Polar

This was an Okay topic. Almost a bit too restrictive, but since I got what I think is an pretty fun idea, I shouldn't complain. What I can complain about is the fact that I made a sketch, refined it, transferred it onto bristol board, grabbed my crowquill and then proceeded to render the bejeezus out of it, turning it into a pile of hierarchy-free little black marks.

Lovely.

Work, while not horrible, is a bit mind-numbing, so I could not dredge up the energy to make another attempt to render it. I will post the third-round sketch. If this feels half-assed, I won't deny it, but I'm sorry.

About the work: I intentionally neglected to do any sort of research on what polar bear or penguin really look like, even though I have some great books in my library(Including this fantastic, but out of print book: Animal Faces by Akira Satoh. If you ever draw animals, this is a book to find). So, the bear looks more grizzly than polar. Ah, well. Here it is:



I resisted the urge to have a reference to the bear being on Prozac, making him a bi-polar bear, but I thought that would be silly. Besides, the penguin is taking Zoloft, anyway.

Fortune

This one took a while and because I'm a sadist, I'll take you through the journey. I started off looking for all the synonyms and uses of 'fortune' from lots of money to 'fortune favors the brave'. I started a Sergio Aragones-esque bit about a guy who visits a fortune teller who (via thought balloon picture) tells him that there are bags of money in his future. He leaves and then gets crushed by a pile of money bags. Since I couldn't figure out how bags of money would be in the air to crush him, I nixed the idea. Then, sitting at work, I thought about all of the things that tell fortunes: tea leaves, crystal balls, tarot cards. Tarot cards! Then I thought of doing a series of Tarot cards that feature characters from Discworld. I made a list and chose one at near random and here it is. Card XIII. Death:



To prove my mediocrity in a number of media, I chose scratchboard. This was difficult for a two reasons. 1) I scratched it small (3 x 6) 2) I haven't touched scratchboard in over a year. Here's the sketch it was based on. Sweet Enemy told me I should have made the dress more revealing, but I was working from photos of Victorian era dresses and didn't feel like taking the time to tart them up.

Green

This was a pretty good topic. I did have a bit of trouble thinking of an idea (though my alternate i-spy would have worked, yes?), but as a Friday meeting turned to non-graphic design topics, I sketched out a very, very rough homage to my favorite sequential artist in the world: Daniel Torres. Daniel Torres is the creator of Rocco Vargas, a fabulous retro comic from the 90's that was a perfect homage to the future that never was. The action took place in the 'future' of 1983, though it was first drawn in '84. His clean line technique evolved over the years to a style that was both iconic and naturalistic. I truly don't think there is anyone who draws like him. So, I decided to try to copy his style and MAN it is hard to copy another artist's style (not that I have any more respect for style-plagiarists like that guy who draws Robocop in the same style as Geoff Darrow).

What bugs me the most is that since Heavy Metal magazine has jumped the shark, the chances of finding any more translated Torres (or Gess or Frezatto) is slim. No Americans are making true graphic novels anymore, just superhero stuff and depressing, banal graphic memoirs.

Anyhoo.

Here's my Green. It is one of Torres' Martians as the Countess of Mars. I dressed her as the anti-heroine who first appeared in The Whisperer Mystery. Maybe there'll be a crappy prize for anyone who can name that anti-heroine. In the spirit of demosthenes , it's a graphic novel cover (not a comic book cover, so there's no little company box in the upper right)

snap

This was a pretty good topic. I had a kernel of an idea Friday afternoon, but other things kept me from working on this; a good friend coming up from Portland for the weekend and a life-drawing class on Monday (and assorted workouts and house-doings). So, Tues and tonight, I worked on this. It isn't absolutely done, but my deadline for posting is Wednesday night. No excuses. It is, mostly done, though. I still have to color it, but I think I'll just grayscale it and repost. The creature design is courtesy of Sweet Enemy.



I will also mention that I found it interesting that nobody even mentioned my soft-core porn response to 'I Spy'. Not even a word. I mean, sure her right arm needs work, but is that any reason to ignore her? Heh.