Liefeld challenge

Hey all. I thought I'd take a break from mermaid stuff for this week's blog, so I don't go crazy before I can do the final spread and clean up my book dummy next week. Instead, I decided to take the Rob Liefeld challenge. Basically, you take an especially weak drawing from famously bad comic book artist Rob Liefeld and try to fix it up. I don't consider myself a great artist by any means, but I think I can outdo our old pal Rob, at the very least.

Here's the original drawing, from an issue of Cable...

And here's my attempt to clean her up a bit.

 

As you can see, I've fixed her proportions a bit. She no longer has her legs on sideways, nor is she standing on her toes for no reason. And that... column thing next to her is shifted so that it's clearly behind her. (In the original drawing, it seems to be in front of her, even though her arm overlaps it. Total mindscrew, eh?)

This was fun. Maybe I'll do more in the future.

Guest drawing from Jordan, new colors

Three blog posts in a week. O_o Kind of excessive, but I had to post this. My kickass friend Jordan Bickimer gave me a sketch card he drew of Azrael today, and it is sweeeeeeet. Thanks, dude!

As for my book, I'm revising the colors on the first page. Trying out some new brushes, trying to make everything look more "painted". I want to retain the black outlines, though. Probably. I may color them.

 

Oh, and here's a finished version of spread 2. By "finished" of course I mean that I'll only change it ten more times.

Fanart

Wow, two updates in a week? Well, I had a couple of hours to kill tonight, and decided to draw some fanart for a few of my friends in Illustration. Please forgive the low quality, but they're really just doodles.

First up, J. Edgar Prufrock, after he meets his untimely fate. Hey, at least he finally got a mermaid's attention.

And here are our three resident action heroes making a daring zipline escape.

Inkheart

I drew half a picture and Aaron drew half a picture, and we stuck 'em together.

One night only! It's the Little Mermaid vs. the Little Match Girl! Watch them battle over the tome of Hans Christian Anderson, each hoping to revise the sad ending of their respective stories! Watch our sketching process at this link!!

She's got legs

Here's the rough version of my second "Little Mermaid" spread. Any critique on how to make it less sucky would be adored.

I'm going to work on the coloring and maybe the composition, so it looks more "magical". I'm also going to put more sense of motion between the figures so you get the idea that they're stages of movement, and not just four copies of Azrael.

Also, I'm compiling a soundtrack to be posted with the finished pictures. In the meantime, here's Fuckis's theme song. Just imagine him singing it, Disney villain style.

Expressive

Twenty-five expressions on the little mermaid. Sorry the lines are really inconsistent, but it's just an exercise.

The Little Mermaid, spread 1

Hey guys and girls! I was going to post my "25 Essential Expressions" sheet of Azrael this morning, but I didn't finish it, so I'll post it tonight. Stay tuned! In the meantime, check out the first spread for my Little Mermaid storybook.

You'll probably want to click it for the bigger version. Let the high-res mediocrity ravish you like fine chocolate.