Skeleton, Meet Muscles

          For the second round of working with muscles, we had to make our own skeleton and attach it to a base.  For this, we took wire that we bent first in the proper proportions for a skeleton, then bent them again until they were in a pose that we picked.  Then we added the main forms (the head, ribcage, and pelvis) before covering the whole mess with muscles.  After becoming more comfortable with the proportions of the muscles, individually and in their respective muscle groups, the end product comes out as a natural looking human being.

          Oh man, look at that strut.  That swagger.  Dem glutes!  That is one confident-ass (and confident-assed) muscle mannequin.
          I highly suggest that anyone that wants to make stronger drawings of people try this, or any way of building a person in 3D.  You don't have to go into crazy detail, but having the proportions directly in your hands DOES translate to how you draw it on paper.  Plus having a bitty little clay dude to pose is awesome.

Skeleton, skeleton, what are you wearing

          After a ridiculous hiatus due to finals and holidays, I am back with some stuff I've long been meaning to post up here.  I took a constructive human anatomy class not this quarter but the last, and have been waiting to post the photos of the crazy work I put into those projects.  This post is going to be part 1 of 2 posts about it.
          So the idea of this class was not only to draw the human body in proportion, but to be able to fully understand the way muscles move and interact.  To drive this idea deep into our skulls, each muscle was made in clay and then placed on a skeleton.  This was our first go at figuring out how everything pieced together.  Here's what it looked like when all of the muscles were finished and placed on the plastic skeleton provided for us.

 Ewps! He got a little torn up here, since I had to strap him to my back while biking him to and from class.

 As you can see I didn't add the dangly bits.  At least not when I was turning it in to the professor.

          So those of you with a keen eye might notice that these muscles are bulky and chunky and what the heck is going on with those thighs.  And you are right.  It seemed to be part of the learning process to over-exaggerate the size of the muscles as I was building them, but luckily we got a second chance at the process.  Tune in next time for the toned-down version that hits closer to the realism spectrum.

Calliope

     Oh, this was such a fun assignment!  I've had a bit of a lull in creative satisfaction after projects, but this one just felt wonderful to make.  Quick summary, for class we were to pick out a favorite comic cover, then redo it in our own style, or a style that strongly deviated from the original.  Well, here's the original.

 

     For those of you who were unaware, The Sandman is my favorite comic series, and one of the main motivators that made me want to be a comic book artist in the first place.  It was an easy choice.  Now for the version I made.  Since this cover has that classic mix between actual physical objects and ethereal images that McKean is known for, I wanted to do a complete 180.  Flat graphic blacks, zip-a-tone, and simple colors.

Josh's Bar Night

     I've been enjoying a project that we've been working on this quarter, that started with writing a story.  I decided (with the help of one of my favorite writers, Gabe) to write a story about a man that has a horrible day.  People don't like to read about happiness too much, and it would probably be a boring story to draw without the conflicts that we came up with.  A quick synopsis for you; A poor fella named Josh has just been dumped by his girlfriend, and tired of moping to break up songs, decides to go out on the town.  He gets drunk, rambling sweet nihilistic nothings to anyone around him, eventually leading to a misunderstanding that gets him punched, tossed out, and lost in the city. 
     Anyway, after I had the script it was time to draw.  The interesting part about the comic pages that I'm drawing is that the class has to draw it several times, and completely different shots every time.  This has been pushing me to pick much more interesting camera angles, and I suggest anyone who wants to make a comic try this method out.
     Here is the first set of penciled pages I finished from this technique.

Ooky Spooky

WARNING: THIS POST CONTAINS NIGHTMARE FUEL.

     Well kiddies, your host, the blog keeper, is here with a wraparound horror cover illustration.  Tonight seemed like the perfect night to post it, I've been listening to Tom Waits, I just finished putting together my Halloween costume, and there's a clear night out with cool breezes and a bright moon.  Lovely fall night.

     Well, enough introductions, here's the creepy stuff in question.

     If you really want to creep yourself out, look at it full screen.  That's the best way for them to look into your soul.

Max Is Tripping Balls

     Here's the finished version of the Max Starwind psychological style cover!

     Oh man, that is some trippy shit.  I liked the black and white version on it's own, but the coloring process for this one was fun.  So much experimenting, touching up, and playing with brushes in Photoshop.  :D

Max's Flowing Locks

     A psychological cover is the best, in my opinion.  Getting to play around with symbolism and having a harder concentration on composition and design instead of straight story telling seems to draw the reader in and create a more solid illustration.  Using the fan favorite (and class assigned) character Max Starwind, I created this cover:

 

     Flowing hair, eye contact, treasure, alien bits, what more could you ever need?  This piece was heavily inspired by the work of Dave Johnson.  He is by far my favorite cover artist.  You should probably check him out at  http://devilpig.deviantart.com/.

