As I mentioned in my previous post, I am currently fresh out of Hivefest, traveling in Malaysia, and I have scheduled three Inktober prompts in the meantime. Of course, posts about my Hivefest adventures will follow once I get back home! For now, back to the artsy stuff! We love artsy stuff here! We love ink and we love October! Patience! ^^

The second of the three prompts I chose was rivals. I knew right away what I wanted to draw for this one! I began playing Marvel Rivals earlier this year, and quickly got obsessed with the game. I can not say I am deeply familiar with the lore of the Marvel universe, but I did not let that discourage me from playing the game that looked fun. I was not even aware of the existence of some characters. The way I choose to view it is that the characters are characters just like in any other similar game, such as Apex Legends or Valorant, for example. However, I am learning more as I play the game.

Am I any good at it? It is hard to tell. I think I do not suck completely at it. I have put some hours into the game playing a variety of characters as I feel it is important to understand the different abilities, attacks, and how to best take advantage of them or fend off them. I see far too many players out there being one-trick ponies, as I like to call them. They do not seem to be able to handle it when someone else takes the only character, whose skills they have learned, from them, and then they throw a hissy fit over it. Of course, I also have my “mains” or the character I prefer to play more often. From duelists, it would be Scarlet Witch and Squirrel Girl. From strategists - Cloak & Dagger, Rocket Raccoon, Loki, and Jeff the Land Shark. From Vanguard - Groot and Emma Frost.

That said, I do not play this game competitively as I find it takes the fun out of it for me. It becomes even more toxic than these games already are in casual mode in general, with muted voice chat, I would like to add. If I had a squad, maybe it would be different. Grinding your way up the ranks solo sucks, I heard some people say.

Playing this game casually can also be frustrating at times. You never know what kind of team you will be getting. The kind that plays against their own team or one that will gel well together, filling all the roles and elements needed for a successful run. You know the game will be cooked when everyone goes for the duelist character (main character syndrome) and has an ego the size of Mount Everest. Be a fucking team player, goddammit! That is honestly the most important thing to strive for in this game - being a good teammate who watches out for the others! And it does not mean you have to be the support character for that either. Sometimes you can defend someone through an attack as well.

So, going back to rivals as the Inktober prompt? I thought it would be fun to draw the Squirrel Girl vintage, pin-up version! This game has a ton of different versions or skins (cosmetic items) for the characters. Why not draw one myself?! Yup, 100%! That is it!

_{Here is a small peek at the progress on this piece. Once I reached the point in the last photo, I suddenly felt like she reminded me of someone other than the Squirrel Girl. Who? Beth! Elizabeth Harmon from The Queen’s Gambit! That was totally unintentional! But her looks from the show must have found a life of their own in my head.}

I was nervous to draw Doreen since she is mostly a human lifeform after all, and looks like one as well. For me, it is one of the hardest things to draw hands down. I can draw cute animals and other objects for days. Humans? There are proportions, a plethora of things that can go tits up easily. Not this time, I hope?! I feel I got her squirrel-like, cute features, right?! The most fun part of this drawing for me was working on the texture of her fluffy ears and tail, Tippy-Toe, and I was so happy when the idea of the acorn straps for her dress came into my mind’s eye. The most terrifying thing? I would say getting her eyes right, as I felt it would either make or break this drawing completely. It was a huge relief to realize that I got it right!

_{What I love about Squirrel Girl in the Marvel Rivals from the abilities perspective is how much movement she has. If you manage to keep your aim straight ( I am working on it and have to say with time I am improving too), with all that jumping around, her attacks are pretty deadly. I have noticed her damage ratio from all team members is pretty much always up there, at the top. I also love her silly, goofy personality! She will always lighten the mood with all the other heroes who are so serious about everything all the time.}

_{“This is Tippy-Toe, and she has the powers of umm a regular squirrel.” - Squirrel Girl voice line from Marvel Rivals.}

_{There you go! That’s my squirrely girl! I hope you like her as much as I do!}

_{Have you tried playing Marvel Rivals? Did you enjoy it? Who are your favorite characters to play?}

_{The petals of my sunflowers reminded me of the texture I did for the Squirrel Girl’s and Tippy-Toe’s tail and ears! I love how rusty the world looks in the autumn time! ^^ There is beauty in decay!}

There will be another one soonish! Catch you later! <3

-M

_{Song of the day: Billie Eilish - OverHeated}