As part of a planned holiday test activity, I'll be posting a few fragments of the source lineart for what will be one of the illustrations in Challenging the Cold Silence over the next few days, with the complete picture coming out on Christmas Eve. It depicts a scene described (but not directly shown) in Chapter 4 of the book (which has previously appeared as a promotional excerpt), taking place in Asami's office at Project Phoenix Flight's Republic City offices on West Street in the early development phase of the project.

Some of you will have seen this already, since the artist (Denise Jones) featured it on her deviantArt page. If you haven't, well, I suppose you can go find it there now if you don't want to wait, but that will make Korra sad, and hasn't she been through enough?

Here's piece 1!

Get some rest, sweetheart. You've bloody well earned it.

Tune in tomorrow for piece 2.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

At Future Industries, we believe that an orderly desk is a sign of an uncreative mind.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Although in this case, the disorder may be more related to having no time for such things as setting things in order.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

I suspect that Asami's office sofa is crazy comfortable.

I also suspect that in the grand scheme of things, comfort isn't the main reason Korra naps there.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

>I suspect that Asami's office sofa is crazy comfortable.
>
>I also suspect that in the grand scheme of things, comfort isn't the
>main reason Korra naps there.

Well, physical comfort isn't, anyway.

(Although you're right, it totally is. :)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Mind you, it isn't naptime for everybody.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

It seems to be one of the universal principles of technological development; any civilisation that invents a computer terminal architecture with separate monitor and keyboard will also invent the sticky note.

--
Unable to save the day: File is read-only.

That'd actually be a fairly good way for Korra to keep everything in order; take all the glue off her Post-It notes and force her to use airbending to keep them in place properly. It'd be a really useful filing system and a way of memorising what's on particular documents; if you have to be constantly aware of several dozen bits of paper floating around you, you're probably going to end up knowing the contents of them.

she has superpowers and i am turning them into a filing system fuck me ragged i am such a fucking dork

---
"She's old, she's lame, she's barren too, // "She's not worth feed or hay, // "But I'll give her this," - he blew smoke at me - // "She was something in her day." -- Garnet Rogers, Small Victory

FiMFiction.net: we might accept blatant porn involving the cast of My Little Pony but as God is my witness we have standards.

Here it is, the whole thing.

Daytime visitors to the West Street project offices often wondered why Director Sato HAD a sofa in her office.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Very nice. I didn't have to wait... only saw it today. (had no idea there was art)

LAST EDITED ON Dec-25-14 AT 12:24 PM (EST)
 
This was one of the earliest images thought of for CTCS, as it sprang from the setup for one of the first scenes written (the one in Asami's office wherein she expects Korra to be asleep and then discovers that she's not). In order to get the staging worked out, I actually made a mockup of the office using one of the downtown apartments in The Sims 3 Late Night.

Opinions vary in the EPU studio as to exactly what Asami is thinking in the final illustration, but we've concluded it's probably some proportional combination of the following:

- "I suppose I ought to wake her up and send her off to a proper bed. It's obvious dinner isn't happening tonight after all."

- "... awwwwwww."

- "... huh? Lost my train of thought."

and

- "Look at that. Boots on the sofa AGAIN. Tch, Water Tribe savage..."

(As an aside, I had a tricky time getting the example screenshot taken when the time came. I actually had to disable spontaneous character actions and just use the Korra and Asami Sims as puppets, because if I left them to their own devices - I promise you I am not making this up - not only wouldn't they stay in their assigned places, they couldn't keep their hands off each other. They'd be off to the races almost immediately, and before I could finish hunting for the right camera angle, odds were they'd have left the apartment altogether to go have a quick one in the elevator. That was funny at the time, 14-15 months ago, but it's even funnier now.)

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

>(As an aside, I had a tricky time getting the example screenshot taken
>when the time came. I actually had to disable spontaneous character
>actions and just use the Korra and Asami Sims as puppets, because if I
>left them to their own devices - I promise you I am not making this up
>- not only wouldn't they stay in their assigned places, they
>couldn't keep their hands off each other. They'd be off to the
>races almost immediately, and before I could finish hunting for the
>right camera angle, odds were they'd have left the apartment
>altogether to go have a quick one in the elevator. That was funny at
>the time, 14-15 months ago, but it's even funnier now.)

Even Non-sentient AIs were shipping them.

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

The art is lovely but the mockup amuses me more, because of the "Zzzzz"s Korra's emitting. :-)

I'm feeling sort of silly though, so it might just be me. :-)

So, funny story. Not long after completing the lineart for this piece, Denise emailed me to say that someone on her dA page was begging to see a colored version, and did I perchance have one for her to share? The thing is, Phil has a coloring queue a mile and a half high and Scene from West Street was nowhere near arriving at the top yet, and, well, one thing to another, she ended up doing it herself.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

oh.

So, when I linked the image in chat, Sofaspud (Who knows OF Legend of Korra, but never watched it) asks if it's a screencap or fanart.

I'd say that classes as high praise :)

Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

>So, when I linked the image in chat, Sofaspud (Who knows OF Legend of
>Korra, but never watched it) asks if it's a screencap or fanart.
>
>I'd say that classes as high praise :)
>
>Matrix Dragon, J. Random Nutter

It does indeed, and I was just thinking the same thing as I looked at it again, to wit that she'd done such a good job (both with the art AND the coloring) that if you didn't know you could be fooled into thinking it was an actual screen cap from a missing episode

God damn.

Hot damn, I'm impressed.

--
Mr. Fnord is pretty hype for this thing. Is gonna be awesome.

LAST EDITED ON Jan-30-15 AT 11:21 PM (EST)
 
Denise does do good work, doesn't she :)

(she thinks I'm nuts because I like the way she draws hands)

Guys and gals, I am not kidding when I tell you to get a commission from Denise whenever you get a chance. I *think* she is still taking them thru her DA page; she doesn't always. If you're a gamer, pick up the book for Tianxia (Vigilance Press) - she did pretty much all the art in that one too

Jeanne

	Jeanne Hedge http://www.jhedge.com 1st Courier of the Heavenly Prophets for Tianxia "Never give up, never surrender!"

>Denise does do good work, doesn't she :)
>
>(she thinks I'm nuts because I like the way she draws hands)
>

I've known a few art students.

Hands can be surprisingly difficult for some people.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.

Very nice! I'm guessing that'll be included in the finished product?

>Very nice! I'm guessing that'll be included in the finished product?

That's the plan. We're not going to achieve the full artwork density that a real coffee table book about a space mission would naturally have - it's simply not practical - but CTCS is going to be pretty extensively illustrated.

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

A while back, Phil asked me if I had the original hi-res source files for this pic and Bridging the Worlds. He was going to a con that Janet Varney, Korra's voice actor, would be at, and he said he wanted to print out high-quality copies to give to her if they happened to cross paths. I said that would be cool, dug around on my hard drive, hooked him up, and thought no more about it.

This was in the mail earlier this week.

Hee hee! Thanks, Phil!

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Haha! That is splendid. Way to go Phil!

That is cool. Time to get a picture frame.

Peter Eng
--
Insert humorous comment here.