TRDL R3 Forum member Sightblinder has had a Superman concept he’s developed over time that’s quite a labor of love, involving a rethinking of his origin and powers, his timeline, a completely different DCU canon, and it’s all great stuff. He wrote up his pitch on the character’s revision on the forum and included a pic of his costume concept. I was particularly inspired by his well-developed plot logic and characterization, that made Superman a lot more interesting to me, personally. Anyway, I was doodling in the car last week waiting for my wife to get out of the office, and decided to draw a TRDL version of Sightblinder’s Superman. I’ve made some assumptions with regards to costume colors, based on his description. It was a fun piece to do, and remained a challenge, as all Superman pics are for me, for whatever reason that iconography stymies me. Anyway, here it is.

http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/trdco … erman.html

And you can read about Sightblinder’s Superman concept
here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum
here!… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Superman
2. TRDL 2011 Series No. 54 – Superman [TRDL Redesign]
3. TRDL Tribute: Superman (Super-Buffery Edition)

The character for the week on the This Week Jam was Polaris of the X-Men. Polaris is the secret daughter of Magneto, and as is typical of Magneto’s offspring, kind of a few elements short on her Periodic Table. She’s had several great looks over the years, and several poor ones as well. Recently, an X-Men artist re-designed her costume in a strikingly witchy/leathery/gothicky style. I immediately saw it as a direct rip off Morrigan, the anime vampire character we drew in the jam a few months back. But still, it was quite a bit more designed than most X-Men characters, so I decided to give this version a shot. You’ll not her ominous choice of thrones here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum
here!… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute- Polaris [Joao]
2. TRDL Tribute – Ariel [Thundarr the Barbarian]
3. TRDL Tribute: Songbird

This is an original TRDL character, Flux, a guy who carries mines that artificially attract and amplify lightning. I guess you could think of him as having his own ‘Shazam!’ mines… except no one is sprouting muscles…

Art and origin: Thom Chiaramonte

:::

Flux

Name: Odysseus Farrow
Affiliation: Liberty Group

Attributes:

Melee: 35
Reflex: 30
Muscle: 25
Vigor: 20
Acumen: 15
Observation: 25
Will: 25

Life: 110
Influence: 65

Abilities:

Body Armor: Flux wears a neoprene/b-mesh bodysuit and mask that protects him from physical attacks with an Armor of 25, by spreading and diffusing kinetic energy impact. If he takes physical damage beyond what the suit can diffuse, he must make a Save vs. Stun. He enjoys negligible posthuman resistance to physical injury.

Electrical Generation- Bullseye Pads: Flux utilizes a latent posthuman ability to resist energy based damage 80 Intensity. His suit is designed to allow even greater resistance to electrical damage specifically, bumping his resistance up to 100 IV against this specific form of energy.

Bullseye Discs: The ‘Bullseye Discs’ , as they were nicknamed in weapons development, are highly localized electrical energy stimulators, which are designed to attract electrical energy from the atmosphere. Flux carries a number of different discs, ranging from 10 to 50 DP yields. Each can be set to impact a tight, 6" target area, or a field area effect of 10 m. The discs can be set with up to a 30s delayed trigger. Under most atmospheric conditions, the discs function without fail, but in extremely low electrical energy conditions, they suffer reduced likelihood of functioning effectively [a Yellow Ability Action is required, in order to use the Discs in adverse weather conditions, indoors, etc.; Otherwise, the charging of a Disc is automatic]. When using a Bullseye Disc, Flux must make either a Reflex … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Character Factory, No. 71: The Liberty Group
2. TRDL Character Factory, No. 13: Libertine
3. TRDL Character Factory, No. 132: Airstrike

This piece was done for the This Week jam…

I chose to do a slightly TRDL-ified version of Dinah’s more recent Birds of Prey era costume… kind of a fun one to draw, though the nylons were a pain. After Vlad posted earlier in the week, attempting (successfully) to draw wide-pattern fishnets as a real weave instead of a grid, I was a little bit stymied, following in his footsteps with the same concept. But hey, I had to finish it.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum
here!… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute- Black Canary [Joao]
2. TRDL Tribute: Spider-Man and Black Cat
3. TRDL Tribute: Black Widow (Joao)

So this is another topic in which it seems like every artist is doing something a little different. How do you scan you lineart?

