In 1989, Brian Augustyn and Mike Mignola released what is now considered to be the first Elseworlds story for DC: Gotham by Gaslight, setting Batman against a victorian Gotham City. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to draw Batman or any other character from that one-shot.

More info here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gotham_by_Gaslight

:::

The TRDL/ R3 Jam runs weekly but remains open indefinitely. It can be found on the Third Rail Design Lab R3 Forum here: http://thirdraildesignlab.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=27
And on DeviantArt in the TRDL R3 WeeklyJam group here: http://trdl-r3-weeklyjam.deviantart.com/

NEW: A spreadsheet of all R3 Challenge threads to date can be found here:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AuDrQP27UVZNdEw2WnNWVmlJcHBuaElvUXV0RTAwU1E
Look for the character you want to add and you may find an existing challenge to use…… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. 2012 R3 Challenge 13: Captain Marvel 2013 (Marvel)
2. October 16 2011 – TRDL R3 Art Jam – Magic Challenge
3. TRDL Tribute: Batman: Year One

As many of you know, I’m holding an art swap project for 2012, which is hosted on dA. Everyone interested signs up and hops in the queue. On a roughly monthly basis, we move down the list and each draw an OC (Original Character) that the other created. On my end, there are 350+ characters and teams in the TRDL Universe. You can work on anyone that inspires you. And you can point me at any of your characters specifically, or let me choose.

The resulting pieces will be featured in a gallery on http://TRDL-R3-WeeklyJam.deviantart.com , our sister site for the R3 Art Challenge: (which is already started) and on the main TRDL 3.0 site once the relaunch is complete, int he Friends of TRDL fan art section.

If you are interested, hop on here:
http://thirdraildesignlab.deviantart.co … -287293413

If you aren’t on dA, let me know and I’ll add you to this manually.
Remember, this is for OCs only.
And this is not intended to take away from paid work, so schedule is flexible.
The intent is to encourage and celebrate the creation of original characters

thom

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

Related posts:

1. TRDL 2012 Series No. 02 – Admiral Hamilton (Time Traveler)
2. TRDL 2012 Series No. 20 – El Jefe
3. TRDL 2012 Series No. 21 – Anansi

I have been lax in announcing the weekly character/theme for the TRDL R3 Challenge. Let’s solve that right now…

2012 R3 Challenge 13: Captain Marvel 2013 (Marvel)

In 2013, Captain Marvel (aka Carol Danvers) ie being given a Kree makeover, moving her into alignment with the cosmic Captain Marvel themes… this is your chance to take a crack at the new look. With or without Kree helmet. [Costume courtesy of Jamie McKelvie, cover art is EdM...]

More info here:

http://marvel.com/news/story/18290/wondercon_2012_captain_marvel

:::

The TRDL/ R3 Jam runs weekly but remains open indefinitely. It can be found on the Third Rail Design Lab R3 Forum here: http://thirdraildesignlab.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=27
And on DeviantArt in the TRDL R3 WeeklyJam group here: http://trdl-r3-weeklyjam.deviantart.com/… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. 2012 R3 Challenge No. 13: Batman- Gotham by Gaslight
2. TRDL 2012 Series No. 17 – Captain Cold [TRDL Redesign]
3. October 16 2011 – TRDL R3 Art Jam – Magic Challenge

TRDL 2012 Series, No. 22 – Alice in Wonderland 01 [For the What is the Use of a Book without Pictures project]

What is the Use of a Book Without Pictures is an ambitious project that involves telling the Alice in Wonderland story entirely visually. All art is based on individual passages, and assembled together across wildly disparate styles and approaches to produce a surreal storytelling experience. The published volume will necessarily be massive. You can see the work done to date through the FB page here.

My passage:

"Alice started to her feet, for it flashed across her mind that she had never before seen a rabbit with either a waistcoat-pocket, or a watch to take out of it…"

Surveying the work done so far, which features artists ranging from mixed media works to famous illustrators of different styles, mine is definitely one of the more traditional in terms of sequential art storytelling, which actually makes it kind of unique in a way, I suppose. Very cool.

You can find a larger version here.
And as always you can read about some of the design notes in my process pics below.

Artists, come join us on R3 and submit to the jams! The R3 Illustration Jam offers new characters weekly, but all jams remain open so you can contribute to any that you like, here:
http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/forum … m.php?f=27
or in the TRDL-R3-WeeklyJam group on DA, here:
http://trdl-r3-weeklyjam.deviantart.com/

:::

Background:

A sample of classic illustration along with my text, as it happens. I love the vintage illustrated Lewis Carroll stuff that I find here and there, and I initially was planning on doing something very different than my personal style, but I was struck that if I took the text, applied more style to the narrative, and didn’t use … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: American McGee’s Alice in Wonderland
2. TRDL 2012 Series No. 09 – Baroness
3. TRDL 2012 Series No. 12 – Spoiler

TRDL 2012 Series, No. 22 – Iron Man – Silver Centurion Armor [TRDL Iron Man Series]

This was done for my TRDL Iron Man Series, in which I attempt to draw all versions of Iron Man for no good reason.

