TRDL 2012 Series, No. 31 – Kitty Pryde

This was done for the R3 Art Challenge, the subject being Kitty Pryde of the X-Men.

I’ve drawn Kitty Pryde quite a few times, mostly when I was younger. Like many youthful readers of Uncanny X-Men of the day, when Kitty arrived at the mansion, she was my narrative tether to the story, and frankly, not too far off in age from me, such that she was a childhood crush, despite the litany of terrible outfits. This piece started out as a gift sketch to one of my veteran supporters of TRDL and frequent contributor to the R3 Forum and Art Challenges, Deeply Dapper, which I gave him for Xmas in 2011 in ‘con sketch’ format pencils. I decided to take it to complete render for the Kitty Pryde Art Challenge this week, and I’m very pleased with how it came out. As you can see, a Lovecraftian Horror is involved. I think I’m slowly going mad just being around it.

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

PS Thanks to Designshard for the parchment stock used, and heavily modified, in this piece under a CC license!

Artists, come join us on R3 and submit to the jams! The R3 Art Challenge 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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Background:

Kitty Pryde, in her model sheet draft prior to her introduction in Uncanny X-Men

Again, thanks to Designshard for the parchment stock used, and heavily modified, in this piece under a CC license!

This was a very challenging piece … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. 2012 R3 Art Challenge No. 17 – Kitty Pryde
2. TRDL Tribute – Kitty Pryde
3. TRDL 2011 Series No. 63 – Kitty Pryde [60's Redesign]

TRDL 2012 Series, No. 30 – Iron Man XIV Armor [Mark I]

This was done as part of my ongoing TRDL Iron Man Series, where i attempt to draw every Iron Man armor (and a few other characters from the books) for science.

This is another of the armor designs I never really liked. It appeared after the Silver Centurion armor, which I DID love, though it is a bit dated these days. But from here, we entered the difficult late 80s/all-90s period where I disliked almost everything coming out of mainstream Marvel and DC art-wise and design-wise, and this is no different. The description of the armor was that it was ‘oversized’ and ‘clunky’ yet it owes more to Flashdance than anything else, with the tube boots (leg warmers scrunched down) and slimline body armor (leotard)… I know I’m being harsh. But then he’s got armored underwear, and an armored bare midrif-shoulderpads thing going on. I just never got it, despite the solid art on the book early on. But hey, I resisted the urge to redesign and just went at it.

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 Art Challenge 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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Background:

Here’s a sample of the armor design from the books of the day, courtesy of The Iron Man Armory, a go-to resource for the different armor variants. However, I drew mine from memory. This will be apparent below.

Anyone familiar with my work on … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL 2012 Series No. 22 – Iron Man [Silver Centurion]
2. TRDL 2011 Series, No. 30: Iron Man Series – Iron Man MK II
3. TRDL 2011 Series, No. 13: Iron Man Series – Stealth Armor

TRDL 2012 Series, No. 28 – Mixtlicoatl

This was done for the 2012 TRDL OC Art Swap, the subject being Mixtlicoatl, an OC designed by R3 Member Tulio. He drew a sketch of El Jefe vs Mixtlicoatl for his side of the swap, in fact. You can see his, and all the TRDL fan art pieces, here. Remember, if you want to join the OC Art Swap, sign up through this link on dA or just let me know and I’ll add you to the queue.

Here is Tulio’s character model

I tried to stay as close as possible to his model sheet. I think I embellished the base of the club a bit and simplified the topknot tube, but that’s about it. This was a fun one. I drew her confident and powerful. She is the arch nemesis to Tulio’s Mixtli character, which we actually absorbed into the TRDL Universe proper.

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 Art Challenge 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:

Again, here is the model sheet for Mixtlicoatl as a reference point.

Here’s pencils. I wasn’t sure from the printout of the character I had on hand at the time just what was going on with the right shoulder so I left that blank.

Inks and processing. You can see that I redrew the arm to give it proper extension, so Photoshop would again be my Studio Assistant.

