airhead

That's another great piece. The two sketches are pretty sharp too.

That's a beautiful piece of work! I really like the way you preserved the pencil shading, it creates a lovely texture on the red cloth (and gives me hope that there's a way to colour a recent pencil art I got without losing all the lovely detail).

When I first saw this, a million thoughts went through my head. But it's not a Bayani-Thor'sAssassin cloning disaster, it's Burnme!

Thanks Bayani, Juggertha and Dark Ether!

I just got another commission sketch, the long awaited Sanchez bust! But... I then got it coloured, so removed the pencil version that was here

Probably need to get her a scratching post. Nice picture though!

Woah, more like "smithereens" in that last one. Fantastic colours in the nuke picture. And I really like the spark willies. Comrade Hero's expression is rather nonplussed, makes me wonder if somehow the explosion was not a bad thing.

Yeah, I know, "spark willies" is right up there with "bits and pieces".

Okay, I'll bite. This is a minimal effort, but the focus is on 'minimal effort' and not on 'minimal'. Been a long day.

Ahh, the pop-up box on dA that insists on cataloguing the type of image finally works again, so I was able to upload my Daggerpoint commission!



This is about as high-end as Airhead will ever go. But it was worth it for such an important moment in his life. His Dances with Jellyfish moment. While tied up. Really important.

You might recognize the pose, but if not, you can always visit dA (click pic) for more clues. I am really happy with this. It was another slow commission, as the artist managed to mangle himself, but he got better. Now I'll have to try even harder to find a place around here that can print these out correctly.

Woah, it was going to be hard to improve those amazing lines with colour, but it works. I like the Caemgen one best. The colours let the ink shine through.

CSI would have used image enhancement on the Fenian picture to identify the perp from blood-borne DNA. Then there'd be a slow-mo oversaturated sequence showing us exactly how the blood got from his mouth to her shoulder after he suggested splitting the bill.

Nice picture! The artist has a great style too.

So, the hero's a speedster?

*runs* *hides*

After quite some time of nothing but Airhead after Airhead, here at last are some other characters from his world. Drawn by the incredible WakaBee, I will ultimately use these to decorate web pages describing a little bit about each of them.



For now, I'll just list their origins in alphabetical country order (not the order pictured above). You can probably guess most of them: Airhead the Unique, Mr. Knave the American, Sergius the Belarussian, Mya the Burmese, Nasser the Egyptian, and Iab the Lao.

As soon as dA starts working again I'll post another commission that came at the same time as this. Teaser at left!

That villain is way cool! And way under-armed.

Awesome composition, and beautifully lit. Great lines on both characters too.

Thanks Wassy! Isn't he so cuuuuuuuute! I spent the whole day at work knowing the picture was finished, but not being able to access it. But definitely worth the wait. This is Airhead's "chapter 1", capturing the moment he got inspired to be who be the man he is today.

I highly recommend commissioning Wassy! This consummate professional artist sent me a collection of sketch poses (this one was the one I hadn't thought of, but was better than the ones I did) and then I got to make a whole lot of whimsical changes along the way. Wassy even withstood a barrage of reference images of all kinds of stuff, and still finished in just a weekend!

Thanks Wassy for bearing with me. So cuuuuuuuute! Now I can think about colouring him.

CR, I think minimizing requires that you suck at art. Because you haven't, since you don't.

Perhaps try drawing the character like this... you get ten points. Each colour costs a point. Each straight line, half a point. Each simple curve, rectangle, triangle, circle or trapezoid, 1 point. A gradient, one point. If you run out of points, start again.

Although you have created some truly beautiful and iconic images (especially the blue-white face), that will among the few to have any use beyond this mad thread.

My turn to run to Wikipedia.

These pink Kirby things have been around since 1992? I'd never heard of them. Is that odd? I did know about the comic artist though.

CR, your Manticore is definitely clearer than mine, having the mask. Perhaps a darker background would allow the outline element to be removed?

Strange, I was thinking something similar with horns, after seeing Scooter2's Lilith. I had no idea you could colour the tips differently. of Lilith's horns look somehow related to the mouth. Taking that to extreme:



Kinda creepy. Kinda pac man. I probably should have left this one alone.

Pac Man!

Cool, thanks Suichiro. I'll keep the tie-pin. Watch out for it in cereal boxes! And I think slightly straighter ribs would be a good touch. The waist you have already fits with the character's art.

Here's three retreads. Minimized too far?

Bubbawheat, here's some opinion on all of the minimals so far, but remember that I have less artistic credentials than you, so just opinions. Every opinion is valid, since it's about the maximum people recognizing a hero from the minimum number of graphic elements. A perfect "minnie" might still not be much good for anything other than "oh, that's X"... Opinions about minnies other than Bubba's are in grey, since they weren't asked for, and can be ignored.