     And my next post will be a finished colored version.  I have a lot of different plans of attack I could choose for this cover, I can't wait to see which one works.

Oh no, tentacles everywhere!

     Max has been swallowed by an evil plant monster, and inside there are gross tentacles stealing away his amazonian princess!  Oh, the humanity!  Here's the finished cover:

 

     This might have just been an excuse to draw a busty woman being attacked by tentacles.  Or maybe it was a sincere artistic expression of the moment of loss and the intensity of Max's emotions.  Probably not, but maybe.

Finished Kid's Cover

 

     Ohmigoodness.  Max is adorable in his space car.  It's like WHOOSH SPACE OH NOOOO!  

     

     This is the finished mock-up cover for a kid's comic starring Max Starwind.  I am happy with this layout, especially the title font.  Coming up next on my bloggy blog will be a Max cover for the average mostly-adult comic audience.

Max Starwind

     Hey kiddies!  Been a little while, how are you?  No really, tell me all about it.  Okay, so I haven't gotten in touch with my chibi-infused roots in quite a while, so when presented the challenge to make a kid's style comic cover, I gladly returned to them.  Here's the resulting pencils.

 

     Woo!  Digitally colored version coming soon!

Magical!

     So for this special installment of Joan Comics, I have a wraparound cover that I put a good deal of time and love into.  I have this idea for a modern day sword and sorcery comic that will hopefully become a fully fleshed out graphic novel.  A woman, alone in the city, struggling with alcoholism, finds out that she has one more problem she has to deal with; she's a witch.  While she is discovering the oddities of her mystical nature, she is being tracked by a crazed man who calls himself a witch hunter.  Sounds nuts, right?

     Well, here is the front cover.

     And the back cover.

     And this is what it looks like all put together.

     Oops!  The scanner cut a little bit off, but you get the picture.  HAHA GET IT, THE PICTURE? 8D

The Creeper, finished!

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Here's the finished painting!  I was hoping to get one or two more process photos, but the nitty-gritty detail painting work is the best part.  It's easy to get sidetracked when you get to the fun.  But he looks ready to be a serial killer, old west style.

A Peek At The Process

     This is going to be a two-parter.  Hope you guys enjoy looking behind the scenes, because we're going to either way.

     The first part of any good piece is reference.  To understand the visuals of the world you want to create, you need to start immersing yourself in it.  Thank jeebus for the internet, that makes this process go by very quickly.  This particular piece is a mock comic cover for Weird Western.  My initial idea was to take a cowboy, and crank the creepiness up to the max.  So I googled everything, bandannas, guns, saloons, old men, creepy stares, horror movies, and just sketched as I went.

After that, the idea started to solidify, and this was the resulting sketch.

     Blech, creepy, right?  There are some sizing issues, and the lighting is definitely not all the way, but this is a good point to jump off from.  So from here, I started some color testing, since I was going to be working in acrylics.

     I just scanned the sketch and printed a whole bunch of copies so I could test different combinations.  In acrylics, there is not a ctrl-z, so this was the best way to keep from goofing up the finished piece.  You can also see some printed out reference in the corner.

     Now we move onto the real deal.  I was using 11x17 Bristol board that needed to be affixed with tape to keep it from buckling.  I typically use acrylic paints more like watercolors, so it needs to be kept flat the entire time I work on it, or else it will be a wavy mess.  After taping it, I sketched my creeper down, this time with proper proportions and some hints at where the lighting will go.  Then, working layer by layer, I put down color.  The first (and most important) layer is a golden yellow color that I put over the entire piece of paper.  This makes the color scheme look more unified later on, like every piece of the image is in the same light.

     So here's what that looks like in the beginning.

     On the next thrilling episode of art blog, you get to see the finished piece!

Logos are hard to make up you guys

Let me know what you think of these designs!  I am trying to design a logo that is personal but professional.  I think I'll make another batch of designs based off of these styles of lettering and play around with some more compositions, but this is the start.  How do these logos feel for you?  What is the impression they make?

Small Update

Sorry for the lacking updates folks!  My monitor recently has decided that there is no reason to communicate with my PC any more.  While they are having relationship issues, all of my art is out of reach.  When I get it working again, I'm going to have an interactive blog post!  I want you guys to help me figure out what my logo should be. We will see.

