Going through a bit of a dry spell..
I thrashed the last three pieces that I did because they are too horrible to show. Hours down the drain there…
This is the only halfway decent piece that I did recently… it’s also my first ensemble piece… Took hours just to render… then more hours on Photoshop… I really should get a faster comp.. 
Not completely satisfied with Superman, might redo him one day in the distant future..
Still trying to find my “style” so C&C most welcome.
Thanks!
A new piece of mine featuring the Superman and Wonder Woman. (More Wonder Woman than Superman, actually)
I’m trying to recreate the feel of old style bleached treated photography with a bit of overexposure. Another thing I was trying out on this piece was the use of white space. Hence the huge amount of white over the head of WW.
Instead of an all American Wonder Woman, I was going for one with a more sinister feel, contrasting her darkness with the overall brightness of the piece.
I’m trying for a more pastel-y tone in this piece featuring Black Canary…
Definitely not one of my more stellar work but in my defense, I did it in the name of experimentation and working out of my comfort zone… Somehow I’ve never been very comfortable working with pastels, so on the quest of finding my “style”, I decided to give it a try.
To be honest, I am slightly under-whelmed by the results, but I hope that on some level, it worked…
In the meantime, I’ll be staying off pink for a while…
Another new comic day.. Another DISAPPOINTING new comic day.
Flashpoint is turning out to be a pretty much “dud” event with too many unnecessary tie-ins. With the exception of the main book, the rest are pretty much forgettable and as far as I can see now, inconsequential. So far, all the characters are behaving as out of character as they possibly could from their counterparts in the DC regular-verse. Each new tie in brings more questions than answers… Will dwell on this for a while before I post any reviews.
In the meantime, my new work: Ninja vs Ninja starring the ever lovely Lady Bullseye with the hard luck Matt Murdock aka Daredevil…
For this piece, I was trying to recreate the feel of one of those old school fight posters with an aged feel…
Not sure if it works though…
Or how Marvel is kicking DC’s bloated ass in the cinemas when it comes to earning brownie points from fan boys’.
To be honest, out of all the summer comic book based blockbusters, Green Lantern was the one that I was most eagerly anticipating.
And what do I get? An overly loud, grossly pointless, highly forgettable and obscenely disappointing run-of-the-mill Hollywood swill.
Looking over at exhibit B… We have X-Men: First Class that I expected to Suck. I mean, come on… They destroyed all notions of conformance with the comic books by putting Havok, Banshee and Darwin(??!!!) on Xavier’s first team; they mixed and matched (what they think are) the coolest mutants to put in the show, changing the gender and race (Angel) or color and name (Azazel/Nightcrawler) when they have to; worst of all, we have a non-bald Prof X…and that is just wrong.
Yet… in spite of all that, First Class appeared to be stronger of the two films. At the very least. it was the one that I enjoyed more…
So what happened?
I put it down to one word: Simplicity…
I believe DC’s characters have the richer history (or non history) when compared to Marvel’s…
Probably because of this, they tried to dump EVERY Obscure Comic Book History Info into this one film, sowing seeds for what they hope would be taken up in the inevitable sequel (Hello Sinestro). But since it is impossible to cram 50 years of history into one two hour film, they started taking creative “liberties” and changing comic book canon. The alternative explanation is that the writers are too lazy to read through all 50 years of comic and came up with a script based on their own understanding.
In spite of all this, they seem to expect:
A) non fans to follow
B) fans to not complain that they got the history wrong
C) everyone else to not be confused to a point where they give up
Case in point… The villains.
For First Class, we have ex Nazi Kevin Bacon, I mean Sebastian Shaw leading a bunch of evil mutant to incite a nuclear war to hasten the growth of mutanity. There are side plots.. But they are simple and does not distract from the main storyline
For Green Lantern… We have *drum roll* PARALLAX that is possessed by Krona (???!!! Or is it the other way round?) and Hector Hammond. I am a Green Lantern fan and I am hard-pressed if you want me to tell you the whole history of Parallax and Krona in two hours. It is simply too complicated and you reeeeaaally have to follow canon to understand it. YET DC tried VERY unsuccessfully to do that amidst the narrative to flesh out Hal Jordan and the rest of the Corp in that same time frame. Tall order… Is it any wonder they crashed and burned?
Also, a bit of fan service doesn’t hurt either…
Even if it is to tell people to go f*ck themselves…
I finally succumbed and got myself a deviant art account…
I didn’t really mean to, Deviant Art was one of those sites that I used to scoff at… I expected lots of creepy otakus and a lot of juvenile arty farty type that are slightly too full of themselves.
BUT I was bored and decided to take a look around the site. There are some SERIOUSLY awesome artworks in there….They are among a lot of thrashy stuff.. but they are DEFINITELY there..
So I signed up, and for the first time, I debuted a piece on deviantart and not here first.
It’s a piece I called “Invisible Invulnerability” which shows Sue Storm of the Fantastic Four (or Future Foundation, whichever way you want to cut it) with her force field up. Was always fascinated by Sue Storm because she is supposed to be invisible, yet have a super strong forcefield. Trying to capture this duality in this piece with her battling with fire.
And I suppose it’s the way I feel about my presence on deviantart too.
Rest of my works can be seen here: theflamingskull.deviantart.com
So… New comic book day came and gone.. and sadly, there were no real comic books of note this time round. Both the Flashpoint and Fear Itself issues for this week did not advance the storyline of the respective tent pole events much.
I would even go so far as to say that “Flashpoint: Grodd of War” and “Flashpoint: Wonder Woman and the Furies” were kind of “meh” and spent entire issues fleshing out things, although critical to the main storyline, that can be covered in a few pages.
On the Fear Itself front, the stand out issue for this week have to be the Invincible Iron Man #505, but that’s no surprise as Matt Fraction’s creative team has been stellar for the past year or so… True, there’s nothing stand outish for this issue, but it foreshadows future events, which are kind of exciting for me… I like it when the chips for the heroes are down and things seem hopeless beyond words… That’s Invincible Iron Man #505.
One item on my pull list this week was the TPB for the Immortal Iron Fist: Escape from the Eighth City. IIF is a title that I trade wait because I just don’t find it worthwhile to buy individual issues of it. I was bowled away by the artwork. So much so that I was inspired to make this:
Yes, it’s Lady Bullseye, who is more of Daredevil’s Rogue. But I like her oriental appeal.
Was going for a paint brush-y, chinese calligraphy-y look with this piece. I have to admit, I was more than a little inspired by the art style on the Street Fighter 4 series.
Only thing is, I can’t seemed to be able to get the paint brush feel down pat yet…
It’s New Comics Day again!
Really excited about the latest installments of Flashpoint, in spite of myself…
Decided to do up a piece on The Flash….
Slightly different from what I’ve done previously…
The thing about the Flash is all about his speed… Trying very hard to capture his kinetic nature.
It’s also one of my first time experimenting with a non black background. There’s a lot more to consider with regard to the color scheme to make sure that everything “goes”…
There’s also a lot more modeling to be done then the usual works…
WARNING: Images contained in this post contain MAJOR spoilers for Flashpoint and Fear Itself!!
The last comic week saw the release of the latest issues in the Big 2′s tent-pole summer events.
Flashpoint #2 for DC – which sees Barry Allen making sense of Thomas Wayne Batman (AKA Red Eyed Casino Bats), and trying to kickstart his Flash powers by means of… ermm… electric chair suicide?
and
Fear Itself #3 for Marvel – which sees Bucky Cap and the Avengers FINALLY confronting Sin and Blitzkreig USA after THREE months of hemming, emoting and hawing…
The result of all these events?
Is it me? Or is there something oddly similar about the two images above?
And… how misleading would these pictures be?
My take:
Barry Allen – Being one of only two people aware of the “original” DC universe, it’s unlikely that DC will kill him off… Unless Booster Gold suddenly acquire Flash like super speed and becomes the surprise Protagonist of Flashpoint, Barry will probably have a “rebirth” with speed powers returned at the start of Flashpoint #3
Bucky Cap: Here’s the dootzy. We’ve seen Steve Cap getting ready to leave the command post and take his place “as a soldier in the battlefield” in Fear Itself #3. It seems the perfect opportunity for Marvel to reinstate him as the ONE Captain America in the Marvelverse after trying Bucky out for a year. It would also be just in time for the movie release of Captain America: The First Avenger. Newcomers to the Marvelverse via the movie would not be confused by a different Cap than the one featured in the movie. Also, the crossover is not called Fear BUCKY itself…
There is one small problem though… People LOVE Bucky Cap.
Ok, I LOVE Bucky Cap. Guns, metal suit with American Flag pointing towards his crotch and all… He’s conflicted and flawed, with a hazy and mysterious past that had not fully been explored yet. He’s not the perfect, blond, all-American Blue eyed Captain America that Steve Rogers was. In other words.. he is more INTERESTING.
So, if you are listening to me, Marvel… PLEASE DON’T KILL OFF BUCKY CAP!!
I’ve been raving about “Blackest Night” a fair bit on this site, so it’s not a surprise that I am a big fan. What’s not to like? Zombie meta humans smacking each other around.
I particularly like the bit where Hal Jordan’s New Guardians faced off against Black Lantern-ed version of heroes who have died and “cheated death” before. Seeing as how characters are moving through the revolving door of comic book death so fast these days, that is A LOT of Black Lantern powerhouses, including Superman, Wonder woman, Impulse, Green Arrow and one of my personal favorites – Superboy.
Conner Kent started out as a bit of a joke after the (*irony alert*) “Death of Superman” event.
What we initially know was that he was created by Project Cadmus to replace Superman. He was artificially aged to mid-teens and implanted with the necessary knowledge of someone his biological age (in regards to general studies, such as math, reading, etc). When Superboy arrived in Metropolis, he went by “Superman” and had no real name. While glibly asserting he was the original Superman, he quickly rebuked any insinuation he was the original Superman. In fact, he told anyone who’d listen that he was a clone of Superman.
This clone thing went on for quite a while in an age where “cloning” was a considerably dirty word, thanks to the whole Spider Man “Clone Saga”.
It was later on in his life that it was revealed that Conner Kent was a part of Project 13. Project Cadmus did a total of twelve failed experiments. They grafted what they could of Superman’s DNA onto human DNA and that process stabilized the extraterrestrial genes-thus Superboy was born, fifty percent Kryptonian and fifty percent human.
It got more interesting when the fifty percent human DNA was found to belong to one Lex Luthor.
This evolved Conner Kent into an interesting figurehead for storylines about “Nature vs Nurture” dichotomy.
Anyway, I was quite disappointed that Conner didn’t get to lay the smackdown on anyone in the Rainbow Brigade. So here’s my latest render – Black Lantern Superboy!
My latest model – Matt Murdock aka Daredevil.
Surprisingly, I had less trouble with the full body modeling of Daredevil than I had with Green Lantern.
A portrait. The hardest part for this is definitely his eyes. Daredevil is supposed to be blind and his mask covers his eyes. How do you make a model emote without eyes?
And finally… an action shot…. Felt the previous modeling’s were pretty “static”, so decided to try an action shot. Not sure if this translated well into pictures.
Ok. Fine, I am not really such a big fan of grotesque re-presentations of Norse legends.
But I thought I should give Marvel a chance after my uncharacteristic raving at the trailer for the Green Lantern movie.
One of my favorite ongoing comics for the moment has got to be the Walking Dead.
Besides being a comic about Zombies (and EVERYBODY loves zombies, right?), it’s a comic with a lot of heart and plot twists that knee you in the balls till it blows out your brains. I had been hooked on the series since I first saw the tagline (if you can still call this a line)
“How many hours are in a day
when you don’t spend
half of them watching television?
When is the last time
any of us
REALLY
worked to get something that we wanted?
How long has it been
since any of us really
NEEDED
something that we WANTED?
The world we knew is gone.
The world of commerce and frivolous necessity has been
replaced by a world of survival and responsibility.
An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has swept
the globe causing the dead to rise and feed on the living.
In a matter of months society has crumbled,
no government,
no grocery stores,
no mail delivery,
no cable TV.
In a world ruled by the dead,
we are forced to finally start living.”
Which self respecting arts student would not love a pseudo intellectual prose like that??
Seriously, Robert Kirkman (creator/writer/Overlord Supreme) of the series ensured that the Zombies are the least frightening thing in the entire series. To me, it’s a study of the human condition – how disgustingly degenerate and how surprisingly noble when we are forced to our extremes.
So now, on Halloween (days of all days), they are launching the Walking Dead TV Series!!
The arts student in me is inclined to point out the irony of how they fly in the face of line one of the tagline (“How many hours are in a day when you don’t spend half of them watching television?), and I probably would have if they put some two bit director/writer into the project.
I am still skeptical about how well they can translate the comic I love onto the small screen, but putting Frank Darabont (Green Mile and Shawshank Redemption, two awesome character drama) at the helms seems like a pretty damn fine start.
Plus, the trailer looks so darn cool!
I might be jumping my guns but if Darabont can match Kirkman’s flair for characterizing the ragtag band of survivors, putting them through the rollercoaster extremes of hope and hopelessness, this just MIGHT be THE TV series of 2010 and beyond.
Most.Awesome.Halloween.Treat!
We’ve known for some time now that DC will be following up on the year long “Blackest Night” Saga with another year long Saga entitled “Brightest Day”.
This would be a reference to the Green Lantern Oath of “In Brightest Day, In Darkest Night…”
The funny thing is that now, Marvel are announcing their next big event after Dark Reign. It’s entitled “The Heroic Age”
Hmmm… Just some food for thought, but…
BLACKEST Night – DARK Reign
BRIGHTEST Day – HEROIC Age
Is it me, or does someone else see a strange similarity here?
Smallville used to be a guilty pleasure of mine.
The plotlines were incredibly contrived, the lines – painfully cheesy, the acting – decidedly atrocious and the CGI… not exactly top notch.
But if anything, Smallville had one great thing going for it… Lana Lang. Haha, I kid. The show was rife with awesome fan references to obscure characters and storylines from the DCU – some of which actually involves Lana Lang!
I was lulled back to the show by the much advertised Geoff Johns (lead creator of Blackest Night) penned episode of Smallville which will feature *gasp* The Justice Society!
The Justice Society is a big thing on my comics shopping list, especially the Geoff Johns penned ones. The JSA is different from most superhero teams. With the motto of “The world need better good guys”, the JSA went about “collecting” the heirs of superheroes past and go through the 101 of “How to be a Superhero” with them…. Kinda like the X-Men, but cooler. You cannot go wrong with a bunch of old fogies like Wild Cat, Green Lantern (Alan Scott) and the Flash (Jay Gerrick) leading the team.
Because of its premise, the recent roster of the JSA has more than 20 members (or about 1% when compared to the cast of the X-Men) , but Geoff managed to create a personal touch for each of them. He made me care about B-Listers like (these are real superhero code names) the Atom Smasher, Power Girl, Mr Terrific, Citizen Steel, Sandy, etc…. but more importantly, he made it seemed like they care for each other too. There’s a warm and fuzzy feeling I get when reading them.
The original creators of Smallville had a strict “No Tights No Flights” policy. Think it worked in favor of the series as it kept a measure of suspense to the series. It explored possible “influences” that made Clark Kent Superman and hints at the possible future of Clark. There was an aura of suspense in the show… much like the “is it there/is it not” relationship of Agent Mulder and Scully in the X Files.
Besides this, there was another huge factor that made this code works – Tights just look ridiculous on normal human beings… eeeesh…
Anyway, a lot has apparently happened since Kristin Kreuk left the series. Besides using star writers like Geoff Johns to continue to lull fanboys in, the creators of Smallville had been using lots of guest stars and super heroes appearances to boost ratings.
They were apparently so desperate, they recently resorted to the use of… The Wonder Twins…. ooooooh….
Back to this episode of Clark Kent…. to summarize it in 2 words – IT SUCKS!
It seems even Geoff Johns cannot make comic book dialogue work in real life. Some decidedly witty one liners just does not come across right… Perhaps it’s the comic book to video conversion, or maybe… just maybe, the producers should channel their funding to acting classes for the cast. The plot for the episode was ok, but the acting made the show a pain to watch.
Actual lines from the show include such gems as:
Jo’hn Jonzz (aka: Martian Manhunter): I hope it’s not too late to say, “We come in peace.”
Green Arrow: Drop the mace, Conan.
Hawkman: I will… on your head.
Green Arrow: Bring it, big bird. Just for the record, you started it.
Hawkman: I’ll finish it
Oliver: What are you–my chaperone?
Hawkman: Think of me as your parole officer but with a mace.
Green Arrow: I’m thinking we should regroup with the others before we go after Icicle Junior.
Hawkman: You go back to Sherwood, Robin Hood. I’ll turn the Icicle into slush myself.
TOTAL Schumacher’s “Batman and Robin” Deja vu.
Hmm… maybe I shouldn’t be that hard on the actors… It seems impossible to deliver lines like these with a straight face… unless you’re Kristin.
