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.

A HAINT IN THE HALL/POWER GIRL STANDING TALL

This first one may be too hard for you to see depending on the brightness of your computer, embiggen to get a better look.


Power Girl drawn for the Daily Sketch Challenge...

IT'S GOOD TO BE THE THING!

Remember the line from the Mel Brooks film History of the World Part 2 (I think): "It's good to be the King!"? I sure do...

SHOWDOWN ON YANCY STREET by ~Ragnaroker on deviantART

Did the above piece of art for a group on DeviantArt that is about pitting artists against one another in a friendly pencil fight, a draw down, a paint-off or the like. We each chose a character and had to depict the two in a piece of art together. Not sure if they have to fight, but I went ahead and let them go at it.