The Variable//Private Commissions Open
LightNews LightNews
banner
thevariableedge.bsky.social
The Variable//Private Commissions Open
@thevariableedge.bsky.social
210 followers 410 following 890 posts
Traditional/Digital Artist
No AI
Commission Status: OPEN
Tips, Commissions or more? ko-fi.com/variable-edge
Posts Replies Media Videos
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Mr. & Mrs. X, 'nuff said!

(of course not, check out the alt-text!)

#Marvel #X-Men #X-MenRogue #Gambit #TraditionalArt #Fanart
There's a lot I feel that could be improved on this drawing, but as I don't usually draw men, that's certainly a given. I'll likely revisit this pic again in the future, either with the same characters or not. The layout itself was easy enough: Rogue is a strong girl, and Gambit is the type of suave playboy who might take being sweetly coddled, but not if it takes him off his coolness game. As always, I went with their 90's looks, complete with the banded metal boots. While the art is cleaned up some through Clip Studio Paint, and some texture brought back by way of sharpening the image, the vellum board I usually use felt different and off for this one, to the point I actually considered scrapping it and starting all over. Might have been due to the storms and humidity around the time I worked on this, but the pencils didn't feel "right" going over the surface while sketching, and even during the shading stage. I'm glad I stuck with it to the end, and it looks good enough-- my mild dissatisfaction with the final pic lies in my own execution of the concept, not the way my tools behaved. I've been actively going for a certain visual language in my art style. Anime-inspired of course, but I'm sticking to certain style rules I'm placing for myself, such as the way I structure bodies, to the way I draw hair. Rogue's curly, wavy hair is an example of that. I expect that maybe even the way I render bodies, faces and expressions may change down the line, and I don't know if I might like how it may look at first. But as much as I've had to accept the changes when an artist I follow adopts a new style, I should be just as open to making such changes in myself as well. Even if it may lead to actually drawing more males.
November 28, 2025 at 6:23 PM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
November 27, 2025 at 11:29 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Next: Gumbo & Shugah
November 23, 2025 at 11:35 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
For my 200 Followers Sketch, I drew Squirrel Girl for @mistahdood.bsky.social!

My next giveaway may not be Follower Count related (200 took FOREVER, and I'm NOT popular!), so keep an eye out!

#FanArt #TraditionalArt #Marvel #MarvelRivals #TheEmperor'sNewGroove
I have a tendency to "draw from memory". If it's a character I've drawn often enough, like Daisy, I may have memorized close to 90% of her design, so okay, cool. But MOST of the time, I just want to draw, I have a "pretty good" picture of the character in my head, and I'm somewhere where I can't just pull up my phone to look up references, like when I drafted Doreen here while standing in a grocery line. "But lots of the details still came out right!" Nuh-uh, that came AFTER, when I had to do LOTS of erasures to fix up the acorn-like padding on her sleeves, and damn, she got through SO far into the process before I realized I LEFT OUT HER EARS. So, if there was one thing I feel that made me a better artist, it's the simple acceptance of my mistakes, AND HOW I LEARNED TO NUKE THE DRAWING WITH AN ERASER if I need to fix something. I'm a bit proud of my lettering though. I've been writing in a "comic font" ever since high school, because I was writing my own comic at the time, and had to do my own lettering. Said comic was in large 12 x 18 inch sketchpads, and I had no computer or scanner, and for that matter, even professional comics did not have computer lettering yet (Shout-out to lettering legend Tom Orzechowski, who seemingly lettered practically every comic I read at the time.) If anything, it led to my teachers liking my written assignments, because my handwriting became easier to read than most! So... yeah. Also The Emperor's New Groove reference, and a touch of Peanuts' Woodstock chatter, because I'm the type of nerd who always has to reference something!
November 21, 2025 at 1:03 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Nostalgia-ber continues with Voodoo and Velocity! I hopped on Image Comics in the early years, following the art of Jim Lee and Marc Silvestri coming off of X-Men and Wolverine.
November 17, 2025 at 5:45 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
November is Nostalgia-ber!

I posted before about how #DeadOrAlive was a big source of imagination fodder for me.

I'd like to see the series have some kind of revival. The level of fanservice could be dependent on the player by giving a more robust customization system.

