Almost over

This has been sitting around on the hard drive for eight or nine years. It was a one-panel drawing – not part of a narrative.

This was originally a huge file: 8000 by 7000 pixels, which at the time, pushed the memory of my computer to the limits. The original art became corrupted, and I think it happened because it was so huge the computer I had at the time couldn't successfully write the file back to the disk.

In 2012, I have enough RAM to easily open a dozen files that size simultaneously, but I realize I get no advantage in working that large. So the first thing I did with this when I decided to post it was reduce the thing to 1/4 the original size. I cleaned up the corrupted areas, completely redrew the blonde's face and finished the brunette's hair. Then I reduced it by half again, to the current size, for posting.

There are some themes here that are familiar if you've been following my drawings for any time: the bruises and bite marks and the solid, smashing uppercut to the breast.

Another theme here is the size mismatch. Like a lot of fans, I am fascinated by fights where a bigger girl is dominated and defeated by a smaller one. The story here, I think, would be that the blonde agreed to put on the gloves confident the smaller brunette would be easy to take. But the brunette took everything the blonde dished out and outpunched her at every turn.

The blonde, exhausted, dazed and hurt, stands with her arms hanging helplessly at her sides while the brunette slams away at her ample chest. The blonde knows that with two or three more punches, she'll go down, but it's too late to do anything about it.