Interesting that Emp-Disguised Ninjette’s somewhat excessively thin waist in panel 2 bugs me a wee bit, but the not-dissimilar waist in panel 3 doesn’t. That’s probably because the overall pose and stronger body language of panel 3’s figure—a personal favorite from the volume, BTW—better suits a high degree of cartoony stylization in my eyes. Plus, gotta love the smirk in panel 3, an expression one rarely or never sees the real Emp wearing; yeahp, that’s definitely Ninjette under the mask.

Panel 3: Presumably the bad guys that Emp-Disguised Ninjette is setting off to “school” have a hideout very, very close to Emp’s apartment—or perhaps Emp just takes really, really long showers. (Or it could be the case that inebriated Ninjette was being overly optimistic about the timeframe involved.)

Panel 4: An extraordinarily tough pose to draw, here, given the tricky view of Ninjette’s upper torso and the extreme twist of her body. Not surprising, then, that the pose didn’t quite work out. Still, a solid effort on 2006-Era Me’s part, given that I couldn’t dig up any gymnastics reference for this panel at the time, as I recall. Artists: If you wanna challenge your “figure-in-action”drawing skills, try working from photoref of gymnasts performed complicated, twisting tumbles and the like. Challenging indeed! 

In closing, note also that I drew Ninjette’s blonde wig exaggeratedly long and flowing so I could use its sinuous arcs to add energy and motion to the image. Long hair is the action artist’s friend, folks, so you’d best make sure that you’re taking full advantage of the kinetically follicular opportunities open to you when drawing long-haired heroes and heroines in violent motion.

-Adam Warren