longinus, or Lancea Longini, which is what Longinus himself would have called it). I can't precisely remember when and why my brain decided to overlap the concepts of "Yaridovich" and "Longinus no Yari", but "Longinus no Yaridovich" inevitably popped into my head and I declared to Morgan that I would draw it. And so I did, making it the ever-so-elegant weapon of this harpy-fiend here. (She seems pretty enthralled, can't you tell?) The harpy's body is quite obviously copied from a certain EoE concept artwork, which I ordinarily wouldn't do, but at the time I didn't really care enough to bother coming up with something original. When the purpose of a drawing is for humor or parody, complete originality isn't exactly a must -- indeed, in most cases, copying in the name of parody is fully condoned by the U.S. Copyright Laws. Obviously, though, this isn't actual parody -- just silliness. I suppose there's a difference. Nintendo and Gainax are going to sue my arse for this one. --June 14, 2003

[A Civil Chat] A conceptual drawing for "BES" and more refined than they normally get. At about this point in the story, Emilie has finally emerged from the horde of identical harpy-fiends an individual once again. For whatever reason, virtually her first impulse is to "recompense" for her evil ways, and what better way to do that than get into the Akhoth so that poor Kyoko has to see the ugly face of one of her murderers every bloody day? Cynicism aside, Yui decides to give Em a chance to prove herself "good enough" for the sorority-like police force -- either because she's a really nice and forgiving individual (well, except for that time her metaphysical projection physically bit off the head of her hubby, but he sort of had that coming to him), or maybe just because Naoko and Barb are expecting Zukori around this time and thus aren't in much of a position to help Yui out with an escalating load of troublesome Edenites, so she'll take any help she can get, no matter how much a harpyish disgrace to the Evangelion name. At any rate, Kyoko is less than thrilled with the prospects of Emilie's "application", which is the exact reason why Yui decides Kyoko is best suited for taking Emilie out on a "trial run" or two -- a rather wily, if not somewhat risky, way to get Kyoko used to the idea. Here, I've sketched the two Evas at the end of a long day of training (though the lighting situation is arguable, as the primary source of light in Eden is not a sun/star and there is no sunset to bask in), with Kyoko silently fighting a tumultous inner struggle to swallow her pride long enough to give Emilie's pathetically apologetic (and borderline importunate) professions a chance. Kyoko came out a little too far on the dodgy side of the fence (so you can pretty much ignore her), but Emilie came out surprisingly well -- lower body gets too skinny, and some of the proportions seem kind of whacky, but otherwise the rendering is pretty good for a drawing like this. Check out those big lips flappin'. ::} --June 14, 2003

(LEFT) Here's one of my primordial attempts at putting Ms. Emilie in an Akhoth uniform. I experimented with the "armor"-type deal (i.e., making the uniforms a somewhat "nicer" version of the original kousokugu-armor) before I decided that the Evas only wear uniforms as a formality -- after all, their A.T. Fields are the only protection they really need. The mere fact that the Evas would be going around with something covering their bodies would give them all of the attention that they need in Eden, a place where nudity is the norm. As for those dodgy lance-things she's holding... Obviously, my weapon-drawing skills need a lot of help, though maybe you've seen one of the two Gainax images floating around where Yui-sama is armed with a gray or purple javelin-like weapon. That's what I was aiming for (unsuccessful as I was). Being as the harpy-fiends are fundamentally inferior to their elder Evas (come on! they're sniveling weaklings!!), I figured it might be nice of me to equip Emilie with some sort of weapon or another for her Akhoth duty -- albeit one several times more "elegant" than the overweighted ken she and her sisters lug around in #25'. --June 14, 2003

(LEFT) Not much to say about this one, except that it was one of my first less-dodgy stabs at the harpy-fiend's naked mug. Mammalian teeth are a real bee-yotch for me to draw, especially when they're part of a smile as, erm, charming as this one. (RIGHT) Just a random microdoodle. It captures their collective personality rather well, don't you think? --June 14, 2003

