Hey party people,
Got an update from my sketch books. First and old one featuring a color pencil sketches of the powerful ladies of comics, She-Hulk and Wonder Woman. Next is new one, of one of my favorite Marvel superheroes, Nova! And that would be Rich Rider there, not the new kid. Lastly, my wife loves all things Hello Kitty. And we are both fond of Chococat, so every so often I will sketch some Chococat for her. Here he is hanging out with Ding-Dong, aka Doraemon. You see, my wife is from Hong Kong, and over there Doraemon was renamed Ding-Dong. So if I can call Go Mifune Speed Racer, she can call Doraemon Ding-Dong. Hope you like ‘em.
Hey Party People,
Well, I’ve been working hard on the next Captain Rocket installment. Like a fool I decided to do some walk cycles! Lots of work, even at my ‘Hanna Barbera level’ here. I should have it finished by next month.
In the meantime, stealing precious time away from Captain Rocket, I made this fun little sketch of Young Samson and Goliath! I just love the concept of this show. Some teenage kid on an endless European vacation (or sorts) with his pet dog. Riding around the country side with his moped like motorcycle. And whenever crazy danger strikes- aliens, robots, monsters and madmen- (ala He-Man) he changes into Samson! But no secret identity, as everyone knows he’s Samson (in fact while unpowered his name is still Samson!), and even ask him for help at times. Just a crazy little take on a superhero.
Mind you, the show itself, is one of the worst! Clearly animated by H-B’s C squad, with the briefest scripts, as Samson seems to pull out different superpowers for no rhyme or reason. But it does have the typical H-B awesome character designs by Alex Toth. You should Google the model sheets sometime, as they look great. And will make you wonder why everything doesn’t look that great in the show itself!
Hope you enjoy the pic and I’ll see ya next week!
Hey Party People,
Just wanted to remind all you artists out there- life drawing, life drawing, life drawing! Nothing beats it for improving your artistic skill. So do it as much as you can, and never stop- seriously, never stop. Even when you become the next George Perez or Glen Keane, make time to life draw. Why? It’s like being an Olympic athlete. You need to keep up your training, to remain #1- and become #1.
Generally speaking, there are two schools of life drawing, the construction method and the measuring method. The construction method is the best for storytelling drawing (comics, animation, etc). You start with a gesture, build up shapes and volume, getting more specific as you go until you have a solid figure. Poses will last between 10 seconds to 30 minutes. Drawing fast and getting as much down as you can is key (forcing yourself to really understand the body). This method will not only teach you how to draw what you see, but also draw from you mind. This is because you will have a strong sense of the body, and can move it around in your head clearly.
The measuring method is more for illustrators and painters- in the sense they make one perfect images. The measuring method usually starts by drawing the nose brow of the figure and slowly expanding outward- using the features you just drew as a measuring tool to draw the next features. A pose will usually be no less than 30 minutes, and up to three hours. This is so you can methodically go over the whole figure and make it as prefect as you can. Starting with very little detail, and then slowly adding more and more detail, until you get what you feel is enough detail to define the figure.
I recommend taking a class in each method, and then focusing more on the approach you like and need. For myself, when I’m drawing ‘prefect’, I start with the construction method, and then use the measuring method to finish drawings. Hope to get the best out of each approach.
One word of warning! There are many, many, many, art teacher out there who don’t know either of these methods, and are STILL teaching life drawing! They have the false belief that if you simple draw the figure over and over again- without out a real plan of attack (aside from, well just study the figure, and try to make it look more like the figure), you will be able to become a good figure artist. This is like getting building supplies and trying to build a house just by looking at one- not happening. That ‘method’ only ‘works’ for people born with natural skill. Sometimes people are just born with talent, unknown to them, their brain is just wired to get it- they then assume everyone’s is, and they become sh!tty teachers. This is the bulk of college art teachers IMHO. Be nice, but stay away from these teachers, do not give them money. Always try to ask a teacher what they will be teaching, if they can’t get more specific than, “we study the human body, and focus on drawing it”, they probably don’t know what they are doing. A real life drawing teacher loves to talk about life drawing and how to do it!
Ok, time to get off the soap box. My pretty picture this week is from a life drawing class, where we drew a clothed figure. You can tell by my markers that it’s in the construction method. And the important thing about life drawing with clothed figures, you focus on folds, not wrinkles. Folds are what happens to clothing because of the position the body is in. Wrinkles are ‘marks’ in the clothing that have nothing to do with the figure.
Have fun!
Hey Party People,
Was looking through my comicbook collection the other day, and I came across one of my favorite series, THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD ( the comic that the recent cartoon series was based off of)! It featured my favorite superhero, Batman, teaming up with various superheroes and other characters. One issue had him team-up with the Riddler, another with Swamp Thing- one of my favs was a team-up with Richard Dragon (arguably DC #1 martial artist). And the two of them actually fought each other in the issue- too cool!
