Zobragas

oh my gosh - its so funny, it hurts! (oww!)

I love Wierd Al! Saw him live, back in the day - that man is pure, undiluted genious!

Donny Osmond, Seth Green, D&D, Comic Books, ooooooo so funny (so true!)

Thank you for the link! You have restored my faith in humanity!

Check out these two sites:

human-anatomy-for-artist.com

and

female-anatomy-for-artist.com

Definitely Not Safe For Work! There are some free samples, but they are subscription based sites (but the fee is small) designed for artists. Not porn poses, but a variety of body types, and poses.

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Anyone ever work on a piece for hours and not see an obvious flaw until someone else notices it?

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Sadly, all too often! I tend to go into a wonderful, yet strange "zone" when I'm creating - hours pass like minutes, I cease to "think" and just draw. Afterwards - I find I have to put it on the couch and step back and just look at it for a while to actually "see" it for the first time.

I'm trying to force myself more to break out of it every so often and come up for air - even tho it breaks the "in the zone" feeling. But I'm also trying to train myself to more easily/controllably go into the "zone" whenever I want.

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The problem with this is that TA already looks modern and realistic, so what can you do?

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my question exactly

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What you need to do, T.A. - is do some deep thinkin' about what Thor's Assassin is really all about - who he really is inside, what are his ultimate goals, why does he do what he does, how does he see himself?

Presently (except for the few secret looks underneath the armor from syrusb!) we only see him completely covered in bulky armor, with the wonder-staff of power.

Is the "Ultimate" T.A. going to be a T.A. with "better" armor and staff? or somehow with the staff integrated into the armor? Or is the "Ultimate" T.A. an evolution of the man (?) inside the armor, perhaps growing to the point of not needing it anymore?

Sure, it could just be a "newer, shinier, more gold" armor look - but is that who the man really is? Is "Thor's Assassin" a bright, shiny, gold" sort of guy?

-- (urgh -- struggling -- to suppress -- hatred of Marvel's "Ultimate" line -- can't hold back -- must use sarcasm --)

-- but if you really wanted to do the "Marvel 'Ultimate'-ization", then here's what you shoudl do:

1) make T.A. a wife-beating, self-absorbed jerk who also has super powers

2) use lots more leather, with big, fat seams running everywhere

3) take all of his principles and pervert them and twist them inside-out so that what he used to do out of courage and heroism, he now does either out of self-serving greed, or in the name of a secret, government agenda

-- augh!

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First one requires some explanation. A few days ago I was in a retro mood and decided to listen to Elton John's Goodbye Yellow Brick Road. (Mostly for Gray Seal and Funeral for a Friend/Love Lies Bleeding.) I stumbled over track (that I forgot I really liked as well) with a catchy beat and great tune, but I will let you look up the lyrics. Anyway.. some modified lyrics later and..

All the girls love TA...

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Ah man, thats just freakin' great, syrusb!

And yes, I've been listening to "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" in the car for the last two weeks, myself. Although I do, dearly love "Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding" -- "All the Young Girls Love Alice" has always been my favorite guilty pleasure. "Guilty" because I had a girlfriend named Alice in highschool (wayyyy back in the day) and she did NOT appreciate the song at all. I think the other song that I especially dig is "I've seen that movie too".

But back on track - all these lovely female Thor's Assassins are truley wonderful, thanks for sharing them!

VERY, very cool tools indeed! Thanks for posting this!

Hey Celsia & Memphis - glad you liked it.

I got a phone call early in the morning from a friend, ran down and turned on the TV, low volume so as not to wake the rest of the household - flipping channels. Then turned it off and sat in silence for an hour, not sure wheter to wake the others right then, or wait until they'd arisen of their own accord. As it went, someone else phoned and woke them.

First, thanks to ALL for your thoughts and comments.

-- strangely, I still can't find - words

Thanks Thor, Peregrine - I just wanted to do - - something.

Just an image, in memory - of innocents, and true heroes
911 - In Memory

- but CuppaJoe does know about/has seen the piece, right?

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So...I was tired of everyone drawing these uber drawings

I decided to try and draw one of my Tanks, Sinister Stone.

So... Link

Really, my first time even trying, I think its pretty good for a first try...

I know TA...I'll try...

Comments?

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Nice start, 'specially if you've really never tried drawing characters before! Keep at it, and spring for some unlined sketch paper (and don't fold yer art! It'll be priceless some day, when you're famous!)

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Who unchained you all from your desks?!?

More Art, Less Talk!

*cracks whip*



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yes mistress, right away mistress...

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Excellent! YOU get an extra helping of bread with your water today!

