The Independents- character design part 4

Harris Olstein aka The Pugilist

This guy ended up being my favorite one of the bunch to draw. What's not to love about an old man wearing giant cosmically-powered boxing gloves, right? Harris is the elder statesman of The Independents and probably should have retired years ago, but his love for the game keeps pulling him back in. He's as old school as they come.

The more these characters bounce around in my head, the more excited I get to draw their stories. I've read half of the first issue from The Independents writer/mastermind Ben Christian and it's great. This guy knows what he's doing, folks. I'll just try to keep up.

The Independents- character design part 3

Desmond Terry aka Marathon Man

This character was the hardest to design. There are so many speedster-types it's hard to not be influenced by some of the great character looks out there. He's the most "image conscious" of the group, so his outfit is the most superhero-esque. I thought of it as a NASCAR racer's jumpsuit; something loud and eye catching.
Desmond is obsessed with his appearance. His jumpsuit is sleek and modern, his skin is (fake) tanned, and his hair is styled. As a once washed up D-lister, Desmond's experiencing a renaissance of sorts in his career and he's determined to make the most of it.
Up Next: The Pugilist!

The Independents- character design part 2

Meet Archibald Forrester aka Archimago. He's a heavy-metal obsessed sorcerer who doesn't really fit in anywhere but with The Independents. He loves any- and everything to do with metal, from Black Sabbath to airbrush painted vans to flame-detailed clothing.

These are the rough sketches I like to put together when designing characters. Usually I start with a "junk page" where I scribble gestures and shapes until I find something that works. Once I've got a pose that speaks to the character, I tighten it up on a larger sheet and fill the rest of the page with drawings of faces, expressions, action shots, etc.

The characters in The Independents all have personalities that leap off of the written page, so creating their looks has felt pretty organic. Like I'm just adding definition to what's already there. There have been some minor road bumps, though, and here's one of them:

My first try on Archie ended up looking too "bad-ass". Writer Ben Christian thought he should look a bit nerdier, and after hearing his vision for Archie I agreed. This story takes place in a very real-world setting. So I got rid of the giant Gwar-like shoulderpads and I changed his hair to something that looked more like, um, hair. I was going for a Scott Weiland look, but it ultimately failed. Hard.
In the final version, I added glasses and changed his posture to slump a bit more. I kept the Kiss boots because they're gonna be fun to draw. Ben pointed out that this was not a confident guy who knew his place, but he still has fun being a hero, so I tried to reflect that.

The Independents- character design part 1

This is the first of a series of character designs from a project I've been working on lately called The Independents. It's the brainchild of a very talented writer friend of mine named Ben Christian. All of the characters and concepts in The Independents were created by Ben. I was given a general direction to go in for each character and from there I had free reign to take things wherever.

After the character designs I'll post the thumbnails for the 11 page story that we're going to try pitching as a "trailer" for a mini-series or a line of mini-series. This whole process has really been a blast, and I think the collaboration is gonna yield some great results.

This first guy is J.T. Chance aka The Quintessence. Ben described him as the "white-trash Superman" with a moustache that would put Burt Reynolds to shame. At first I had a hard time making him not look like Brock Samson (on account of the mullet), then I saw a drawing of him that Ben himself had done and he gave him black hair, so that settled it.
I added the gloves and the bottle opener on his belt loop. And I did a few drawings of him wearing a denim jacket, completing the "Canadian tuxedo" just because I liked the way it looked. The image of this guy with Superman's stature wearing a jean jacket that was too small for him and fingerless gloves from the 80's is just kinda cool.
I also used these illustrations as an opportunity to brush up on Photoshop and Illustrator. That learning curve is a steep one, so don't judge too harshly. I'm still congratulating myself for re-learning the basics (hooray for mediocrity!)

Over the next few days I'll be posting the rest of the characters with some bits of the steps I took and my thoughts during the process.

mikey vs. the goons

The Punisher pages in the previous post might be the worst things I've ever drawn in my life. Soooo, to make up for it here's a picture of Michelangelo (the turtle, not the artist) fighting Bebop & Rocksteady.

A ninja turtle heals all wounds. I always say that.

punisher pages

x-men pages

kick-ass

Just a quick warm-up today before I start working on some other things. Plus it's been a while since I posted anything new here, so here ya go internet.

By the way- go see the movie. It's awesome.

wendigo

I really tried to follow my instincts with this piece. I didn't put too much down with the pencil before I began inking- I wanted it to feel more organic and energetic that way.

When I pencil, I tend to labor over every little line I put down and I'm constantly changing my mind as to how I want to render things. When a correction is a simple as picking up the eraser and doing it right then, it's easy to get carried away and usually leads to completely starting the drawing over. It's one of the things I'm trying to change about the way I work and this was a good step towards that.

It may be hard to tell because I cleaned it up a lot in Photoshop, but I got pretty sloppy with the inks. This is the first time I've used a crow quill dip pen since school. I also used a couple different brush pens and of course some microns. I even broke out the white paint for a different texture in the background.

All in all this was a great learning experience and I'm definitely gonna try more stuff like this in the future.

x-force

the iron fist

leo vs. the foot

the hood

the god of war

This started as a sketch I did who knows when that i just found with some other unfinished drawings which I'll get to in the next few weeks.
It took me about 10 hrs to finish but it was a good 10 hrs. It's been a while since I had the time or patience really get into something and just draw the hell out of it for an afternoon or three or four.

fantastic four

elsa bloodstone

machine man

john lennon

This is something I drew for my mom (who's been a huge Beatles fan since before I was born) for Christmas last year. I used some fine tip microns and a brush pen to do Lennon and ink wash for his hair and the city skyline.

And I'm still working up colors on the Deadpool thing. I haven't done any coloring in, like, 5 years so I'm rusty. Reeeeeeealy rusty.

deadpool versus a.i.m.

I really like images that try to lead your eye around the page, so I tried to do something like that for this one. By placing certain objects, body parts or whatever in certain places, you can create tangents that will direct the eye around the page continuously.

I'll have colors up later on this week.

boom boom