I’ll wrap this series up on Friday–be there or be square.
And for today’s illustration, here’s Hadji, Jonny Quest’s best friend, adopted brother, and partner in crime.
When I drew this originally, Hadji was supposed to be levitating in a display of his trademark mystical powers. I guess that isn’t really apparent with no background as context.
._.
This is Jonny Quest himself, accompanied by his tenacious bulldog, Bandit. You might have an educated guess as to what the next three posts will offer!
This piece represents one of my earliest forays into computer coloring. All things considered, I’m surprised that it still somewhat holds up (and I’m not just saying that because it got me free action figures). The good news (depending on how you feel about things) is that this will probably be the last Flashback Friday for a long time. I don’t think I have anything else in the vault that I don’t find embarrassing. But then again, if I get desperate, you never know.
Second, I know you ladies are all wondering, how does a guy who spends his Saturday drawing pink kitties manage to stay single?
*sobbing and incoherent babbling*
Anyways… today’s post was drawn for a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here, my post is here. The first round voting polls are here and here, and the final vote can be found here–I placed 4th out of the finalists.
The subject is Clawdeen, the feline mount of She-Ra’s foe Catra. There has been a lot of debate about Clawdeen’s gender, owing to the fact that the toy is identified as a “she” and has feminine-looking eyelashes, in spite of otherwise resembling a male lion (it has a mane like a male lion, however it lacks a tuft on its tail). In contrast, the cartoon version simply looks like a male lion (I don’t recall if its gender is ever specified).
My solution to the gender question was to make the toy and animation versions of Clawdeen into separate characters. The toy version, retaining the name Clawdeen and the specified female gender, gains an armored helm–I leave it to the reader’s imagination whether the plume of hair is Clawdeen’s mane, or simply a part of the helm. The cartoon version becomes Clawdius, Clawdeen’s mate. I swiped the name from Lion-O‘s dad.
I did my best to make Clawdeen feminine without resorting to the heavy-handed shorthand that the original toy suffered from (eyeshadow, long eyelashes). With Clawdius, I was striving for a groomed, submissive feel, to contrast the feral and somewhat crazed look of Manticore. Considering I had the handicap of working with almost nothing but variations of the color pink, I’m pretty happy with how the colors turned out.
The punchline in this picture arose from a typically dorky IM session between myself and Charles. For those not in the know, an Owlbear is a Dungeons & Dragons monster, and possibly the offspring of Smokey the Bear and Woodsy the Owl.
As I generally refrain from cursing on this blog (unlike my ultra-profane RL), I have nothing more to say.
Gigan is one of my favorite kaiju from the Godzilla franchise. The version here is sort of an old-timey cartoon version of the classic Gigan, as opposed to the modernized version that appears in Final Wars.
Just go watch Final Wars already!
It’s Metapod!
I drew this ages ago (five years ago, in fact) for two kids at Comic-Con who were taking a sketchbook around and having artists draw random Pokemon. They sent me a scan of it, and here I am, a jillion years later, finally doing something with it.
A few years later I saw those kids again, but they weren’t kids–they were young men, in college, and they were in a band. I’m old!
The end.
Sherri‘s most recent young adult novel was released not too long ago (in February), titled Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet. Using a middle school graduation day as a backdrop, Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet tells the story of a young girl struggling with her bi-racial heritage, and her transition into adulthood. Great reading for young adults, as the last days of school give way to the summer. And if you haven’t already, please give Sherri’s other books a look as well. Sherri’s stories tend to deal with young women finding their way in life, and while the books are never “too girly” for a general audience, I particularly recommend them for girls and young women looking for role models who aren’t vapid starlets.
Danielle has recently stocked her Etsy store with a series of elegantly hand-made greeting cards and bookmarks. Each piece is one-of-a-kind, and Danielle’s prices are ridiculously affordable, so if you see something you like, buy it fast!
And, for the buccaneer in your life–Ren just added some charming Pirate Grrl greeting cards to the Paper Lotus Etsy store. I caught glimpses of this set in progress, and I’m stoked to finally see them available for purchase. Buy these so that Ren will make more!