#KoeiTecmo #Fanart
She Kicks High. Remember that ad? Funny enough, and despite the likelihood that such an ad would probably not be made nowadays, it actually was one of the tamer ads that would be churned out by game publishers during the early 2000's. There's a veritable rabbit hole of questionable advertising decisions from that time that made me wonder what I might have had to deal with if I pursued a career with my Marketing degree. This is a current-day take on one of my old commissions, except in the original, the client asked for Hitomi to be fighting Asuka from Tekken. I decided on this one to keep things "in-house", and made the opponent Ayane, who for a time was my favorite DOA girl until Hitomi came along. Hitomi's jeans were done by doing a layer of hatching over the pencil shades. When I was in high school, I drew my own comics, the kind of which I am likely never going to post online. But I was starting to be influenced by manga, and so I wanted to do everything in black and white. But I had no affordable, sustainable source for stick-on screentone (seriously by the time I was in college, I ever only came upon maybe THREE sheets of "zip-a-tone", and they were never in the shades I needed. But one manga I read had pages where the art was shaded, not by the usual dotted tones, but parallel line hatching. So I figured, why not do it myself? So I had PAGES of art where things were shaded by me going over the art with a 0.1 technical pen and a ruler. And I'd even layered different passes at different angles to get a darker shade if I needed. The art is not stuff I'd boast about now, but the amount of experimentation and technique I put into it back then certainly is.
November 8, 2025 at 5:00 PM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Do, do that Voodoo that you do so well...

#Fanart #WIP #Nostalgia #Comics #JimLee #WildC.A.T.s
November 3, 2025 at 8:31 PM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Allow me to repost some #Samus #fanart while I share the quick story about how I unknowingly crossdressed one #Halloween.

Put simply, my friend owned the just-released #Metroid, it would be months before Samus' identity would be revealed in those pre-internet days, and you can figure out the rest.
MerMay-troid Autobot Samus It says it right there. Samus, Mega Man X Reploid style.
November 1, 2025 at 1:52 PM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Something, something, fast girls, something, something...

#ComicBooks #90sNostalgia #ImageComics #TopCowComics #Cyberforce #Fanart #WIP
Velocity of Cyberforce
November 1, 2025 at 1:28 PM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Morrigan & Lilith coloring timelapse.

#Darkstalkers #Fanart #MorriganAensland #LilithAensland #Capcom #Halloween
October 31, 2025 at 12:06 PM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
I drew Morrigan and Lilith earlier in the month, but with the amount of work I put into the sketch and colors, I decided to hold them back until just before #Halloween.

Then Felicia gets the biggest reception ever, and now the pressure is on!

#Capcom #Darkstalkers #Fanart #FightingGames
"Ever dance with a succubus in the pale moonlight?" This was a fun pic to work on. Drawing Morrigan and Lilith Aensland in a dance pose was a no-brainer for me, and it just flew onto the paper like nothing at all. Funny enough, I got the idea for this, like a few other pics, while standing in line waiting to pay for groceries. I have taken to keeping a sketching kit with me, and I broke it out and drafted the sketch while I waited for my turn. There are a few small touches that let me play with the composition, not to mention the way the pic can be seen. I referenced a photo of the Moon when I drew it, and intentionally made it upside-down. Playing with the idea of "which way is up" is something I like to do when it comes to flying characters, and for a duo of supernatural ladies, it helped with the mood. Now, is Morrigan dipping Lilith, or is Lilith carrying Morrigan? And yes, those are the lights of a city behind Morrigan, meant to screw with your view a little bit more. Did you know that Morrigan and Lilith's family name is "Aensland"? For some reason I had read it as "Aenslad", and never really thought of it until I finally had to type out the name, and realized it was misspelled in my head for who-knows-how-many-years. Anyhoo, here is the original sketch, with some cleaning and adjustment in Clip Studio Paint. I was on the verge of calling this pic complete, and spraying on the fixative, when I had finally noticed a glaring flaw, one that a few of you might have picked up on when I originally posted a preview of this earlier on my account: I had forgotten to draw Lilith's "head wings". Go ahead, scroll on back and check that preview, this write-up will still be here when you get back. See what I mean? Now, the old me would have chosen to let that flaw go unchanged. I had already tightened and shaded much of the pic at that point-- what if I ruin it by smudging something with my eraser when I try to fix it? But if there was anything I learned as an artist is to not only recognize and embrace my mistakes, but also have the courage to fix them. Worst case scenario, my eraser ends up smudging the page, and I have to draw it all over again. But I chose not to draw the opposite wing, leaving it "hidden" behind Lilith's outstretched arm. There was no way I could fit it in without breaking the flow of the pose, or end up losing the readable shape of wing. Maybe I'll figure it out when the time comes I decide to give this a re-draw in the future.
October 30, 2025 at 7:31 PM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Next Month:

She Kicks High...
October 28, 2025 at 4:51 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Decided to save my Morrigan/Lilith pic for closer to Halloween, so relax with Felicia!

As of this posting, I have reached 200 followers, so there is a bonus giveaway for a character sketch! bsky.app/profile/thev...

#Capcom #FightingGame #Darkstalkers #FeliciaDarkstalkers #Fanart #TraditionalArt
Felicia from Darkstalkers relaxes on a giant ball of string. I actually thought of this pic while standing in line for groceries, and I had my sketching materials on me at the time. So while carts of groceries were being tallied and paid for by the people ahead of me, I did the basic layout of this sketch, then did the rest after getting home. Obviously, the ball of string was the more challenging part of the pic. After sketching out Felicia's pose, I took a small plate and used that to draw the basic circle, then painstakingly drew in the details with my sketching pencil, then, after Felicia herself was already finished, line-wise, I went over the entire thing with my 4B mechanical pencil to tighten up the lines. Felicia was shading with my pencils, but with the string, trying to shade it after all of those lines might have meant the detail would get smudged over. So, after cleaning the pic in Clip Studio Paint, I applied one layer of dotted screentone for a simple shadow coming from Felicia. I had considered doing a floor shadow, but left it suspended in space, in case I decide to use it for something else, like a sticker or something. Felicia's snoring "Z" was based on the Darkstalkers logo typeface, or as best as I could estimate based on the rest of the actual letters of the logo. If you read all of this, comment if you pronounce "Z" as "Zee" or "Zed"!
October 24, 2025 at 12:06 PM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Welp, that's it! I reached the maximum number of followers that I ever had back on Twitter.

It's barely a drop in a bucket compared to a lot of artists out there, but this is MY bucket, dammit! 😁 For those actively liking and commenting on my works, thanks so much!

(Sketch Giveaway rules below!)
Screenshot showing my current follower count!
October 23, 2025 at 7:31 PM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Gawd, she looks so cute. Thank you eyes, brain, and hand for cooperating so well for this one. Haven't had a drawing go from imagination to page as well as this for a long time without needing revisions, traditional or digital.

#Darkstalkers #WIP #ComicArt
Shh, Felicia is sleeping...
October 21, 2025 at 6:37 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
"I've got a yarn to share..."

Why is there so much string, why do I do this to myself, rarghaddargh...

(Because filling out details like this is strangely relaxing.)

#WIP
A certain catgirl's clawed hand caresses her (BIG) ball of yarn.
October 21, 2025 at 3:51 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Tomonobu Itagaki's passing is of some significance for me. DOA was a big inspiration for me as an artist, and though the series has gone dormant since its 6th title, I can never forget its influence on me over the years. Thanks for everything, Itagaki-san.

