Who Dat Azwell?

Following the previous post, examples of my mucking about with markers yesterday...think I can use them ok but need a better range of shades and colours...the full colour Matt Smith was coloured over the original in Photoshop...

Who Dat?

 

 

Been chugging away, got less than ten heroines left to tick off my list (more are completed but not coloured yet) then I can move on to other drawings at last...think I've got used to the clean line stuff so experimented a bit with markers on this Matt Smith pic...

Previews

Been busy the past few weeks with one thing or another but in between a few trips out to sort my mum's laptop connection for her and wotnot, still managed to complete these character pix this weekend...had no time to colour them yet but they will be posted once done as I'm maybe 12 characters away from completing this set of heroines...

Dreddudice

So, saw Dredd 3D last night.

First up, not the hugest 2000AD fan: i visited the offices and had a review from editor Steve MacManus in the early 90s, looking through original art and seeing the production office but I grew up reading Marvel and Dc rather than British comics. I do like Dredd as a character though and love the visuals.

As to the Stallone version: I think it's almost a good movie. Great production values, an accurate Megacity, solid plot...oh, but Stallone. From his opening posturing cry of "I! Am DELORE!" through his pansy costume, face reveals, pining for family and insipid "I knew you were going to say that" catchphrase, he stinks up the movie and pretty much kills it dredd, um dead.

So, Karl Urban: spot on performance. He doesn't ham it up but plays Dredd's seething rage with an icy coolness and is totally convincing as the hardass we all know, not invulnerable but all the more powerful for being more dedicated. Anderson isn't quite the character we all know but is similar to the early Cassandra and exhibits her psychic abilities in a well handled balance. Mama is also played without the usual movie villain OTT shenanigans, Lena Headey playing her as almost an ordinary average person...who happens to control a huge criminal empire.

The streets and sets are closer to our world than the original movie's but feel all the more real, decayed and oppressive as a result. The film does have that added air of verisimilitude as a result, boosted by moody lighting and some pretty decent and beautiful (despite their violence) 3D effects.

But much as the comics often do, the movie fails with its story. Within ten minutes, Dredd and Anderson are trapped in a 200 story block and have to ascend to the top via a gauntlet of numerous armed criminals in order to take down Mama. that's it. No subplot, deviation or deeper meaning. No real character development or emotional moments, no memorable set pieces or scenes (despite the good effects), no moments that sing and lift the movie into something memorable.

Quickies

Only got a few minutes as been typing stuff up after various discussions in the pub last night and have to shoot out in about twenty minutes!

From the top:

Reworked Dirty Harry from the Weekly Themed Art Blog
Finally done  a decent Erica Durance but still struggling with Barbarella, both from my lunchtime inking...
Redid Clea completely as the previous sketch was reworked into Dagger...
Slight tweaks to this Erica Durance means it works a hell of a lot better for me now..
Captain Kirk and variations of Mace Windu
Caroline Munro (done from screen pauses while watching Captain Kronos...it was fun but sadly dated)
Troia, actually a reworked version of a recent Wonder Girl I've yet to colour and post...and I've just realised that I think Troia has silver armbands too, d'oh! Shoulda used reference!

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Above are the results of my likeness practising, some more successful than others. Also trying different styles and tools a bit...some pencil and colour pencils pieces next I think, if I can select any decent refs. Fancy a Samuel L Jackson but my refs are too small to get a decent likeness from.

Anyway, above are Lex Luthor...the left one is inked with a Pitt marker and I don't really have a steady enough hand to pull off smooth lines. This is also a problem when inking the thicker hairlines in some of the other pieces.

I won't name the faces in the next pieces as I hope they're strong enough to be able to tell who they are (mostly) but the bottom ones are dismal attempts at Barbarella and Erica Durance, who I just can't seem to get the hang of, dammit. I blame poor ref for the Barbarella and me for the Erica, new attempts to follow.

Rounding out the page, that quickly tweaked Elastigirl...shifted her right arm and dropped in a new face (actually from another drawing!) and voila, I can stand to look at this now. Quick n easy save via Photoshop!

After that last megapost, something a bit lighter: settling back into more of a normal routine at work, I've been able to ink up to two pages of my "face book" over my lunch break (post to follow when I've completed the other sketches later this week) but it has also restored some interest in drawing again, after falling into a bit of a stupor lately.

Picking up a pad not touched for almost exactly five months, I've been working on some heroines again. When sorting out my past art coincided with dabbling with a cleaner art style, I decided to draw a roster of characters I'd drawn previously but was unhappy with. I held on to a few drawings that still work but have maybe 20 more characters to draw, mostly DC followed by marvel with two more obscure ones.

Anyway, the results of this weekend's work is above. Not too taken with the obscure Miss Masque but do like the belt logo I gave her (took me a while to streamline an M into a belt design but think this works well), Dagger is a last minute rework of a Clea that I hated (I realised the upper torso was all wrong so just wiped the whole thing out) and I'm not sure about Elastigirl...think it needs a new face.

I'm fairly happy with the Spiderwoman (though getting the wings to match was impossible as I'd drawn the arms in different positions)((I was also keeping David Finch and Frank Cho's version in mind as those seem the best versions to me)) and Marvel Girl, which I'm very happy with...always liked that outfit and finally think I've done a decent depiction (though I did do an acceptable Jaime Hernandez-style version)

The poses get a bit samey after a while but I do have a reason: these are meant to be generic shots of the character, as if they were going into Marvel Universe, ie as clear as you can get to an "on model" look. Some of the art in the recent DC and Marvel encyclopedias sacrifices decent looks at character design for dynamic design and sometimes it makes for too busy pages...