Apostles
(and Adam & Lilith)

Just because, like I said, I don't draw these guys on the scale that I draw some of these other characters, I'm dumping them all into their own category for now. Why "Apostle", you might ask? There wasn't really any term around to refer exclusively to Adam's fourteen young-uns (both "Angel" and shito, in the show, encompass Adam's brood, Adam himself, Lilith, a human clone possessing Adam's soul, and, it seems, even humanity, though I always thought calling us the "18th Angel" was pushing things a bit), so I simply took the English translation of shito, "Apostle" (or "Disciple", which I don't like as much), and ran off with it. The Apostles are definitely an interesting bunch, though they tend to be as blatantly neglected as the Evas are -- with the glaring exception of Kaworu. (I suppose it's a lot easier to find an audience with people these days if you're a bishounen brimming with homoeroticism. ::sigh::) My favorites from the lot are undoubtedly the trio that Yoshinoh Asari designed, none other than Sachiel, Zeruel, and Shamshel. Well, the former two, especially -- even in the anime, they have a lot of personality (if you look hard enough), and I just find them so bloody loveable! In "BES", they're two of the more highly-developed characters, and they definitely make interesting "relationship fodder" for a certain two heroines of ours... ::evil chuckling::

["Ex Theater" / Pencil on paper, colored with PhotoShop] One of the very few times (that I can remember, anyway) that I actually bothered with any semblance of pencil rendering (i.e., "shading and stuff") in a drawing of these guys. (As you can see, though, I got a little lazy here and there -- note Zeruel's right arm.) For whatever reason, I also bothered adding some color with the ol' Multiply Brush in PhotoShop, maybe just because these Apostles are such a, ahem, colorful bunch. (Ugh. That was bad.) This was supposed to depict the opening scene of "Holy Shito!" that I had been planning (before "HS!" evolved into "BES"), in which the Asari siblings finally exit the movie theater after their "mandatory" attendence of the Eden premiere of "END OF EVANGELION". However, various flaws in that idea gradually popped out at me -- none of which I'll get into here -- and I've scrapped it entirely. (Though it may eventually be recycled for BES's planned omake bits.) Humorously enough, back when I was working on this, my mom (whom I continue to show random NGE-related drawings even though they seem to cause her some degree of distress ::>) commented that Zeruel looked kind of like a "butchered pig". Strangely appropriate, especially considering she wasn't aware of a certain unpleasant event in Zeruel's past. ;;} --June 14, 2003 + January 27, 2004

[Concept for Lilith's face / pencil on sketchbook paper / 11-08-03]

Another step in the long, arduous process of finding a fitting face for this mutha. Perhaps the only glimpse we're ever given of Lilith's true visage are her eyes -- initially, these are depicted as black pits with glowing red dots (Morgan-kun likens them to a laser pointer ::p) and GNR [Giant Naked Rei] has to deliberately change them. So, I'd like to think that maybe, just maybe, the laser-pointer eyes present Lilith's original state. In this drawing, I opted to give the eyes a somewhat more tangible spin, inspired heavily by the Kaminoans of "Star Wars" (with the difference that Lil's irises would be red rather than grey). In the anime, Lilith's head is actually egg-shaped, but here I've given it a more human shape with increased definition -- she actually has an ear canal now! The five additional eyes come and go on a whim, but, damn!, does Lil look freaky when they're all open at the same time. While this design still needs a little work, I think it's definitely on the right track. --January 28, 2004

[Maternal Nightmare / pencil on sketchbook paper / 10-26-03]

