THE COUNTDOWN TO HALLOWEEN: DAY 14

(But getting back to ME!)

I'm a member of a group of comic book fans and aspiring artists called OUTCAST STUDIOS, it has branches that extend over to deviantART and Google+ and even Facebook and perhaps even Twitter--I'm unsure about Tumbler, but I think we'd be perfect for that.  It's a group that has seen better days, frankly.  But then again haven't we all?

EC Comics' the CRYPT-KEEPER, but this is what he became at HBO years later.

All month long we're doing horror and Halloween themed sketches for our Daily Sketch and Weekend Sketch Challenges--I call it "MONSTER MONTH".  It's been an ambition of mine to do this for the group for a while, so I'm glad to finally see it pan out.

Now I used to be a regular, every-day sketcher when it came to the DSC--for a few straight years I rarely missed a day of it and it really helped me get back into drawing again after about a five year hiatus from taking the skill seriously--but these days I'm stop-and-start about it.  I'll do a few here and there but can rarely keep up the pace for even a week.

Nonetheless, it's been fun to contribute to the subjects day-to-day, especially in this month of October.

Here are some examples from the month so far:

(These are all ballpoint pen on cardboard, except the monster, who was pencil on cardboard)

Above is Mephisto with his evil giggle as he watches some poor soul suffer in the Marvel Universe as he seems to be in charge of that reality's Hell.

Jack Kirby's Demon from Hell, Etrigan!  Doomed to battle the forces of evil by being bound to the human Jason Blood by the wizard Merlin.

Lilith, the Daughter of Dracula, was made a vampire through the magic of a Gypsy witch so that she would torture her father for all eternity!

This redesign of Frankenstein's monster was a hard one to resist and yet a hard one to get very creative with, so I tried to simplify it a bit.

Gossamer is the name of the huge hairy beast that chases Bugs Bunny around an old castle until Bugs outsmarts him and does his hair and nails.  He's fun to draw.

Well, there you have it!

MONSTER MONTH continues all month over at OUTCAST

And now a nifty Halloween greeting card:

SHELLHEAD versus HORN-HEAD

So, a few blogs back I mentioned that my next post would be all about the finale of Outcast Studios' Battle Royale which would pit Daredevil against Iron Man for all the marbles.

And I didn't really follow up as planned... for which, I apologize.  In truth, by the time I made it back here to blog about my new art, I'd forgotten that I hadn't told the final tale of the exhausting matter.  It took a lot out of me and taught me a good deal about my pros and cons as an artist and competitor.  All good things.

But it was exhausting.

So here was my final piece in the competition against my very worthy opponent ThirdRailDesigns:

(Click to view in Kirby-vision)

Note how I did my damnedest to give DD a fair shake in this battle by bringing out the old gold armor of Tony Stark's early days of crime-fighting.
And that's the setting I chose, some dark side-street in Hell's Kitchen.
Home field advantage for horn head!

It didn't work, though and the competition walked away with the belt and trophy (we get both in the Outcast Tourneys).

Anyway, here are some of the endless sketches and character layouts I worked on in my quest for the final piece above... some turned out nicely, some... very meh.
As always, click on it and it will grow, just like a Chia-Pet:

 

 

 

 

And there you have it--just a sample of the many ways I tried to work out my final piece and I still don't think I took enough time to adjust it correctly... or maybe I over-corrected.  Hard to say in these things.

Next time on 'THE GOODS':

I hope to come back and post more very shortly... on to other things...

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.

WHAT MAY BROUGHT TO MY DRAWING BOARD

DARKSEID vs LOKI vs BLACK ADAM

Drawn for the Character Battle Royale over at Outcast Studios ( http://www.outcaststudios.com )

My character of choice was Darkseid and I put him in the middle of the melee.

Was very fun, if a bit stressful as the deadline began to beat down on me.

The stark red, white and black color scheme is a result of being in a hurry.

Very WHITE STRIPES isn't it?

STATIC

Long before DC's MILESTONE universe, came GLOBAL COMICS by my brother and myself.

My little brother started our homemade comics line way back when and it wasn't long before I was drafted onto the staff of the tiny "company".

Static was the first female character I created for our comics.

A half-alien mutant with green hair and control of static electricity, I based her suit nearly completely on Bill Willingham's Morningstar from THE ELEMENTALS.

(CLICK TO MAKE EITHER EXTRA-LARGE)