WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO ME...

(Click to enjoy more fully my fine ballpoint penmanship!)

Hey there, folks, just wanted to let you know I haven't fallen off of the face of the Earth just yet.  Been very busy with my Character Battle Royale activities over the last few months over at OUTCASTSTUDIOS.COM and it's been going quite well.  I'm now in the finals against a very apt opponent who goes by the handle ThirdRailDesigns over in the social media circles.

I hope to do well pitting my character of choice (Daredevil in the Red Suit) against his character (Iron Man of any era).  I've had luck in my previous battles and here are some samples from the frays...

And this one got me into some hot water with the critics.  Tomb Raider versus Daredevil wasn't a fight I would, as a fan of the Man Without Fear, take very seriously.  In my mind, DD wins this one if he shows up.  Armed explorer versus battle-tested urban legend--no problem, right?

I like to think of a story to set up the scenarios I intend to draw, so I figured it would all stem from a misunderstanding and the story would go like this:  Lara Croft follows a rival to the offices of Nelson and Murdock where he has the lawyers hold onto a relic that he has illegally taken from a tomb... let's say Wyatt Wingfoot's people.  Nelson agrees to this, reluctantly, and Murdock hasn't vetted the guy, so he's in the dark.

Lara decides to break in to the offices and return it to Wingfoot's people and this leads to our showdown.  Murdock, having made his rounds of the Kitchen, is returning to the law office to change back into civilian gear and they have this brief altercation where Matt disarms her and they then agree to work together to take down said Plunderer (ha, it's Ka-Zar's brother--that really works).  Anyway, this is the piece that I turned in...

This one had anonymous  commentators throwing out words like "rape", which pissed me off to no end.  Granted, it is a little suggestive of intimate contact, but then, what's more intimate than hand-to-hand combat?  Not much, really.

(Click to Embiggify)

So I was a little zealous in defending my art and, in hindsight, I probably overreacted.  After all, the observer brings their own baggage to any observable stimuli.  So what if I knew that I'd never portray a character like Daredevil sexually assaulting anyone, they didn't.  So what if I knew the circumstances of the battle, but some people see things differently.  Taught me a valuable lesson about being clearer with my intent.

Anyway, on to the next round...

Round 3 had my poor widdle DD going head to head with a Superman level character of whom I was very unfamiliar with and it was a struggle to find a justifiable way to have the two in fisticuffs realistically. 

The character DD was to battle was none other than Goku from Dragonball Z.  So I struggled with ideas.  I always like to capture a moment from a fight when my character has the upper hand, however briefly.  Here, it was hard to imagine a way for DD to have any moment like that.

Then the idea for a training or teaching session came to me.  DD would be teaching the kid a little bit about boxing, being that his dad was a Pro and that DD has some experience with the pugilistic arts.

My final piece:

(Would've loved to have put in a banner or poster of Battlin' Jack back there on the wall, but ran out of time...
BTW, click to enlarge)

And so there was the semifinals, Round 4...

This round, due to contestant's dropping out, was set up as a three-way battle between myself and two other people and their characters, Storm and Haunt.  Luckily, for me, one of the competitors had to bail on it.  Which left me open to win the conflict with this very busy piece:

Next up... Daredevil versus Iron Man!

Stay tuned...

CHARACTER BATTLE ROYALE 4: ROUND 1

We at Outcast Studios sometimes fight amongst our selves--with art!  In an attempt to challenge our artistic side, we pit our ability to portray character conflicts against each other.  So we each choose characters and are paired off to portray our characters' clashes.  It's a fun and friendly contest that lends itself toward real improvement in skill and creativity.

This time around I chose Daredevil: The Man Without Fear as my avatar in the fray--a fray which featured more entrants and more diversity of character than we've ever had before.  So it was a real wonder what one was going to have to attempt to portray (it's hard enough to draw comic book characters facing off--let alone cartoon animals).

Luckily DC's Power Girl was paired off with my Daredevil, but then again this is VERY unlucky for poor Daredevil himself.  He physically doesn't stand much of a chance against a woman with the power of a Superman.

So what I thought back to was those many issues where DD is facing an opponent who is head and shoulders above him in power.  There's the classic DD vs Sub-Mariner, DD vs The Hulk, etc.  And so I thought, if I'm going to portray this, I want to show a moment (however fleeting) when Daredevil has an advantage in this fight.  And so I thought about DD using the city around him as a weapon against Powergirl and that led to, first, a Mack truck and finally a wrecking ball...

(Was very reluctant to have Powergirl cover up the wrecking ball, which I was really satisfied with.)

(Would like to have time to throw in some more color details on Powergirl.)

(Still not satisfied with that flat background--will return to put in something fitting eventually.)

This piece won my first round competition and I was able to move on to Round 2, which pitted Daredevil against Lara Croft, Tomb Raider.  Now this REALLY opened up a bag of worms that I'm still dealing with today...oh, joy!

More on that in just a little bit...

SKETCHING AROUND IN THE DARK

Been busy sketching and doodling and getting reacquainted with Photoshop for the Character Battle Royal over at Outcast Studios.  Boy, does it show that I haven't kept up my digital art practice, let alone my continued crawl into the digital age of art.

First up, a ballpoint on cardboard sketch of the Scarlet Witch for the DSC--you may be able to tell that my version of Wanda here is greatly informed by John Byrne's depiction of her.:

(Click to enlarge)

This one features Daredevil--the character I chose to use throughout the CBR (however far I can advance anyway).  Here is DD diving out of what would've been a Mack truck as I was attempting to depict him ramming Power Girl with it.

(Click to elongate)

Here we have old Matt Murdock struggling to continue after a particularly tough battle--I'm still working out my idea for the DD vs Power Girl CBR fight.  I like this pose and may revisit it should I feel that it fits a particular showdown.

(Click to embolden)

Here's Power Girl getting hit by what was to be that Mack truck, but I later decided would be a wrecking ball.  I think this is the only pose I practiced for the final piece.

(Click to enhance)

And here's the pose that I initially thought up for DD.  Problem was that the wire holding the ball wasn't showing enough power behind the impact I wanted to have on Power Girl, so I changed it to his other hand--thus giving the effect of a more powerful collision with Matt's opponent.

(Don't click to enlarge as the anatomy isn't quite worked out)

Coming up next the further development of my Round 1 battle featuring Daredevil and Power Girl.

THE LEAGUE OF DARK JUSTICE

Did this little ditty for the Greenville Drink N' Draw.

Wanted to draw someone having a drink and who better than John Constantine, the Hellblazer his own-self?  And it wasn't long before the idea of the upcoming Del Toro movie popped into my head and the Phantom Stranger showed up in the background.  And then Swamp Thing.  Zatanna was last, because I couldn't remember who else was in the proposed film.

DWARF-ISH and the SIX SKETCHES

Y'GOR the UNWASHED about to handle some business.

A lady's torso--2 minute sketch.

A dude's torso on the move.

Teenage Hellboy battling what was to be a small band of Pirate Skeletons.

Hulk is just about to throw a tantrum.

Power Pack's Alex Power after having whooped the Hulk.

Quick shot of Sabretooth's torso--turned out okay, but kind of limited.

THE SHADOW'S NOSE KNOWS

Every time the Shadow is proposed as the subject of the DSC, I have to bite--his imagery is just too fun to fiddle with--and so here was my latest attempt...

THE SHADOW... and his nose.

Here's where I tried out something cooler with his background...

Here's where I settled on the colors--not that I mind the above:

Part of the freedom one gets with digital images.