Month: November 2007

Another Enchanting Young Lady (follow up to Tuesday’s post)

~ J.Ho ~ 3 Comments
(These days, who’s got time to wait for a midnight post, huh? Posting early, as I am wont to do.)

As promised, here is a picture based on the toy version of Castaspella. Also posted here on my variants thread on the He-Man.org fan-art forum.


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First off, you will notice that I have changed her into another character. While the toy’s packaging depicts Castaspella very much like her cartoon appearance, (bouffant intact), the toy itself simply had the hair tied in a ponytail. Because of the significantly different hairstyle, coupled with the toy’s differing color scheme, I decided to make her into a new character. The name Sorciela is taken from an image I found online of international packaging for Castaspella–unless I’m mistaken, Sorciela is her French name.

I made a few minor tweaks to her costume, but for the most part, this is a pretty straight interpretation of the toy. I turned her spinning disk accessory into a magical ward–the symbols on it are nothing more than the symbols of the western zodiac. I rarely use a dark background color, but here it was necessary to accentuate the glowing magical energies. And the finishing touch; a super-nerdy bio…

* * *

PROFILE: An extraordinarily capable magic-user, SORCIELA far exceeds the limits of most of her peers, but still requires focus and experience as a result of her youth. She specializes in hypnotism, but excels in this particular area to the detriment of her other magical capabilities. Sorciela can be impatient and frivolous, but her sense of compassion and fairness is true.

HISTORY: Sorciela is the younger sister of Castaspella, Mage-Queen of Mystacor. When Castaspella ascended to the throne, Sorciela was sent away to a hidden location. There were two motives behind this–first, so that Sorciela could continue her education in the use of magic, and second, so that the next in line for the throne would be protected in case any harm should ever fall upon Castaspella. With the Horde’s presence growing ever more oppressive and She-Ra’s departure to Eternia, Castaspella has summoned her sister back to Mystacor to aid in the defense of the country, and the planet.

* * *

A Shocking Event: I have drawn a character from an 80’s cartoon.

~ J.Ho ~ 2 Comments
(Well, I’m running off of no sleep, so I’m posting early rather than risking a loss of consciousness and a late post. Enjoy.)

An entry for a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forum. The subject is Castaspella, ruler of the magical land of Mystacor and an ally of She-Ra. I didn’t have much to express about Castaspella (in terms of a real re-design) but I did want to draw her, so I posted my drawing but abstained from entering the contest. My version is really a minor tweak rather than a true re-design. The thread is here, my post is here. Check out the other entries in the voting threads here and here. The final voting thread is here.

click above for larger view

This picture is based on Castaspella’s cartoon incarnation, as opposed to her toy incarnation (a pic based on the toy version is in the works). The toy was billed as an “Enchantress who Hypnotizes”; I have instead billed her as “Heroic Mage-Queen of Mystacor” because A) she never hypnotized anyone in the cartoon, and B) she was the heroic mage-queen of the country Mystacor.

The main tweak in my take is that I merged her top and skirt into a dress (and juggled some colors around accordingly), in an attempt to accentuate the ‘go go girl’ look that Castaspella sported in the cartoon. Her posture is meant to have a bit of a haughty aristocratic feel. If I could change one thing, I would make her hair more curly.

A Magical Sprite and a Thanksgiving Flashback

~ J.Ho ~ 3 Comments
(Posting early for Thanksgiving…)

This sprite is Orko, who is not actually a “Sprite” at all, but a Trollan:

I started this a while back when I was trying to get into RPG Maker. The general proportions of the head (particularly the spacing of the eyes) mimic those of RPG Maker’s character sprites, but this was rendered from scratch. I did try animating this at one point, but it was choppy at best. However, this is definitely something I’ll try more of in the future.

And as a bonus treat for anyone who likes He-Man, She-Ra, or awesome Thanksgiving parades:

Brainsketball

~ J.Ho ~ 6 Comments
Another quick one; Vinny suggested a “zombie baller”:


click above for larger view

I’m surprisingly pleased with how this one turned out. It sure ain’t perfect, but overall, I think it ‘works.’ I purposely made the shading on this one more ‘contrast-y’ for a slightly more dramatic look. Incidentally, I don’t watch sports (at all) and he’s not supposed to resemble anybody or be from any particular team.

GRAAR… BRAINS… REBOUND! GRAAARRRRR!!!

Gort, have you been working out?

