Paladin's Art Thread

I don't think it will make me a better artist, but it sure will make making art more fun...

This is just a quick test. Good things to come!

What is that, a scanner of some kind?

It looks like a drawing tablet. You can select what type of stroke you want (pen, pencil. brush, charcoal, etc), and you can also vary the pressure to get lighter/darker, thinner/thicker lines. They work like you're drawing on paper, canvas, etc., it lets you do artwork almost like on traditional media.

It's a Wacom Cintiq drawing tablet. It's a monitor that has a pen you can use to draw directly on the screen as if it were a sheet of paper.

Haven't had much time for art lately, but picked up a pencil to draw Captain Descrambler (inspired by his recent return in @Diacanu's Jade Shade series).

Look at this comic art. A lot of this is from reference (which is no sin), but look how the artist has created a scene that seems absolutely real. This is what comic art should aspire to, I think.

(Not sure why Harley's hangin' out with Booster Gold; guess I'll have to read the book to find out!)

I think I ran across the actual quote, which is purportedly from Adams himself:

"If superheroes existed, they’d look like I draw them.”

I did my own take on the cover of The Incredible Hulk #181 (which was the debut of Wolverine)...


Here's the original:


Here's my version:


Stuff I changed:

1. I changed Hulk to give him a pose that shows more of him. He's the "star" of the book, after all. Although he's less active (not throwing a punch), I think he's better presented this way. (Also, that punch in the original is ridiculous; the only way it could miss is if Wolverine has Vision's phasing power.)

2. I put Wolverine in his Frank Miller-era costume.

3. I think I made Wolverine's pose more dramatic.

4. I used my own design (with some assistance from art found on the net) for the Wendigo. My pose is less active, but I find it a little more ominous, with him looming in the background. Also, in the original, it looks like he's cheering on one of the combatants.

I need to spend more time thinking about what I'm going to draw. Though I liked how my take on Hulk 181 came out, I immediately thought of better ways to do it.

I sketched a few and this one is my favorite. I like it better because:

1. Hulk is more visible.
2. Hulk is active (right hand: HULK GRAB! left hand: cocked back for HULK SMASH!) and he's dodging Wolverine's attack.

I think I'd tweak it a bit more by raising Wolverine a bit and making him overlap Hulk a bit more. I'd also reposition Hulk's left leg to fill the space in the lower right corner better.

I think this is necessary in any art/creative endeavor, no matter if it's drawing, painting, or using a camera.

You can literally or figuratively fling paint at a canvas all day long, but unless you're Jackson Pollock, you're probably just making a mess.

Yes, one of my problems is that my circumstances reinforce bad habits. I only have time to sit down and draw for (at most) about an hour at a time on any given day, and I'm in such a hurry to finish something that I don't plan very well.

This is a 5 minute sketch I made with a Sharpie (no pencil underdrawing!) of Vartox, a Superman ally from the 70s whose look was based on Sean Connery from Zardoz. I tried to do Connery's face from memory.

Not great art, but I liked it enough to save it here.

Last bit of weekend fun. 1 hour with a pencil and some Sharpies...



The title?

CARSON TOWER: 'CAUSE THIS GALAXY AIN'T GONNA F**K ITSELF.

Yeah, not sure it's appropriate to troll Dayton in here.

A quick sketch of Scotty on a restaurant placemat. I kinda like it...

I redo this one every couple of years just to see if my style changes. Clearly, it does.


Poor Deathgrasp. These days, he exists mainly to get punched out by Chokecherry in my Art thread. I guess it could be worse: he could be Uncle Ben or the Waynes.

So, I was thinking...why isn't there a Sharkman?

So, I thought one up.



Yes, it's supposed to be ridiculous.

I even had the germ of an origin story:

Agent Y: "Lieutenant Robert Nunez was a navy diver, working on a top secret program. He was bitten by a radioactive shark."

Collins: "Whoa. Did it give him shark powers or something?"

Agent Y: "No, but while he was recovering in sickbay, he thought up the whole Sharkman gimmick."

A little lunchtime sketch...a character whose look I based on Tex Cobb.

Another sketch. Mr. Starshine!

The anatomy is...not so good. That left hand is just...wow...what am I, 7? And that right hand? His wrist must be bent in a really uncomfortable way. And the left side of his torso is about 1-2 inches inboard of where it should be.

But...

The point was to do some David Finch-like high contrast depiction of forms, and that came out reasonably well.

You sound like Jim Shooter sending back the cover for Batman vs Hulk 5 times.

That's a great cover. Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez drew it; he may be my all-time favorite comic book artist (up there with Neal Adams). He had a wonderful, realistic style. I say "had" because, even though he's still in the business, his style has become much more exaggerated over time.

I don't know if that many go-arounds is typical--certainly this was a very high profile cover that had to please two comic book companies--but I'm a little comforted that even Garcia-Lopez didn't nail it on the first try every time.

The edition of the book I have has his flubs with Shooter's notes.
He's brutal.

I don't have that one. I wonder if I can find a copy out there...

Found it. Scanned it.
And I was wrong, it wasn't Shooter, it was Dick Giordano and Al Milgrom.

Gotta say...the criticisms are right on.

I guess I remembered it differently.
Been awhile since I reread it.

I think you remembered empathizing with the artist, which is understandable. His "failed" efforts are still pretty good.

I usually carry a notebook or sketchbook with me wherever I go, just to doodle while I eat or whatever. I finished filling a notebook tonight and here's some of the stuff in it. None of it's gold, but it shows some of what I'm working on.

More sketches from my notebook...