This illustration was done for the R3 Jam on TRDL’s R3 Forum. Artists can participate in any open jams by heading here. The subject this time: evil versions of superheroes.

So as soon as I saw what this week’s topic was, I realized how much I wanted to do my version of Walfiend’s design, despite the fact that I still have ANOTHER related pic in the works. But since that one wasn’t really in the pin-up vein, I decided to do a fresh piece, same character, and I’m glad I did. This is a nod to Walfiend’s redesign of the Crime Syndicate version of Wonder Woman, Earth-2′s Superwoman (Lois Lane). I love the design he came up with, particularly the asymmetrical cloak and pin-shield, the inverted tiara, and the use of silver bracelets. This is another turn at drawing a villain in my pin-up series, which by it’s nature has a good girl vibe, so I’m relying on the background and the eyeshadow I guess. Plus, I think there’s a knowing smile there. An ‘I’ll crush you’ smile.

Please enjoy.

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You can find a larger version here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Process Notes:

First-off, here’s Walfiend’s redesign, which was my model sheet for this piece. You can read his design notes through this link.

Here’s my original pencils. You’ll note I was playing with artifacts around her, such as a crushed, empty Batman cowl, or a bloody Wonder Woman lasso. I ultimately felt the piece was stronger without them.

Inks, as you can see, without the artifacts. It’s a fine line on these pin-up inspired pics, how much of the character reference to bring in, especially when it starts to feel like props. In this case, I shied … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. Third Rail Thrills 43 – Dr. Girlfriend Pin-Up
2. Third Rail Thrills 40 – Mantis Pin-Up
3. Third Rail Thrills 38 – Brandy Pin-Up

This illustration was done for the R3 Jam on TRDL’s R3 Forum. Artists can participate in any open jams by heading here. The subject this time: Cheshire, from DC Comics.

I like the character of Cheshire, though not so much the costume, with all the green on green semi-swashbuckler details and very 80′s headband and one-sleeve action. But She reminds me, in tone, of where Viper could have gone but didn’t: fast-acting poisons, extreme martial arts skills, and most interesting, the babymomma thing. I tried to give her a mixed-ethnicity vibe in her face and skin tone, reflecting the vietnamese-french background. I like how it turned out.

This is also the first piece with the new trade dress for Third Rail Design Lab. More to come!

Please enjoy.

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You can find a larger version here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Process Notes:

OK, so here’s the piece that inspired my work, a great Teen Titans cover that captures both Cheshire’s ethnic blend AND funky retro styling. What a great face and Farrah haircut…

Here’s the original pencils. I was drawing at a strange angle and trying to be very quiet, and as is often the case, had proportion issues largely based on the angle of my view. But not to worry…

I often identify the errors as I go, to remind myself, as I often zoom in while working digitally later and lose some of that perspective. Here, I noted the feet were too small for the legs. Now the legs were too long for the torso by a bit, but I knew I’d scale that later. But I wanted to fix the boots right away.

Biggest issue was a problem with this arm. I was looking at a cute … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. Third Rail Thrills 43 – Dr. Girlfriend Pin-Up
2. Third Rail Thrills 41 – Golden Glider Pin-Up
3. Third Rail Thrills 45 – Lady Mechanika Pin-Up

You may have seen a few of these that I’ve posted in the past, but I’ve been slowly developing a series of illustrations, portraits of close friends and family, done in a cryptohistoical style. These are long-format printed works, done in poster style.

This one was done for Twowingsmambo (pat) and his mega-awesome wife Deina, for their wedding in late summer 2009. The approximate time period should be apparent from the costuming and text, but there are some other details:

- Deina’s dress is blue, because I find her refreshing. Well, it WAS, before the sepiatone.
- That’s a very old, but very real, bike. I have to dig up the references. But I chose it because the riding position is tall and upright, and it suits Pat, who is tall and upright.
- They live in Vermont
- They have a chicken coop.
- They are Landscape Architects

Please enjoy. Hell yes!

Here’s a larger version of the poster itself, so you can see the detail…

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You can find a larger version in TRDL Trade Dress here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Process Notes:

I don’t have a lot of material for this section, as I wasn’t capturing stage process pics at the time I was developing this illustration, but here we have:

Original Pencils

Blueline push of the same pencils, for which to ink…

…Thusly….

This might be of interest, though. Here’s the original colors on this piece. i tend to work in full color, even If I’m going to push monochrome later (and then punch certain values as needed) … I like the chicken tails.

