I was looking forward to this series ever since it was announced in what seems like ages ago and the disappointment that was the feature film only served to fan those flames of excitement. I really wanted the Green Lantern franchise to redeem itself in the eyes of the general public because it’s a great concept with great characters and the film failed to convey what makes the Green Lantern mythos so great. After watching the hour long premiere of Green Lantern: The Animated Series, I’m glad to say that it perfectly encapsulates the best of what the franchise has to offer while still managing to bring something new to the table.
I won’t be drawing comparisons between the film and the Animated Series here but I feel that, inevitably, in talking about what makes the show work, I’ll be talking about why the movie doesn’t. Still, I want to focus on the Animated Series alone because this is my love letter to those two first episodes and not more vitriol against the movie (of which you can find plenty elsewhere).
This is definitely the best (and probably the most time consuming) piece I’ve done yet.
Originally, I wanted to make a girl with a mecha arm (it had a completely different pose) but I was trying to do it from my head and, after spending a while doing that, I realized that it wasn’t coming together like I wanted. I decided to do something completely different and work from reference instead and I used the picture below for that. But I wasn’t happy with just a simple nude study so, towards the end, I added the sci-fi suit and the cables and whatnot.
I’m proud of myself with this one even though, because I added all the extra stuff at the end, the pose make no sense whatsoever. I mean, why would she hold a piece of fabric to cover her crotch if she’s not naked? Oh well, I still like it.
The reason for doing this piece if two-fold. The first reason is that my Mario Versus stuff is all pretty saturated, bright and colorful which I actually like, but I also wanted something that had a different feel to it and what better than the monochromatic Limbo for that? The second and primary reason is that I’m still without a scanner so I can’t work on the stuff that is already penciled (Dig Dug!) but something that’s only silhouettes I don’t mind doing digitally. I mean, I’ve been doing a lot of stuff that is entirely digital but I like to scan my Mario stuff because I like the line weight and texture to remain consistent throughout all of them.
But anyway…
This is definitely a record breaker in that it was completed in no more than an hour or two. I looked at a lot of screenshots of Limbo to get the atmosphere right and there was temptation to add more highlights or blood or motion blur and the like but I tried to keep it as true to the spirit of the game as possible and I think I succeeded. I always thought that the kid wore shorts and a t-shirt but after scrutinizing a bunch of screenshots I’m pretty sure he wears a sweater so that’s what he’s using. And, of course, they’re falling into spikes as they’re chased by a boulder which paints a pretty good picture of what Limbo is all about.
It was hard to figure out what I needed to keep to make him recognizable as Invincible. I tried to change the headpiece but, no matter how I did it, it stopped looking like Mark so I kept that pretty much intact. I also like the large “I” on his torso and I always thought it’s the most inspired design element in Invincible so I kept it but moved them to shoulders which keeps the torso a little simpler. No capes because it doesn’t fit Mark and no boots because, well, I don’t really like them. Also, since he’s a “I’ll punch you to death” character, I left his fists bare.
And, of course, the piece is inspired by Cory Walker’s Invincible #1 cover where the original costume debuted and Ryan Ottley’s Invincible #51 cover where the blue costume debuted. It just seemed appropriate to use that cover for a costume redesign.
I’ve been keeping busy (thankfully) so I haven’t had a whole lot of time to work on my own stuff but I’ve been wanting to draw Power Girl for a while so I gave myself a break and knocked this out. I like how it turned out but it’s just so hard to be satisfied with a Power Girl piece when you have that iconic Adam Hughes cover staring down at you.
Sorry for the horrible title but it’s the best I could come up with.
Just a quick painting exercise before I get back to work on some commissions. I tried using a softer brush this time because I noticed that some of my previous efforts look kinda rough around the edges (literally). Still going back and forth between modeling in grayscale and adding color later or working with color from the beginning. This particular piece used the former method but I still think the latter is probably the best way to go.
Finished in about 2 hours while listening to Hollywood Babble-On.
Loosely based on this picture which I found online somewhere. If you took it, let me know and I’ll gladly give you the credit.
My immediate reaction after seeing the above “target demo” (meaning it’s not actual gameplay but rather what the developer is aiming for with the game) of Rainbow Six Patriots was that I wanted to remain as far away from the game as possible and, for once, it’s not simply because I dislike military shooters. Rather, it’s because of how this game expects me to shoot cops and kill civilians.
It’s because the game wants me to behave like an asshole.
I was beside myself with excitement when I learned that the entirety of the 100 Bullets team would be working on a sci-fi book, even if I had no idea what to expect from it. As a genre, science fiction is as far removed from crime as you can get and I was curious as to what the scale, subject and tone of Azzarello’s story would be.
As it turns out, Azzarello plays to his strengths with Spaceman and the first issue of the title presents a promising start to the series.
