I search the web a lot for artists I like, and invariably end up cribbing a lot of pieces I like and as with the net in general, I often stumble across interesting further work. Some of this inspires me in curious ways...
For instance, I saved a Kid Flash model sheet from the Young Justice show and one of the few things I like about the DCNu is the Kid Flash design (though I still prefer the original). I wanted to devote time to drawing the new costume when I decided to do a comparison instead: lightboxing the model sheet, I quickly finished all three versions...unsigned of course, as I don't feel this is my work at all...
However, I'd always fancied a crack at inking Jack Kirby's stuff. It's so bonkers and abstract, I always thought it would be an interesting challenge as I know I'd inevitably try to beat it into a more realistic shape. So, inspired by the Kid Flash messing about, I downloaded two Kirby pieces. I've got a Superman piece to ink, which I'll ink in my style (i.e, it'll look nothing like Kirby probably!) but thought I'd test the waters trying to be true to Kirby on another piece first. I picked an Orion pic and while it seems quite faithful, I still caved slightly and made a few corrections:
1. The helmet wasn't quite symmetrical at the top so I curved it off a bit and redrew the left (as we look at it) wing, which didn't match the other one at all. In fact, for all Kirby's weird geometric costume designs, his drawing was far from symmetrical! I also gave the helmet "my2 metallic sheen as opposed to Kirby's , raising the trim at the edges.
2. Kirby always drew weird thumbs and fingers so I corrected them before trying to impose some kind of implied musculature on the upper arm, while tidying up the lower arm and filling out the elbow a bit.
3. I extended the glimpse of the far pectoral muscle and added a spine between the shoulder blades, which I tried to define a bit. I misinterpreted the art and mistakenly omitted the shoulder ring but tried to suggest an oblique muscle and texturised the belt.
4. I tidied up the upper leg muscles slightly, reworked the knee areas and redrew the foot so that it no longer resembled a frogman's flipper, also adding a trip to the boot design. There seemed to be a consistent flow of clothing creses from the groin to the the rear arm, so I kept that in the trunks but tried to imply some anatomy trhough them. I did some major streamling on the knee/upper parts of the receding leg but left the lower parts mostly untouched.
I'll add the original version as a comparison, along with another Orion that just made me laugh..
Finally, although I've used them before, I wanted to play around with the (non-Copic) markers I picked up recently. While they work like Copics, the gradations between them aren't as smooth as the Copic range so I think I'd choose to return to them for something serious. Here are an few headshots of Erica Durance shaded with the markers: not great likenesses but I'm warming up to the effects now so will probably colour these at some point.
First though, I have a Kirby piece to return to...
PS Just added a side by side comparison above...