This one merits a slight warning from me -- do not click on the thumbnail if the idea of a unique entity growing out of someone's groin disturbs you. This sketch emerged as part of an explanation I concocted for EVA-01's genesis, which is never really explained. The anime gives us one image (here, here, and here), and that's it -- nary a word on how, why, and what the heck happened to Lilith's legs. (Or what the heck is going on with her right arm in that image, either.) According to my crazy idea, EVA-01 is a genetically-modified Adam (like the other Evas), but the generation of her body was carried out by Lilith, which effectively makes EVA-01 Lilith's "offspring" as well. The prepared genome (or whatever GEHIRN used as the starting point for growing Evas) was injected into Lilith's body and EVA-01 began to grow. Eventually, she was expelled from Lilith's body, but, in a grotesque mockery of traditional maternity, remained physically attached via an "umbilical cord" of taffy-like flesh. As EVA-01 continued to grow, the biomass from Lilith's legs was slowly depleted until nothing remained, and eventually the process reached the point seen in the anime. Beats me if any of that would work, but I have yet to see anyone else come up with anything better. My sketch shows Lil's legs in the process of deterioration, with EVA-01 in a juvenile phase of development. Cute, ain't she? --January 28, 2004

["The Real Reason..." / Black ink on sketchbook paper, colored with PhotoShop / May 2003]

WARNING: This cartoon portrays two individuals in the sexual act (though you don't "see anything"). Take heed. I didn't crop in the thumbnail for nothing, you know.

Hmm, now this is an interesting one... This is actually supposed to be a humor piece, hence the quasi-cartoony look, though the humor behind it is so abstruse that, unless presented in a very specific context, I would need to explain it completely for it to make any sense at all. Of course, that essentially drains out every last bit of humor that was there to begin with, which makes this a pretty self-defeating cartoon, don't it? That said, I might as well go ahead and explain the bloody thing.

Soon after a movie file of the full-size NGE opening sequence (released on the "TEST TYPE" DVD as part of the promotional pitch for "Renewal of Evangelion"), Morgan-kun kindly directed me to a thread at the AnimeNation forum where a few screenshots had been posted. It turned out that in the FULL-SIZE OP, the blurry mystery images added to the video-released #23' were finally available without a tankful of naked Reis obstructing the view [though, stupidly enough, the very same images were subsequently excluded from the Renewal version of #23']. Three of these were noteworthy enough to raise quite a bit of discussion at the forum: (1) Adam in the process of being excavated in Antarctica, (2) EVA-01 in the process of being grown from Lilith, and (3) Yui in a plugsuit.

The first one is really what got the idea for my cartoon going. While Adam is depicted quite dodgily as a giant snow-covered hyoo-man (what happened to the Evangelion proportions we saw in #15?), the drawing quite clearly shows two projections emerging from his back that look suspiciously like the tines of the Lance. This led to a very fudged-up revelation being unearthed -- the Lance of Longinus is, in actuality, Adam's Super-Solenoid and was originally part of his body. I still think the whole idea is rather silly, but when I first heard about it, I was in denial overdrive. What better way to handle such a preposterous, unconvincing addition to the NGE mythos than to make fun of it? And that's what I did.

For whatever reason, I thought it might be funny to put NGE's Lilith and Adam back into a more traditional context. You know, the whole deal with Lilith being Adam's first wife, and him getting fed up with the fact that she wasn't a subservient wench like he thought a woman should be (bad taste there, Addy-boy...), and Lilith leaving the damnable sucker to find a real man who didn't mind being on the bottom (like Sammael ::p). Except, here, I offer a somewhat different reason for Lilith's desertion... I sure can't blame the girl, can you? Okay, maybe it's not really "ha-ha" funny, but it's at least amusing that I manage to come up with weird stuff like this.

