airhead

Nice drawings, congratulations.

I think the bas relief filter you've used works well sometimes, and it's worth experimenting like this to learn what is possible. For example with Hero Dawn, the straps look nicely 3D, although the red parts remain too flat in contrast. Perhaps consider the relief as a texture, and add another layer of light-source-based shading.

Looking good so far!

There's something very disturbing about a panda massacre. And the archer-guy lining up his stunned other self with a freakin' harpoon!

Airhead's hair bug is real, he looks fine in the costume editor but it changes when he exits the editor. For completeness, here is Airhead's evil counterpart.

I didn't just number them from the top, honest:
1) LD
2) Shia
3) Juggertha
I guess I prefer to savour my sins one at a time. Although I am also guilty of the sin of omission, as they are all good pieces this month!

Airhead's battle with Airhead was more exciting than you can possibly imagine:

I love this one. Hope she might find her way into glossy black-and-red as well.

How do you find all these artists? These pictures are amazing.

(and if you see Airhead get one later he wasn't copying, of course not)

This is a great idea!



Wait, no it's not.

Apologies to TA and Omi and Bert

I can't seem to get those nice mid-sized pictures off DeviantArt any more. Argh! So here instead is a hopelessly small thumbnail link to the dA image. This is my Nema art coloured by Michael Wiggam. Michael has been colourist on Star Wars comics for Dark Horse. See more in the comments section of his dA page (link to this thumbnail then to his artist icon for heretic-0).



There's a whole lot of things Michael fixed with my flats, not least being most of my colour choices. I really like the way the sleeve stripes fade under direct light to bring out the sleeve structure, and the bomb looks more like a bomb, with the viewer's focus drawn to the detail (beats my lurid orange). Lots of interest in the face too. Some material textures are only visible on the 43MB full-size (not uploaded...) Michael was also extremely nice to work with.

That was fun, nice work!

Wow, that's amazing! As DarkEther said, it looks like a huge amount of work. And you pulled it off!

Initially, I was surprised that Meow's mum would be so uncaring, when she had purple skin herself - but that changes, so probably just the lighting.

The image editing that leaves backgrounds looking inky and faces looking smooth is a really good way to create a unique feel to the art. It also makes the screenshots work - without editing, screenshots can be dominated by the panel borders and speech bubbles and look washed out. I like it.

Perhaps you can get screenshots (or have a friend with a powerful computer) using Ultra mode just for the cover art.

The ending was unusual. I'm glad someone found what she wanted... even if something almost as good wound up with Dr. V. Seems like a very believable way to upgrade from bad guy to nemesis! But it might have me barracking for the baddie...

Do the MA arcs mentioned tie into this issue?

Again, lovely work!

Thanks DarkEther, I was lucky indeed. So lucky, in fact, that I just received another Airhead in my email from LJ! My dA Airhead widget was maxxed out, so I created another widget below it for gift art. I'm not sure if I'll need to change the title of it though. This has Airhead taking advantage of his deep-set eyes to look smouldery:



This one has some intriguing shading, up real close it looks like it was done by Wolverine on a billboard...

Thanks LJ!

Artist's logo is backwards on the 2nd and third image

These are nice! I think they're some of the artist's nicest too, along with the Terratonic. Gonna say I like Alpha best again, but Caemgen will be my favorite when his horns are sorted. He has a mad meaty quality.

Ooh, did you see him, pulling him in like that? "Next batch".. save a line for me!

Lineart. Of course I meant lineart.

These are awesome pictures though (as I mentioned on dA).

Best. Hair. Evar.

Thanks LJ! I breathe again, knowing Airhead was in great hands.

Airhead does end up taking on all kinds of Day Jobs, and he's hanging out in Pocket D these days, which is where this was probably taken. I just realized what he's thinking too - the photographer said, "Watch the birdie!", and Airhead blushed. Which is why he's looking healthier here than his usual greyish skin

Airhead has never won a costume contest in CoH. But if I could just convince the developers to put that hair into the game... and only for me...

...

The fabric shading is awesome, on both the vest and the sleeves! I like how you've not mirrored the stripes on the sleeves, another thing to make him unique. And I just spotted his "wide leather with eyelets" belt, that I use in-game to give the vest a flat bottom edge. Very slick!