It obviously depends also on the desired result. Pencil and lushly inked and toned drawings may be intended to look as they do on paper, so color or grayscale scanning are necessary right out of the gate.

Here’s my process, though I am experimenting these days and would love to read about yours:

I scan inked work at 600dpi bitmap. I bring this into photoshop, clean it up a bit and use levels and brightness/contrast. Then I run an Action I wrote that changes to RGB, cuts the image to a new layer, finds white and deletes it. Then builds my template of rendering layers beneath it, including my color layers and shade/shadow and highlight layers, each at their own transparency.

Now I work with layers, coloring under my line work.

This is obviously quite different from channels, and I know also that some of you scan in grayscale, do your tweaks and then push it to line art from there. This mystifies me, and I’m hoping you can explain your process more. I don’t see how leveling out greyscale work to get to black and white linework is more advantageous than bitmap scanning at high resolution in the first place. That said, I’m not personally after any toning or shade elements in my scanned work. Black. White (clear) that’s it.

So what do YOU do?

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum
here!… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. Taskmaster’s Photoshop line art coloring tutorial
2. Photoshop non-photo blue specifications…

If you need triple ninja action, the Crimson Dragons can assist you.

Concept and Art: Joao Marques
Abilities and Origin: Thom Chiaramonte and Joao Marques

::::

The Crimson Dragons

True Names: Unknown
Affiliation: Unknown

Attributes:

Melee: 40
Reflex: 50
Muscle: 20
Vigor: 30
Acumen: 20
Observation: 50
Will: 50

Life: 140
Influence: 120

Abilities:

Symbiotic Convergence: The Crimson Dragons are perfect bio-engineered clones, developed from genetic material assembled from seven of the most highly-trained, naturally gifted athletes and martial artists in the Koreas. They have undergone intense sleep training in various martial arts techniques, tactics and combat skills, begun while still in pre-natal development as part of the bio-engineering process of hyper-aging and nervous-system optimization utilized in their creation. Training together since they were first able to stand, the Crimson Dragons have developed a keen ability to act, fight and operate in perfect harmony as a triad. They receive +3CS to Melee Actions when working together in unison as a result. Their nervous systems and sensory organs have been precisely tuned to actually interact, allowing for a state of symbiotic convergence. As a result, one may defend while another attacks, as if they both experienced the same input stimuli, as evidenced in one reaching behind to parry a blow aimed at another, despite not seeing the blow coming. In mechanical terms, the sensory input for each Crimson Dragon is inter-mingled and processed equally with that of his brothers, and as a result, they act in perfect concert. As a result, the Crimson Dragons attack simultaneously in a single round, yet may make defense actions and reactionary attacks throughout the remainder of the round individually. This means that the three Crimson Dragons, when working together in hand-to-hand combat, may make three strikes per round, EACH. Any attack on one of their … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL 2011 Series, No. 21: Iron Man Series – Crimson Dynamo
2. TRDL Character Factory, No. 26: Fine Ancestor
3. TRDL Character Factory, No. 18: Nadir

I’ve been head-down on commission work this week, so not a whole lot new to share. But this was a recently completed commission for my client who’s own comic is a blend of Star Wars, autobiographical characters and contemporary life. The character here is Uncle Julius, a dark mage/Jedi type. As with all of the work I’ve done for this client, half the battle was sorting out the vision he had for the character, as his reference material and concepts were rooted in samples taken from other projects. Like with Cherie, the winged bat-woman Jedi-type character last time, here again he had some very specific ideas for clothing and affectation, but I was given the flexibility to apply some details to diversify the character’s visual image. This guy was described as wearing jeans, boots, leather jacket, carrying a lightsaber and conjuring some magic whammo, with an afro and shades. I chose to exaggerate his look by drawing him thin, angular, with face contour and larger facial features, in an effort to show the physical effects beginning to take hold, of his obsession with the dark arts. I tried to give him a lean, sprung posture. I had initially given him a very exaggerated proportion, with a wide shoulder base and very narrow waistline, long torso, etc which was an extreme version of a body type I sometimes see around that makes me think of a lean cat, like a panther or a cheetah. In working with the sketch, though, I didn’t like how the exaggerated proportions were working out, so I brought him back down to more reasonable size, though still a little exaggerated. Anyway, after some exploration of his magic-casting arm, we finally got it worked out and he’s diggin’ it. So here’s Unkle Julius… a bad mother fuzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz——-… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Aero
2. Finit-e Survey!
3. TRDL Tribute: Jibber Jabber