~ J.Ho ~ 4 Comments
I’ve been trying to stockpile blog entries so that I can clear a chunk of time to work on some other things. This time I went to Charles for a quick sketch subject, and he suggested Gort from The Day the Earth Stood Still:

This is a slightly modernized and somewhat buffed up version of Gort. Why? I have no clue. For the record, I have yet to watch The Day the Earth Stood Still, but it’s on my list!

Did You Know…? The alternate title to this post was: “Hey Gort, how many sandwiches do you want? Five? Okay.”

Billionaires in Power-Suits (Part 2 of 2)

~ J.Ho ~ 3 Comments
Continuing the theme from last Friday–while coloring up my Iron Man post, I was IMing with Charles and Lex Luthor came up in conversation. Yes, we are that nerdy. Anyways, Lex in his early 80’s power-suit seemed like a good follow up to Tony Stark:


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From start to finish this whole thing took under 3 hours, which is pretty fast for me. Sketched in pen and Sharpie, but this time I did look at reference and I took a little more time cleaning it up in Photoshop before coloring it. Getting the colors right on this one was surprisingly easy. But I guess when you’re coloring lime and berry power armor, it’s pretty easy to zero in on the right colors. As for the drawing itself, Lex’s pose is a little stiff (somewhat intentional) and the composition is incredibly boring (not intentional).

Continuity-wise, this one is all over the place. Identifying Lex as a billionaire in the title of the post implies the post-Crisis version (I’m pretty sure all the pre-Crisis versions were finiancially unsuccessful). However, the reference I followed was the Lex Luthor action figure from the old Super Powers toyline, which implies either the version from the Super Powers cartoon (naturally), or the pre-crisis Lex Luthor of Earth-One. Furthermore, while drawing it, I decided to give Lex his kryptonite ring, which is definitely a post-Crisis detail, and to complicate matters his face is somewhat reminiscent of the version seen in Superman: The Animated Series” and Justice League Unlimited. Of all these confusing and obscure details, my favorite is the fact that post crisis-Lex has green eyes (according to the DC Comics Encyclopedia) and pre-Crisis Lex from Earth-One had blue eyes (according to Who’s Who volume XIV)–I gave this one blue eyes. So, in summary: hell if I know. Enjoy!

Contents Of Blog Are Self Explanatory:

~ J.Ho ~ 2 Comments
A conversation between myself and Kevin of BeaucoupKevin…

6:59:20 AM me: i need a quick subject! (past quick subjects include: sasquatch, viking, platypus)
6:59:32 AM Kevin: Baby With Knife
6:59:36 AM me: NICE

Moments later, I am self congratulatory…

7:30:51 AM me: this baby is awesome
7:31:01 AM me: i’ll show you as soon as i scan it
7:31:13 AM Kevin: AWESOME BABY TIME
7:31:16 AM Kevin: IT’S AWESOME BABY TIME
7:31:18 AM Kevin: WHAT TIME IS IT
7:31:20 AM Kevin: AWESOME BABY TIME
7:31:25 AM Kevin: (that’s the theme to my new show.)

But Kevin could not contain his excitement…

7:45:38 AM Kevin: WHERE MY KNIFEBABY AT
7:46:00 AM me: the question america is asking itself
7:46:19 AM Kevin: WE ALL LOVE YOU KNIFEBABY
7:47:42 AM me: lol… you sir, are on crack

He’s on the east coast, but WTF was I doing up so early??? Oh right, and the result of our conversation:

KNIFEBABY is trademark and copyright Kevin Church and Jason Ho 2007.

Billionaires in Power-Suits (Part 1 of 2)

~ J.Ho ~ 3 Comments
I was in need of a quick sketch subject once more–this time Vinny helped me out and suggested Iron Man. And so:


click above for larger view

Sketched in pen and Sharpie, straight up (in approximately 15 minutes). Cleaned up slightly and colored in Photoshop. The colors on this went relatively quickly for me and I whipped up the background treatment just so it wouldn’t be so plain. I drew this without looking at reference, but Iron Man’s costume is something approximating his mid 80’s gear, because apparently I am an old-timer who only remembers the allegedly good old days. It’s the good part that’s alleged, the old part has been confirmed by laboratory results.

I’ve never really been a fan of Iron Man–perhaps I should clarify that while the concept of Iron Man is interesting enough, I have never found his alter ego, Tony Stark, to be a sympathetic character. Actually, Tony Stark is kind of a jerk (I thought this long before Marvel’s Civil War crossover started), and his moustache is way cheesy. That said, his personality does provide for an interesting dynamic in a team situation, and I also think the trailer for the upcoming movie looks pretty decent.

I’ll follow up next Friday with another rich dude in powered armor.