I visited some friends a few weeks ago…
Their dachshund did not like me.
O_O
Yellow Bellied Villain
When I draw superheroes, I tend to draw them the way they looked 20 years ago because I am, apparently, a fossil. However today, I’m taking a brief moment to step out of my horribly obsolete mindframe, and present to you the classic Green Lantern villain, Sinestro, in his modern uniform (even though you can only see the collar):
click above for larger view
It started out as a quick pen sketch, but it grew on me, so I decided to color it up and post it. I chose to give him his present-day colors because frankly, it never made sense to me that a character who was yellow-themed would have virtually no yellow on his uniform whatsoever. The face is cut off because I wanted to show the duality of a former hero turned villain–the missing half of his face represents Sinestro’s sense of morality, forever obfuscated by… OKAY, IT’S ALL A LIE. I drew him too close to the edge of the paper. Listen, if I had realized it was going to turn out halfway decent I would have started on a new sheet of paper. Sometimes these things take you by surprise!
You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry…
Ladies and gentlemen, the Hulk:
He kind of looks more like the the Jolly Green Giant‘s little pal Sprout than the Incredible Hulk. OH WELL.
I started with a rough sketch in colored pencil, and then laid down the flat colors and main shadows in Prismacolor marker. I picked up the colored pencil again to draw in the lineart and add additional shading. Finally I used a white color pencil for some highlights. The only thing I did in Photoshop was adjust the colors to match the original (it’s pretty close) and drop in the type. Overall, I prefer doing my coloring digitally, but it’s nice to take a break and get back to my analog roots every now and then.
Another Enchanting Young Lady (follow up to Tuesday’s post)
(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.
(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.
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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
(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
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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!!!
Feet of Clay
Charles gave me another speed challenge, this time a golem. Drawn in 5 minutes, inked in 5 + 3 minutes (I asked for an extension), and colored and typeset in about an hour. Yeah, I’m a slow colorist. ._.
Anywaaays, you should check out Charles’ blog–he was going to have some Golem-related videos posted sometime today.
Gort, have you been working out?
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)
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:
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)
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.
BONUS POST: ‘Tis The Season
I had absolutely no plans for a Halloween post, but Charles first insisted (which had no effect), and then challenged me. I don’t usually take the bait in such scenarios, but I also happen to be a fan of one Frankenstein’s Monster, and thus today’s l’il treat:
Timing me over IM, Charles challenged me to draw Frankenstein’s Monster in 5 minutes, and ink it in another 5. The plan was to color it in another 5, but I didn’t run into him again on IM, so I just went as fast as I could. It took me about 40 minutes to color and typeset this, because apparently, I am a sloth on downers. Oh well, under an hour is still pretty fast… for me.
HAPPY HALLOWEEN, CHARLIE BROWN!
HUBBA HUBBA!
(Super tired = Super early post… enjoy!)
An entry for a re-design challenge at the He-Man.org fan-art forum. The thread is here, my post is here. Voting was split up into two threads, here and here, and a final poll between the finalists was conducted here. Err… basically I came no where close to even making the first cut, but I encourage everyone to check out the other entries–there’s some great stuff there!
The subject of the redesign is Shokoti, an obscure but somewhat popular villainess who appeared only once in the cartoon. This time around, there were a lot of entries, and I had a hard time figuring out how to redesign the character while trying not to make changes for change’s sake. All in all, I thought a different approach might be necessary:
I changed her name to “Shokutie” for two reasons, 1) to play up the cartoony aspect of this drawing and 2) because I cannot resist a terrible pun. Sorry. I settled on “Wicked Mistress of Hubba Hubba” as her title after rejecting “Villainous Mistress of Va Va Voom” and “Evil Mistress of Honk Honk Awooga.”
I’m basically satisfied with the drawing and color choices on this one (i punched up all her colors so they were more saturated and vibrant than the original). The actual rendering however is pretty “meh” (don’t even bother trying to identify consistent light sources!) and I wish I had pushed the hair color more towards black rather than blue.
This sketch, obviously, does not fall in my normal series of Masters of the Universe drawings. Although, because of the modified name, I guess she could conceivably be some kind of a slightly super deformed avatar that manifested sentience and became an independent entity, similar but not exactly like the background I came up with for Horduck. Wow, that was a nerdy sentence. Aww, what the heck, here’s a profile for the little hottie:
* * *
PROFILE: SHOKUTIE (so named by Orko) has the basic abilities and personality of Shokoti, however her power levels are diminished, and her demeanor has an added impish aspect to it. She’s still something of a bully, but it appears that Shokutie may be a more innocent version of Shokoti, as she lacks some of the original’s more cruel tendencies.
HISTORY: After her defeat at the hands of He-Man, Shokoti attempted to rematerialize herself on the material plane by creating an avatar that contained a fraction of her power. The avatar was able to bring about Shokoti’s return, but in the process, apparently became autonomous. When Shokoti tried reabsorbing Shokutie against her will, Orko (who had somewhat befriended her), casted a mirror spell, attempting to deflect Shokoti’s magic. As could be expected, Orko botched the spell, but it had an unexpected affect–Shokoti was able to reabsorb an equivalent amount of magic so that her soul and magic ability were rendered whole once more, and yet Shokutie was able to continue existing, free from the power of her originator. Still somewhat weakened, Shokoti retreated, vowing vengeance on He-Man and his allies, as well as her diminuitive doppleganger. Orko attempted to convince Shokutie to join the side of good, but she was still struggling with her newfound freedom and possibly evil nature. She was allowed to go free, and was last seen on Etheria, playing pranks on Horduck.
