This illustration was done for the TRDL R3 Illustration Jam, the subject being Marvel’s Thor…

This was somewhat topical, given all the recent stuff released about next summer’s Thor film. I never LIKED Thor as a solo book all that much as a kid. I liked him in the Avengers, I liked his anachronistic exclamations… I even own about 30 issues of the title from the Simonson days. But the Asgardian stuff was often, much like Marvel’s spacey business, a little beyond my interest level growing up. To me, Asgard and all the Asgardians and their foes were merely characters in the Marvel Super Heroes RPG for me to destroy.

But boy, do I love the relaunch, thanks to Coipiel’s art. Man oh man. Makes me actually WANT to read the stuff.

The original concept of this piece was to have Thor standing over the fallen torso of the Destroyer sentient armor. Then I saw this occur in the comics recently and felt swiped, so I planned a different direction (him standing on Surtur’s giant face)… but then I said to hell with it, and drew the Destroyer helmet anyway, and eliminated the full figure. It was the helmet I wanted to show anyway, more than the largely uninteresting armor itself. I wanted to show it empty. Anyway, there we are. Current Thor costume, etc.

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:

I started with the current costume, which I adore actually…

SInce the original concept was to have him standing over the body, one leg up, I drew this roughly, focused on Thor, and decided I’d do Destroyer digitally, as I was working late at night and didn’t have reference for Destroyer’s business at hand.

Pencils

Once I got wind of a recent scene in the comics where Thor had ass-kicked the Destroyer armor, I lost my enthusiasm for the piece. I didn’t want to cover recent material, you know? I settled on the giant face of Surtur. But still, waited until Thor was done before deciding.

Inks

Now I started refining the inks, changing things about the legs… and decided I was getting a naggling, niggling deja vu about this piece I wasn’t enjoying. So I separated his leg stance and changed the concept.

With Thor complete, I was ready to move on to his foe.

But before I get to that, a few details:

As usual, face was fully rendered before I proceeded with the costume.

Also, I swapped out his torso plates with digitally rendered ones. Much better than my freehand squiggles.

OK, so in the end, I realized what I wanted to do in the first place was the classic Medusa Vanquished pose, with Destroyer’s helmet being held up… specifically showing it being empty, as the armor is sentient. So I just went with it. As you can see in the finished piece, it was done digitally. Since I had changed the stance, and with the deja vu solved (described in a sec) I decided against the torso. It would have been easy enough to do, but I just wanted to focus on the figure. Also, I used this opportunity to try a thicker primary contour on Thor than I have in the past. It seemed to fit his stature. Hopefully.

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So the deja vu? It was my Thor sketch from the last Thor Jam, which occurred during the Civil War thing. I had drawn the sketch, but wasn’t too happy about it. Then Joao came up with basically the same concept, and OWNED it, so I aborted mine. I’ll dig it up later, for the records…

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute – Thor [Civil War Spoiler]
2. TRDL Tribute – Thor [Joao]
3. TRDL Tribute – Loki 01 [New Thor]

This was done for the R3 Illustration jam on Third Rail Design Lab’s R3 Forum, the subject being Leelu, from The 5th Element.

I actually drew this piece many, many moons ago, where it fell into the ‘finish’ folder in my portfolio and never resurfaced until the other night, when I had the opportunity to ink a bunch of stuff in process. The original sketch doodle for the illustration, on Post-It, was done the day the jam was announced, and the actual pencils probably 6 months later. Not punctual.

Who can forget Leeloo, played by Milla Jovovich? Sure, she pleased many by being basically Milla naked wrapped in white hospital straps. But beyond that obvious affectation, I enjoyed the fact that she had this ultra-simple, super pure outfit which was at once both innocent and vulgar, this shock of violent orange hair, these giant eyes, the youthful enthusiasm and curiosity, and lithe gymnastic mannerisms. It was just a fun departure. Sure, she made a fictitious language which she shared with writer/director Luc Besson and used it on set (I guess that makes it not fictitious…) and sure, her hook up with him made the role seem retroactively a bit… indulgent for Besson, even surrounded by an entire FILM of juvenile indulgence. But the design was rock solid and ingrained in memory.

I did a TRDL Pinup for this one, this time being a propaganda poster.
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.

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Process Notes:

Here’s Milla as Leeloo. Being bendy.

Here’s that original post-it note sketch concept for the piece. This obviously predates my TRDL pinup series so it was just imagined as an illustration, not a propaganda poster.
The decapitated Wrongrobot head here stated: "I’m just toling you, we’re both redesigned body doubles for godlike deities. We’re a perfect match!"

Here’s finished pencils on the fullpiece. I changed the pose quite a bit. The first one was too similar to another piece I did some years ago, my TRDL Tribute to Neil Gaiman’s Death. So I went for a more pixyish, coy pinup pose (still predating the TRDL pinup series, but heading in that direction) with my favorite unnecessary finger position, the Wild Loose Pinky. Here, the Wrongrobot head has been given a Celestials/Kirbyesque redesign. Now he’s saying:
"I’ve got a purple smoking jacket too. It’s very elegant."
I don’t know why.

In the end, ole Wrongrobot isn’t even SAYING anything.

The final piece became a propaganda poster, like a Public Service Announcement, protecting the innocent from those damn roh-bits. I LOVE old wartime-era posters warning sailors about STDs or what have you. So this is one of those.

As you may recall, Joao’s Leeloo had a very similar theme…brilliant minds I says!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: H.E.R.B.I.E.
2. TRDL Tribute: Dazzler
3. TRDL Tribute: Classic Rogue

This was done for the R3 Illustration jam on Third Rail Design Lab’s R3 Forum, the subject being the late-70′s superfad KISS-tie-in character Dazzler, formerly notKnown as Disco Queen, in the hands of Casablanca.

I never, never, NEVER liked Dazzler. I was born in the early 70s, but I wasn’t old enough to disco or what have you, and so this sort of music had supplanted Cream, the Beatles, the Doors and the Stones as the annoying music piped out of the fraternities across the street from my childhood home near UCLA. Granted, I don’t remember disliking the psychedelic rock particularly, it just made for awkward background music for my action figure action. But the disco? Hated it, even as a kid. So when Marvel was shoe-horning Dazzler into continuity to take advantage of the KISS promo books, I wasn’t having it. Over time the character kept coming back, and was a small component of the greater problem in the X-books when I left comics for awhile in the Siege Perilous years. MEH! Of course, 33,000 hours of studying my Marvel Handbooks, followed by a good run of a Marvel RPG campaign in which I believe she was strangled by Doctor Octopus, helped me at least see the character as part of the Marvel Universe, not just a bad superfad angle. And as an adult reader, I look back on pretty much everything from those days with the same level of wonder and nostalgia, and it doesn’t even bother me anymore. She’s just another attempt to sell books, and who can fault that.

Anyway, OK. This TRDL pin-up was envisioned as a fictitious movie poster. You’ll note I’m not a great caricaturist, but that’s supposed to be Isla Fisher as Dazzler, in full 70s regalia. Probably should have feathered the hair out, but hey. You’ll I’m sure wonder about Peter Weller as Galactus, there. True continuity! She had the power cosmic at one point. Yeesh.

Anyway, 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 I was all over the place on this jam project. I wanted to redesign the character, first of all, but then I started thinking about how much I hated this character as a kid, and realized this was an opportunity to draw a formerly disliked character and try to find a way to like them. Thinking about the costume, which I thought I’d be the only one to do, and was wrong, as you’ve seen in the jam thread, I started seeing the look as a real costume (since it really WAS just a disco stretch leisure suit, after all) and thinking about the hair and the attitude I started visualizing this as a weird R3 Fantasy Casting exercise. This was very late at night, with a sick baby waking up a lot. Anyway, thinking about the 70s hair sent me in the Amy Smart direction, but then I fell into Isla Fisher and it was a go.

Here’s Isla Fisher, for those that aren’t familiar. Shame on you.

As is often the case, I had a concept for the pose but was working some options out on paper, relying on Photoshop to merge the selected choices later. I wanted a casual, flopped on the dance floor, putting on her roller skates kind of feel, that same sort of vibe you’d get if you kicked the disco stage left and brought in a bachelor pad set and put a bearskin rug under her and a fondue pot somewhere.

After bluelines and inks, I decided on the skate facing away from the viewer, as it was more natural than straight out in profile view, which would have been more of a dancer pose. Because the costume is a one piece stretch suit, I wanted to emphasize the curves and smoothness of her body shape, so I kept the colors soft.

Once I was putting the poster together and naming the actors involved, I started cracking up at the idea of Galactus being in this film, based on reading her absurd bio on wikipedia. But that led me to the dorktastic exercise of trying to cast Galactus. I think Peter Weller is a fine choice. That thespian!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Dazzler (Joao)
2. R3 Jam: Dazzler
3. TRDL Tribute – Thor 2010

This was done for the R3 Illustration jam on Third Rail Design Lab’s R3 Forum, the subject being the extensive catalog of fabulous stop-motion creatures from the Ray Harryhausen shop.

I chose the famous Cyclops for one simple reason: I had a lead miniature of same, back in the day, and as such it offers TRIPLE NOSTALGIA value:
a) reminds me of enjoying the film as a kid
2) reminds me of painting lead miniatures
d) reminds me of THIS figure in particular

AWESOME!

Here we have another TRDL propaganda type piece, though not a girlie pin-up this time. A fine manly musk, however…

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.

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Process Notes:

First, here’s a screencap of the Cyclops in question. You’ll recognize him, I’m sure.

Here’s inks over pencils, prior to assembling the ad, but showing the relative sizes of the original figures to each other…

A detail shot of coloring Cyclops (Scott Summers) complete with thumbs-up thrown…!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Scarlet Witch 2
2. TRDL Tribute: Sorceress (He-Man)
3. TRDL Tribute – Thor [Joao]

This week’s R3 Illustration Jam is dedicated to the stop-motion work of the legendary Ray Harryhausen… if you don’t know it, drop everything and go rent a few films. Anything goes on this jam! Make Ray proud!

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

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Cyclops [Ray Harryhausen Jam]
2. R3 Jam: The Marvel Family
3. R3 Jam: He-Man

This was done for the R3 Illustration jam on Third Rail Design Lab’s R3 Forum, the subject being the nebulous term ‘childhood hotties’ as applied to comics and film…

For me, there were crushes and thermometer-bursting babes. Sometimes one, not the other, and sometimes both. Just like today, of course. Anyway, the first comic character I remember thinking was hot was Rogue, in the pages of Uncanny X-Men #173.

With this piece, I was trying to play up the ‘good girl’ allure of an inviting hottie, with the alarming detail of that glove off. This was like, what, a decade before the ‘bad girls’ thing, and all of the pr0n of later Rogue portrayals… I came into reading about Rogue around this time, and while I was aware of her brotherhood days and what happened with Danvers, I didn’t have an angry-stereotypical-villain perception of her: I saw her as a pretty southern belle, hat in hand, entering the mansion, with everyone who knew better running for cover. That dichotomy stuck with me at the time: pretty, but sweet, or cute too, but dangerous. As opposed to sultry and overtly sexual.

Very soon after, I think my next eye-popping moment was noting the hotness of the cast of the Macross cartoon under the Robotech banner. Those have already been given illustrated homage here…

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.

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Process Notes:

Here’s the original cover inspiration:

Man I still love that cover. Go Paul Smith GO

These are the original inks. I don’t have a lot of process looks on this piece because of the timing, but you can see that I was playing with two versions of the leg-cross. I wanted the ‘X’ to be subtle, as a nod to why I became aware of her (her joining the X-Men in that issue) but the closer together variant appealed to my eye a bit more.

I was going for a wartime propaganda poster this time around, along the lines of the old ‘Loose Lips Sink Ships!’ variety…

Two other items of note. This pose was intended to be modest, in light of the fact that all of the 90s Rogue stuff was so overt. Specifically as relates to this project, her hotness to me as a kid was in her wrapped up awesome… she wasn’t a bunch of skin flapping around, but basically a curvy, sassy woman in a track suit. Less was more, a lesson I learned early on. Also, one detail is definitely not on-model: her hair. I couldn’t bring myself to do the hair bun of the original design. Especially with the hood UP like I have shown. Nope. Not happening here.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute- Rogue [Joao]
2. TRDL Tribute: Spider-Man and Black Cat
3. TRDL Tribute: Rogue [New Years 2010]

This jam subject is going to be personal for each participant. the subject is ‘childhood hotties’. Now, I interpret that to mean characters you read about as a youth and thought were sexy, that sort of thing. But I suppose it could also be interpreted as characters you had a crush on in early stories you read. Keep in mind this doesn’t have to be comics: you can draw from childhood favorite films, TV, literature, I suppose that beguiling neighbor, whatever…
Have fun with this one!

[Kitty Pryde charity auction piece by Barnaby Ward found here

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Related posts:

1. This Week Jam: Kitty Pryde
2. TRDL Tribute: Shadowcat
3. R3 Jam: Redheads

You may or may not have READ Eisner’s most famous work, but you at least know of it’s legacy. Draw the character from the comic, film your own interpretation, anything goes!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirit_(comics)

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. R3 Jam: Mulan
2. R3 Jam: Magdalena
3. TRDL Tribute – The Spirit

This piece was done for the TRDL R3 Jam, the subject being ‘Golden Characters’ from comics, TV and film. I took this opportunity to try my hand at another of these excellent concept art designs for the apparently terrible Iron Man Adventures cartoon. I haven’t seen the cartoon, but the designs are GREAT: well-harmonized between classic looks and modern takes on all these characters. Madam Masque has been one of my favorite Marvel villains, because of the basic premise of a hard, emotionally twisted terrorist mercenary wearing a mask because of an assumed disfiguration. I think in recent years she was shown to actually BE disfigured, but I always interpreted it like that old Twilight Zone episode: she might look normal or even pretty, but believes shes hideous. Anyway, one thing I’ve never liked about the character is the basic design. It’s hard to take a terrorist seriously in a leotard. Full body spandex I can handle, but LEOTARDS over tights… not even extraneous utility belts can save that look. Especially in two-tone blue. The redesign for the cartoon pushed most of the costume into blacks and dark grays, with a touch of orange/yellow to relate to the mask. I took some of the design literally, such as on the abdomen, hips and neck, that may have been intended as highlights in the original sketch. But it looked good to my eye. The original design has a great Sphinx thing going on at the eyes, with opaque optics, but I let my version come back some to the classic look for Madam Masque. Not that I don’t love the concept art version of the mask, because I do. For my illustration, however, the pose suggested a false modesty (while preparing to draw) that I wanted more human expression in the face to show.

Process notes:

Here’s the costume concept art I used for inspiration:

Pencils:

I was trying out a different head position, which turned out to be the one I used. Flying, loose mouths alert!

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. TRDL Tribute: Madame Masque
2. TRDL Tribute: Aero
3. TRDL Tribute: Golden Age Sandman

This jam is for R3 member Punisher, and everyone else who prefers their fantasy characters as redheads. You can do comics, TV or film, male, female or I suppose beast, and your only requirement: ginger action!

Follow this topic in the R3 Forum here!

Related posts:

1. R3 Jam: Childhood Hotties
2. R3 Jam: Golden Characters
3. R3 Jam: Beast

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