First of all, I'd like to say thanks to all the people who wrote to welcome me back. I kinda feel like a celebrity or something... And it's nice to be receiving all this great art by email again, too - it certainly is an improvement over the chain letters and "get rich quick" schemes I'd been getting in my absence, if you know what I mean...

   And in fact, I think I actually got more artwork than spam in the last few days, which is rather impressive, and so once again the update is in two galleries for easy loading. Make sure you check them both, or you'll miss some phenomenal work.

   Notable new artists today: Evil Tiger contributes not only a really cool picture of Billy Lee Black in "Through Eyes of the Wels", but our first Chrono Cross artwork as well. SouL gives us a snapshot of a younger-looking Cid Highwind, and Abigail Hamaker a portrait of Wild Arms' Rudy Roughnight.

   And then we have two artists who have taken almost an opposite approach with their artwork; Chris Bunag has taken a normally realistically portrayed character, FFVIII's Zell, and drawn him in SD fashion, while Bryce Bartley has taken Zelda's Link, usually portrayed in a cartoony fashion, and drawn him rather realistically. And rounding off the new artists, Alex Shilin has drawn Legend of Legaia's Noa wearing something rather different from her usual outfit...

   Now for returning artists... Kristen Smirnov made a strong debut last update, and doesn't disappoint with her latest offerings, "Santeem Avenged" and "Sapha". Rinoa Z has a picture with a special meaning in "We'll Meet Again". Zedelia's "Magic and Mayhem 101" definitely qualifies as the most amusing piece today... poor Ghaleon! Pamela Ramali shows off her artistry with "Squall Leonhart," the new darling of the FF world. The always-colorful Kei(iii!) portrays a personal favorite character of mine with her Secret of Mana piece "Colors of the Summer Sky".

   On the darker side of fan art, Otaku's "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful" is a rather creepy piece featuring Metal Gear Solid's Psycho Mantis. And finally, Petra Rödig's two pieces, both of a transformed Sephiroth, are somehow both disturbing and beautiful... which touched off an interesting discussion, which ended up inspiring me greatly. Thanks again, Pete! ;)

   And one more thing... if you like these artists' works, be sure to check out their homepages, which are linked from their pictures. I've been continually impressed by (and envious of) their web design skills during my time with Sketch Artist, and many contributing artists appear to be multi-talented as well, with writings, animation, and lots of original artwork on their own pages. What you see here is only a small portion of their talent!