TRDL 2011 Series, No. 86 – Ekleipsis [TRDL Original Character]

This was done for the TRDL R3 Jam this week, the subject being a redesign challenge: Heroifying a Villain.

For this challenge, I chose to redesign one of my own designs that isn’t very old at all. I fired up the new DCU Online game, once it went free to play, and built a character on my PS3, just to test out the customization engine. Once I took the character into the game, I played for awhile but with family and other obligations, didn’t have much time for more than that. But the villain I created for that exercise I named Calamity Cate, kind of a bruiser.

Blurry pic here, but you can see that she has a fitted bodice, dark pants, boots, arm warmer type sleeves, gloves, a fitted eye mask, dark shoulder length hair, and a split cape. The colorway was red abc black for Calamity Cate. I liked the design well enough.

For this redesign, I took many of the costume form cues, and tightened them up for the new look. This is Ekleipsis, the National Hero of Greece in the TRDL Original Universe. 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/

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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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Background:

Again, here is the original design of Calamity Cate, the villain. Blurry, yes. But anyway, this is where we begin.… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL 2011 Series No. 85 – Enchantress
2. TRDL 2011 Series No. 75 – Alpha [Commission]
3. TRDL 2011 Series No. 20 – Haywire

TRDL 2011 Series, No. 85 – Enchantress / Executioner [After Robert McGinnis]

This was done for the TRDL R3 Jam this week, our 2011 Annual Vlad Fiks Memorial Noir Jam.

Here’s the sneak WIP I posted to Tumblr earlier in the week.

The concept of my piece this year is to pay homage to three or four aspects of my relationship with the dear, departed Vlad Fiks: love of lighting, classic Marvel, pulp novels and a commission. You see, many years ago Vlad commissioned me to do a Marvel U babe, this being prior to my modern pin-up series work. I chose Enchantress, and drew her in her original costume. He liked it, but it was a flawed piece, and over the years I felt I could do better, and drew a new piece, which you can see here and below in the process notes. I sent it to Vlad as a surprise, framed. That week, we learned he died. I never knew if he got the illustration, but I was glad I had done it, even if the timing was chilling. So this time around, I did this illustration as a nod to a classic Robert McGinnis pulp novel cover for Kill Now, Pay Later (by Robert Kyle), but featuring Enchantress and her longtime lover/minion, the Executioner. The concept is that Skurge the Executioner has raised the stakes and seized the throne of Asgard… but without the Odinfire, the realm is eternally dark. His manipulator and seducer, Enchantress, sits with her face in shadow. It’s a hollow victory, the sort of rewards such skullduggery yields in pulp stories. Anyway, this was for Vlad, and I hope he’d like it if he could see it today…

You can read more about the process on this pic after the jump…… Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute : Enchantress [DC]
2. TRDL Tribute: Enchantress [2009]
3. TRDL Tribute: Enchantress

Before my daughter was born, I had a sweet deal worked out with wifebot(tm). Sundays were mine for drawing. We called them Fini-days. I got up, made a pot of coffee, and worked on the comic until the coffee switched to champagne or martinis, and the day ended around 8pm or so. It was wonderful having that much focused time to work. I can do commissions and other project work in bits and pieces, but the comic requires that I have sustained, uninterrupted time, as I’m writing and drawing at the same time, and it takes me awhile to get into sequential art mode.

Fini-days became extinct once we had Zoe, and I have no complaints about it. I still found time to squeeze my art in, often after hours. Now that my son is here, I’ve had NOTHING resembling consistent art production. That said, I’ve still gotten a lot done, given the circumstances. I drew a piece while in the delivery room. I got more done in the weeks that followed, throwing the baby over my shoulder or in a Bjorn sling (funny, before Zoe was born, Joao sent me photos of same in his house)… it’s been fine.

Sunday I had a brief sampling of the kind of relaxed drawing time I used to take for granted. I had a few solid hours to sketch, while having a light lunch and a mimosa. I couldn’t remember the last time that happened.

I’m looking forward to more routine as Matteo matures a bit and slips out of newborn triage mode. I’m trying to get the TRDL Sourcebooks and site update done, then switch to Finit-e comic work full-time. Wish me luck!

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

Related posts:

1. TRDL Resources- Drawing the Human Figure in Proportion BIG!
2. Finit-e Serial: Update
3. TRDL 3:33 2011 Series No. 6 – Live Drawing Nite

I know, I know. I promised the new TRDL Sourcebooks would be done and at the printers long ago. I swear, we’re at like 95%. All but three pieces of art are done, and there’s just some writing and some character conversion data to implement. But I tend t prioritize my commissions, commercial work, and family over this so it takes longer, and Joao is in the same boat. However, I can’t wait to launch them. We also have a few arrangements with publishers who will be featuring the material pre-converted to their game systems so there’s that too.