#DeadOrAliveGame #TeamNinja
Although Kasumi and Ayane vie for placement on who's my first DOA favorite, my ultimate favorite would have to be Hitomi, who a sunny, vibrant personality that I was drawn towards. Gameplay-wise, she was exactly like she fought: simple, direct, and (thanks to DOA's camera and effects during certain hits) downright brutal. She also got the short end of the stick for a time when it came to costumes and other art, so I felt obligated to give her some love. This pic was one of the first I did where I took a pencilled piece and did everything else on computer. I think I was still learning to use Clip Studio at this time. There's another version of this that has a more black and white manga feel with more screentone shading. I had a series of commissions once, where the client asked me to make a hypothetical fighting game featuring most of his favorite videogame ladies. And having a common favorite with Hitomi, they asked me to make her one of the main featured characters on the game's would-be select screen. As Hitomi would be getting a larger image than most of the others who would be represented by portraits at the most, I gave Hitomi the full body treatment. But there was the question of her costume. Would she wear one of her existing game outfits, or do we make something new? As you can see, we opted with the 'new', and gave her a tube top and shorts with an open jacket and sneakers. This was one or my better works of a 'fully painted' character art. There is SO much more I could have improved on, if I knew what I know today, but this was a turning point for me, since this was also the first time I was rendering with a tablet pen THAT HAS PRESSURE SENSITIVITY. Fun fact: I'm STILL using that pen today! Its casing is being held together by duct tape! Support me on Ko-fi, or order some commissions, so I can get a new, proper pen and tablet...!!! ^_^ This Hitomi vs Asuka (of Tekken fame, one of Itagaki's "most hated" games)* was another commission, and one of the few I did where I worked with a set of Copic-like alcohol markers. There's not much depth or variety to the shading, because those things were NOT cheap, and even if I was earning by this time, I could never afford a full, proper set of markers. The main reason I work digitally is because I feel that traditional tools like markers and paint would be wasted with my skills, and I can't afford to keep myself supplied enough to get good with them. Yes, the clothing damage was part of the commission request. *anyone more in the know is aware that this seeming rivalry between Itagaki and Harada (Tekken's director) was more of a friendly competitiveness that was made to be more dramatic than it really was, much like pro wrestling kayfabe. If there was one thing I loved about DOA5, it was the annual Halloween contest for costume designs. I never won, but it was fun to design outfits for my favorite characters. There are a couple of designs not included in this old set from previous entries for Hitomi and Mila. The one for Mila was particularly interesting, because 1) Team Ninja actually contacted me to TONE DOWN the sexiness of the outfit, and 2) it was the only entry of mine (post revision) to make it as far as fan voting. So these costumes were a cat suit for Honoka, a "JRPG Protag" outfit for Hitomi, and a Crow-themed superhero costume for Nyotengu. The fun part was that for my entries, I used this floor background I painted that was based on the combo trials stage that was used in DOA5. I feel it gave the designs a feel of looking like how they might belong in the game.
October 19, 2025 at 4:11 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Oh hey, #PortfolioDay...!

I'm The Variable. Follow me here on Bluesky for game character fanart, crossovers, and the developing adventures of my OCs!

I usually post detailed notes on my works in the alt-text, so check those out.

Follow and support me on my Ko-fi here: ko-fi.com/variable_edge!
Psylocke, Rogue, and Jean Grey of the X-Men, in their iconic 90's-era costumes. My work has become slightly less super-deformed, but this was where I started to have fun with my lines and figure work. Chun-Peach or Peach-Li? I like to do crossover concepts like this quite often, and sometimes I can make the most obscure references or connections to push the visual joke further, like with the mushroom details on Peach's costume here. One of my personal favorites was Metroid Dredd, where the game's title allowed me to make a Judge Dredd reference. It's an older piece, so look for it while browsing my art! Mermaid Samus came about because I did this drawing in May (#Mermay), and a streamer I'm following made the same month "May-troid", so I was inspired to put the two ideas together for a character fan concept. For those unaware, the Metroid series has you as Samus Aran, bounty hunter of space pirates and the occassional alien being/monster/bacteria that threatens all other life in the universe. So, in the games, you usually traverse the labyrinth of an alien planet, during which you get powerups that either boost you abilities, or make it so the more hostile aspects of the environment (usually REALLY hot or cold locales) don't harm you. And usually, the latter is in the form of just much tougher armor. But I thought, "What if the adaptive nature of the armor went a bit further, and outright changes the way you explore the game?" The idea of an expansive deep ocean has never been touched on by any Metroid game I've played (I have NOT played them all), and with the theme of Mermay-troid, I had my concept fleshed out and ready to draw. Speaking of Mermay, another pic I did this year was this cute, but toothy shark themed mermaid. Lemme talk about my "art style". First off, I prefer to think of style as "drawing in the way you are most comfortable with". What kind of lines feel the easiest for your hands to... um... handle. I tend to favor long, sweeping lines accentuated by slightly sharp curves, best exemplified here by my shark mermaid's tail as she swims the depths. The process I currently enjoy is doing the base art in traditional pencils, which I then scan and color on Clip Studio Paint. My pencilled art is usually comic-styled line art, shaded traditionally. I do most of my inking digitally on Clip Studio. A lot of my recent works are stylistically watermarked, which actually feature a mashup of lines taken from previous works, so each piece technically sits on the shoulders of the ones that came before. Most of my character proportions are realistic, but strong art influence from games such as Street Fighter's Alpha series have me favoring slightly larger, more expressive hands. And while my style leans more into anime, my designs tend to have more prominent noses. As for the subject matter, most of the art I post are fanart designs, mixed with character concepts for a story I'm writing. I rarely draw guys-- just putting that out there already. And while I like to draw sexy, attractive girls, I don't post NSFW pieces (the fact my recent Rosalina pic got tagged as "sexually suggestive-no nudity" still irks me). At the same time, I don't draw art for kids, so this can be described as a PG-16+ page? There may be cases of partial artistic nudity in my work, but I won't be posting anything sexually explicit on this account.
October 15, 2025 at 1:02 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Lilith Aensland WIP. That's Morrigan's hand at her back.

