The illustration for Mideios, the contest finalist, is going very well. I’ve gotten approval on the black and white lineart, and though you might like to see how it’s going so far (click the image for a larger, non-pixelated version):

The black and white drawing is done in Flash in layers as I’ve described elsewhere. I fill the inside bits with white, then export it as a high-resolution Adobe Illustrator file. Now I’ll import that Illustrator file into Photoshop for the color work, which I’ll post as soon as it’s approved. This is fun!

The winner of the first HeroMachine “Free Custom Character Portrait Contest” is … Mideios! Congratulations to Scorp, he did a great job. I’ll be working with him over the next couple of weeks to create the custom portrait, and when it’s completed of course I’ll post it here.

Many thanks to everyone who entered, and especially to the other four finalists.

You only have three more days to vote for your favorite HeroMachine character, with the winner getting a free custom portrait of their creation. If you haven’t voted yet, the poll’s there in the right column, so get clicking!

February 1, 2008: This contest has ended, so comments on this post have been disabled.

After receiving a staggering 136 entries of exceptionally high quality and spending hours agonizing over them, I’ve settled on the top five finalists for the “Win a Free Character Portrait Contest”. You can see all 136 entries in this Picasa web album, and the 46 “Honorable Mentions” in this one. I’ll list the finalists after the jump.

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You’ve only got three days left to get your entry in for the “Free Custom Character Portrait” contest! Entries close at midnight this Sunday, so get yours in before it’s too late. There have already been one hundred characters submitted; yours might end up being the best of all, but you won’t know if you don’t enter.

Hope to see your creation in my inbox soon!