Subject: Tovio Rogers (Tovio Rogers@dA)
Number of Commissions: 3 (two paid, one free)
Recommendation-Level: Four out of Five
Comments: For the rating I would have given a five, but there was a lack of proof-stage. I have only ever gotten him when he’s doing his sales so it’s possibly just something he doesn’t bother with for sales, but it’d be nice to be able to make little additions while it’s still in sketchiness.
Tovio’s someone I’ve dealt with a couple of times in the past, and with the new dA account, he drew me a freebie, which led to me order a couple of pieces from him in the variety of couples – he had a sale and I couldn’t resist – and I feel that sharing them might be the best thing I can do to tout his skill. I can, at least in part, describe a bit of the characters and there’ll be absolutely no question that he nailed them.
Spite-Fire (Astrid) and Elhanan (Eli)
It kind of blows me away that they look so good, Astrid’s got just the right amount of curve, and Eli’s skintone and hair are spot on. He’s offering her a cupcake because the way they met is her staring at a stove, willing it to produce food for her, while he sauntered up and started cooking. It started an entire tradition within their group where he’d make some amazing breakfast and they’d all sit around chatting while it happened. Such an amazing piece for some amazing characters.
The reason she’s venting the green (white-green here) flame is because strong emotions tend to make her go a bit flamey, it’s kind of a hindrance in their relationship, so she’s learned to vent it in certain ways to have those sweet moments with him – and he, to his credit, is learning to play with fire as well as someone who would easily get burned can. The cutest thing for me is that they both have these sort of veins around their eyes, hers from scant burns when she first started to manifest her powers, and his from taking a maser blast to the face (though it just grazed.)
It’s little things like that that I love about our characters, you know?
Knuckledust (Dusty) and Mihanikos (Acacia Mihanikos/Miha)
Probably the stand-out piece of this order set. The colours, the tractor, their expressions and demeanor, and Dusty’s incredible body make this one of my favourite pieces of his to date. Not just of ones he’s done for me, but EVER. Dusty’s this no-nonsense type of bounty hunter who has this killer fight-style and body, and a heart of gold that absolutely cannot be stopped; while Miha is kind of brash and one of the guys more than she is any kind of girly girl, she runs her father’s old mechanic shop and could fix up any old clunker you bring in… then there’s the giant wrench and manhole cover she wields when fighting. You can see why they look so damn tough even in their cuteness.
They met through a job she helped Dusty pull and have been inseparable ever since. It’s kind of one of those relationships that creeps up on you, and this picture personifies just how easy they are together.
***
Those are the two couple shots, and I feel that they are… just bloody amazing, you know? Sometimes Tov will run free sketch livestreams where you don’t end up with some little rinky dink sketch idea, you get something like the following:
It’s not a simple little picture that someone drew in a couple of seconds, it’s a well thought out idea and it plays well with everything. I’m absolutely over the moon and would recommend Tovio highly – plus, it’s fun to watch him draw. ;D