On a final note... How to depict Adam and Lilith is something I've been having quite a few issues with. This cartoon encompasses a few of the ideas I had at the time, though they're now obsolete (especially Lilith). Both of them are going to endure a few more makeovers before I'm satisfied. --June 14, 2003 + January 27, 2004

Original Characters

Azazel The first original character I devised (at least, that I can remember). She is neither Eva nor Apostle, but a denizen of Eden belonging to the ancient "choir" of kerubim. I opted for the alternate spelling because people tend to associate "cherubs" with little pudgy Cupid-things, which is definitely the antithesis of what I'm going for. In actuality, the kerubim of BES are 100% bad@$$. Azazel here is the biggest bad@$$ in her trade, and she's equipped to the teeth for biz-ness. Her design was restricted from the start because she needed to have a vague resemblance to Sachiel (which serves as a plot device and nothing more -- you'll have to wait and see), and I worked from there with this "living weapon" idea in mind. However, by "weapon" I mean the close-combat slicing/dicing/piercing/mauling kind -- no energy projection or anything. (She's dangerous enough without.) I also decided to infuse all sorts of "Satanic" references into her design, though we'll see how many of those you can pick out without my help. Azazel's really taken on a life of her own since I created her in Fall 2001 or so... I love her twisted, convoluted characterization -- she's as sensual as she is violent, as honorable as she is odious, all sorts of odds and ends rolled up into one dangerous package. Hopefully, if BES ever gets anywhere, other folks will love her as much as I do.

[Early Spring Semester 2003] Two sketches I did for a scene in BES where Azazel sadistically assaults a hapless (well, perhaps not-so-hapless) victim. Knowing the identity of Azazel's plaything might spoil some things, so I edited said person out of the first and used a groovy censorship-style mosaic effect in the second (which lets you make out some things, but not enough to be absolutely sure who it is). This scene -- which is actually of some importance in the story -- had already been documented by me, multiple times ^_^', via notes and doodles, but, since I was interested in turning it into a painting at the time (perhaps for the Painting I class that, I believe, had just started), I did these somewhat more refined drawings of the incident. Still, like so many other things I brainstorm, the painting has yet to come to light. --June 14, 2003

["Azazel's Inner Workings -- Preliminary" / Late Feb. 2003] I don't know enough about how anatomy works, how all of the different parts of the body interact, to create a convincing infrastructure for a completely imaginary creature (such as Azazel), though I can at least try. Like the title says, this was an attempt to explore Azazel's insides a bit. Granted, it looks more like a mess of lines than anything, though the partially see-through head (the only part of the image included in the thumbnail) is pretty sharp (long as you ignore the tooth placement schematic lying partially on top of her mandible). --June 14, 2003

["Azazel Reclining" / Spring Semester 2003] The sort of thing that inevitably results from me being exposed to classic artwork. >::} This sketch has Azazel reclining a la one of Ingres' female nudes, though I have no idea what her tongue is doing. --June 14, 2003

["Azazel of the Stray Hand" / ~Feb. 2003] This drawing always looked pretty dodgy to me -- the legs are way too long, and the pose is just ridiculous in general -- though it has some nice qualities and, for all its dodginess, is rather close featurally to the "modern" Azazel. Originally, I was playing around with a pose I hoped might end up being useful for a painting, though somewhere the whole thing went wrong -- terribly wrong. As you can see further down, in my first drawings of Azazel, her hands rest upon her core by default, though there's a difference, however slight, between "lying upon" and "groping", and one look at "Stray Hand" will tell you which is the case here. ::p Which brings an important aspect of her character to point: Azazel is an angel without inhibitions, and she's not beyond groping her core in a non-private context -- or doing far worse things, for that matter... --June 14, 2003

(LEFT) [Fall Semester 2002] A doodle of Azazel (on lined paper, if you can't tell) from my Environmental Issues class notes. ::p It was kind of dodgy to begin with, though the color definitely helped (love those striations on her icky neck...). (RIGHT) ["Azazel's Dancin' Like a Monkey!" / Ink on sketch paper, colored with PhotoShop / 8-30-02 ] Another one of the weird ones that Morgan-kun helped inspire... One of the first drawings Morgan ever sent me (we exchange drawings now and again, so he gets a lot of my new stuff long before it makes it to the webpage) was an EVA-01 (with armor and all), holding a telegraph tower in one hand, limbs and tongue flailing about madly, shouting "I'm dancin' like a monkey!" (I think it's a reference to "Ed, Edd, and Eddy"...) Very, very silly. ::D One day, later on, I was filling a page in my sketchbook with attempts at super-deforming various BES characters, and, for whatever reason, this Azazel ended up having that "dancin' like a monkey" look. Must be the flailing tongue... --June 14, 2003

