Day 19: The Question #tzadvent

Day 19: The Question

I used the Question piece to start experimenting with brushes. I downloaded some from the internet, and I'm not sure how well they worked. The inking was good, but they seemed to slow down my computer. I'm not completely sure that the two things are related, though I did see some things about that on the internet. I'll go back to the standard brushes and see what happens.

Still, this is all about experimentation. So totally worth it. I want to try some more.

I really dug the Question, especially the Eighties series. And DC is missing a bet by not turning him into a TV show. Great visual, easy concept, and it would work great.

Day 18: The Phantom #tzadvent

Day 18: The Phantom

I love the Phantom! I first read his strip when I was six, I think. Maybe younger. I think my family just started subscribing to the News-Herald. I remember that first comics page I read, and it was the arc where the Phantom discovered a stegosaurus (Steggy!).

I love the traditions associated with him. The whole Ghost Who Walks thing, the fact no one may see his face and live (except his wife Diana), the good and bad rings, the history of all the Phantoms… I just adore it. I hope to get a chance to work on him one day.

And yeah, I even kind of like the movie. It's one rewrite away from being something really solid, and I loved Billy Zane's portrayal. He seemed to bring the confidence of twenty generations with him, and that was pretty cool.

At this point in the process, most of my commands are set. I'm starting to change the presets on my Cintiq now. There are a couple of commands, like resetting brush size and moving items, that I want to have quickly accessible and I can't get to from the Nostromo. But there are perfectly good buttons on my pen that I can tweak.

Superman/Wonder Woman Sketch Cover

Carol and John's Comic Shop is, well, a comic shop in Cleveland at Kamm's Corners. They're doing a promotion with local artists doingsketch covers to raise money for the local food bank. All I had to do was get to the shop and pick up my choice of blank covered comics and go to town. So I grabbed a copy of Superman and Wonder Woman and came up with a concept for a holiday themed cover. Since I could work on this in my studio, I could put a little more prep work into the image. I scanned to cover and imported it into Manga Studio (yeah, I've been talking a lot about that, haven't I?) and roughed out my concept.

Originally, it was just going to be Superman and Wonder Woman exchanging horrible film versions of themselves. But the back cover was blank, too, and was calling out to be filled. So a Batman joke popped into my head and I figured, "How can I not do that?"

Then, just for filler, I drew the classic Silver Age Fortess of Solitude. Admittedly, there aren't evergreen trees at the North Pole, but maybe Superman transplanted those for the holidays. That's just the kind of thing he'd do in the 70's and 80's.

I did my rough pencils in blue and then, as I'vebeen doing, did a quick loose digital ink pass, too. Then I printed out the pages and lightboxed the art onto the cover, inked by hand and colored with my Copics.

This was a lot of fun.Good luck to Carol and John at the event. I hope to be doing more with them in the New Year.

Day 16: Two-Face #tzadvent

Day 16: Two-Face

Two-Face is probably my favorite of Batman's rogues gallery (with Riddler and Poison Ivy pretty close).It was fun to play around with the patterns on the suit and shirt here.

I think I'm finally comfortable drawing in Manga Studio. I'm going to have to work to really get the background and panel thing down, but laying out and drawing is kind of locked in. That's good. I think this Advent project is doing exactly what I hoped.

Day 15: Matter Eater Lad #tzadvent

Day 15: Matter Eater Lad

I love the absurdity of some of the Silver Age characters, and that's no more prevalent than in the 60's Legion of Super Heroes. Matter Eater Lad had the power of super-eating. He could chomp and digest darn near anything because his stomach was essentially a nuclear reactor.

He's also an example of how the absurd can still work. In the 80's, he ate the Miracle Machine and went insane for a while. It was a cool scene in a more modern story using a character with a ridiculous power.

I'm starting to think about a second set of commands on my Nostromo for Photoshop. I will frequently ink the white highlight lines in a black field (like Matter Eaterr Lad's gloves) as black lines and then do a quick mask, select and invert them to white. I don't have that as a easy key commands yet. I'm thinking through having it be a second set because I think I use those commands when I'm in a different coloring mindset.

The Nostromo is becoming an extension of my process now. So, just about halfway through this project, it seems to be doing what I wanted it to.

Day 13: Storm #tzadvent

so no time for notes on this. It's done, and I'll do another one tomorrow. See you then.

And congratulations to Robert and Sunny!

Day 12: Loki #tzadvent

Day 12: Loki

Recently, I read the Walter Simonson omnibus and, man, is that pages upon pages of cool. There's so much story there. It's great classic comics storytelling and it still holds up. I'd love to see someone bring a lot of his Thor approach to Aquaman, actually. The book is a great balance of fantasy kingdom stuff and superheroics.

He also tended to draw characters draping themselves in their throne. That was in mind when I drew this.

Art-wise, I finally figured out how to make custom rules for objects. I wish Manga Studios had bezier curves and a little better control, but I'm sure that fine-tuning will become natural to me as I practice, and that's what this whole December project is about, right? I used the custom curve rules for Loki's horns and some of the chair.

The costume is a combination of the Simonson costume redesign and the cool horned helmet. I couldn't not draw that helmet.

Day 11: Darkseid #tzadvent

Day 11: Darkseid

This doesn't always happen, but I really like this one. I wanted to see if I could get the full range of brush effects I could with an actual brush. Darkseid has rocky textures and craggy skin and a metal helmet, lots of stuff to play with.

Plus, I admit I'm a latecomer to Kirby. Curt Swan, Kurt Schaffenberger and George Perez were the first artists I really liked. They're all slick in one way or another. Kirby isn't slick, he's raw and powerful. As I've gotten older, I like his stuff more and more. And the more I learn about what Kirby did, Kirby the creator and innovator can't be touched.

So, I tried to get some Kirby in this. Some of it is the Kirby-esque textures on Darkseid's skin. And some of it was combining Kirby's range of Darkseid. In the original stories, he was a little more a stony monolith with glowing eyes. Later, he was a little more animated and wild eyed. I love the glowing eyes thing, but I wanted some of that anger and energy in the character,

And, of course, Kirby dots.

Day 10: Firestorm

Day 10: Firestorm Well, this one was inevitable, wasn't it? Firestorm the Nuclear Man, one of my favorite characters.

Firestorm was DC's version of Spider-Man, if Spider-Man could have a bad day. He's never been as fun as the Fury of Firestorm run in the Eighties. What, you want to know why? Let me tell you: The core of the book was the mentor/mentee relationship between Professor Martin Stein and Ronnie Raymond. And just as important, Ronnie, the least qualified guy in the pair, is the guy driving the boat. It's that dynamic that makes the character so interesting to me.

He's gone through different iterations, and had a strong finish in his recent New-52 version, but honestly, the classic version will always be the one for me.

Day 09: Doctor Strange #tzadvent

Day 09: Doctor Strange Okay, look, I know this is going up today, but it was totally done yesterday. I just forgot to post it after the Alter Ego post. As further proof, Day 10's drawing will go up a little later today, too.

Doctor Strange is just cool. He's so powerful that it's hard for writers to keep him in line. Magic stories are tough, because you can arguably do anything. Creating a believable set of rules, or at least guidelines, is important to give the story an internal consistency.

Not only is the good Doctor a great character, with one of the better origins and personalities, but he's got an awesome costume. Drawing the embroidery in his cape is just fun. It's a great combination of colors and style.

I'm sure he'll be getting the movie treatment soon. Let's hope it's a good one!