I Know Ive Been MIA For A Few Days, But I Had A Very Good Reason. On Sunday I Took Part In My Third Ever

I know I’ve been MIA for a few days, but I had a very good reason. On Sunday I took part in my third ever archery competition…and I won!

That’s my second win out of three, alongside one second place!

So, to celebrate, I thought I’d try my hand at giving the Fleetway version of Amy Rose a slight re-imagining. I never got a chance to read the Fleetway Comics myself, them being cancelled before I was eight, but god did they look fun! I’m sure had I seen them on the shelves I would have ran right to them, but…I just don’t think I ever saw them on the newsagents stands?

Either way, from what I’ve seen they did a phenomenal job with their take on Amy Rose, and given that I already loved her from the mainline games it wasn’t gonna be hard to grab my attention.

For the piece itself; I decided to blend together aspects of both classic and modern, but rather than a hammer, I figured that Fleetway Amy would have some knowledge of traditional archery form (given how she wields a crossbow) and basically decided to lean into that angle. I know Fleetway Amy wore baggier, arguably comfier shirts, but that’s not always the best thing for archery—or barebow archery specifically—you don’t want anything that the string can whip against because it can knock your arrows off course; and even mm at the start can translate to whole inches or more at the target’s end—so I gave her more of a running-gear fit style shirt but paired it with a set of practical and fun as hell cargo pants! Actually, I feel like it works as a callback to the 90’s/00’s style anyway? And that was a fun style to revisit anyway, especially in Amy’s classic-era colour scheme! Also kept the modern pattern on her boots, but repurposed them to be a little more outdoorsy.

So, yeah, that was my weekend!

Back with the second part of “Things I would have liked to see in the metal virus arc.”

Pretty much the biggest thing: Vector acknowledging how freaking traumatic seeing him get zombified must have been for Espio…

But then, he -is- a great detective…so I figure that he probably already knows damn well what it must be like: the trick is that Espio would probably have to be the one to broach the subject.

And, of course, Espio being Espio…just wouldn’t.

It was actually a lot of fun to play around with -how- to portray Espio here; there’s a fine line one can dance between stoicism and just shutting down on yourself completely, and it was intriguing trying to capture what Espio is clearly feeling despite his best efforts to hide it.

I’m so glad that my artwork has been able to reach you like this; it’s exactly what I was hoping for.

If I can offer even a bit of the warmth and comfort that I needed as a teenager when things got tough, then I can call myself successful. Hopefully I can continue to meet these expectations!

Thankyou; I’m so glad to hear this.

Back with the second part of “Things I would have liked to see in the metal virus arc.”

Pretty much the biggest thing: Vector acknowledging how freaking traumatic seeing him get zombified must have been for Espio…

But then, he -is- a great detective…so I figure that he probably already knows damn well what it must be like: the trick is that Espio would probably have to be the one to broach the subject.

And, of course, Espio being Espio…just wouldn’t.

It was actually a lot of fun to play around with -how- to portray Espio here; there’s a fine line one can dance between stoicism and just shutting down on yourself completely, and it was intriguing trying to capture what Espio is clearly feeling despite his best efforts to hide it.

Can you believe Sonya and Nightwolf invented that cat meme!

(Redraw/reimagining from ep 6 “Familiar red.” AKA the BEST ep…because it’s mostly all about Nightwolf. And tbf, he gets some good, heartfelt moments!)

Know what? Same. 😭 That’s why I had to make a sequel!

It’s nice to know I’m not alone in feeling that Espio isn’t quite so above it all. Yes, he is an undoubtedly talented and capable ninja, dedicated to his craft and proud of it…but he’s also still sixteen years old.

And I mean that in the best possible way! I would not have been this zen at sixteen!

Also, head-canon that because he’s basically the team dad/dad friend/promoted to parent, Vector hears a LOT of “Bo-oooss” being called like that whiny “Daa-aaad” noise and can do zippo about it.

It’s not really all about the money: not entirely.

That’s always the vibe that I’ve gotten from Vector. Yes, he needs that cash to cover their bills, but only so he can keep a roof over their heads and the boys fed. Did you know that in Sonic heroes, one of Vector’s idle lines is “Darn. I forgot to pay the electric bill.” —that pretty much cemented my impression of him as “Dad friend,” especially considering that Espio and Charmy are underage.

But I also like to think that he never wants the boys to see the bills. I like to think he doesn’t want them to be so bogged down worrying about it that they can’t do, or even enjoy, their jobs.

Hoping to explore this one a little further.