MODOK is spectacularly hideous, and therefore great fun to draw.
And now, a five second review!
The Fall (In theaters now!)
Contrasting a slyly humorous, self-aware, and visually gorgeous fantasy world against a nostalgic yet poignant view of 1920’s Los Angeles, The Fall elegantly tells the story of two convalescent hospital patients. Watch the trailer here.
Verdict: Awesome. Just go watch it!
For More Fantasy Movie Awesomeness: Corny and not self-aware, Krull is still pretty awesome. Just saying.
Obviously I have been catching up on my Naruto. Naruto is seriously one of my favorite things ever.
FRIDAY:
SATURDAY:
SUNDAY:
BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY:
My pal, Dustin took some time out of his crazy rockstar schedule to draw an awesome piece for me:
The l’il robot on the left is my character Cog and the super-hott dame on the right is Big Barda, my favorite character from DC’s New Gods.
YOU’RE THE MAN, DUSTIN! Be sure to check out his Deviant Art gallery, and go buy all his issues of Detective Comics, available in finer comic book stores now!
I think I’ve mentioned before how much I love the mythology of video games, in spite of my ineptitude at actually playing video games. I’ve been playing a little Smash Brothers and Mario Kart recently, so the larger Mario-verse has been on my mind. Luckily, a site like Super Mario Wiki exists, so that I may satisfy my deep craving for obscure trivia about the Mario-verse.
Today, a momentary respite from the recent deluge of He-Man related sketches. I was working on this one a few months ago, but put it on the backburner as other things came up. I sketched and ‘inked’ this piece in Photoshop (in addition to coloring in Photoshop, as usual), so the result is 100% digital. The subject matter was pretty random. I started sketching a girl, which became a go-go girl, and then I just threw in a ray gun for the heck of it. This is what happens when I let my mind wander. Really.
I decided to stretch my wings a bit and experment with some textures for this piece–the blue and purple pattern on her dress was created by me, using pressure-sensitive opacity brushes in Photoshop; the other textures were taken from free texture sites (this one and this one). The texture for her hair is a sunset, and the texture for the boots and purse is stained glass. All in all, I’m pretty happy with the results.
Today’s illustration is a monstrous steed for the subject of my previous post. He resembles his mythological namesake, but with some minor differences, and of course he’s patterned after Battle Cat, Panthor, and my own fan character, War-Tiger. He is not to be confused with Montecore.
This one feels a little stiff and “blah” to me. But as longtime readers will note, I live my life by the phrase, “they can’t all be winners.” I’m happy with the color scheme though… I feel like I successfully emulated the bright and garish style of 80’s action figures. Forward, to the nerdy bio!
PROFILE: Armed with a poisonous sting, a deafening roar, and the power of flight, the fearsome MANTICORE serves HIGH PRIEST LEO as loyally as the High Priest serves the God-King of Infinita. Like Battle Cat, Manticore is a highly intelligent creature, fully capable of speech.
HISTORY: Upon achieving the rank of High Priest, Manticore was granted to Leo by the God-King of Infinita himself, as a servant and ally. Manticore is the head of his clan, and is widely known for his arrogant sense of pride as well as his steadfast sense of loyalty and duty.
Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. The thread is here, and my post is here.
Basically, there was a variation of Skeletor manufactured in India with a significantly different, darker color scheme. The Indian toy company was named Leo, and so this variation is known amongst He-Man enthusiasts as Leo Skeletor. Naturally, I decided that I needed to turn this into a new character, as is my custom:
I’ll be the first to admit, this one is kind of a stretch. I took a look at the original toy and decided that I would interpret his dark blue body as chain mail, and using the moniker “Leo” as a theme, I integrated lion-related imagery into his armor to differentiate him from Skeletor proper. After that, his personality and background quickly fell into place.
A not-so-brief note to the truest of He-Man die-hards–you will note that the character’s ring is modelled after the glow-in-the-dark skull insignia ring that was included with the Trap Jaw and Tri-Klops action figures. The ring has no official backstory or copy attached to it–however the symbol on it has popularly become known amongst fans as the “Grayskull symbol,” believed to be modelled after Castle Grayskull or the spirit of Castle Grayskull (a smokey skull-shaped apparition that appeared in several of the early mini-comics that were packaged with the action figures).
