So first I drew myself as a Naruto-style ninja, and then Jazyl did the same. This got Jazyl, Dylan, and myself talking about drawing ourselves as a Naruto-style three-man ninja cell.

We talked about our characters a little, Jazyl continued to refine his design, and I even pencilled my avatar out (though I never scanned it and therefore never showed anyone). But as happens, we all kind of got busy and forgot about it. That was 3 years ago, and last week Jazyl posted this:

 
BAM! Such an awesome piece, that I’m totally honored to be portrayed in (that’s me on the right with the mohawk, naturally). Please do yourselves a favor and check out Jazyl’s Deviant Art gallery, he’s a great illustrator!

So, the gauntlet has been thrown–now Dylan and I both need to draw a group shot of the three of us as ninjas. For me, the first step of that process is finally inking up and coloring the picture I drew of my own shinobi avatar:

 
The original story for our characters was that we were going to be ninjas from the village of Hidden Wacom. Three deadly digital art ninjas, if you will. As you can see, my avatar is armed with ancient relics–a Wacom Graphire II tablet (shoulder), along with a stylus (pendant), and mouse (hand guard). And yes, for those who are wondering, I’m still rocking all my digital art with a Graphire II from like 1999.

This is a more basic design, so I will probably change things up when I draw the completed group shot. I feel like the bar has been raised! Also, Jazyl has developed the story more, and now he has assigned our ninjas to the village of Hidden Paint, which definitely sounds classier. In the end, each piece will be it’s own take on the matter, but I think that’s the fun part. I’m making the ninja group shot a short-term goal, so stay tuned–more on this as it develops!