Here’s the arm in place, the … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL 2012 Series No. 20 – El Jefe
2. TRDL 2012 Series No. 16 – Maris Brood
3. TRDL 2012 Series No. 27 – Titanium Man UPDATED

Awesome! This week’s R3 Art Challenge is Kitty Pryde of the X-Men books. Any version throughout the years, or design your own look for her! We’ve had this topic a few years ago (actually 2005), so you can scroll through the earlier challenge here for inspiration.

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

*Image, and interesting backstory, from here…

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The R3 Challenge is open to all artists and 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. R3 Art Challenge 2012 No 16 – Russians
2. 2012 R3 Challenge No. 13: Batman- Gotham by Gaslight
3. 2012 R3 Challenge 13: Captain Marvel 2013 (Marvel)

TRDL 2012 Series, No. 27 – Titanium Man

This was done for the R3 Art Challenge, the subject being Russian or Soviet Characters.

I’m working my way through every armored character in the Iron Man world (well, ‘every’ is a term i probably shouldn’t use these days) so since I have previously done Crimson Dynamo (a TRDL Redesign) and the original Black Widow, this time I thought I’d tackle the classic Titanium Man. Even though this design was always very hard for me to parse (and therefore draw) it was one I always responded to, largely because it’s… well… large. Even Boris within was supersized to be a giant for no good reason to drive it. I’ve just always been into that crazy face on the helmet.

UPDATE: I decided to completely redo this piece. The old version (3 days old) is in the process notes.

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 Art Challenge 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 Titanium Man in action.

This is the version I did last week. You know, I base my inspiration for these types of illustrations on the old Marvel Handbooks. Sometimes, I get so focused on doing standing shots suitable to understand the look of a character, I do it at the expense of some of the energy that informs the character itself. My original TM just doesn’t strike me as very interesting, powerful or even massive. So … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL 2012 Series No. 08 – Wonder Woman [New 52]
2. TRDL 2012 Series No. 23 – Alice in Wonderland 01
3. TRDL 2012 Series, No. 23 – Dragonbugga [St. Judes]

2012 R3 Art Challenge No.16: Russians

Here’s an interesting one. ‘Russians’.
Certainly there are plenty of Russian, and I’ll technically include Soviet, given the history of recent decades, heroes and villains in comics, but frankly characters from books and film and even historical figures are all fair game! Draw something fun!

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The R3 Challenge is open to all artists and 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 No. 13: Batman- Gotham by Gaslight
2. 2012 R3 Challenge 13: Captain Marvel 2013 (Marvel)
3. October 16 2011 – TRDL R3 Art Jam – Magic Challenge

TRDL 2012 Series, No. 26 – Madame Hydra [Viper]

This was done for the R3 Art Challenge, the subject being Madame Hydra.

I have drawn Viper, or Madame Hydra, a few times in the past, the last of which was a compositionally interesting 1:1 with Wolverine, showing her (at the time) new ‘Cobra-ish’ design with the snake motif running up one side of her black leathers. This time, I was inspired to go back to the Viper I knew as a kid (albeit then with short hair in matching green, according to the Marvel Handbooks) using the two-tone green costume, and hair across one side of her face to hide scarring. I threw together a blackened skull with vipers snaking out (yep, 6 for Hydra) as a Mignola-style touch, though I’m not sure how I feel about it now. You can also see the Third Rail Thrills variant below. I’m using a blue wash for the TRT series this year, and this was definitely not one where it went well with the costume colors. That’s why in years past I kept to neutral backgrounds (white, black, sepia)… but what can you do.

The Third Rail Thrills pinup variant, No. 78

You can find a larger version here. and 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 Art Challenge 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:

This is the Viper I recall so fondly from the Marvel Handbooks. There were several other interesting looks for her over the years, but … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. 2012 R3 Art Challenge No. 15: Viper (Madame Hydra)
2. TRDL Tribute: Viper
3. TRDL 2012 Series No. 09 – Baroness

The Tamalpais Valley Improvement Club is a non-profit group dedicated to preserving land and helping guide the reasonable development of the Tam Valley community, here in Mill Valley at the approach to Mt. Tamalpais. I offered to design them a new logo pro-bono, and this is what came of it. Nice, smooth process, with courteous and articulate responses from my client group along the way as we narrowed choices and came to some conclusions about the direction of the design.