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

Related posts:

1. TRDL Special Project: Christine + Matt 2010
2. TRDL Special Project: Team Lope AIDS Fundraiser 2010
3. TRDL Special Edition – Maestra [For the Sparhawks]

This was done for the R3 Illustration jam on Third Rail Design Lab’s R3 Forum, the subject being Starfire, from DC’s Teen Titans.

Here’s Joao’s recently completed and 100% minimum awesome Starfire. SMOKIN, and I don’t just mean that hair.

Please enjoy, hell yes!

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You can find a larger version 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: Starfire
2. TRDL Tribute – Thor [Joao]
3. TRDL Tribute – Steampunk X-Men [Joao]

This illustration was done for the R3 Jam on TRDL’s R3 Forum. Artists can participate in any open jams by heading here. This time, it was the Outsiders, from DC..

I’m not going to lie: the original Outsiders gave me hives. But I’m a Marvel guy. I just could never get my head around Batman, even the goofy yellow and powder blue and pale grey high-eared Batman of the day, would leave the Justice League and mentor a bunch of punks. That said, there was more than enough ridiculous crap that like going on at Marvel (I mean, Defenders? WHAT?) but anyway, just wasn’t my thing. BUT I do remember this: I was all wound up about a new character I had created called Katana: she was this Japanese bad ass martial artist hottie with, you got it, a katana (actually two) and man she was ra—- and boom, my friend pointed out the Outsiders and there we were. So, I always sort of resented that character. "Huph! DC named that stereotyped Asian character after her own weapon! MEH!’ Even though I had done the same, in all my 5th grade brilliance. Anyway, of course I had to return to Katana for this jam. The DC version, mind you. I chose a more recent iteration of her look. I was really delighted by how incongruous her dark gray gloves are in that costume, so i think that’s what drew me in. Sometimes it’s the most random thing, I guess.

There’s a film nod in this one, too…

Please enjoy.

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You can find a larger version here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Process Notes:

Here’s the version of Katana that inspired me:

Onto my progress pics…

I started with two versions of … Read on for more awesome…

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1. TRDL Tribute: Madame Masque (Iron Man Adventures)
2. TRDL 2011 Series, No. 18: Artemis [Young Justice]
3. Third Rail Thrills 38 – Brandy Pin-Up

This illustration was done for the R3 Jam on TRDL’s R3 Forum. Artists can participate in any open jams by heading here. This time, it was Amy Wong, from Futurama.

When I first started participating in online illustration jams, one of the groups in which I became involved did a lot of cartoon and anime characters in their jams. I discovered almost immediately my only interest was in drawing these properties in my own style, not mimicking the style of the animation or what have you. Flash forward to today, it’s the same here with Amy Wong, one of the secondary characters on Futurama. I treated the character as a model sheet for my own costuming, and went that route, Asian girl, pink bare midriff sweatsuit, etc. However, I did give her very stylized locks of hair to nod back to the cartoon, and I kept the big clunky boots off to soften it as a pinup girl. The aircraft fuselage graphics are supposed to be saying ‘robot killers’ but one never really knows with Google Translate. Ha.

Please enjoy.

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You can find a larger version here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Process Notes:

Here’s the original cartoon version of Amy:

Onto my progress pics…

The original pencils

And the original inks. Not much change!

I was deliberate about keeping the hair looking stylized, like sheets of rubber.

Face and hair done, onto flats and shade. This is a simple color piece so the color of the sweatsuit will be brought into the fuselage lettering as well.

After highlights, I liked the tone of the pink. I was anticipating lots of tint/hue adjustment but it worked well, especially with the color of the head in her hands. Poor Bender.

The … Read on for more awesome…

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2. TRDL Tribute: Power Girl 2009
3. TRDL Tribute: Elasti-Girl [Doom Patrol]

This TRDL pin-up was done for R3 Army Lt. Akua, holding out in our R3 EEEEEEAST Coast operation, in Japan. Akua posted this awesome pic to her Deviant Art page awhile back that really struck me so I decided to d a homage to that pic, and send it to her as a surprise. I kept pretty close to the model in her pic, giving it the propaganda art treatment for final composition.

As you can see, it made it safe and sound!

Please enjoy.

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You can find a larger version here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Process Notes:

The Roots:

So here’s the original piece Akua did that inspired this homage:

http://akua.deviantart.com/gallery/#/d2pijf9

And here was my rough pose reference for this retro pin-up:

The Work:

My Progress pics begin with inks.

On this one I threw down the color in blobs in all the relevant areas, because I was zoomed out and looking for the color balance between her hair, skin and that red blouse, since the stark whiteness of the coat would make the choices of the other colors stand out with more contrast.

Even though the nurse is wearing old-timey garters, I did the full shiny skin treatment anyway, despite the fact a lot of that detail gets hidden by the nylons. She eats her vitamins.

