Well I was hoping to have more time to work on this before today but...life happens I guess? On the bright side/down side I didn't have my regular day job today so I put some serious time into roughing out some character ideas and shapes and messing with a few ideas(don't mind the crazy colors, just used large contrasts to get a lot of the shapes together). I also started messing around with background ideas, kinda wanted to get some water in there because a nice body of water always makes me happy. I have some more fun ideas for the BG like planes, boats, whatever crazy stuff pops into my mind.
I still might make Machine Girl a little larger even but I'm much happier with this pose than the crazy half "praise the sun" I had going on before.
Jams: I never knew about the Sukeban symbol, that's awesome that I was accidentally halfway there. I was definitely on the right path then, haha! I definitely prefer the longer skirt regaurdless, it just feels more tough/badass to me.
I definitely plan on doing something still with the gear, it's the most feedback I've gotten that it's hard to read at first glance. (though ironically everyone still calls it a gear when referring to it being hard to read) It's a bit odd but I'm a bit attached to making it weird & cartoony. I might have to try the multi-gear approach, I kinda like how it fits into the lower corner too, but I'm thinking it's too large in general and I'm hoping bringing the size down will help with the balance of it.
Decroded: I'm a bit worried about my time constraints, I think I need to get it done this week for him to launch his album but I'm definitely going to cram as much extra stuff in as I can, like you said I need to fully flesh out the important parts first.
I like the idea for the mask too, I'm going to have to give that a shot.
And for my Photoshop issue, re-installing it is on the list of things to do, but too many deadlines this week when it's just a minor annoyance in the grand scheme of things.
I think I post these things when I'm way too sleep deprived, though that seems to be the name of the game with taking on too many projects at once. Sorry always for everything not being 100% coherent or not having enough information.