I’d planned to split the kung fu dictionary between two characters – a male master and a female master. This was my first attempt at the female character. I went with a tougher, scrappier looking character than Derek wanted. I tend to find really pretty women unbelievable as fighting masters. To become a fighting master you’ve got to … fight. And fighting doesn’t generally improve your looks. But, as Derek rightly pointed out, Mandate of Heaven was a game. Games are fantasy anyway and the setting of the game was also a fantasy one. Within the context of the game pretty fighting masters are perfectly believable.

Practice sketches for the kung fu dictionary for the unfinished RPG Mandate of Heaven.

On the left – a palm strike?

On the right – a pair of leopard punches?

I’m not sure of either of these at the moment and the reference I used is still in boxes.

On the left, a round house punch.

On the right, an uppercut.

I’m pretty sure that the illustration on the right is an earlier version of the horse position that I posted a few days ago. Certainly I like this version better than that.

The figure on the right is probably a simple punch.

More kung fu dictionary. A backhand punch and an elbow jab. I didn’t like that jab and redrew it later.

Mandate of Heaven was a role playing game Derek Fetters and I tried to put together in 2004. He was the writer. I was the illustrator. One of the features of the game that Derek came up with was to be a visual kung fu dictionary. The intention was to provide players with a set of visual references so they could create more interesting action sequences. Here we have the basic “horse” position on the left and a left cross punch on the right.