Cheetara

Sometimes I like to rework super hero costumes (don't we all?)  This is an example of how that sort of thing happens:

I numbered the sketches so you could see how they developed...

First I sketch out the original, and then I start tweaking.  For Cheetara (a childhood idol of mine, if not technically a "super hero") I had a couple of things occur to me.  The first is that I absolutely love her bracer, so I extended it to make it a little more useful as actual armor.  The second is that I am damn tired of heroic women in wedgie-prone leotards, so I decided to put her in a skirt- but she is a runner, so that might be a little restrictive, and thus I made it more like a tunic, with splits up to the hip (she's wearing leggings, so whatever).  Then I changed the boots to be a reflection of the new more armor-like bracer, bringing them up over the knees (but only in the front) to act as a greave.  I was staring at that when the thought occurred to me that it's really stupid to keep her in boots- she's based on a cheetah, the fastest land mammal and the only member of the cat family without fully retractable claws, which is part of how they run so damn fast.  So I killed the boot and left the greave, and turned her leggings into stirrup leggings (hey at least she's still not in a damn leotard).

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the evolution of this particular page in my sketch book.  Now I'm tempted to do a finished piece... but that will have to wait a while, as my schedule for the next two weeks is stupid-busy (but more on that later).