Paladin's Art Thread

The front view from my Sentinel model sheet...

Given your profession, I trust your eye for these things...

How about...?

If you put a lighter background behind the figure it wouldn't seem so dark.

Just some more experimenting with colors...

More experimentation...learned a neat trick that simplifies painting the colors into the artwork...also picked up the 'dodge' tool. Very handy.

I know, too dark.

Some more experimentation. I like the anatomical work I did here...with a few exceptions, the details are correct. Still have some learning to do on coloring/lighting.

Continuing experimentation work with the lighting, etc.

The highlights are done by the traditional comics method, but I don't quite have the hang of them yet. I'm leaning toward the airbrushed method I used in the last example. We'll see.

Ugh. A whole lot of things wrong here, but what the heck. This was a quick one where I sorta attempted to mimic Jim Lee's style. Not very successful, but you win some, lose some...

Oh yeah. There's some proportion issues there. I get what you were going for, tho.

Yes, though that's inherent in Lee's work, too...his Superman and Batman often look (to me) like they're Hulk-sized. Superman is so massively over-muscled, that he should never be able to pull off the Clark Kent disguise.

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But, yes, I still got the proportions a little off, and the pose is not nearly as natural as the Lee image I "copied" (from All-Star Batman and Robin). I don't know how I wound up with the left shoulder higher--rather than lower!--than the right...

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I guess I lean more to the "realistic" school of depiction, which is why I like artists like Gary Frank. Curt Swan, Ross Andru, Dick Giordano, George Perez, Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez, etc. were my favorite artists when I was growing up, and they're all more-or-less realistic.

How absolutely positively not to do it...

40 worst Rob Liefeld drawings.

40 MORE of the worst Rob Liefeld drawings.

Kinda half-me/half-Lee...this one's better balanced (though still not quite smooth), but it's still got exaggerated musculature and a certain grimness.

Okay, here's one done from a tracing of the Lee drawing...it highlights what I've missed. I think better positioning of the legs (I just naturally--and wrongly!--want a gap between them) would give my image better grace and balance.

I did a very rough quick fix on the previous drawing to put the right leg in a better place, and I think that's a huge improvement. I still can't quite get the grace of Lee's image, but I'm a lot closer.

By the way, the tracing calls attention to Lee's proportions...which, although fine artistically, are incredibly unrealistic. Do you know anyone whose deltoids are big as THEIR HEAD?!?

Keep in mind, superheroes are idealized human forms, not realistic ones. It's okay if they're unrealistically bulky.

Also, a real-life human is typically about six and a half to seven heads tall, whereas a superhero will be eight heads tall. This is one of the reasons it's hard to make superhero costumes work in a movie: the characters' heads wind up looking too big!

Eh. To a point. At least for me.

When Clark Kent looks like a steroid-pumped WWE wrestler, it's hard to accept that anyone would buy his cover. On the other hand, in Superman: The Movie, Christopher Reeve looks very solidly built as Superman, but is not so huge that it would be implausible for Clark Kent to be a timid weakling.

If Clark Kent looks like he benches 400 pounds, he's never going to have to act like a coward because NO ONE is going to try intimidating him!

I certainly know the rule. Curt Swan's Superman was one of the most cleanly drawn, realistically proportioned superheros (IMHO), and he was seven-and-a-half heads tall.

To complete this exercise, I drew the Sentinel Lee-style once more WITHOUT referring to the original Lee artwork. I think I've now come pretty close...Lee's figure still has a little more fluidity to it, but I think this is about as good as I'm going to get. (The tracing of the Lee artwork I did is on the right.)

I notice I still have both fists turned in (doesn't seem natural to me otherwise) and I haven't made the right foreleg nearly as "close" (perspectively speaking) as Lee does. Ah, well.

Just for fun...D's Harry Hembock with a Lee-esque physique...

The Sentinel is a cop by day.

For his partner, I wanted a nice contrast. Someone white, smaller-statured, older, passionate (Sentinel's alter ego is a bit taciturn).

At first I envisioned patterning him on Harry Dean Stanton, but I've reconsidered. When I think older, passionate, cop--an everyman type who can be an action hero when necessary--I keep coming back to one actor...

Pee-Wee Herman! No, seriously...it's Roy Scheider. I hope this sorta looks like him (it was drawn [mostly] WITHOUT a photo reference). This is homicide detective Gus Rossetti.

I used a photo for reference for this one (though it was NOT traced)...

Oh, crap, had so much on my plate at the time, forgot to ask if I can blog this.


Can I?

Done!

http://dickynoo.blogspot.com/2012/09/nother-harry-art-from-paladin.html

My take on Diacanu's new character, Jade Shade...

All right, had to run errands....
Now!

First, what Lanzman said.

Second, can I blog it?

Ba-doom!

http://dickynoo.blogspot.com/2013/01/jade-shade-art.html

I'd buy the Hembock books if Paladin did all the artwork.

A take on D's latest: PEERLESS-PERSON!

http://dickynoo.blogspot.com/2013/02/more-quantum-dissolve-art.html

Also, bump.

My first shot at doing a caricature.

Hopefully, you can all tell it's Meryl Streep.

Another Harry Hembock...just getting back to computer art after an absence...

Posted!

http://dickynoo.blogspot.com/2013/06/latest-harry-art-from-paladin.html