Meanwhile, my army of artist drones slave away on the books in virtual indentured servitude, as above! Just like the old ‘studio system’. They work cheap too. For bips (grapes)…

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

Related posts:

1. Finit-e Serial: Update
2. Happy New Year- 2006 Update!
3. TRDL Update – Dawnstar

Wrongrobot’s Rudiments No. 3 – C is for Commissioner’s Daughter
Third Rail Thrills No. 69
TRDL 2011 Series, No. 78

This piece was done for the Redheaded Heroes jam on the TRDL R3 Forum and TRDL-R3-WeeklyJam group on dA.

There were so many awesome possibilities for the Redheaded Heroes jam. In fact, I got pretty far into the idea of doing Rachel Summers, because I’ve drawn her twice under the TRDL banner prior (once as the mutant hunting hound in black studded leather, and once in the more recent Alan Davis period with the green/yellow mini) and failed both times. But it simultaneously became my turn to choose a redesign option for the R-R-Redesign-Weekly dA group I co-admin so I went with Batgirl, based on the New 52 Reboot.

I like some of the New 52 designs, and I really struggle with others. I dislike Gordon back in tights, because I really appreciated a strong spandex-free character and powerful disabled individual to boot, neither of which you see much of in comics. However, taking this design challenge to include the parameters that it must be recognizable as the Batgirl mark, and that it must attempt to respond to the New 52 design mandate of ‘contemporary, tech-based’ style, I came up with this look.

Som details include:
1. The uniform is all black. I appreciate the retcon that Bruce’s yellow batsymbol was to attract shooters to his chest armor, but I’ve NEVER been able to tolerate yellow on Batman, and by extension, loopy bright colors on his compatriots. I will give them credit in Batgirl: Year One back in the day for creating a plausible character-driven reason for all the yellow in Gordon’s original look, but not for me. The New 52 look is blue and yellow with a purple cape. … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL’s Wrongrobot’s Rudiments Pinup No. 2 – Supergirl
2. TRDL’s Wrongrobot’s Rudiments Pinup No. 1 – Zatanna
3. TRDL Tribute: Batgirl: Year One

TRDL 2011 Series, No. 75 – Alpha [TRDL Commission]

This was a commission done for one of my long-term clients, John, for whom I’ve done other characters for his shared gaming universe like Crash, Arclight, and several more. The concept isn’t quite a Superman cipher, but he was supposed to be big, tall, muscular, imposing and handsome. I knew it needed to make use of the alpha letter, but otherwise the design was wide open. I worked out a motif that involved some of the centurion-type imagery I use on some of the TRDL characters, based on some examples of my TRDL Universe design work I showed him, and then abstracted the alpha letter for the shoulders. I actually tightened them up more conventionally based on his feedback later, and removed the knuckle duster ‘stamp’ embossment that I had in earlier versions. From there, we tried a number of color schemes to get to the desired result. Great project. One of the most conventionally ‘super’ superheroes I’ve designed, I think.

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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/

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You can find a larger version here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

PROCESS:

Here’s the original pencils. I wanted to give him that big, just shy of caricatured physique. Tall, imposing, powerful.

Inks. Here he has embossments on his knuckle guards that are reversed, leaving the alpha mark on people’s faces. I decided this wasn’t in keeping with the character, and eliminated it later, reverting to it just being a graphic.

A morphology of color … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Commission: Holocauste
2. TRDL Tribute: Alina [RPG Commission]
3. TRDL 2011 Series, No. 17: Xena

TRDL 2011 Series, No. 67 – Glue Junkie Commission

Note: Hi-Rez version here!

OK, this one requires some ‘splainin. This was a commission done for Nicholas Frank, who has an Etsy shop called Glue Junkie. He has produced all of our TRDL and Team Lope vinyl, many of them on very short notice turnaround before events. Awesome guy. So, I did this piece to thank him for all of his work. I was given a very broad set of parameters and the opportunity to ignore them if I wanted. He had the idea of his girlfriend as the 50-foot-tall woman fighting a giant mecha. They have two dogs, and he gave me a bunch of interests and details for each of them to inspire me. From there, I cooked up a TRDL Cryptohistorical Redesign, one of these long format old-timey poster prints I have been doing when I do illustrations of friends. Here, it’s an ad for tickets to an oratory by survivors of the REAL reason London burned: Evil Doctor Lola, a mutated terrier, kidnapped our hapless engineer’s dame, supersized her and by controlling her mind with his remote, sent her on a rampage through London, forcing Nick to build a giant steam automaton to pilot in an attempt to stop her and free her from Lola’s clutches. And such.

Process notes below, including some of the easter eggs in this piece.

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You can find a larger version here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

PROCESS:

So I don’t really do likenesses when I draw friends and real people, but I take their look to heart when building the illustrated version of them. Her’s Nick and his girlfriend before a jump.

