Finally!

Finally I get to blog about S.T.E.A.L. after so many months! That’s because finally I have illustrations for the novel after all these years! As I said on my [previous post on the matter]({{ site.url }}/2006/02/08/it-lives/), I had been in talks with two artists at the time. One simply disappeared after a while (and then I read on her deviantart page that drawing is not a priority… it would have been nicer if she had told me at least), while the other took a good deal of time (around seven months). But now, thanks to the incredible drawing skill of Too, I have the first set of seven pictures I commissioned (out of nine)!

Actually, I had some drafts since a few months, but considering that I’ve been extremely unlucky with art commissions in the past four years, I’ve kept quiet until I had at least some definitive art. Here are some samples:

338

The picture above is from one of the first scenes in the novel (want to know more? [Go and take a look!]({{ site.url }}/steal/steal.pdf)) depicting Yumiko (center), Saiyuki (left) and Michiru (right). Too has changed a bit how Yumiko looks with respect to the original description, but both me and Marco are OK with it, so I’ll update the description accordingly.

341

This drawing shows the other female main character of the story, Satsuki Ford. Too used as reference an old drawing someone made for me, but made the character a little sexier.

344

More Yumiko here, slightly risque. This comes from approximately one third into the novel and in this case it is a faithful representation of the description.

I love Too’s style and art, it’s really perfect for the novel. The remaining images, watermarked to avoid “theft”, are available in the gallery (see the tab on the top of the page). The complete images will be available in the next build of the PDF, which I’ll make once I get the remaining two pictures.

Now, it’s time to finish this novel… it’s been almost 10 years (I started in 1997).