However, this explanation still didn’t quite sit right with me… the shapes projecting from the top of the skull insignia’s head were too pointy to be the battlements of Castle Grayskull, and were also far too regular to be wisps of smoke as per the spirit of Grayskull. To my eyes, the projections looked far more like three demonic horns. While all that could be perhaps dismissed as me looking at the ring’s visual cues too literally, something bothered me even more–the fact that the ring was included only with two of Skeletor’s best-known evil warriors. Why were they the bearers of the mysterious rings?
To make a long story long, I decided to go against conventional wisdom–the insignia is not a symbol of Grayskull in my interpretation. I don’t claim to be an expert, and this is all just for fun, so I hope you’ll all enjoy yourselves as the story of that insignia unfolds through the continuing profiles of my variant characters, moving from the classic Masters of the Universe line, to the New Adventures of He-Man, and beyond.
PROFILE: Hailing from the world Infinita, and serving the God-King of Infinita, HIGH PRIEST LEO is an alien warrior-cleric of the highest order. He was born of the same process that created Skeletor–given demonic powers and a terrifying skeletal visage through dark spellcraft and ritual scarring. Armed with a Havoc Staff (the traditional weapon of Infinitan priests) and accompanied by his winged mount MANTICORE, there is no zealot more fiercely devoted than Leo, whose famed exploits in the name of the God-King have earned him the title “the Lion of Infinita.” All who cross High Priest Leo’s path will bow to the will of the God-King of Infinita. HAIL INFINITA!
HISTORY: With no communications received from Eternia in years, Skeletor was declared a renegade, and the High Priest Leo was dispatched from Infinita to track down and report Skeletor’s whereabouts. His vessel damaged by a meteor shower, Leo crash landed somewhere in the jungles of Eternia, and began the long trek towards Snake Mountain.
Nearing the perimeter of Skeletor’s Fortress, Leo spyed Trap Jaw and Tri-Klops standing guard. With little effort, Leo stepped into the open and bested them both. As Trap Jaw lay on the ground groaning in agony, his prosthetic arm torn from its socket, Leo level his Havoc staff at Tri-Klops. Tri-Klops’s glaring red eye widened at the sight of Leo’s ring, bearing the insignia of the God-King of Infinita–a triple-horned black skull. “W-wait–there’s been a misunderstanding!” he stammered, as he fumbled through his belt pouch. Amused, the High Priest paused to see what attempt at bribery this Eternian could muster–though it did not matter, Leo would kill him one way or another. What Tri-Klops produced from his pouch was not gold or silver, but a blank ring. Tri-klops put it on his finger and held up his hand for Leo to see.
“Hail Infinita! Hail the God-King!” Tri-Klops cried. With a gleam of demonic energy, the triple-horned skull insignia materialized on Tri-klops’s ring. “We’ve been waiting for you, my lord.”
With great effort, Trap Jaw clumsily managed to put on a similar ring on his remaining good hand. He muttered the same invocation, and an identical insignia appeared on his ring as well. Leo stayed his hand, somewhat disappointed that he would have to spare these two Eternian wretches. “Tell me everything you know,” Leo demanded.
In the distance, a stealthy barbarian and his dreadlocked young ward strained to hear the conversation between the High Priest, the swordsman, and the cyborg. When the invader fell from the skies, they had shadowed him silently, ultimately tracking him to the fringes of Skeletor’s lands. The barbarian decided that they could no longer risk detection–it was imperative that this development was relayed to his allies in the capital.
Without a noise, Savage sneaked away, his protege on his heels.
Also posted here on my variants thread on the He-Man.org fan-art forum.
For my other “new characters from old variants” posts:
While Two-Bad was billed as a strategist, he was rarely played for anything but laughs. I think he has a lot of untapped potential, and if it were up to me, I would cast him in the role of a genius tactician, Skeletor’s third-in-command (after Evil-Lyn).
Also posted on the He-Man.org fan-art forums. My post is here, the entire thread (including some of my previous sketches) is here.