But as I looked for back issues of this series (it’s run was just about over by the time I really started collecting comics) the ones I liked the best were his team-ups with female heroes: Black Canary, Supergirl, Wonder Woman- who knows why. One character he never team-up with was another one of my favorite characters: Powergirl! To me, Powergirl had all the cool of Supergirl, with none of the baggage. Teaming her up with Batman seems like a natural to me, but I guess she was on a different Earth back then and all.
Anyway, here’s my homage to the venerable THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD: Batman and Powergirl- wearing the costume I first saw her in, which I suppose is why I like it best.
As a side note, before THE BRAVE AND THE BOLD became a superhero book, and then the Batman team-up book, it was the home of Robin Hood, the Viking Prince, the Silent Knight and the Gold Gladiator! As I’m also a big adventure fan, I love all those characters too! Wish they had longer runs, especially the Silent Knight and Gold Gladiator- oh well, Batman was a bigger seller!
Lastly, I’m just about done with the next Captain Rocket cartoon, unfortunately, I just can’t find the time to wrap it up! It takes more than the few hours it takes to draw a little pin-up like this. I’m sure hoping I can get it done before the end of the month though- so here’s hoping!
Hey Party People, to celebrate Dynamite Comics new Phantom comicbook, KING: PHANTOM- where finally an Africa man is allowed to be an African hero! As the next Phantom has gone missing, Mandrake the Magician’s buddy Lothar has taken over the as the Phantom. Ok, it doesn’t make sense that people can tell this Phantom isn’t the same guy (because the Phantom is suppose to be immortal- as son takes over for father). But that doesn’t bother me too much. I can accept this and enjoy this piece of right mined ‘political correctness’. Oh, the costume I drew is more my own spin on the Phantom costume- not the suit in the comic. It’s just, I’m sorry those striped jockey shorts have to go. And every superhero should wear gloves- seriously. Anyway, I hope ya like it!
Hey Party People,
I suppose you’re all wondering when the next Captain Rocket episode will be released. Well there are currently two things preventing that right now:
1) I’m currently suffering from tendonitis. It’s in my right forearm big time! And since I’ve been favoring my left arm so much now, it’s getting rather irritated too (can’t win)! As you may have guessed, this is preventing my for doing just about anything thing- writing, drawing, playing video games, using a computer in general. I try to only use my arm at work (video editing which isn’t kind to my forearms at all!), and then rest it at home (watching movies, trying not to feel too lazy or useless). Been dealing with it for over a month now, though I am managing to type this with both hands without much pain. I can’t tell you how happy I’ll be when it finally gets back to normal!
2) Perhaps the biggest complaint I get about Captain Rocket is that the episodes are too damn short. Well there are actually plans in the work to address that! Over the holidays I started putting together a plan, in the New Year I reached out to some talented artists I know and (mind you, it’s waaaaay to early to say this will actually happen) it looks like the next time you see Captain Rocket you will see the entire Green Thing story! Again, it’s in the early stages of putting a team together, and it could go right back to quick shorts at any moment.
So those are the reasons I haven’t posted anything in awhile, even though episode 10 is ready to go.
Ok, my poor little arm can only take so much. I’ll update you all when I can.
Yeah, I should be working on Captain Rocket, but it’s been a while since I just uploaded a sketch, so here’s a new one with Mara from Blackstar.
It’s funny, I seem to enjoy the show more now, than when I was a kid. Maybe I just see the potential they were going for now. And the show, while still Filmation PC, is no where near as ‘dumbed down’ as He-Man was.
Here’s my second Golden Age Hero: Ted Grant, aka Wildcat! This is pretty much how Wildcat first appeared to the world in Sensational comics #1, back in 1942. Ted was a professional boxer turned superhero after being framed for murder and hearing about Green Lantern’s crime fighting career.
Wildcat was one of the longest running characters at DC, until the New 52, where he doesn’t exist anymore. Ah well.
I’ve been trying to think of a cool art project for myself. Aside from trying to create comic books and cartoons! Like I really need one. Anyway, I hit upon the idea of drawing all my favorite DC Golden Age heroes- I’m a big fan of 1940’s heroes. The thing I thought of to make it a little more interesting, as to try and draw their first appearance pose! You know Superman from Action Comics #1, Batman from Detective Comics #27, etc. Then I’ll collage them all together! It will probably take me years!
To start off with I have Rex Tyler here, AKA The Hourman. For whatever reasons I always loved his costume. Good old Rex discovered the mother of all steroids in 1940, Miraclo. Specifically designed to work his metabolism (of course!), each pill gives him superhuman abilities for 60 minutes. Making him the man of the hour- Hourman! Here is the first pose anyone ever saw of Hourman on the cover of Adventure Comics #48. He would go on to being a founding member of the Justice Society, before slipping into obscurity.
One finally interesting note about the Hourman, since the start of the war on drugs, writers and editors have been trying to get Rex (and later his son Rick) off the pill. We don’t want kids popping random pills thinking their Hourman or even Underdog, do we?
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