Thursday, February 28, 2013

Cylinder practice 2/28/13

 

More sketchbook scribbles for Atlantis.

 

 

Gestures 2/20/13

 

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Life drawing 3/25/13

 

Cliffhanger!


This was fun. I did this for A Darkhorse "superhero" contest. I tried to imagine a Captain Midnight Adventure that I would actually read. Captain Midnight is one of those iconic Golden Age Heroes that has always been (after 1965 (?)) on the tail end of obsolete. In researching the character I found myself amused at how bland and colorless most of the content was and/or has become. I got carried away with this one drawing as I worked on it, imagining it in terms of a graphic novel called "Cliffhanger" which might attempt to kill off the character. Set during the Cold War it would find Captain Midnight  amidst a cast of interesting supporting characters. Two Newspaper Corespondents;  a photographer and a reporter, a Rintintin "combat dog"  and a Mechanic/copilot that could also serve as love interest. (In the original ink drawing you can see she is holding an item in her mouth, it was supposed to be a flashlight, but from that distance it just looked weird and so I abandoned the fourth light source. Unfortunately she ended up looking a little more "damsel in distress" than I had hoped.)  I cartooned up the art a bit, thinking of the Tintin adventures, and the fact that I'm so bored with the grim "realism" of a lot of these comics today. I think a lot of people equate that look with "Goofy" or "funny" but of course Herge's work shows us we can play that edge, especially with sophisticated surroundings and backgrounds. I'm also reading Miyazaki's Nausicca work (although slowly) and really would love to begin emulating more of that rollicking pen and ink style. Anyway, there is the pitch.

Cliffhanger inks