This illustration was done for one of my long-time clients, for whom I’ve done several character designs for his supers-based RPG campaigns.

Holocauste are a French super villain team with a shared nuclear power base. They were described thus:

When a single of their number rose up into the air and began moving towards Jackson, a colorfully clad woman who trailed a stream of dazzling orange light behind her, the UN troops on the ground took up positions and aim. Nightingale was shouting something as well, but it was clear that the next move belonged to the American.

* * *

The pickup truck Mu’azzazz had thrown turned over in the air as it sailed towards the back of the aircraft, towards the metahumans who had held their ground as one of their number took to the air and roared off towards the genie’s master. The long-haired, shapely leader of the infamous mercenary group Holocauste — and the most human appearing — Réacteur soared across the sky, borne by the deadly nuclear energies that permeated every member of the … Read on for more awesome…

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1. TRDL Tribute: Alina [RPG Commission]
2. TRDL Commission: The USS Hamilton
3. TRDL Commission – Glue Junkie

hey TRDL/R3 army!
You may only know me as an artist, but I’m also a bike-rider, and here’s some exciting news…

as many of you remember, ironlung PARTICIPATED in a charity fundraiser 585-mile bike ride called the AIDS lifeCycle in the summer of ’08. it’s an amazing event and over the last several years, it’s raised over $11M/year for AIDS and HIV research and treatment.

well, this year, WR and IL are doing it together, as a team, and we’re both doing it on fixed-gears. one speed and no coasting from san francisco to los angeles. this will be a brutal effort, one which could just as easily reward us with a major sense of accomplishment as with blown out knee tendons. but we are committed, and when we are committed, things happen.

our notification to you is two-fold, of course. one part of it is pride in our upcoming challenge. we’re both really looking forward to putting ourselves into this feat and as always, we love sharing that stuff with you, the faithful TRDL/R3 army. but it is a fundraiser, and we’re hoping to rally your help, even if that just means forwarding our information on to others. we know that asking for money is difficult and uncomfortable, but there’s a lot of talented people here who may be able to auction off art or services or the like.

if you or anyone you know is interested in participating in such a way, they can go to PAYPAL and send their donation to wrongrobot(at)thirdraildesignlab(dot)com. we’ll be splitting everything between the two of us, since we each have a minimum of $3000 to raise.

for our own part, we’re hosting a fundraiser party at a great little bar here in SF, which will feature trivia games (complete with kickass prizes … Read on for more awesome…

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1. TRDL Special Project: Team Lope AIDS Fundraiser 2010
2. TRDL Tribute- Team Lope Bike Girl: Red
3. TRDL Tribute: Team Lope Bike Grrl Seen: Star

Hey, for those of you that have befriended me and Joao on Facebook, go to there, and become a fan of Third Rail Design Lab, the page now dedicated to, well, TRDL. We will post news about upcoming releases, art and the weekly R3 Illustration Jam there, so when you link to it in FB it’s a way to get the word out to others.

Spread the word!

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

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3. comic book page rates?

This piece was done for the TRDL R3 Jam, the subject being Disney + Marvel mash-uppery. This was, of course, big news in comicdom and on the supernet. Mickeys with Wolverine Claws were rampant. Would Marvel properties be family-friendlified and diluted in Disney marketing and merchandising blitzes? Would creators be burdened by executive mandates like DC has seen over several years, most famously at Wildstorm? But you know, we hate it when our favorite band becomes popular.

The disney/marvel mash-uppery is a great theme, and there are SO many opportunities there. I’ve seen several that rocked my socks, especially Pluto-lacticus. For me, I wanted to push in my cryptohistorical ephemera series direction, and do another historical interpretation of a character, but merge the Disney and marvel sides together in the process. This is Snow Stark, a forward-thinking engineer in a man’s world, working on her less oafish automatons who aren’t so limited in their appreciation of her awesomeness.

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.
[img]http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/promo/twhip_grey.gif[/img

Process notes:

here!… Read on for more awesome…

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2. TRDL Tribute: Captain marvel
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This was done for the TRDL R3 jam, the subject being Nariko, from Heavenly Sword.

