The Variable//Private Commissions Open

"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.

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

I'm tempted to post the thing, but I'm also paralyzed by the idea of what might end up being suggested. 😜

If anyone even replies at all. 😐

And that scares me even more. 😨

Next Month:

She Kicks High...

If you wanted an affordable DVD player, you needed a PS2...

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"!

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

I stopped drawing robots, especially Transformers, for a long time, because someone compared me to him.

200 Follower Sketch Giveaway
1 Slot

1) Must be a Follower
2) Like this Post
3) Comment a character you want me to draw
4) Winner will be chosen 31/10/2025

Rules:
-Single character, no background
-Must be SFW! (No nudity, gore, etc.)
-Private Use only! (No merch designs, etc.)

Screenshot showing my current follower count!

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!)

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"!

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

Seeing game trailers sporting a 2026 release date, and thinking "2026!?!", before remembering it's already near the end of October 2025...

200 Follower Sketch Giveaway
1 Slot

1) Must be a Follower
2) Like this Post
3) Comment a character you want me to draw
4) Winner will be chosen 31/10/2025

Rules:
-Single character, no background
-Must be SFW! (No nudity, gore, etc.)
-Private Use only! (No merch designs, etc.)

Screenshot showing my current follower count!

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!)

I would re-buy SO many titles if a NES/SNES eshop opened with their complete respective libraries of games.

The amount of sewing supply references in the comments fills me with unexpected joy.

Shh, Felicia is sleeping...

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

A certain catgirl's clawed hand caresses her (BIG) ball of yarn.

"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

"Lines You Can Hear Instead of Just Read" for $200

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.

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

ooh, THAT is nice!

Red kites fly in the Bluesky.

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.

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

Ooookay, now I need to see some of those Rei & Asuka scenes just to hammer the comedy a bit more.

The Silent Hill ref was worth the wait!

Sheesh... my Rosalina shows less skin and got NO replies, thirsty or otherwise, and it STILL got labelled! 😂

So when she wins, she loses, even (if) temporarily?

Can't get more Eva than that...! 🤪

Look, I'm giving it a try if I get the chance, but I am willing and fully ready to bump up any score I would give 10 points if they cameo Sean Bean at any point, and he still lives at the end of the movie.

Damn, at this point, might as well poll Asuka against herself. :D

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.

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!

Oh hello #portfolioday

Oh, today was #PortfolioDay !

I think I still made it in time, haha 😅
I'm Toni Caballero a manga artist from Europe
I post art of my OCs and fanart.
Always open to cool projects 📞

but if not, a repost is always appreciated so more people can discover my work 🩷✨

www.tonicaballeroart.com/portfolio

Next time, please make it possible to enter via Bluesky, or other platforms for those who don't want to have to go back to Twitter just to participate.