• Suichiro's first nine: brilliant. Those subjects are good choices for minnies. If anything, perhaps LJ's black area could have a three-way symmetry (less complex). I wasn't familiar with Suichi before now.

• Bubbawheat's Matchstick - If you remove the neck (lower the head) and remove curves at the deltoids I would still know who it was. But those are trivial reductions, it is very close. Your character was designed for minimization from the beginning.
  
• Thornster - I mentioned before, I like the hornstache (tm). Hornstache! With an "H". Doh.
• Lounge Crooner! - I didn't get it at first, but I should have, this is brilliant. Perhaps the clothes don't need black outlines (but that's not related to my cluelessness).
• VexXxa - I apologise, I did not get this. The "belt" makes the cleavage look like butt cheeks, which would put those spikes on her back. I should have figured it out from just the magenta and the spikes, but Shuler's latest VexXxa picture had me forgetting the magenta.
• Fenian - I got this with green/orange and the clover (club). Either clover or lips would suffice for minimal, but they're all symbolic of her.
• Caemgen - it's all in the horn. Goatee is good too. Not sure about the thing above the goatee. Doesn't need the streak on the right (which makes him look chubby somehow).
• Alpha - The eye and the earpiece are iconic. To minimize, perhaps the white space could also be blue. The earpiece could be curved where it contacts the head to create a negative-space head (thanks Suichiro for giving me words). Might work, might not.
  
• Flashrains - I really like that you incorporated an eye in the chest detail.
  You do have a lot of detail (cloth/cape), but it's as subtle as a gradient texture. Makes a great minnie.
• U-naught - iconic, heraldic. Makes a great logo. Not minimal yet. From the costume, I see dark grey top, white bottom, jagged element between. Or perhaps her essence is in her binary face / pale hair, and the costume varies. I had a similar problem with Airhead, and chose to minimize costume, ignoring his unusual face.
• Airhead - Caemgen hinted at it. Stop with the merchandizing already.
• Sureshot - Dark Ether's advice was good, and the second version even better!
• Shiedara - looks good. Perhaps still works without the white stripe at the bottom.
• Savannah Nightwolf - I'm not sure if I've seen this hero. Anyone got a link?
• Comrade Hero - 90% minimum, before Suichiro removed the top part.
• AmeriKatt - This really worked for me. I don't know the character well, but with this minnie, I feel I know more (and I was intrigued enough to go look). The outline of the tail seems necessary to give depth.
• Tanks - Perhaps remove the head, remove as many squares of tartan as possible but still have it be tartan. I considered doing this one, but then yours appeared and is already so close to what I would have done.
  
• Suichiro's next four - Wow. Gradient = detail, but you use it very judiciously. You're definitely the master.
• Positron - Multiple gradients, outlines, duplicate details. I think this can be minimized further.
• Manticore - Seems busy. Perhaps focus on his unique hair, or lots of redness (no white background). Or something to do with his bow. Might work, might not.
• Sister Psyche - top half or bottom half of the image would suffice.
• Pink-person - Sorry I don't know who this is. Everyone else does, so I know it's just me
• Swan - Hah! Inconceivable. Although it could be the Michelin Man.
• Citadel - there seems like a lot of detail. But I still wouldn't change a thing. It is my favorite.
• Synapse - as a logo, perhaps doesn't need the pinched waist (neck?). If you removed the logo, would there be a way to capture the essence of Synapse? I cannot think of anything at all. This might be as far as he can go.
• Statesman - it was this, or the ridiculous mask. You made a good choice.
• Brawler - I liked the first version, just needs the lines to be cleaner/more geometric. The second version makes a good icon.
  
• Kilotonnage - brilliant again. So much, with so little.
• Sapphic Neko - Perhaps could be more hourglass. The pinched waist looked like a neck, I was trying to figure who has black hair in a 50's style. Otherwise, perfect.
• Invincibelle - I don't know this character yet.
• Suichiro's burnt matchstick - a technical success!
• Vivace - nice! Particularly how the cut-aways are V-shaped too.

Thanks CR and Suichiro for the kind words!

On Suichiro's last four - I really like Comrade Hero, VexXxa and Fenian. For the last one I prefer Bubba's. I think there can be a little more resemblance to an actual burnt matchstick for instant awareness.

I think Thornster has an iconic character, but it's interesting to see how hard it is to find the essence. The horns-and-moustache version by Thornster got it for me.

That's some nice colors and shading! Wish I could learn that fast. Great lines by Twizded too.

It is a lot harder than it looks. I minimized until I went too far, then went back a step. It still seems over-complicated. Perhaps it's better for someone independent of the hero to find his minimum definition.