Here’s flats. I settled on these colors and went to work.

The hair is in browns and this, along with the skin tone selected and the features of the face, suggest this is a western nurse abroad in Japan, just like our Akua. Who is not a licensed nurse, so don’t let her perform ‘exams’ on you.

The original shoe color was a blackish brown. I knew that if the nylons went … Read on for more awesome…

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1. TRDL Tribute : Camella [Akua's Creator-Owned Character]

This TRDL pin-up is actually a modification of an erotic commission done for a client. Here’s the thing. I love Jean Grey. She’s Marvel’s original schoolgirl with super mega number one good powers, crazy red hair, and several deaths to her name. But my previous attempts to draw her were pretty weak. When I did this piece, commissioned as Jean with her signature Morrison/ Quitely era ribbed top on, and nothing else (what we call, around these parts, ‘yogi berra’n it) I discovered I drew a Jean Grey I actually really liked. Since TRDL is a family affair, more or less, I threw her tights on and made her a pin-up. So there you are!

Please enjoy.

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You can find a larger version here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Process Notes:

Pencils! (Edited to be more general audience friendly, for science)

Inks. The client requested bigger longer hair, as you can see. I actually quite like the straight hair, but that’s going to have to wait for another day and another drawing.

Flats. The skin needed to be a warmer, peachier tone to play nice with the dark charcoal of the top.

Here’s skin and eyes, done. On to the hair…

I made a number of edits to the inks in the curls of the hair. My TRDL partner in crime, Joao, does these amazing hair curls, and I’m trying to mimic his skill here.

I did the ribbing of the turtleneck in gray tones instead of inks.

Fuselage pic credit: 7E55E-BRN!

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

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute – Jean Grey [Paper Doll]
2. TRDL Tribute: Jean Grey
3. TRDL Tribute – Ultimate Hawkeye

This was done for the TRDL R3 Jam, the subject being DC’s Manhunter. You can find the jam on the R3 Forum here.

I’ve disliked all previous iterations of DC’s Manhunter over the years with the burning fire of a thousand limp candles. However, the female Manhunter presented with a low-key, duo chromatic bodysuit with gnarly tech details and was assisted by beautiful cover art from Jae Lee, which makes everything better. I really like how ‘top heavy’ the design is, with the scaled armor not descending below the shoulders and bracers.

Please enjoy.

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You can find a larger version here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Process Notes:

Here’s an example of Jae Lee’s cover work, which inspired me.

My pencils and inks on this one were way off. I was working in the dark by the light of an episode of Law and Order: Criminal Intent, with the pad at an angle, and my figure was wildly out of proportion.

The processed inks but prior to stitching and proportion adjustments.

Flat colors. I started with natural dark brown hair.

The figure was given three steps of highlight color to give the simple costume more vibrancy.

I was looking at those inky black Jae Lee covers again, and while his hair for her was often pitch black voids, I at least pushed mine to the blues and it works better that way.

Light staff was done digitally, and we’re out!

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

No related posts.

[ You can find a larger version here. ]

This illustration was done for the TRDL R3 Illustration Jam, the subject being Marvel’s Ghost Rider.

I was never a fan of this character. I like flaming skulls plenty, but like a lot of 70s Marvel, it’s so pop-culture heavy and therefore dated, it’s hard to accept it. Sure, Silver Surfer still flies around on a surfboard. But there’s something about a flaming demonic Hell’s Angel cipher that just never gets interesting to me. That said, I wanted to give it a try, so I did a TRDL Redesign, pushing forward to the year 3033.

In this design, the world of the 3000′s is one devoid of biological life. Artificial intelligence rules. Therefore, my Ghost Rider is a bot. I thought it was an interesting conceit that sentience, like the soul, is so little understood by science, that there’s no reason that if artificial intelligences could gain sentience, that they wouldn’t gain souls, and therefore have one to trade to Satan. And so, a demonic bot, we have here. To make him more dangerous in this world, I made his core out of a recovered, damaged Chinese nuclear pile. The head may be familiar to some of you. The wheels are actually fission tesseracts, held together by ungravity fields. He’s carrying a container on his belt that contains the DNA samples of each of the men that were once Ghost Riders before freed from their duties. The gun, posture, and framing elements will be familiar to anyone into manga in the 80s, I hope!
Please enjoy!

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You can find a larger version here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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Process Notes:

So the composition is loosely based on my favorite panel from the … Read on for more awesome…

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2. TRDL Tribute- Team Lope Bike Girl: Red
3. TRDL Tribute: Pirates [Three-Pin Maria]

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