I think this is a great idea. The bar could be set at 100 5-star votes (ignoring all other types of votes) which is not the same as 100-and-5-star-average. Having a hundred people love your arc as much as possible seems Hall-of-Fame-worthy, and counting only 5-star votes eliminates griefing. Sure, it also rewards good marketing / campaigning, but that's already a big factor in getting so many plays.

As I understand it, the HoF status is calculated on the fly, so if the devs later find the bar is too low, they can just set it higher again.

None of my arcs qualify for 100 5-star votes, I simply am not making enough effort (in terms of content AND marketing) to deserve it yet. But I do plan to try harder, once I know it's worth xp to play them. I might then find 100 players, but probably not 100 5-stars. Others are more worthy.

I don't think there's any way to adjust for the heady days of April 2009. You could start counting 5-stars from today, but it wouldn't be fair to expect people to play arcs again.

I so need to be here. It would also be a great place to display my more artsy character pieces, Airhead's life outside of City of Heroes.

But... the dollar-and-graffiti stamp. I... won't admit my problem is that bad. My mother has the link for my dA page. I don't want to name my addiction for what it really is.

Since the first step to curing an addiction is admitting the addiction, and I won't, I guess I'll be guilty of art-solicitation for the foreseeable future. But at least I've got this group on my watch list now

(Still in breathless anticipation of LJ...)

Larissa, I honestly did not know why Airhead chose to use a fork when I requested this pose. I suggested a couple of implements, Nema wisely chose the fork. As Caemgen suggests, you use what is at hand. So this must take place in a (rapidly evacuating) restaurant. Makes sense so far. But Thornster made me think... oh. He's eating the bomb? Which will probably lead to Comrade Hero's prediction. Bye bye terrorist.

I did some flats (with a spaghetti-coloured wire), which make Airhead and the bomb stand out (the terrorist is just furniture, heh) but overall, the scene was the colour of... puke.

So I pursued a professional to do the colours.

Glad you enjoyed the cover, Comrade Hero!

Sounds intriguing, Lady Judgement. I look forward to the result! And I now have some flatting of my own to do, courtesy of...

Nema! For all of his fans out there, and the infinitely smaller Airhead fandom, here is a beautiful piece of Carlos' pencil art. Airhead is fighting crime again in his own peculiar way (click on image to see bigger version at DeviantArt):



I have no idea yet about getting it coloured.

These are awesome! Must go find the other ones...

Mmm... Sanchez busts... *gets infected*

Looking great in colour too! I particularly like what Eddy did with Alpha.

Hi Bayani, a double sounds like a great idea! Airhead definitely needs to socialise more.

Hi Lady Judgement, feel free to use Airhead as your model! Here's a quick list of things that have been left out of Airhead pictures before (most are caught early). They are little things, but they help to keep Airhead from looking like just another office worker in a vest.
[list redacted, now on attached image]



Nobody gets all of this to match, and there are good reasons for breaking the rules in a particular artist's style or scene. But apply many of these, and you should end up with Airhead. Good luck drawing him! Please don't spend money on him alone though, I can afford to do that Which reminds me, I need to come up with a competition...

Thanks Caemgen. I agree, the first stands out. Personality for sure, but also it's the only dynamic one.

So I went in pursuit of another dynamic pose. Not exactly... this next one was my very first commission, just arrived! I worried a little bit about that over the months, but the artist did let me know he was still alive, and I kept myself amused with other pictures. In the end, I am thrilled with the result:



The makeshift bungee cord might not hold (if the paper is not already on fire) but fear not, for Airhead's powers will ensure they're rubbery when they hit the ground. The kid will live, and he'll have an awesome body bruise to show the kids at school. The style is loose, and I like that. If anything, Airhead's hair could be curlier, but I can put that down to the headwind. Jet Amago is getting his commissions under control now, and I'd commission him again if I had another concept.

The second piece is a painter-ly one, but also dynamic. Lines are by Rhardo, colours are by Lanceville:



The pose is exactly what I requested, which was difficult as I had no reference image. It felt like it might be a skater's jump pose, but I couldn't find an example. Rhardo did a great job of that in the end. The face is craggy, but that fits Airhead's ancestry. Lanceville's painting is very good. But I swapped out the background (and lightened the image to match) due to motion blur being up instead of down.

You have lots of great art of late. The NeMa one in particular is awesome, I had to fave that. There is something gripping about pure comic-style art.

I'm glad you found he doesn't mind discussing the progress, I've been worried whether my ongoing discussion might be getting too picky.