This was the armor that started it all for me. This dates me somewhat, but even after seeing and enjoying earlier versions of Iron Man in my scattered Marvel reading growing up, I only started collecting Iron Man on a monthly basis around #165 or so, and then went backwards to about #100, and scattered ones prior. But all through the disgraced Tony period (in which Tony, losing the battle with the bottle a second time, loses Stark Industries to Obadiah Stane and takes a hike, with Rhodey taking on the Iron Man mantle full time) I was annoyed by both plot and art, and it was getting rough: I didn’t like McDonnell’s knee-knocked poses and a lot of the inks, and I was bored by Rhodey being a bitch about his headaches and Tony running a vague startup in what apparently was a desert wasteland, from within a geodesic dome filled with a few card tables, and no shaving razors. I appreciated the character arc, but I was getting bored as a young reader. And then it all came together: Tony couldn’t help but get up in a new version of the MK I armor, things got heated between him and Rhodey, and then he went after Stane, culminating in one of my favorite Iron Man stories ever. So, in keeping with all that excitement, I was super thrilled by the Silver Centurion armor. Unlike many die-hards of the day I remember whining about it in the comic shop, I didn’t mind the red/white scheme (hints of my love … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL 2011 Series, No. 13: Iron Man Series – Stealth Armor
2. TRDL 2011 No. 8 – Iron Man Series – Original Armor
3. TRDL 2011 Series No. 35 – Iron Man vs. Batman

TRDL 2012 Series, No. 21 – Anansi [Created by Dawnsknight]

This was done for the TRDL OC Art Swap 2012. If you have OCs and want to trade some art for art, you can sign up here.

Anansi is a character created by dA member Dawnsknight. There’s a strong spider influence here, with the abilities, the multiple eyes on the head and hands, and the concealed forearm fangs. But there’s also a chitinous armor thing happening, so it was an interesting design to interpret. You can see the creator’s notes in the process section below. I tried to stay on model as much as possible, deviations being limited to lightening up the hand eyes for clarity and adding a textured overlapping weave to the chitinous armor. Good stuff!

You can find a larger version here.
And as always you can read about some of the design notes in my process pics below.

Artists, come join us on R3 and submit to the jams! The R3 Illustration Jam offers new characters weekly, but all jams remain open so you can contribute to any that you like, here:
http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/forum … m.php?f=27
or in the TRDL-R3-WeeklyJam group on DA, here:
http://trdl-r3-weeklyjam.deviantart.com/

:::

Background:

Here’s the original material Dawnsknight provided, along with a narrative.

The original pencils and inks aren’t particularly interesting, being a standing shot of a monochrome, featureless black figure, since I don’t ink my blacks. But it’s a start. I was going for a built, lanky physique, like Awesome on Chuck.

I decided to redraw the feet. So here those are.

Flats. I used a dark grey/blue so I would have a surface to shade/highlight rather than solid black.

Highlights and small features.

A view of the design of the chitinous armor.

Love playing with other people’s toys!

Thanks … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL 2012 Series No. 22 – Iron Man [Silver Centurion]
2. TRDL 2012 Series No. 20 – El Jefe
3. TRDL 2012 Series No. 18 – the Red Hulk

TRDL 2012 Series, No. 20 – El Jefe [TRDL Original Universe]

This was done for the TRDL R3 Jam this week, the subject being a theme jam: WEAPON.

This week I saw an opportunity to do a little double-duty. I had pencils for one of the TRDL Original Universe characters for the new sourcebooks in the queue for inks, and he has a weapon, so there you go! This character was originally called Big Brother when released in 2005. For the redesign, I’ve streamlined the design of the bodysuit, abstracted the ‘staring eye’ motif to be isolated at the shoulders, and stripped him of the electrified glove the original carried, limiting him to the mace. I also shifted him to Central America, an area of posthuman development that gets a lot of attention in the new sourcebooks. I won’t go into the changes to the character origin here, as that will be int he published material, but I’m imagining him as having started out with the self-applied handle ‘Big Brother’ but was so often referred to by the locals as ‘El Jefe’ that he just gave up an adopted it; while the original character was a posthuman bounty hunter, he’s now envisioned as one of the recipients of the black market posthuman development labs in Jalisco, a self-made guy who is avenging the deaths of his loved ones by going after regional gangers who he holds responsible.

You can find a larger version here.
And as always you can read about some of the design notes in my process pics below.