[Azazel rear-view / marker, pen, and colored pencil on tan paper] I started this, right after the head studies below, at my friend Mare-chan's house and "finished" it the next night/early morning. I have a bad habit of ignoring the back-sides of angels -- to this date I have not memorized the dorsal structures of even my favorites, Sachiel and Zeruel. Of course it came as no surprise to me that I had neglected, for quite some time, to design the reverse-side of my own Azazel... Overall, I think this drawing is pretty good, though Azaz's torso and hips are much too narrow. For the first time, I had to deal with the matters of exactly how Azazel's auxillary arms and two tails attach to her body. Being as her main arms seem to possess a Sachiel-like shoulder structure, I figured I could give the secondary arms a more human-like, er, girdle. The primary arms are shown in their "normal" state, that is, not assuming the shape of any weapon or whathaveyou, whereas the secondary arms are "pumped up" and ready for action. Azazel's arse was the real surprise here for me, as I had not actually considered that her tails would sprout out of her "buttocks" (and look strangely like gargantuan spermatozoa -- I swear, that one happened completely on its own!), nor that the bony studs I had already imagined to go down her back would form two bizarre "eyes"! [The total count of the dorsal nodules is also worth taking note of.] It all befits her well enough, though... --August 4, 2002 + June 15, 2003

[Azazel head studies] Her head has a bad habit of looking somewhat different every time I draw it and, while these drawings were supposed to be an attempt to "finalize" the head's shape, my current idea is somewhat different. Still, this is the first time I gave Azazel her "goat" pupils -- which has a significance I've already hinted at. Experimentally, I put one of the jaw muscle attachment sites on the outside of her "skull", though this feature was short-lived. The teeth are not visible in the closed-mouth version because they, like snake fangs I suppose, normally lie against the palate or jaw and "spring" into position when she opens her mouth. The prehensile tongue is fully retractable and can also extend even further than the dodgy doodle below the side profile suggests. The length the neck can attain, it's a wonder Azazel can hide it in her upper body so well... (Don't think I haven't been pondering this issue carefully, though!) --August 4, 2002 + June 9, 2003

["Angel in Red" / Magic marker & colored pencil on sketch paper]

This is the drawing where Azazel finally transitions towards her modern incarnation -- it's a bit outdated, but still rather nice in some ways. It was also my first real attempt to add color to Azaz-chan [now there's something she would HATE being called...], using my strange lil' technique of magic markers (and water, in the event the markers happen to be old and stubborn) layered with colored pencil, which has a bad habit of never scanning properly, but oh well. To this day, certain matters of her coloration are still in flux, though I established some things here that haven't changed -- the dark, fleshy color of her head's ossified covering (or, might we say, exposed skull, because that's basically what it is) and the blue eyes. There's actually more to the drawing, but it didn't fit onto the scanner bed and it didn't seem worthwhile attempting a composite scan -- not that you're missing much, since everything except Azaz is blatantly unfinished. It was originally supposed to be a group picture of sorts, involving both Azazel and the Anshe-Shem, the latter two of whom you can still see: Azzael (in badly-outdated mode) looming behind Azazel, and part of Azza's open mouth to her left (he is also badly outdated). --June 14, 2003