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"Now Saturday's come I am sorry to say
For Sunday is starvation day
Our hob-nail boots and our tin mugs too
They are not shined and they will not do"

From "The Treadmill Song" by the band Steeleye Span
the album: "Storm Force Ten"

(hope I'm not out of line for providing this! )

But there's, of course Gill Bates' at MMOART.com

and there's Guildhelper.com

and there's RPvisions.com

and there's TonyTobinArt.com

to name only four of them - but there's many, many more!

For pencils, I use Derwent "Sketching" pencils - either 4B ("Medium Wash") or rarely the 8B ("Dark Wash"). I buy then in boxes of 12 from DickBlick online:

http://www.dickblick.com/zz204/04/

Ditto to Crimson_Jimson's mention of both kneaded rubber and "Magic Rub" erasers.

For Ink - I use many, many different markers - various size "Shaprie" permanent markers, Staedler "Lumacolor", Prismacolor designer color markers, Pigma "Micron" of various sizes, others whose names escape me...

For paper, just about any brand pad labeled "Drawing" or "Sketching" - (I think the drawing is usually like 70lb weight, and sketching's lighter, maybe 50lb ?)

I either get this at an "Art" store or online from places like Dick Blick.

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Is that *glares longingly* TA?

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lol thats it!!

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I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself! I was going crazy without electricity, and this damn idea was stuck in my head. Done by candlelight, even. That mean's the idea is romatic, right? Prolly'not.

Warning: sense of humor and tongue-in-cheek suggested for viewing. Yeah....

TA 'n AoT
Red col-erase pencil, red Koh-I-Noor pen.

Anyway... this was the tame idea. The other idea went too far.

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BwaHAHAHAHAHA! - oh man, that hurts!

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Well folks, here it is September third and I missed the whole event. Thank you, Ernesto.

Let me tell you. Being without power for three days? NOT FUN. Spoiled milk is teh nasty. Sketching and reading by candelight is only novel for a few hours. No, really.

I got this done shortly before my power went out early Friday afternoon. I thought "Oh thank goodness I finished in time.. I'll probably be powerless for a few hours, tops." ........ Three days later and hopefully CuppaJo will see this.. sometime. :/

CuppaJo
Flash 5

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Wow - that's wonderful! Uber clean. Love the cup and steam! The hands! Nice work!

RE: the power-outage thing - been there, done that, "hated it!" Several weeks ago - It was like 103 degrees that weekend! We were lucky a good neighbor allowed us to run our fridge (only) on his gas-powered generator. But sleeping in a house that collects and stores the heat was murder!

Hey StrayBullet22 - hurray for Art Trades!

Unfortunely, I'm neck deep in real-life work, and with two other COH characters in progress, time's a little tight - BUT I couldn't resist taking a smidgen of time out to scribble something for you (hope this works):

Really rough sketch of Captain Alpha

Quick cleanup trace on vellum

Its still very rough, but Hey - if someone else out there wants to take this rough and run with it for a collaboration - be my guest!

Your other character "ShockRazor" looks pretty nifty, too - but as I say, my time is pretty tight right now.

If you still want to draw one for me, Stray, here's my new guy:
Zir Kohl - Natural Controller - Ice/Storm Summoning

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I'm so sorry I'm not an avid comic reader. I don't even know who created Batman. Hell, the only guys I really know are Liefeld (through this forum), Stan Lee, and McFarlane. Couple that with the fact that I've been gaming all my life and...

Lay off.

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okay - but just so you know, Jack "The King" Kirby was the first guy to draw The Hulk, The Fantastic Four (and thus characters like the Silver Surfer, Galactus, Doctor Doom, Black Bolt and the Inhumans), The X-Men, and Thor at Marvel. Over at DC comics, he created such characters as the Demon, Mister Miracle (and actually, the whole "New Gods" mythos - Darksied, Orion, Big Barda, Granny Goodness, The Forever People), OMAC (long before DC decided to radically alter the whole OMAC concept with the Infinite Crisis). Heck - it was Jack Kirby working with writer Joe Simon who created the first Captain America.

Not meaning to bash or anything! Its just, to us long-time comic-book fans, its like someone saying, "So, who're the Beatles anyway?"

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Batman was created by Bob Kane just so you know... I did think you were funny though, I came this close to doing a Kirby of Crimson Jimson after your post... lol.

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Don't Forget Bill Finger (tho he doesn't generally get credit - he did do the writing).

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Aw, I was expecting a Kirby Crimson Jimson.

Still cool stuff, though.

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Holy crap. So was I!

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No, THIS Kirby!