Artists, come join us on R3 and submit to the jams! The R3 Illustration Jam offers new characters weekly, but all jams remain open so you can contribute to any that you like, here:
http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/forum … m.php?f=27
or in … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL 2012 Series No. 16 – Maris Brood
2. TRDL 2012 Series No. 14 – Miranda Lawson [Mass Effect]
3. TRDL 2012 Series No. 12 – Spoiler

For a few years now I have been collecting fan art based on TRDL Original Universe characters, as drawn by friends, clients and fellow artists, with the intention of hosting them in a special gallery on the main site at http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com . As the site rebuild is going slow, I thought I’d open a fan art gallery on DeviantArt to showcase this work in the meantime, and to support the community of artists their that participate in the TRDL R3 Jams.

The gallery can be found here, in the TRDL-R3-WeeklyJam group, a sister site to our own jam in the R3 Forum:

TRDL Fan Art Gallery

I’ll be adding pieces submitted to me over the years to this gallery in the coming weeks, but for now, you can already see a metric ton of great pics by our own Tulio, and a new piece by dA member Dawnsknight, the first from a new series of OC fan art trades I’m hosting. You can sign up for a sketch swap here, if interested, or on dA here:
http://thirdraildesignlab.deviantart.co … -287293413

Take a look, and thanks to all these artists for presenting their visions of the TRDL characters you find within.

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

Related posts:

1. Announcing the 2010 Friends of TRDL Gallery Project!
2. 2010 Friends of TRDL Gallery Project: 1/2 Way Point Reminder
3. Update: Friends of TRDL Gallery Project

TRDL 2012 Series, No. 19 – Marvel Girl [TRDL Cryptohistorical Redesign]

This was done for the TRDL R3 Jam this week, the subject being the original Marvel Girl, from the X-Men.

I’ve always loved the concept of Jean Grey, even though by the time I was reading Marvel comics consistently she was momentarily dead (the first time), especially the idea of her from those early uniformed days, first in the same garb as the others, and later in the miniskirt version. It was one of the first ‘old designs’ I was drawn to when I started looking at back issues. My TRDL Cryptohistorical Redesign pushes the launch date of the original X-Men to 1963. The costume is inspired by the classic Miniskirt as designed by Mary Quant. I wanted a sassy flair to the shortness of the flared skirt, but I wanted to emphasize her youthful energy, her sexy enthusiasm and an energy to the design based on the mod style. The pointy mask became a headband, and I used a large, offset X motif to play up the strong graphical quality of prints of the era, not quite post-de Stihl but interesting.

You can find a larger version here.
And as always you can read about some of the design notes in my process pics below.

Artists, come join us on R3 and submit to the jams! The R3 Illustration Jam offers new characters weekly, but all jams remain open so you can contribute to any that you like, here:
http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/forum … m.php?f=27
or in the TRDL-R3-WeeklyJam group on DA, here:
http://trdl-r3-weeklyjam.deviantart.com/

:::

Background:

Phil Noto’s interpretation of Jean in her original costume.

Here’s the original pencils from the night before my birthday, drawn up after my wife and kids were in bed. I was inspired by a photo … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL 2012 Series No. 17 – Captain Cold [TRDL Redesign]
2. TRDL 2012 Series No. 11 – Emma Frost (TRDL Redesign)
3. TRDL 2012 Series No. 10 – Nightcrawler [TRDL Redesign]

TRDL 2012 Series, No. 18 – Red Hulk [vs. M.O.D.O.K.]

This was done for the TRDL R3 Jam this week, the subject being The Red Hulk.

He may not be popular in all quarters, but I am totally PRO TEAM RED HULK. I actually strongly dislike the character of Thunderbolt Ross, and I haven’t followed the Hulk books, but I’ve read this character’s adventures in the Avengers, and I love it. A smart hulk, an outsider in the supers world that is finally not only powered (he has been before) but on the side of the good guys. He’s edgy, you get the sense, as they have done in some ways with Juggernaut and other momentarily-reformed villains, that he’s actually TRYING to role play being a hero. Like his instinct is military and calculated and decisive, but he has to hold back. He has that slightly humble awkwardness when he screws up, like a confident athlete trying a new sport for the first time. And really, come on, Red Hulk looks cooler than Hulk Hulk, and emits gamma radiation when pissed. I love it.

This pic is a companion to the She Hulk pic I did a few years ago. Poor M.O.D.O.K. Id like to think this is the first naked M.O.D.O.K. drawn… but then again, I haven’t checked rule34…

You can find a larger version here.
And as always you can read about some of the design notes in my process pics below.

Artists, come join us on R3 and submit to the jams! The R3 Illustration Jam offers new characters weekly, but all jams remain open so you can contribute to any that you like, here:
http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/forum … m.php?f=27
or in the TRDL-R3-WeeklyJam group on DA, here:
http://trdl-r3-weeklyjam.deviantart.com/

:::

Background:

Here’s a cool shot of Red Hulk about … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. Third Rail Thrills 42 – She-Hulk Pin-Up
2. TRDL Tribute: The Hulk vs. The Intruders
3. TRDL Tribute – World War Hulk

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