This is from that dangblasted Mai Castle illustration that I'd been poking at for a while. I did most of the line art for both figures, didn't like the overly fussy direction it was going in, and decided to scrap that version and start over.

This version fixes some perspective and proportion issues, and its line art is much improved. I realized two things - I had been too impatient to simplify form into hard lines, and holy crap do I love sketchy pencil. So I started the line art by doing sketchy form-capturing scribbles and cleaning them up. The final result is still fussy, but I did a ton of experimentation with line width variation and irregular edges to better represent the fabric parts of Ren's costume.

I'm trying to push my faces in a more realistic direction. My beard drawing skills still need a lot of work. I'll get there eventually.

Though this picture just has Cao Ren by himself, the final version will be as I originally planned it, with Lu Meng sitting next to him.

6/10/2009 - Added detail and a boatload of line weight variation. Fixed some anatomical goofiness.

8/3/2009 - Fixed some perspective issues. Added armor detail and shading for texture and suggestion of fabric folds. I don't intend to shade this fully because I want to keep it looking mostly like line illustration, so I'm trying to suggest form and such without going overboard.

12/27/2009 - Decided he's best off with minimal fabric folds. I did this a while ago, but drawing updates have been way on the back burner for me.