This piece was done for the This Week jam…

It’s Jessica Jones, Luke Cage’s fiancée and mother of his child, formerly of

the solo book Alias, later of The Pulse, now probably guesting in every

other Brian Michael Bendis book out there, which is fine by me. The

character has been one of the most interesting, well-written female

characters in comics, as far as I’m concerned. Not since Love and Rockets

have I been so intrigued by a female character in comics, written so

consistently and realistically so as to seem more alive than your usual fare

in the funnybooks. Though she was written with a retcon backstory that

involved her supposedly having a limited spandexed crimefighting past with

the Avengers and SHIELD, it was only for the purposes of showing that she

had retired that life, and was getting by as a private investigator in the

Marvel Universe. The character concept was originally intended to be Bendis’

take on Spider-Woman (Jessica Drew) as a retired super-heroine, but became a new character entirely as the script developed, and I’m glad for it. Very bittersweet to see The Pulse end last month…

Anyway, here’s Jessica Jones.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum
here!… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Zoe Jones
2. TRDL Tribute: Daredevil
3. TRDL Tribute – Deena Pilgrim [Powers]

This past week’s This Week Jam subject was Starfire of the Teen Titans, Titans, etc. Film fans may note a blast from the Kubrickian past on this one.

I had a lot of trouble with this week’s selection. One, I’m barely a DC guy now (I follow creatives and stories more than companies at this point, old Marvel habits notwithstanding) and was even less so as a kid, when Teen Titans was really in it’s prime. Two, I never appreciated Starfire, despite her heady cocktail (hmmm) of womany assets, bubbly personality, nearly-nude costume, overt sex symbol presence, and copious use of Wrongrobot Orange. Third, I feared the do. That’s a lot of wild and crazy hair.

I had ultimately decided on a direction to take this about mid-week, when I saw R3 Member Tulio’s version of a Teen Titans cartoon-inspired costume for Kori, combined with a more modern haircut. But late int he week, I stumbled upon this idea, and couldn’t shake it. So there it is!

Looking back on Starfire’s history and origin, aside from the continuity I wasn’t too keen about, being so very Marvel, I realize also that my resistance to this character was borne from my general dislike of George Perez’ art. I know that’s akin to proclaiming boredom with oxygen… but it just never resonated with me, and I always felt passively guilted by other comic readers, and the comic community itself, for not digging it. But it’s been only the last few years I’ve been able to come out of the Perez-avoidance closet and tell it as it be. Because I tell you what, this character is a hell of a lot more intriguing under different creator’s pencils, to me. Perhaps there’s another Starfire sketch in my future!

You can see this illustration here… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute – Starfire (Joao)
2. TRDL Tribute – Terra
3. TRDL Tribute: Wonder Girl

I can’t vouch for this operation, but I noted an open call on one of the art lists for sequential artists willing to work for free… some of you may be interested in the premise and want to give it a go. Working for free always sucks, but it’s a good way to begin your body of published work, if that’s the bigger picture for you.

Contact starstruck74_AT_hotmail.com if interested. If you do, you might as well say that you read about it here on R3… I encourage small press community types to make use of the forum communities to reach out to artists and readers, so they might be interested to see that it works…

:::

From the site:

Blam! Shooting up takes on a new meaning. Crazy 9 is the most dangerous new drug on the market, and this one is very addictive. Giving its user temporary super human abilities. The powder, typically contained in a bullet, must be administered through the head. Healing takes place immediately, and the effects last nine hours. Crazy 9 is distributed exclusively by the mysterious AM & PM.

Gritty tales of paying the price for power.

9 B&W stories.

I’ve written a book called Crazy 9: nine lives. It’s a 100 pages TPB crime/ drug comic, with a twist.

The comic will be printed and all credit would go to the artist who worked on each story.

What I need are nine different artists. I can’t promise you money, but it may get you a little recognition, and, hopefully, it’d be a fun change from what you normally do.

This is a first-come/first-served basis. Your style has to be what I’m looking for to go with the look of the book. If you like the idea, but aren’t grabbed, give it a … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. Prospect: Small Press Comic Opportunity
2. Tips on self-publishing, please