Here’s Lola, one of their pups. Not evil.

I had the … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Commission: Holocauste
2. TRDL Commission: The USS Hamilton
3. TRDL Tribute: Alina [RPG Commission]

I’ve been meaning to do this for, I don’t know, YEARS, ever since Snackboy and I used to post our NOW PLAYING music report at the bottom of our posts: I don’t do enough status reports on the art, and I don’t talk about music enough, and I love both, so here you go.

Tonight was a rare Friday night commission art session. Wee Z went down easy and has slept soundly, and wifebot(tm) collapsed a pisosecond later. Therefore, progress. Tonight was fruitful. My piece for the TRDL R3 Jam this week, Invisible Woman, was inked, and I really like how it came out. It’s going to not only have a vintage pin-up vibe, thanks to a nice Dita ref pic, but a 60′s mod element as well. I also inked a redesign piece, pairing alternate history versions of Power Man and Iron Fist, both done for the R-R-Redesign-Weekly jams on dA: in this case, both are female, but I’m trying to steer clear of the awesome Daughters of the Dragon business, which handily handled the pair as females, albeit as different characters. Anyway, inked. I spent the rest of the night finishing two commission pieces for Paco’s Maidens and Magic Calendar Series.

I started the evening listening to Son de Mar, which i’ll prolly touch on later, but I ended it with Brian Eno’s Music for Airports 1. I’m a big ambient fan, and always have been: just ask any number of bored girlfriends. Eno, like some of the works of Phillip Glass, is never better than wen he’s tickling a piano. In the case of this album, it is accompanied by haunting choir work. I’m no music reviewer, so I won’t pretend to have an experienced tongue in talking about it, but what I love most about this … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. Fini-Mix
2. TRDL Tribute: Jenny Sparks
3. Third Rail Thrills 40 – Mantis Pin-Up

TRDL 2011 Series, No. 41: Crash [TRDL Commission]

This is another superhero commission for one of my longtime clients, set in the same universe as Aero, Arcangel, and others you’ve seen. Crash is a buxom young, vibrant adventurer with giant mecha arms. The intent was to give her normal clothes, but an adventuring, utilitarian edge, along with some skin to reflect her youthful flirtatiousness. Cute but can smash things.
The process notes and step by step looks at the work below…

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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:

So some of my commissions for this client are very involved, as we try to fine tune the look to get at what he is envisioning. In this case, however, it got there pretty quickly. The only major changes from the original pencils were a new bustline and less exotic facial features.

Here’s the original pencils. The eyes are a bit catlike and she has a smaller bust.

Inks, on the main figure. I inked a bra on the original bust, just for science. Vy nott!

Probably one of the funnier morphologies my wife was watched me do: I presented the client with 5 or 6 variations on busts, drawn over very low opacity versions of the pencils. So, it’s basically a table full of little drawings of disembodied booby shirts. Good thing the police weren’t nosing around.

I started with the skin, as I generally do. I wanted to hit a paler skin tone that’s seen a lot of sun. So, not really tan, but some color.

Here’s the hair: a sandy yellow blonde. The girl next door, if you will. With hair products.

The belt and satchels were done in a rich, buttery tooled leather, … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL 2011 Series, No. 15: Faye Valentine
2. TRDL 2011 Series No. 49 – Iron Man [Bleeding Edge Armor]
3. TRDL 2011 Series, No. 21: Iron Man Series – Crimson Dynamo

Third Rail Thrills No. 60 – Star Sapphire [Green lantern]
TRDL 2011 Series, No. 36

This was done for the TRDL R3 Jam on the R3 Forum and DeviantArt Group, the subject being: Star Sapphire, from the Green Lantern books.

As much as I don’t at all mind the concept of drawing Blake Lively and her 33 foot long legs in a Star Sapphire kit, I went old school. Here’s an early vintage, having bested original Terran Lantern Alan Scott. I had to do quite a bit of research on this one, from trying to glean how this particular Star Sapphire looked (and I made a few mods) to what Scott’s ring looked like, with it’s little lantern motif. Good stuff! I have to say though, I was thrown when I was doing some color checks on Scott’s outlandish threads, which I obviously toned down from the four-color days, and stumbled upon a commission sketch from Kevin Nowlan that pretty much was the same idea. Anyway, I didn’t see it at the time I drew it, so.

You can read more about the process on this pic after the jump…

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/

:::

You can find a larger version here.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

:::

Background:

This tiny thumb is what I based the majority of my work on, though I was bouncing around a few covers as well.

And this is the Nowlan piece I discovered towards the end. Oops.

Process:

Here’s the original pencils. You’re not … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. Third Rail Thrills 38 – Brandy Pin-Up
2. Third Rail Thrills 41 – Golden Glider Pin-Up
3. Third Rail Thrills 40 – Mantis Pin-Up

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