WIP Female Gear - Jan

I call her Jan, after a deceased friend of my mom.

I was tired of seeing all these pretty-girl female Gears on the internet. They're all fine, mind you, but I wanted to see something new and a little more original, a little more visually striking. So I figured, why not slap a helmet on her? I decided that she'd naturally crop her hair short to better accommodate the helmet, and then thought... why not have her just shave her head?

This led to all sorts of interesting character ideas. Do people in Jacinto think she's weird, even disturbed or sick? Would she draw a lot of insults, like 'dyke' and so-on? What kind of effect would that have on her? Not to mention the fact that she's got some gnarly facial scars, such as those burns on her cheek and that nasty number on her chin. Civilians stare at scars. Gears know better.

I fairly quickly thought up a whole story for her. Since in Gears of War the women generally aren't allowed to fight (only the infertile ones who can kick ass are handed a Lancer and some armor; the rest of the infertiles probably end up as menial labor, engineer corps, or, at best, as CIC headset-jockeys) I figured that she's gotta be infertile. But I wanted to one-up that... what if she was shot by the Locust on E-Day and torn up on the inside? 

Obviously, losing your ability to have children would be quite damaging to someone, even when you consider the fact that the fertile women in Jacinto generally wound up pregnant all the time, or even shackled to a bedpost in some sick, twisted baby-factory. Jan's obviously determined as hell, and capable of proving herself, otherwise she wouldn't be a Gear. But you can imagine she's got some wacked-up shit going on in her head.

Gears are tough as hell. They have to be. They're fighting a very prolonged version of the Battle of Stalingrad, except the enemy is much more monstrous than even the Nazis and there are lots of chainsaws involved. How tough is Jan here? I would imagine she's tough as nails... and terribly alone. The only people she'd have as friends would be the squad she's a part of.

Overall, I'm satisfied with the work here. I'm going to color it, of course. A couple small details need fixing, too. But I like it.