This was done for the This Week jam.

There are seven people on the planet who don’t know who Lois Lane is, and it’s probably statistically unlikely any of them are reading this. What I found interesting in the contributions to this jam so far has been that with one exception, everyone chose a golden age interpretation of Lois in one way or another. I LOVES me some retro pin-up stylings, so it was an easy call for me. Didn’t enjoy the herringbone, though.

Enjoy!

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Related posts:

1. This Week Jam: Lois Lane
2. TRDL Tribute: Golden Age Sandman
3. TRDL Tribute : Retro-Girl 02

Hey everyone, I’m baaaaaaaaaaaack. Wonderful work from everyone on the last two topics. I won’t try and comment on all of them, but I did enjoy seeing everyone’s entries. Take a bow, enjoy five minutes of warm and fuzzy time, but than back to the drawing board and on to the new topic…. Lois Lane

Vlad

P.S. Thanks to the D-man for filling in.

V

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Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Lois Lane
2. Welcome to our new home
3. This Week Jam: Red Sonja

Here’s a quick one before Turkey Day… this was done for the TRDL R3 This Week Jam, and the subject is Daily Planet cub reporter Jimmy Olsen. That poor Jimmy, always in the wrong place at the wrong time. And when Lois asks for a zip-up assist, back away slowly.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Related posts:

1. This Week Jam: Jimmy Olsen
2. TRDL Tribute: Lois Lane
3. This Week Jam: Lois Lane

OK, this was also done for a This Week jam… but last week, not this week. Or rather, the week before last week. Things move quickly when you’re not looking.

Anyway, the character was Songbird, of Marvel’s Thunderbolts. Formerly Screaming Mimi, her Banshee-esque scream now channeled into ‘hard’ soundcasting’ of whatever form she likes, as long as it’s… pink. I really like the colors in this costume. The weird golden gauntlet and shoulder harness action was a creative design for the character, and I think Mark Bagley did a great job realizing these costumes for this team. Anyway, hope you like it.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute – Firestorm + Firehawk
2. TRDL Tribute: Spider-Girl
3. TRDL Tribute: Crystal

That’s right, Freckles is up!

You all know this character, the little runt that’s forever crimping Supermans style! The “Rick Jones” of the DC Universe. The kid [according to his yearbook] “most likely to be a failed Superhero and convert to a failed World-Dominating-Master-of-All-He-Surveys Villain!”

I have little appreciation for this character but my mind is already trying to think of an idea…a way in…some redeeming element that I might use. Remember he has been some lame superheroe’s at various periods throughout his existance.

Personally I’d ram his sonic watch so far up his…..well now you know why I ain’t Superman

Good luck people and let’s see some inventiveness as this isn’t your “regular” draw a female games character with large breasts week, regretfully

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Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Jimmy Olsen
2. TRDL Tribute: Superman [Sightblinder Concept]
3. TRDL Tribute: Power Girl 2

This was done for the R3 Forum’s This Week Jam.

Cate Archer is a sexy bobbed spy in the James Bond videogame franchise. When reviewing the reference material, it struck me that so much of what I was excited about with this character were her cool, colorful mod outfits, and had several ideas about ways to lay out a piece that would focus on the clothes. Then it hit me, my favorite espionage/spy/assassin thriller female character was Nikita in Luc Besson’s La Femme Nikita, so I decided to do a homage to the most memorable scene from that film. The sniper rifle is based on a Fusil FR-F1, but gun fetishists please excuse any inaccuracies, as I have neither held one or pulled it out of a clawfoot tub.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Related posts:

1. This Week Jam: Cate Archer.
2. TRDL Tribute: Batman Begins
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Enrico Salvini’s Top 10 Lies My Client Told Me

This was posted in an artshare group I follow, and has spawned about a week’s worth of rants. I thought it might be worth posting here as well, see what you all think. SOme of this might be familiar to some of you. It applies largely to commercial paid projects.

I should mention though, I have had virtually all positive experiences myself in terms of commission art, with the few glaring exceptions being wrong from day one anyway. These don’t apply to my personal experiences so much as an illustrator, than as an architect.

:::

Graphic Artist’s Guild Handbook Pricing and Ethical Guidelines

1-”Do this one cheap (or free) and we’ll make it up on the next one.”

No reputable business person would first give away their work and time or

merchandise on the hope of making it up later. Can you imagine what a

plumber would say if you said “come in, provide and install the sink for

free and next time we’ll make it up when we need a sink.” You would be

laughed at! Also the likelyhood is that if something important came along,

they wouldn’t use you.

WR: sadly, this is all too common in architecture. But architects are notoriously bad businesspeople. Too much emotion and insecurity, I suspect.

2-”We never pay a cent until we see the final product.”

This is a croc, unless the person is leaving the door open to cheat you out

of your pay. Virtually every profession requres a deposit or incremental

payment during anything but the smallest project. Once you have a working

relationship, you may work out another arrangement with a client. But a new

client should not ask you to go beyond an initial meeting and, perhaps some

preliminary sketches without pay on the job!

WR: I actually prefer to not take payment on commission work until after a rough is approved, but I know many artists want payment in advance.

3-”Do this for us and you’ll get great exposure! The jobs will just pour in!”

Baloney. Tell a plumber “Install this sink and my friend will see and

you’ll get lots of business!” Our plumber friend would say “You mean even

if I do a good job I have to give my work away to get noticed? Then it

isn’t worth the notice.” Also the guy would likely brag to everyone he

knows about how this would normally cost (X) dollars, but brilliant

businessman that he is he got if for free! If anyone calls, they’ll expect

the same or better deal.

