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.

Banner Thumbnail, New Header

This is extremely rough at the moment, but I thought I'd try designing a poster for our Illustration II show. Hopefully, everyone will be flattered by the portrayal of their character.

 

EDIT: Hey, are you wondering what happened to my old header?

Well, forget that crap! Say hello to version 2.0!

BRB, DisneyWorld

 

Rolling Jones

A magazine cover from Franlin and Serenity's engagement.

Dan Dan Revolution

Hey guys, I found our teacher!

Little Mermaid: The Complete Thumbnail Collection

So, after painstaking hours condensing an epic fairytale into a 32-page book, while trying my damnedest not to rip off the Disney adaptation, I've finished the thumbnail layouts for Matt Pickett's The Little Mermaid!

I put the cover concept at the end of the story instead of the beginning, for some reason (I'm dumb). And I put quite a few thumbnails on each page, so I'm sure you'll need to click them for the larger versions.

The hairdresser on page 26 is my friend Britten. She's a great stylist. (If you've seen my shaggy hair lately, you can probably tell that I haven't seen her for a while.) She gave me advice on making over Azrael midway through the story.

Under the Influence

I didn't draw this, but it took forever to compile regardless...

The Influence Map is a current fad in the art community. Basically, using the grid allotted, you map out samples of the artists that have influenced your drawing style. So, before I show you my Little Mermaid crap this week (though, thanks to the backwards format of blogs, you'll see this after my Mermaid pictures) I thought I'd share mine with you.

You're probably not shocked that most of my influences are animation.

The Little Human Mermaid

Here's some concept art for my Little Mermaid storybook. First off, here's Azrael in human form. As you can see by comparing it to my previous drawing of her as a mermaid, I've decided to make her less gangly and anorexic looking. Now she's a cute little pudgy hipster chick. I'll revise her body shape accordingly in upcoming pictures.

Another sheet, with a stripped model for detailing her tattoos. (Yes, that's a mermaid Hello Kitty on her underwear.) I'm going to give her more. Anyone have some suggestions on what they should be? I want some on her legs and wrists. I also included a head turn of her with her old black hair. I can't decide if she should keep her piercings after the transformation.

And here's the sea witch, Fuckis. I worry that his body looks a little bland, but I can work on it. The three faces at the top represent his expression throughout the story. The head in the bottom left is the expression he makes on the final page after winning.

 

Lastly, here's a rough of the Prince and his band...

And to help myself design their look, I picked a song to imagine them playing. It's "Help I'm Alive" by Metric, which would be the final song on the soundtrack if this were a movie.