Loooooove~

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Today's comic page is a gift for my bestest friend, Amanda.  I'll be giving it to her as soon as I see her next, but I'm considering it an early wedding gift.  Congratulations to Matt and Amanda for being an awesome couple!  I hope you like the spooky story page I put you in.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

Street View

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Aaand we're back to environments!  This shot, as other Savannahians might recognize, is a view of Murphy's that has been acclimated for the comics page.  From working on this, I've learned that the key to making a space believable is 1) perspective.  Learn it.  Learn everything you possibly can from perspective, no matter how boring it is when you're just starting. 2)  Add more shit!  The more things you add to a space, the more "lived in" it feels.  Get as many wires, drains, pipes, lamps, signs, and other details that are necessary for buildings in a shot as you can.  Big blank walls are uninviting and make even something that is right in perspective look wrong.  (Check out the building on the back right to see what I mean.  That definitely needs some texture and wires and things.)

Hipster Hero Storyboards 6

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And now, the hipster story is done!  Or at least as done as it will be in storyboard form.  As I've said before, I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to make this into a comic book or even a series.  That will take a little more work, but they are so sassy and cute!  What do you think, would you pick this up at an artist alley?

Also, I would like to take a minute to tell you guys about finals at SCAD.  The noticeable lack of blog updates was due to my underestimating of finals work this quarter.  I worked as hard as I could for as long as I could to churn out my final projects, and I survived!  Yay.  After my working/coffee binge, I took some much needed time off, but now I'm just itching to get some more work done, and I'll be putting any new work I make up here.

Hipster Hero Storyboards 5--Roll Out

Part 5, holy crap!  To be continued, again!

Hipster Hero Storyboards 4

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Power power, power power, power up!  Dun-nun-nun-nun-nananana!  (I'm pretty sure that is going to be the best theme song ever.)

Hipster Hero Storyboards 3: Shit gets real.

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As promised, here is part 3!  Time to get all power rangers up in here.

Hipster Hero Storyboards 2!

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Woot woot!  Day #2 of the story.  Check out that hot storyboarding action!  Ohhhh yeaaaahhhhh.

Hipster Hero Storyboards

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And the hipsterness continues!  I had so much fun working with my Hipster Hero team, I decided to make it into a cartoon!  Well, not really.  This was another storyboarding assignment, but I did have a lot of fun working on it.  

You might notice that this is hardly a whole story.  Well, this whole week I'm going to be posting this story as far as I had it finished for class.  That is to say, the story was never really finished in the first place, but as much of it as I have finished will be posted through next Monday.

I do want to finish this someday.  Maybe even make a series, but it will be translated to the comics format.  I like storyboarding and animation, but it seems like a story that will play out well in a book format.  We will see!

Self Portraits

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Look at that sassy bitch right there.  She's got attitude and silly shoes.  This was another piece for my character design and storyboarding class (what a whopper of a title, huh?)  The idea was simplification.  The best thing that we were taught was how to simplify, then simplify some more, and just keep going until you have the most basic shapes.  The end result may not look like the original at all, but it makes it spring to life with new personality.  I gotta play around with cartooning more!

Hipster Hideout

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Some of you might remember my Hipster Heroes, and this is the basement hideout I concocted for them.  Notice all the stolen art supplies and books.  Dead giveaway.  I really liked working on this project, but I had difficulty deciding how to light it.  I think the strong light doesn't come off quite right and could benefit from coloring, but I just love all the little grimy touches.  There is nothing more fun than rickety, run-down, or just plain dirty spaces to draw.

P.S.  Sorry for the late update, it is midterms right now.  So... sleeping and extra activities are on pause.

3 Field Pan

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This was made for my character design and storyboarding for animation class.  This is meant to be panned across from left to right.  All kinds of people on this bar-hopping adventure!  I like the little gangstas all the way in the back.  :D

Blog Part Two: Return of the Rebirth of the Second Coming

A wild art blog appears!  It uses comic art style!  It's super effective!

All jokes aside, I felt compelled to start up an art blog instead of working on a webcomic for the time being.  I've been making plenty of drawings but due to schoolwork, a steady updating story just isn't going to happen.

To start off this new blog I'm going to be doing a send off to the old by posting the original comic strip that became a webcomic!  (That became an art blog!  Gee, this redundancy is neat.)  This started as an assignment for Introduction to Sequential Art, and I just fell in love with the characters.  So here it is, Alex and Melissa, the beta version.  (Click on the images for a larger, more readable version.)