4- On looking at sketches or concepts: “Well, we aren’t sure if we want to

use you yet, but leave your material here so I can talk to my

partner/investor/wife/clergy.”

You can be sure that 15 minutes after you leave he will be on the phone to

other designers, now with concepts in hand, asking for price quotes. When

you call back you will be informed that your prices were too high and Joe

Blow Design/Illustration will be doing the job. Why shouldn’t they be

cheaper? You just gave them hours of free consulting work! Until you have a deal, LEAVE NOTHING CREATIVE at the clients office.

5- “Well, the job isn’t CANCELLED, just delayed. Keep the account open and

we’ll continue in a month or two.”

Ummm, probably not. If something is hot, then not, it could be dead. It

would be a mistake to *not* bill for work performed at this point and then

let the chips fall where they may! Call in two months and someone else may

be in that job. And guess what? They don’t know you at all…..

6- “Contract? We don’t need no stinking contact! Aren’t we friends?”

Yes, we are, until something goes wrong or is misunderstood, then you are

the jerk in the suit and I am that idiot designer, then the contract is

essential. That is, unless one doesn’t care about being paid. Any reputable

business uses paperwork to define relationships and you should too.

WR: Yes, I couldn’t agree more. Why risk the friendship over misunderstandings?

7- “Send me a bill after the work goes to press.”

Why wait for an irrelevant deadline to send an invoice? You stand behind

your work, right? You are honest, right? Why would you feel bound to this

deadline? Once you deliver the work and it is accepted, BILL IT. This point

may just be a delaying tactic so the job goes through the printer prior to

any question of your being paid. If the guy waits for the job to be

printed, and you do changes as necessary, then he can stiff you and not

take a chance that he’ll have to pay someone else for changes.

8- “The last guy did it for XXX dollars.”

That is irrelevant. If the last guy was so good they wouldn’t be talking to

you, now would they? And what that guy charged means nothing to you,

really. People who charge too little for their time go out of business (or

self-destruct financially, or change occupations) and then someone else has

to step in. Set a fair price and stick to it.

9- “Our budget is XXX dollars, firm.”

Amazing, isn’t it? This guy goes out to buy a car, and what, knows exactly

what he is going to spend before even looking or researching? Not likely. A

certain amount of work costs a certain amount of money. If they have less

money (and you *can*) do less work and still take the job. But make sure

they understand that you are doing less work if you take less money that

you originally estimated. Give fewer comps, simplify, let them go elsewhere

for services (like films) etc.

10- “We are having financial problems. Give us the work, we’ll make some

money and we’ll pay you. Simple.”

Yeah, except when the money comes, you can expect that you will be pretty

low on the list to be paid. If someone reaches the point where they admit

that the company is in trouble, then they are probably much worse off than

they are admitting to. Even then, are you a bank? Are you qualified to

check out their financials? If the company is strapped to the point where

credit is a problem through credit agencies, banks etc. what business would

you have extending credit to them. You have exactly ZERO pull once they

have the work. Noble intentions or not, this is probably a losing bet. But

if you are going to roll the dice, AT LEAST you should be getting

additional money for waiting. The bank gets interest and so should you.

That is probably why the person is approaching you; to get six months worth

of free interest instead of paying bank rates for credit and then paying

you with that money. Don’t give away money.

:::

To the other artists on this board, have you had bad experience with shades of some of these? I know a few of you have. If you have advice for other artists here on how not to get ripped off, let it be known!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. Publishing Opportunity: Ronin Studios
2. Questions of paper
3. TRDL Resources- Drawing the Human Figure in Proportion BIG!

Yesterday, Third Rail Design Lab reached the 100,000 hit mark. To the big guys, that’s like three minutes of traffic. But we don’t advertise, don’t market much, and largely get spread around through word of mouth, so to speak. So that’s a lot of clickeroos.

We also recently welcomed our 200th member to the TRDL R3 Forum. That’s also small potatoes to the big guys, but huge to me, considering that this forum was a place for a couple of knuckleheads to argue about which superhero film is cooler or why I drew one foot larger than the other in some pic. Today, we have all of the entertainment news and reviews content from our old Monkey+Robot Reviews blog, plus a weekly art jam, links and galleries, and host a virtual drawing studio.

I think this is all quite swell.

Once I noticed we were actually getting some pretty reliable traffic, I started working on a celebratory illustration for hitting the 100,000 hit mark. That was back in August 05. On honeymoon, actually.

Let me know what you think. I hope you dig it. By now, I hate it. It gave me carpal tunnel.

Here’s to the next 100,000 hits, I say!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Blog is Live
2. TRDL Tribute: Batman Begins
3. Happy New Year- 2006 Update!

A missing This Week jam, unearthed thanks to Tawd’s query. Good call, Tawd.

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Related posts:

1. R3 Designer Jam: Amoeba Man and Company!
2. TRDL Welcomes Young Zoe
3. This Week Jam: Lois Lane

Cate Archer from No One Lives Forever

I’m not altogether familiar with this character but I had been saying to Vlad that she reminds me of Liz Hurleys character from Austin Powers

http://archive.gamespy.com/top10/november00/catearcher/cate4.jpg

http://images.zatz.com/websites/computingunplugged/issues/issue200502/00001465-f.jpg

http://homepage1.nifty.com/gc/3dgame/nolf/nolf_title.gif

The last image here is a nice “graphic”. Anyway, hope y’all have some fun this week. Remember that Vlad’s away some that means we can all go hog wild and throw a party! Just means we have to tidy up before he gets back

Can’t wait to see all the great drawings.

-Darren.

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Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Cate Archer
2. This Week Jam: Typhoid Mary
3. TRDL Tribute: Tigra

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