This is the original design. Mountains evoke Mt. Tam, some indigenous pictographics, line art.

One of the members of the TVIC has lived in Tam Valley for longer than most have been alive, pre-dating the suburban landscape we have clustered today between the redwoods and the mountain. After my first round of concept sketches, I was introduced to some imagery that included her home, and decided to draw my inspiration from that. We started with Tam imagery, some egrets (lots of marshland in the valley by the bay’s edge) and so on, but it was mentioned how much the coyotes are a part of Tam Valley going back long before they were considered pests by the residents today. So, I pulled one in for science.

Here’s that classic image of the house, based on her actual property so many decades ago.
I worked up pencil sketches for the house/ logo framework of the valley and Tam beyond, and of a coyote.

Here’s the composite, and the early digital inks. The entire thing was done digitally from the pencil stage on.

Building up the coyote digitally.

Here’s the home and the valley, Tam beyond… working around the new logotype i created.

Obviously you’ve seen the final color version up top. Here’s the line art and then a grayscale version, below. I … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. TRDL Side Project – ‘Two Chicks’ Logo
2. TRDL Commercial Project – The CraveDemon
3. TRDL Commercial Project – Sisters of Rapture RPG

TRDL 2012 Series, No. 25 – Batman [Gotham by Gaslight]
TRDL Cryptohistorical Redesign

This was done for the R3 Art Challenge, the subject being Batman: Gotham by Gaslight, the first Elseworlds DC story to be published.

The Outcast Studios ‘Daily Sketch Challenge’ featured this character awhile back, so I was inspired to take another pass at redesigning the Batman look for a Victorian era Batman story like Gotham by Gaslight, but with my design sensibilities. Tough to follow Mignola of course. Anyway, my concept is that he wears a harness that serves three functions: it’s strapped to a climbing rope, allows him to hook his victims to it via rudimentary carabiners to hoist them up to the rooftops with him when using his compression-assist grappling hook device, and hides a primitive parachute behind him in case he pitches over the side of something tall. He’s got a set of lenses that drop over his goggles to help him see in low-light or smokey conditions.

This was the piece I sketched for that challenge, using deviantArt’s MURO online drawing tool. The design above isn’t based on this, but it’s a point of reference for how it evolved. It’s basically two steps removed from my thinking about the Gotham by Gaslights version of Batman as published.

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 Art Challenge 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 Mike Mignola’s awesome design for the character. And, keep in mind the … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. 2012 R3 Challenge No. 13: Batman- Gotham by Gaslight
2. TRDL 2011 Series No. 35 – Iron Man vs. Batman
3. TRDL Tribute: Batman: Year One

TRDL 2012 Series, No. 24 – Captain Marvel [2013 Version]
Wrongrobot’s Rudiments Pinup No. 4

This was done for the R3 Art Challenge, the subject being Captain Marvel aka Carol Danvers, specifically the new 2013 costume design that was recently announced.

When I saw the first piece released at a recent convention (as drawn by Ed McGuinness, below) I was quite taken with it. I love the Steve Rogers, Super Soldier costume he was using for the last few years prior to unnecessarily taking up the mantle of Captain America again, and this design follows that one fairly closely, with the symbol in the chest and the striping working up to, and around, the shoulders. Apparently Marvel got a lot of random criticism over the hair and confirmed, or retconned (or preconned?) that it’s just her normal hair pulled back… which I thought was exceptionally rational. The concept for this iteration of Captain marvel is a move towards the ‘Chuck Yeager’ character model… some sort of adventurous derring-do. I don’t know. But I generally liked the costume.

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

Bonus variant:
Here’s the Third Rail Thrills pinup series version of the piece for that collection:

And the larger size here.

Artists, come join us on R3 and submit to the jams! The R3 Art Challenge 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 new costume revealed…

My pencils, using a pretty classic pinup girl pose. I wasn’t feeling the head, and not just because of the scale issues. So I … Read on for more awesome…

Related posts:

1. 2012 R3 Challenge 13: Captain Marvel 2013 (Marvel)
2. TRDL Tribute: Captain marvel
3. TRDL Tribute – Captain Marvel 2010

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