I have never actually PLAYED Heavenly Sword, though I saw it being run at the now-dead Playstation Store at the Metreon, and I saw the pre-release game footage in that Heroes episode where the kid was playing it. But I remember, when reading about the game’s development, that they were rotoscoping a gorgeous but unknown European actress for the character modeling. As it turned out, this was the highlight in the news following Anna Torv’s casting for Fringe, which shows you the limit of her resume work at that time. She is AMAZING. And I watch her on Fringe and imagine her doing sweep kicks in a loincloth. But anyway.

When I draw big, people seem to respond well to it, such as was the case with Big Barda. I thought I’d give it another try. Filling the page in my normal illustration composition means the character is sitting or stooping in some way, so I gave her a natural posture, and frankly, I cropped out the wrongBlades she wields, because they’re pretty stupid. I quite like the costume design on this character.

:::

You can see this illustration herein the TRDL Tribute Gallery.

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

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2. TRDL 2011 Series No. 33 – Cable and Siren [X-Force 1996]

For those who primarily read the TRDL R3 Forum on a regular basis, you’ll always know about new TRDL Updates, through the announcements made in the TRDL News Section and through the posts in the individual art update categories. But for those who prefer to keep up via blog, the TRDL Blog has been overhauled and is active once again.

I haven’t maintained a blog since prior to the start of the R3 Forum, when I ran the Monkey Plus Robot Reviews blog, most of which morphed into our R3 Signals Intelligence Chatter section (reviews, news, wrongness and generall 100% minimum awesome stuff).

You can now see the site updates through this link:
http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com/blog

You can also access the blog fromt he main TRDL Illustration Site:
http://www.thirdraildesignlab.com

Please enjoy!

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

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OK, as you know my one true love is the one TRDL, and the R3 Forum therein. But I have set up and maintain various web 2.whatever sites as well, because these are, as said in the parlance of our times, the Means and Methods. I know many of you, my R3 Army, are on these sites. This is a call to link up! If you have not befriended/linked/aligned with/favorited/followed/skulked in the corner with/bookmarked TRDL on these sites, please do so. If you already have, and I haven’t reciprocated, let it be known, and I’ll do the same.

I always post new art on TRDL’s illustration site first, and new news here. But I port the stuff through Flickr to other sites as well, and to the artshares. I send out stuff via RSS Feed, and I’m slowly looking to harmonize all this so I can get it to the most sites with the least amount of redundancy. And i’ve made good strides since I started the networking this year. We’ve had some members of these other sites come join us here, and I’ve certainly found many awesome artists through them as well. As long as we don’t attract any zombies or cyberstalker types, I’m cool with it.

So, join me here at these sites, and let’s expand the R3 Army!

TRDL main illustration site
TRDL Page on Facebook
TRDL on Flickr
TRDL on DeviantART
TRDL on Comicspace
TRDL on Comic Art Fans
TRDL Comic Art Community Auctions
TRDL on Tribe
TRDL on MySpace

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

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Mixtli is the National Hero of Mexico, and was created by guest designer and TRDL R3 Member Tulio! We liked it so much, we absorbed Mixtli like an unfortunate Blob victim… the original film, not the remake.

Concept and design: German Arbe
Art: Thom Chiaramonte and Joao Marques
Origin: Thom Chiaramonte

:::

Mixtli

Name: Maria Ruiz
Affiliation: National Hero, Mexico

Attributes:

Melee: 30
Reflex: 35
Muscle: 20
Vigor: 30
Acumen: 30
Observation: 40
Will: 45

Life: 115
Influence: 115

Abilities:

Enhanced Physiology: Mixtli’s posthuman latent abilities first involved a slowly evolving physiological overhaul of her body, from hardened skeletal members to increased muscle density and elasticity, to regenerative nerve and brain tissue. Though she initially appeared to experience no overt physical changes from her treatments, a multi-functional barrage of nanocellular organisms were introduced into her blood and spinal fluid, tasked with multiple physiological adaptations that would take months to complete before the nanocells would die and be expunged from her system. The process ultimately left her with impressive strength, agility and rapid recovery from fatigue, the results of which are reflected in her Attributes above. In addition, her heightened reaction times provide her with +2 to Initiative rolls.