Damn, this is one of the better smiles I've done in a long time.
October 11, 2025 at 11:07 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
If she loses to Rei, it's going to be like that whole "losing to Shinji" bit again.
October 9, 2025 at 8:38 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
September set: Street Fighter Princesses!

Daisy x Cammy: Daissy
Peach x Chun-Li: Peach-Li
Rosalina x Rose: Rosa

Rosa's original post got flagged by Bsky Moderation, so I'm playing it safe. You can view her on my Ko-fi page for free (paid support gives access to a full-sized version, if you like)!
October 8, 2025 at 4:56 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
WIP

#Darkstalkers #Halloween #Fanart
October 6, 2025 at 7:24 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
It's October, so that means that it's time for my annual Darkstalkers tributes. While I work on a pair of succubi, enjoy a repost of previous Night Warrior pics!

#Capcom #Darkstalkers #Halloween
Hsien-Ko/Lei-Lei Morrigan and Lillith Felicia Hsien-Ko/Lei-Lei in my older style. Was also going for a MVC3 vibe with the coloring on this one.
October 4, 2025 at 3:35 PM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Rosalina X Rose = Rosa!

I was originally going to cross Rosalina over with Manon as "Harmon", since Rosalina's French name is "Harmonie", and Manon is French... see how the references are stretching like taffy...

And then I thought of Rose. Anyways, more in the alt!

#SuperMario #StreetFighter
As I mentioned in the main post, my original plan was to cross Rosalina over with Manon, because I was only thinking of using currently active characters in Street Fighter 6. Fortunately, I remembered Rose, and while having them with similar names was an easy get, the fact that Rose has the special move, "Soul Satellite", were she has soul energy orbs circle around her, it was a short hop to have "Star Satellites", using Rosalina's beloved Lumas, who also assist her in Super Smash Bros. Although the mental gymnastics trying to connect Rosalina and Manon by way of Manon's French nationality and Rosalina's corresponding name in the French editions of her games (ie. the actual French releases, not necessarily when you change the language to French on a US edition game) was a stretch worthy of Manon's high kicks. It was a fun mental exercise, but sometimes, I have to remember to keep it simple. Compared to Daisy and Peach's drawings earlier in this series, Rosalina was the first time I embraced actual vector inking for my linework. For the rendering process, I stepped back from Daisy and Peach's more involved rendering by creating a custom brush for CSP and using it for the bulk of the shading and highlighting process. Adapting Rose's signature outfit for Rosalina was a simple process. Rosalina keeps most of her hairstyle intact, but has a small swishy curl taken from Rose's gravity-defying hair. The outfit itself is little more than Rosalina's colors over Rose's costume, with the exception of a star-themed buckle on the belt, and the curvy hem of Rosalina's long dress being turned into a miniskirt under Rose's high cut skirt. While I am very happy with my crossover designs, I am divided between Peach and Rosalina as to which one was better thought out. I think Peach-Li has the better combination of referential fanservice, I think Rosa ended up better drawn.
October 2, 2025 at 12:57 AM
thevariableedge.bsky.social
Trying my hand at traditionally inking this pic.

Depending on how it turns out, might not post it, but most likely the worst case will just end up fixing things digitally where needed.
September 29, 2025 at 1:06 PM