Paladin's Art Thread

I'm experimenting with comic book art styles. I'm trying to find a technique that's "good enough" for a series, but not so detailed/realistic that it'll take me a week to finish a panel. Here's tonight's experiment...

Let's call these guys Senator Shaffner and Colonel Branch.

Proportions look off somehow . . . I can't tell you where or how, but something just doesn't look quite right.

Nice use of blacks, tho. Shading and drapery on the clothing and whatnot.

I deliberately made the Senator a little mis-proportioned, kinda my effort to "Kingpin" him. And I wanted the colonel to look trim and fit, but not like a superhero.

Checking out a reference on figure drawing (Wikipedia article), I see that the average person is about 7.5 heads tall (including the head). Gods and heroes are typically 8.5 heads tall, and 8 is supposedly ideal.

I think my Senator is about 6 heads high, which is sorta what I was going for. I wanted a certain "solid rotundness." The colonel is a bit short of average; perhaps 6.5-7 heads tall.

So, both men's heads--to make a more realistic portrait--should probably be 10-15% smaller. I think that's what Lanz is referring to...

Colonel Branch v2.0...changed his hair a bit and maybe got the proportions a little better. This was a quick sketch and paint; I wasn't going for any kind of realistic portrait...I'm just trying to draw, ink, and color a character QUICKLY.

I'm not happy with the posture or the way the pants drape, but oh well...

You gotta lotta talent!

Still working on technique...

This character is PARAGON. He's kinda like his world's Superman. The mightiest superhero, and the one guy all the other superheroes look up to. He's a relatively minor character in the story I'm planning, but I thought it'd be fun to "flesh him out."

Pretty happy with this. Some of the anatomy is not quite right, he's a bit "thicker" than I wanted, and the highlights on his costume are kinda blah, but otherwise not too bad...

While the proportions may need a little tweaking I'd say focus more on bringing the characters to life, give them expressions, suggestions of personality, or temperament.

I don't know what you mean.

Senator Shaffner.....

Looks like Shatner.

Another character profile for Diacanu's Harryverse...this time it's The Bishop (one of the bad guys) and Doc Donner (one of the good ones). The Bishop was featured on the cover of volume #1 of Harry Hembock: Dark Designs (see post #21, this thread) and Doc Donner made the corner logo for volume #4 (see post #56).

Incidentally, Tom Wilkinson and Jack Donner are the models for the two characters, respectively.

Another Harryverse character. This is the first of 7-8 needed for the next character profile, which is the supergroup, the Legion of Liberty.

This first portrait is Mr. Starshine, the group's leader. He can fly and throw starbolts (and maybe other stuff D hasn't told me about yet).

Experimented with some different effects for the costume. Mr. Starshine was the corner icon on cover #2 (see back thread a ways) but his costume was perhaps a little too similar to Booster Gold's (being blue/yellow AND having goggles--Tamar noted this when I made my first drawing of him [second image] way back in '06). I made the new costume black/yellow with blueish highlights. (Of course, now he looks more like DC's 70s Starman but whatareyougonnado?)

And, yes, he does have Brad Pitt's face.

Next Legion of Liberty character: Momenta. She can control the inertia of anything she touches, allowing her to lift and hurl massive objects.

Played here by Rosario Dawson.

Next Legion character...Ms. Electrode. She can create powerful electric currents, disrupt communications, etc.

Played here by Nicole Kidman.

Next Legionnaire is The Swirly. I'm not 100% sure of his powers, but I'm pretty certain he can give you a swirly without the use of a toilet.

I didn't get his posture perfect, but I s'ppose I'm satisfied with it.

Played here by Arsenio Hall.

This next Legionnaire is the junior member of the group, seventeen-year-old Ennui. Ennui has the power to psychologically depress and demotivate anyone who gets close to her ( to D for coming up with this stuff). Of course, getting her motivated to fight the bad guys can also be a real challenge.

Ennui is played by no one; she's totally made up.

This next Legionnaire is Showbiz. He can project realistic video images to deceive the bad guys. He's also, ah, a bit flamboyant.

Played here by Robert Picardo.

So cool!

And we add our final Legionnaire, a powerful little imp called Soulrazor, and the group picture is complete...

(The second image is the original concept sketch...some characters changed a little bit and one was eliminated to keep the group to a more manageable number.)

At long last, the final Legion of Liberty profile...

Some more art from D's Harry Hembock series: this one is a scene from "Nobody Loves Harry Hembock"...

This didn't happen to be modeled at least somewhat on Queen Etheria, was it?

I did this 'reimagined Superman' (above) a while back and I've been playing with the concept again.

Reading the original (1938!) Superman comics has made me remold the character something closer to the original: a powerful (yet not ridiculously powerful) righter of wrongs.

My version doesn't fly (and, despite some incredible leaping ability, cannot clear tall buildings in a single bound), is somewhat less than invulnerable (explosives and armor-piercing bullets are a threat), and is, perhaps, 10 times stronger than a regular man. He's got some interesting sensory powers (based on technology rather than a result of his alien biology), but no heat vision. Also, no super-breath or microscopic vision or faster-than-light propulsion.

Like the original, he is an alien, but his power comes not from lighter gravity or the yellow sun, but simply through bio-technical advances his people have made. He has the standard biological needs--air, food, water, warmth--although he can go longer without these than can normal men. Unlike conventional Supes, this one is low-profile, venturing out mostly at night.

Wait till you see what I came up with for a re-imagined Batman!

I think his name should be "Superfly" and his mild-mannered alter-ego is Montel Williams.

An infomercial whore who pals around with a "psychic", who one time said the kid the cops were looking for was dead, but he wasn't, and the kidnapper diddled him for 3 more years?

Yeeaah, a superhero oughtta have a bit more dignity than that...

Unless they're in my universe...but I think Paladin is going for classic style...

Someone is terrorizing the criminal population in Grand Harbor...underworld figures are turning up dead, beaten to a pulp by a mysterious bat-like creature, skilled in combat and equipped with an arsenal of deadly weapons. Some of the dark warrior's technology leads back to a division of Mason Industries, but the firm's CEO--multi-billionaire Roger Mason, whose parents were brutally murdered years before--isn't talking. This looks like a job for Superman. But the Man of Steel is headed for one dark night...

Working on improving my speed...this was sketched, inked, and colored in 2.5 hours in Photoshop.

By day, he's Grand Harbor's most explosive cop. By night, he's the city's crime-fighting Man of Steel.

One of the hardest things about drawing comic-style art (for me, anyway) is getting the characters to look consistent. I guess what's needed is a 'master template' to make sure the essentials get incorporated into the art. Here's one I did for the re-imagined Superman and his alter ego.

How does he pull off the morph?

Tech? A power?

Some technology.

I think I've settled on his powers being attributable to two things: the extreme refinement of his biological self (think "hyper-optimized human being," which gives him great strength, speed, agility, etc.) and a pervasive network of technology planted throughout his body that manifests "super human" abilities (which give him quasi-invulnerability, enhanced sensory perception, rapid healing, and some limited alteration of his appearance).

I go back and forth on whether flight should be included.

How about if he throws off all of the charge for his body implants as a field, he can fly for a short duration, but it drains him.

So, rather than expend it all at once, he cranks down the power, and simply leaps tall buildings with a single bound.