Levitation: Mixtli’s primary latent ability is levitiation, with an Intensity of 50. She can levitate to 40 Range, and sustain levitation for several hours. Her acceleration is moderate, approximately 10% of her ability’s Speed. This ability is often misrepresented as flight, given the altitudes she may ascend to without physical harm.

Molecular Control, Moisture: As a secondary latent ability, Mixtli can influence the behavior of water molecules in the atmosphere with 20 IV, enough to create rain, rapid condensation, and artificial wind currents of excited water molecules at power level Range and Damage. She is most known publicly for these abilities, though … Read on for more awesome…

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Rampart Red is the sole remaining living Kreuger triplet, his brothers, formerly comprising the Rampart Triad, deceased in posthuman batttle. He now operates with Project Hermes.

Art and Origin: Thom Chiaramonte

:::

Rampart Red

Name: Ernst Kreuger
Affiliation: Project Hermes

Attributes:

Melee: 25
Reflex: 25
Muscle: 20
Vigor: 50
Acumen: 15
Observation: 45
Will: 10

Health: 120
Karma: 70

Abilities:

Body Armor: Rampart Red’s latural posthuman physiological changes were uncharacteristically minor, as they were with those of his brothers, as a result of the program’s relatively conservative development protocols, As a result, his physiology, while enhanced to the degree reflected in his Attributes above, does not provide natural resistance to physical damage. All Rampart brothers were given a precision-weave kinetic-ballistic mesh that provides 20 AP protection from physical attacks, 10 AP protection from energy attacks, and 30 AP protection from thermal attacks. The armor is self-healing at a repair rate of 5 points per round.

Kinetic Shield: Rampart Red’s primary latent ability involves the generation of a faintly visible, kinetic-feedback shield membrane in small areas of approximately 2 square meters each, which protect against physical and energy attacks with with an effective Armor of 50, equivalent to the Intensity of his ability. This power can be manifested around Rampart Red, or several nearby targets with little effort, and multiple shields can be generated simultaneously. Each round, a Yellow Vigor Save must be made in order to sustain each shield, with no limit on the number of shields being generated. However, when Rampart Red is unable to sustain one of a group of shields, the following round, Orange Vigor Saves must be made for the remaining shields, as he attempts to retain control of the power; if all remaining shields hold, he returns to Yellow Vigor Saves in the following round, … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Character Factory, No. 73: Rampart
2. TRDL Character Factory, No. 74: Project Hermes
3. TRDL Character Factory, No. 21: Arctica

It’s taken about a solid frustrating year, but I have finally integrated RSS/ATOM syndication for both the TRDL main illustration site, and the R3 Forum!

For those unfamiliar, Syndication (usually, though somewhat erroneously, referred to as RSS Feed) allows you to receive content as news items, in the reader of your choice. These include browser plug-ins, mail clients, and stand-alone applications.

The following feeds are currently available:

Third Rail Design Lab Illustration Site Updates: Click here to add this Feed! (This is the same feed as seen on the main TRDL site.)

R3 Forum, NEW TOPICS ONLY: Click here to add this Feed!

R3 Forum, LATEST POSTS: Click here to add this Feed!

Clicking these above will add them to your browser’s built-in Feed reader, or your system’s default app for same.

Instructions:

For Firefox users, this is very easy, as the browser automatically captures Syndication links as ‘Live Bookmarks’ which offer you dynamic links, updated hourly, that allow you to easily see new content added to either site, and quickly access it.

You can also subscribe to Syndications through most email clients, such as Mail and Outlook. You will receive updates to site content in familiar email interface, with direct linking back to the site for further exploration. This is useful for those who prefer mail lists and their ‘push’ method of content delivery.

And, for those of you who are already Syndication power-users, a number of free third-party stand-alone readers are available, to manage multiple feeds separately from your browser or mail content…

Top 10 Mac Aggregators

Top 10 Windows Aggregators

Google Apps/ Gmail users will find the familiar Google Reader will perform admirably for Syndications, though you can also grab the feed directly in your Gmail inbox like mail. Yahoo is similar.

:::
Third Rail Design Lab … Read on for more awesome…

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1. The TRDL RSS Feed is Live!
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3. TRDL Blog is Live