[Fall 2000] The first real drawings of Azazel, showing her in "normal" (LEFT) and "battle" (RIGHT) modes. Both are a bit, well, dodgy, but, hey, you gotta start somewhere... One of the basic ideas behind Azazel is that almost every appendage on her body doubles as a weapon, though this is not always obvious. These two drawings were meant to showcase some of the discrepancies between the "two" Azazels, which, for all their outdatedness, they still do fairly well. No real need for me to get into it here, I think. --June 14, 2003

Azzael & Azza (The Anshe-Shem) Ah, don't you just love confusing names that all sound the same? But, truth to tell, I didn't make "Azazel", "Azzael", or "Azza" up -- I found them originally in The Legends of the Jews (though that's not the only place you'll see them) and they suited my purposes at the time. (Plus, I found the similarity between their names to be kind of ... funny.) Azzael and Azza can best be described as Azazel's "ß¡†©#es" -- well, not in the "sexual favors" sense (at least, not to my knowledge, though knowing Azazel, who really knows ;;p), but they pretty much do anything she tells them to do. Azzael does, at least, though Azza will usually take orders from his "brother". They're a fun duo to work with, especially because even though they're utter opposites in almost every regard, they're completely inseparable and each would be utterly lost without the other. I suppose it's a "twin" sort of complex (even though they're, obviously, not twins -- they're Anshe-Shem!).

Azzael's design originally emerged from a desire to "organicize" the T-RIDEN-T landcruiser from the "NGE" computer game "Koutetsu no Girlfriend" (or "Iron Maiden", as it's sometimes called). I'm not a big fan of mechs, though I must profess a weakness for those with more "bestial" designs (such as "Star Wars"' walkers), and Ikuto Yamashita's design here is S-H-A-R-P. Azza, on the other hand, began with the premise of "flying mouth" and took off from there, and after a while he arrived as his current form -- which, interestingly, reminded Morgan-kun of a "psychotic parrot". >>D (Sort of an odd comparison, though I suppose I can see it...)

(LEFT) I think this was one of the few times that I actually scared myself with something while I was drawing it. Stare into those big black eye sockets for a few minutes and tell me if you have the same reaction. ;;> At any rate, I decided to try drawing Azzael's skull, mostly for kicks. No idea how "accurate" (i.e., "anatomically convincing") it really is, but at least it looks cool in a freaky sort of way. His human facial features definitely pop out at ya, that's for sure. There are couple of smaller drawings in this one, as well: One of his cheek projections (which I suppose is his... ear? ::shrug::), a slightly dodgy eye, and a couple where you can see the lips I'm currently drawing him with (the lower-right one seems to use a, erm, composite view, though not on purpose ^_^;). --June 14, 2003

(LEFT) [10-18-02] Azzael seemed to rather preoccupy me during Environmental Concerns, though who knows why. One of the best drawings I have of Azzael at the moment, which makes the fact that it's on lined paper a bit annoying. The neck and head are strangely undersized, though this showcases his actual body pretty well. With the exception of a few things, he's essentially a glorified theropod (e.g., "big nasty meat-eating dinosaur" or "cute little chirping bird", take your pick ;;>). Well, why not? Dinosaurs are a major part of my personal history and, since I've been neglecting them so much lately, I might as well pay at least some homage (which I'm doing with both Azzael and his brother). The weird rib things are an idea recycled from a creature I made up for Hastern (drawings of which are not on the "Concepts" page, BTW) -- basically, they're bony outgrowths from the outer side of the ribs that stick way, way out. I'm still not sure what I want them to look like -- straight or curving? Thick or thin? What angle should they project at? I dunno, but I think Azzael would look pretty silly without them. --June 14, 2003

(LEFT) Microdoodle of Azzael from my Environmental Concerns class. The right foot kind of ruined the whole groovy rotated look, though at least you can see the rather, erm, unique placement of Azzael's core here. Where are his rib "wings", though? (RIGHT) Azzael's foot, from the same page of notes. --June 14, 2003

["Courtroom Azza" / Ballpoint on sketch paper / 9-18-02]

Ah... The first rendition worth peanuts of this guy, whose design I only attempted to "finalize" back in Fall '02. The basic idea behind Azza hasn't changed much; from the beginning, I'd wanted him to be a big, drooly mouth with large wings, a tiny body, and two funky hooked appendages. Except, initially, he was based loosely on the design of the Harpy-Fiend Evas, with their phony wings and all; his head was basically like theirs, taken to an even more nightmarish degree, and his wings were feathered. But once I got my epiphany for the design of Tabris [which has since been abandoned], that version of Azza went into the furnace and I had to start from scratch. Fortunately, I had recently acquired some books on angels (like, angel angels) with some details about Azzael and Azza I hadn't been aware of when I chose their names, and I loosely incorporated some of that into the Azza's design. (You're free to do some research and try to figure the references out on your own. ;;>) His head, sort of complementing the theropodan body and not-so-theropodan head of Azza's "brother" Azzael, is based in a rather general sense on the "carnosaurs" (Allosaurus and others). The open naris (that the right word?) is inspired by American vultures, which have a very odd nose that you can literally see straight through, and conveniently enables Azza to wear a nose-ring without having needed to pierce anything (unlike Azzael). There are also three rows (one of which isn't paired) of theropod-type teeth in that giant maw of his, which leaves essentially no room for a tongue, strangely enough. And the wings... In this pic they rather unoriginally manifested themselves as the chiropteran-draconian variety, though in the end I hope to come up with something a bit more unusual.

The title of this drawing comes from the fact that I was in a courtroom waiting to hear my charges and plead not guilty to all of them when I drew this. That's right -- I got myself into a bit of trouble by causing a minor collision that I, quite stupidly, did not respond properly to. (I wrote something about this in Banter, though I never really finished the tale.) With the result... I owe Randolph Township a bit of money (though my folks, my poor folks, say they'll pay... how I love them!), though, as a subsequent appearance at the municipal building determined, I somehow managed to evade any real serious charges. (Really, everyone involved, including the person whose car I hit, was a lot nicer than they needed to be. I think the prosecutor thought they were all batty.) At any rate, yeah, at the time I drew this, my mom (there for moral support) and I were waiting in there, listening to all of the other people getting called up and hearing their charges and pleading or making lame excuses or whatever, for over two hours before they finally decided it was my turn. So, during that tortuous wait, I both pencilled and inked this guy. Nothing incredibly fancy, thought he came out pretty good for the most part -- except I screwed up majorly on his core's shading and that's why it's so dark. Oh well. --Septemer 25, 2002 + June 15, 2003

[Satan / Ink on sketch paper / June 2003]

What story about angels would be complete without an appearance by Satan? Well, "BES", at least, mandates his appearance. In actuality, he just uses "Satan" (pronounced here as "sah-tahn" or "sah-tunn" rather than the typical "SAY-tunn" -- makes it sound more exotic, no? ;;p) as a pseudonym -- his true moniker is Sammael -- and as a form he assumes when dealing with "lower angels" (he really looks like this). I'd been trying to come up with a design for Satan for a while, and I actually liked this one well enough to start inking it. (Gave me something to do while I was waiting in the hallway for class to start on the first day of Art History I.) It incorporates Sammael's infamous face -- which led someone in my Figure Drawing class who was familiar with NGE to mistake Satan for Sachiel, hence the little Sachi doodle on the side -- but, of course, that's where the similarities end. I thought it might be interesting to try giving an angel a feature all of the Apostles in NGE lack -- hair, and lots of it. Also, to add some variety to the "vaguely humanoid angel" mold, I gave Satan a deep, almost dog-like ribcage rather than a typical wide, compressed one. The design is apt to change in the end, but at least it's a cool drawing.--August 30, 2003

[Tanshemeth / pencil on paper, colored in PhotoShop / November 2003] A mysterious owl-like creature that shows up later on in BES and affectionately dubbed "The Devourer of Souls" for reasons I'm not going to elaborate upon. ;;P The idea behind her has its roots in Judaic lore (like much of the stuff in BES), but the name was handpicked by me from a Hebrew lexicon (look it up -- the standard definition is pretty funny) and the design is the product of my own disturbed imagination (with a few outside queues here and there). For Tanshemeth's design, I wanted something that would scare the willies out of most people. Birds stripped of their plumage look so frickin' weird they serve the purpose rather well, and that's essentially what Tanshemeth is -- a giant, white, toothed, plucked owl. Regardless, the eyes are probably the primary "freak factor", but, hey, whatever works. I'm quite satisfied with this head design, but I have yet to come up with a body plan that makes me happy. Because Tanshemeth has no actual feathers, designing her wings is the hardest part -- but I have something in mind that just might work. -- January 27, 2004

["Tabris...?" / Summer 2002] This was once part of an overelaborate theorem I created that attempted to establish "Tabris" as being, at one point, an entity unique from either Adam or Kaworu. It was clever in some ways, but eventually I realized how preposterous it actually was, and I've since abandoned the idea entirely. Good thing, too -- it makes the writeup for this pic considerably shorter.

In this sketch, I was trying to find a look for my hypothetical "Tabris". What you see here basically combines visual elements from the harpy-fiends (due to the connections my theorem made between Tabris and the ryousanki Evas) and a fan-created shito (the winner of a contest in Japan which was illustrated battling Shogouki in an illustration by Gainax artist You Yoshinari). I eventually became dissatisfied with this design and attempted several times to overhaul it before I finally abandoned my "Tabris Theorem". The redesign attempted to make Tabris a more compact, and wholly ominous, vulturine monster; the head, bird-like wings, and elongate tail were kept intact, and I tried out new ideas with the torso and non-alar limbs, none of which satisfied me a great deal. (I think at one point Tabris bore a strange resemblance to the dragons from "Escaflowne" in his general build.) At any rate, the work won't go entirely to waste -- bits and pieces of poor Tabris will be recycled into new BES monstrosities yet. --January 26, 2004

The Scions

An integral part of the "BES" story is the birth of six or seven Scions (or Yaliyd) -- children of Evangelions and Apostles. Sure, many NGE devouts are likely to be appalled by the idea, but I find it simply irresistable. I for one think the Evas deserve to explore their reproductive potential, and what could be cuter than a baby Evangelion? >>D [Well, arguably, a baby anything-else, though I didn't ask you, did I? ::p] There is, of course, the problem of how the Apostles -- whom I envision as biologically genderless -- manage to "impregnate" anyone, but you'll just have to wait for the doujinshi to find out, now won't you? >::p When it came time to bestow an apellation upon these children, "Scion" was the first name to come to mind. (Blame "Dogma" for that.) "Yaliyd" -- which sounds rather cool if pronounced correctly -- is the Hebrew word for "Scion", commonly used by the angels of "BES" (whose penchant for Hebrew has yet to be explained...).

[September 12 & 13, 2002]: Some stuff I extracted from two pages' worth of Azrael doodles, earlier conceptions of the laddie contrasting his "adult" form (LEFT) with a more "adolescent" one (RIGHT). See, these Zions look pretty much like their Eva mothers until they hit puberty, and, instead of getting acne, the traits they inherited from their other parent start to emerge. Unlike us, though, these poor kids can't ameliorate their situation with Oxy Pads™ or mud masques. Well, something like that. The "adult" Azra here is obviously incongruous with my more recent visualization (see above), though, interestingly, the facial features of the "teenage" one match my new adult Azrael quite well -- just give him an upper eye instead of an empty socket and it's virtually perfect. [Well, and move those clavicles up a bit, too...] Just for your info, the colored head was drawn with ballpoint and then, quite stupidly, colored in with colored pencil -- a bad move, perhaps, as it looked a notch more impressive beforehand.--June 14, 2003