The Jack Kirby Museum

And yes, LadyJ, very cool piece!

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Thanks everyone for the comments on the first two. I want to give digital painting a try I just need to find some good tutorials to get me started. I'd love to use paint on Belladonna instead of the old ink and color pencil method I used on the old ones.

I almost forgot all about Champions (I still have most of the books)! From way back in 1992 before I lost my soul...err... I mean a couple of years before I was married, heres 4 of my old characters.
Vortex
Exodus
Shifter
Asylum

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See, now Vortex makes me want to create a new COH hero in a cool, shiney chrome costume! How'd you get the small, shaded, rectangle box pattern in the reddish background?

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As much as I wish I was that good, the pic of Ted was done by Crimson_Jimson. Hes the roxxor.

Dunno why you can't see the other pics. Maybe I'll up load them into my DA site if I get a chance.

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AK! Sorry! My bad.

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These were done before CoH Beta.
Ms. Liberty
Flair
Crimson Flame

These two were done around a year before the above.
Hyper Robot
Pilot Girl Lee (This is a line tracing)

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Nice, CoH_NPG, I realy dig Flair!

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Back when I use to do everything by brush and ink bottle: the 80s!

Dr. Doom & The Thing
Captain America (pencil)

(sorry for the bad pics, these were taken with a cheap camera)

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Love the Dr. Doom! And, for some reason - the Captain America makes me things of Jim Steranko (not sure why). Good stuff!

Regarding Pens - my personal "comfort zone" drawing utencil is a Derwent Sketching Pencil - either 4B or even 6B. (as I understand it, they're water-soluble, too - tho I haint tried that yet). They're big and soft, and thus smooth (meaning, less movement resistance on paper). I like big, fast, flexible lines - and often turning the thing on its side and getting big gradients.

I prefer these pencils over pens not because I erase a lot (I don't, really). (I've had many instructors who force the use of pens to break students of over-erasing - not committing to a line) Rather, its just because I like the greater fexibility of the tool - from dark, thin lines to soft, gray, gradients.

But I do use pens - many different kinds: sharpies of varying widths, Microns of varying widths, Prismacolor designer (color) pens, Staedler Permanent Lumocolor pens of varying widths, many others.

And yeah, I guess I'd have to say I "hate" ballpoint pens.

BUT! Although I prefer THe sketching pencil, I'll often force myself to use other drawing utinsils (even ones I "hate") simply because they each bring something different out of me that I wouldn't get from my "comfort zone" pencils. Some of what I get with a ball point pen is unique to that medium - it leads me in somewhat of a different path. Its still "me," - but a slightly different "me" than with a pencil. And I thinks thats a worthwhile experience.

...however, even I have limits - I aint gonna try somethin like, say, a hand-made human-bone quill dipped in pig's blood just to see what it'll "bring out" -- that path is just a little too scarey for me!

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Thanks Z! I was just looking at your illustrations on your site, I love the dynamic poses you've created, which is something I really hope to be able to do by working on more comic style pieces.

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Hey, Thanks, Innovator! I really appreciate that! Lately, I've been looking at some really fun cartooney-animated style stuff thats wonderfully elastic and with great "squash & strech" action. I'm hoping I can bring some more of that into my work.

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A Tweaky Sniper

I hope she likes it

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Great shot, Graver! The coffee mug! The little cow cream dispenser! The Sniper pose! Ha! Great!

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here's my last bit.
CuppaJo

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Very Nice! Very nice, indeed, Quake!

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Here's one from me! CuppaBanStick!

Special bonus, if you can figure out the title of this piece, I'll give you a free drawing of your choice of character!

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BAhahahahah! Very cool, The_Foo! I'm hearing theme music with this one - what's that classical peice in the Bug's Bunny cartoon (there were many, I kno) - punctuating parts:
"Ban! duhdadadadda-Ban! duhdadadadda-Ban!
duhda-Ban! duhda-Ban! Ban! Ban! Ban! Ban! Ban! Ban! Ban!"

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And the final product... CuppaJoLego!

I hope to send this out to ya, CuppaJo!

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Lego! Great idea, CuppaZekiran!

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CuppaJo's All Finished!!

Man... I'm tired lol.

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wooo! Great Googley-Moogley! Thats one heck of painting, Gill! (and now I read he's going to go and improve it!)

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Would you people _stop_ coming up with amazing, cool, uber art?

It's so hard to keep up...

CuppaJo Fan Gallery

(please PM me if I made any mistakes)

cheers,
Arctic Sun

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and I see we made the City Of Heroes Front page news, too! Thanks, Artic Sun!