* * *
So, I guess that means that this is part of my regular series of He-Man pics. I also have a “standard” version Shokoti that I drew up (that one sticks pretty close to the original costume), and will be posting sometime in the future.
Rare mushy moment–It won’t happen again.
Some plugs and an O.G. (Original Goodguy)
This is long overdue, but I ought to mention that a couple of my friends have Etsy shops with quality products in stock…
Ren is part of the Paper Lotus Design Group, and she has cool and quirky greeting cards, stationary, apparel, and tote bags available:
Annie, founder and proprietor of Ape Kabuki, has beautiful block prints (hand-carved and pressed) for sale at her shop:
Last but not least, October may almost be over, but that doesn’t mean you can’t still enjoy Cat-tober at the Nathan Hamill gallery/blog/store (click on NEH gallery). After you’re done checking out his bleakly terrifying (yet strangely fascinating) kitty-cats, be sure to check out the greeting cards for sale at his non-Etsy store. CAT-TOBER!!!
Visit my friends, support independent artists, and do all your Christmas shopping early! We now return you to your regularly scheduled dorkiness–
My brain has been made of an inert slime lately, so when I needed a sketch subject, Josh suggested Superman:
click above for larger view
I sketched this up really quickly (probably less than 15 minutes), but then ended up agonizing over it in Photoshop for 2 hours, tweaking the lines, and noodling with the colors. Superman seems basic, but if the slightest thing is off, it screws up everything. I’m not completely happy with this one, but I don’t hate it either. The proportions of the face and somewhat youthful appearance are influenced by the late great Mike Wieringo‘s version of the big blue boyscout.
Put on your game face…
Transformers came out on DVD this week, and I’m glad to say that after repeat viewings I feel the same about it as when it first came out. I got an itch to draw the movie version of Bumblebee, which you can compare to my depiction of the cartoon version from a few months ago.
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Trying something new here… sort of. Combining two of my regular techniques, this one is 100% Photoshop, sketched in pixelly fashion with the pencil tool but colored in the semi-painterly fashion that I use every now and then. It’s pretty fast and dirty, all kinds of B.S. imaginary light-sources going on here. Still, I’m fairly happy with it. Bumblebee is drawn, by the way, with his battle mode face-plate (which I think is much cooler than his weird gas tank mouth). I believe it was Vinny who called it Bumblebee’s “game face.”
BOOYAKA!
Necessary Evil Character Files (Part 7 of 7): Mother Knows Best
(Posting early)
The conclusion to my series of character designs for Josh‘s comic Necessary Evil, today’s character is the Matriarch, late super-villainess supreme, and mother to Jacob and Miller:
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Although she’s already dead when the series begins, the Matriarch’s presence is felt strongly. Her death serves as Jacob and Miller’s motivation, and each of the twins must decide whether her infamous career as a super-villain will serve as an ideal to strive for or a cautionary tale.
Don’t forget, Necessary Evil #1 is available now!
Ask your local comic shop to order Necessary Evil–it’s available in Previews. And after you’ve done that, add Necessary Evil as your friend on MySpace.
Previous Necessary Evil posts:
Necessary Evil Character Files (Part 6 of 7): A Principal Player
(Posting early again–it’s been a busy week and time’s a-wastin’!)
As expected, the first issue of Necessary Evil was on shelves this past Wednesday! The printing is gorgeous and I want to extend my congratulations to Josh, Marcus, and Vinny for a job well done.
The signing at Comic Bug went well, and there’s already talk of another signing for issue #2–I’ll keep you posted. Whether or not there’s another signing, if you live in the Los Angeles area, or happen to be passing through, definitely check the store out–it’s in a great location, street parking is no problem, and most importantly they’re well-stocked. Directions to the store are available on the web site.
Continuing my series of character designs for Necessary Evil, today’s character is Headmaster of the Necessary Evil Academy, the Marquee de Antihause, AKA Anti:
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Anti is Jacob and Miller‘s Headmaster. But perhaps more importantly, he was the best friend and ally of the Matriarch, Jacob and Miller’s deceased super-villain mother. Can Anti provide the twins with answers about their mother’s death?
Ask your local comic shop to order Necessary Evil–it’s available in Previews. And after you’ve done that, add Necessary Evil as your friend on MySpace.
Previous Necessary Evil posts:
Necessary Evil Character Files (Part 5 of 7): Second Generation Henchman
(Posting a bit early, as is my habit… )
Before I go on with today’s post: Necessary Evil #1 is in fact coming out this week! For those of you in the Southern California area, Josh (the writer), Marcus (the penciller), and Vinny (the inker) will be on-hand for a signing at The Comic Bug in Manhattan Beach on Wednesday October 10th–for all the details, please check out the The Comic Bug web site.
Continuing my series of character designs for Josh‘s upcoming comic Necessary Evil. Today’s character is another student at the Necessary Evil Academy, Thug Junior:
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Thug Junior’s father never amounted to anything more than hired muscle, and that’s why Thug Junior is determined to be more. For now, Thug Junior does provide the muscle for Jacob and Miller‘s group, but they treat him as an equal.
Ask your local comic shop to order Necessary Evil–it’s available in Previews. And after you’ve done that, add Necessary Evil as your friend on MySpace.
Previous Necessary Evil posts: