Manic Monday

Its been a little crazy in "professional life land" these last couple weeks. I'm letting myself off the hook (it's my blog and I can do that), so we're skipping last week and jumping head first into this week. Me and the family spent this past weekend in Desert Hot Springs and now I'm rested and ready for a fresh week of insanity.


It's Manic Monday, let's do this thing!

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The Grammys were on? I missed the memo somehow. I think I'm still catching up on all this teevee I can now record with DVR. Ah, sweet sweet cable...

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Three songs I've downloaded recently which I'm enjoying:

* "Born This Way" -Lady Gaga
This song is really good. It took a little while for me to really get into it (and by 'a while' I mean a few days), but I'm really digging it now. A couple things that stand out: I love how effortlessly and yet how scandalously she mixes sexual orientation with God. Great mix there. I also like how such a strong message (by strong here I don't necessarily mean morally commendable; I mean rather the majority of lyrics being given to 'the message') is contrasted with such a mainstream, likable beat. It's going to be played everywhere, I think Gaga formed it to be played everywhere, and that makes it as ballsy and strong its own way as "Bad Romance" was. Top shelf stuff.

* "Tightrope" -Janelle Monae ft Big Boi
Janelle Monae rocks. She rocks hard. Her first album was great stuff, and this first single from her new one is possibly even better. I'm not sure what genre fits what Monae does; it's some weird combination of R&B, pop, soul, funk and prog rock. Or something. She's also a better dancer than you and your mom.

* "Dog Days (Are Gone)" -Florence+the Machine
This song is like a lot of the folk pop that you've gotten out of the east coast the last few years, but with a lot more scope and musical and artistic ambition. I don't know but I'd guess that Bjork, Radiohead, PJ Harvey and Kate Bush are somewhere in her mix of influences. And really, any two of those should be intriguing enough to give this one a spin.

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I just realized that of the three songs that I listed up above, the Lady Gaga song is the only one without a music video, which is funny. The song is of course new, and a music video is around the corner I'm sure. It's just funny that I'm recommending videos for "Tightrope" (here) and "Dog Days Are Done" (here), but for Gaga I got nothin'.

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Have you checked out Agent of S.T.Y.L.E. lately? It's an awesome weekly post over at Newsarama by Alan Kistler and is an in-depth look at the costume choices and 'looks' of various heroes and villains over the years. It's well-written, awesome and you should love it like a child.

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Nevermind about Gaga, I got somethin'. Here's the video* for her performance of "Born This Way" at the Grammys. Did she in fact build a time machine and scalp Madonna circa 1990? Discuss amongst yourselves.
*note: The Grammys often get their musical panties in a twist about footage online. I'll try to keep an eye on the link.

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For a round of sample pages that I'm doing I thought I should go ahead and do a turnaround for the main antagonist, Cleopatra. Before that I realized I had to design something for her to wear. The turnaround will be tomorrow, but here's the costume design.




Have a good week everyone, see you back here tomorrow.

Egyptian Thursday

You had to know it was coming right? It's time for round three of Egyptian crowns! I kinda stretched this one a bit, but just a bit, to get in a couple things. One is the crown made famous by Nefertiti (she's also who's bust I used for the figure here); this crown, as far as the current range of research shows, was only ever worn by Nefertiti. I have some ideas on how to reconcile that though, and wanted to get some practice on it. The second is the hairstyle traditionally worn by Egyptian youth; it's called the sidelock. (Otherwise, as adults, many Egyptians chose to go completely bald, due to the extreme heat. That's what I'm doing for our female pharaoh as an adult) I also tossed in Hatchepsut wearing a head band, often worn beneath crowns, for cushioning I'd assume. It's an easy look without going all "Bamn! Crown!" and one that I think I'll be using. I can always incorporate different clips onto the knot.

Hope everyone's week is going well!

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The Missing (L)Ink

So last week, what with a million things and a planned trip away for the weekend, meant that some things fell through the cracks, or slid forward a bit. One such thing was my Supergirl turnaround, which was just finished yesterday, and its companion Batgirl.

I'm adding an "L" to today, and switching (temporarily) "The Missing Ink" to "The Missing Link". I'm fast-tracking my Batgirl turnaround so that I can keep those sample pages on track. Ladies and gentlemen, Batgirl!

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This is not the Batgirl you know. It's not that one, either. This is a new Batgirl, who was first introduced as such in 2009. She's been around for a little while though, first introduced as the Spoiler in the 1990's and temporarily subbing as Robin a few years back. The new Batgirl is a pretty cool character.

Her costume? Let's see...


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Um... wow. This is a really complicated costume, isn't it? You've got the traditional Bat-elements: the cowl, the cap, a utility belt, the emblem. But then, man, you've got a lot layered over and around it. There's a kevlar-type ribbing along the outside of the chest and upper legs and the inside of the arms, an extra pouch on the leg, a weird body armor upper chest thing that the cape attachs into. I just drew the thing and I can exactly picture what it should look like!

Batgirl's had some really classic looks over the years, and while this has some beginnings, it isn't one. (I do like the way the drawing turned out though) Or am I just crazy? Is this a good costume?

See you tomorrow!

Turnaround Tuesday!

(Intro if you're new: Turnarounds are a great way to get a feel for a character and to see if you can get a handle on their look and personality, even more than a pin-up. The fact that you're drawing them in three fairly static poses means that the defining elements of the character have to be displayed in small, subtle ways. And they're fun!)

This week's turnaround is of Supergirl. There's been SO many different ways of drawing Supergirl over the years. Hell, there's been so many different Supergirls period! I'm planning on doing some sample pages with Supergirl in the very near future and wanted to get as 'on model' as possible.

Here goes nothing!

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Not bad. The on-model Supergirl right now is a fairly youthful, fun character. Pretty close to her Silver Age roots. For someone that is supposed to be a teenager, I have to say this iteration of the character is far more comfortable to me than the one created previously by Michael Turner. I found that Supergirl a bit too sexualized and 'fake', in every visual definition. I don't know that a sixteen year-old should look like she has collagen and breast implants.

There's plenty of characters for whom a more adult, audacious look is fitting. Power Girl. Emma Frost. Phantom Lady. There's a lot. I don't believe that Supergirl is one of them. I'm glad DC (for right now, at least) agrees.

Manic Monday!

I am back from a wonderful weekend getaway up to LA, and I am rested, ready and... have a cold. -sigh- Let's see if we can't muster through a Monday, perhaps a little less Manic than usual.

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Los Angeles is, as the saying goes, "A nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there". I really enjoyed the museum we went to (the Los Angeles County Museum of Art) and the food was great wherever we went. That said I kept feeling like there was something... missing. I've been to my share of big, bustling cities, from NYC to Rome to Istanbul to Paris. There's something that's a little lacking in LA compared to those (or even lesser cities like Montreal, Toronto, Philly or Florence). I think it's some combination of a) the lack of public transport connecting the city and people, b) the fact that everything's so spread out and disconnected because of it and c) the relative lack of history in the city.

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That said, one of the big high points was the aforementioned LA County Museum of Art. It's a collection of buildings, rather than your standard colossal museum, which takes advantage of the near-perennial sunshine southern California. There's also a nice mix of works on display, from Ancient Egyptian mummies to Jeff Koons, and everything inbetween.

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If you're not watching "The Good Wife" on television, you should be. Just sayin'.

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Something I forgot about the LACMA: There's an amazing sculpture group out in front of the museum called "Urban Lighting". It's a collection of arranged street lamps of varying age and style. Anyone who knows me knows that "street lamps of varying age and style" is one of my favorite sentences. Really. I could pontificate about the beauty of New York City street lamps for hours (and have).

Here's a photo of "Urban Lighting". It's pur-tty.

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Most people reading this blog know that I'm pretty active on Deviant Art. There's a lot of great artists on there, and a lot of great people. I've been into a design lately for a character called Blue Jaye. I'm doing a picture of the character, just for kicks. Here's my rough/ breakdown.

Enjoy your week!

The Missing Ink (and color, too!)

The Missing Ink (get it?) is a day where I usually post some ink work that I've done, side by side with the original pencils, which are sometimes by me and sometimes by other artists. This week is going to be a little different though.

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I was approached last...fall? summer? I forget... to do a pinup for a Voltron art book. It's called Voltron: United and Drawn and it's out as of the end of January. It was a fun project to do. I loved Voltron when I was a kid. The show is roughly divided into three teams: the Lion Force, the Vehicle Force and Gladiator. I don't really remember that last one. Anyways, I decided to do a 'quiet' piece (basically one in which there's no dramatic action). It just seemed like a much more fun approach to take with the art. I chose two characters, Pidge and Chip (one of whom is on the Lion Force, the other on the Vehicle) and just had them kicking back and enjoying Voltron's celebration.

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This piece really called out for some color too, but I am no colorist. I can try and maybe stumble on something workable, but this needed to shine. Enter one of my friends from the School of Visual Arts. David Fernandez is an incredibly talented colorist, in addition to being a really good artist in general, and he was able to make some time to color it.

His coloring? Basically, it took the piece from a triple to a grand slam. It's really good. I got it back and kinda didn't believe I had drawn it. A million thanks to David!

First is the black and white version, followed by the colors. Please stop by David's blog (here) and tell him how much the colors rocked. David's also on Deviant Art (here) where he also has a ton of great work that he's done.

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