I'm Star of the Week?

I was featured as the Star of the Week on the NYCSSC blog Action Weekly today, which is the league in which I play Inner Tube Water Polo. Considering how impressive I know some of the people in the league are in their daily lives, I was very flattered. I offered to do a quick illustration for the article, and figured I would cross post here as well as putting up some of the process images. Final, watercolor under-painting, and quick thumbnails.

I actually have really mixed feelings about this piece - Inner Tube Water Polo is supposed to be a light hearted, social first and competitive second kind of league and I wanted to make sure the illustration reflected that. I know that's the direction NYCSSC wants the league to move, and the friendly games are more fun. Unfortunately the fact is, as often as not it's a physical and intense game where cheap shots are easy to get away with and tempers can run high. As a player, I'd like to eventually do another piece for myself that I think reflects actually being in the pool.