Redline by Caldwell

Here's another awesome acquisition from Big Wow! ComicFest, a full body rendition of Redline by the great Talent Caldwell [link] -- which partially owes its existence to my presence on dA and a friendship I forged here.

Two years ago, back when Big Wow! was called Super-Con, I commissioned the aptly-named Talent to draw a waist-up rendition of Redline, and this fantastic piece was the result:

I liked the commission so much that, a little more than one year later, I enlisted my uber-talented pal (who I never would have met if not for dA) to ink, color, and slightly expand on Talent's lines -- resulting in this incredible image, ,
which remains one of the best takes on Redline yet.

So this year, I thought it would be cool to commission a full body render from Talent, and have Eddy color it once again. But when I arrived at the show, I discovered two problems: Talent was only planning to do watercolor commissions (which were awesome in their own way, mind you, but I was after a piece Eddy could color), not tight pencils and inks (which were more time consuming)...and his list was perilously close to being full.

Figuring I had nothing to lose, I introduced myself to Talent, told him what I wanted, and showed him the color version of the bust he'd drawn for me two years ago (which I had with me as one of the reference pics for the new commission) -- and he was so impressed with the coloring and inking that he readily agreed make the new commission a tightly penciled and inked piece that Eddy could work his magic on with ease!

And as if that wasn't awesome enough, Talent went even further beyond the call of duty. With time getting tight on Sunday evening, he kept working well after the exhibit hall closed until this phenomenal piece was complete! I couldn't have asked for a better finish to my Big Wow! weekend.

Thanks to Talent and Eddy for being their insanely cool and sensationally-talented selves, thanks to dA for being a community where spectacular collaborations like this can happen, and thanks to everybody who read this ridiculously long commentary!