FrozenDeath

Hey guys,

My livestream will be going up in a couple hours:
10:15 EST, www.livestream.com/bwbabble

Interlude


Mogo took his fingers off the man's neck and stood up.

"He's gone. Anyone else?"

The joker looked dejectedly over the courtyard and pointed his wand towards a body on the outskirts. The other men lay on their backs on the pavement, eyes closed, mouths twisting and mumbling in horror. Every twenty seconds or so they all jerked en masse, arms and legs jerking upward, flipping like fish rocked by an unseen impact.

"I guess we were lucky. The stone guy took the brunt of it." Unlike the others, the dead brute lay in a depression of cracked concrete--actual physical evidence of his encounter with the death beast, although Mogo knew it was the fear that had stopped his heart.

"Go around and use your wand. Try to keep anyone else from slipping into cardiac arrest. I need some time. Hopefully not long but I can't release them yet."

The joker nodded and bonked the nearest man on the head with his scepter. The thug immediately started mumbling to himself.

"...huh..what...he did....what...what" With you mom? Ha ha ha ...that's cold..ha ha ha...cold one...."

The joker turned to Mogo, his pale clown face blurring, his body fading and becoming wispy like an apparition.

"Mogo I was wondering if you can put in a word for me...with the people upstairs..."
"Ray, you know they keep me in the dark just as much as you guys."
"Yeah I know, but I thought you could mention it to Fibbs."
"Sure I'll be talking to him shortly. I will."
"You know...I just think...I'd really like to move on..."
"Well then go Ray. You're not a prisoner. None of you are. Just take off, a heart will move up to take your place."
"It can't be that simple."
"I think it is. It's not about me or anyone else forgiving you. It's about you forgiving yourself."
"I just can't. I just feel like..I dunno...I guess I'm waiting for a sign that the time is
right."

Mogo smiled and put his hand on the joker's shoulder.

"I know what you mean Ray. I'll talk to Fibbs. Hopefully something will change for you soon."

He adjusted his hat and began walking towards the alley on the far side of the courtyard. The joker turned and watched him go.

"Is it in there?"
"Yeah I can feel it. Something's in there."
"What do you think it is?"
"No idea."
"What are you going to do?"
"Try to stay sane."

Nice layout

Well, only two people showed up to watch me concept a two-headed Lovecraftian hammerhead-shark-puss monster, so I guess I'll be doing more superhero related artwork this week. Suichi suggested I do redesigns of some familiar forum goers characters so I think I'll give it a shot. Tentatively thinking Massacre Melanie, Larissa Rasputin, and Feral Kitty, since I've drawn them a lot have a strong impression of their looks.

Also considering TA and Dragonberry redesigns.

Hi guys, just a reminder I'll be going live at 10:15 pm EST
www.livestream.com/bwbabble

It will probably be about sketching creatures/robots/whatever turns up.

Mogo stared up at the shape rising over him. For a moment everything seemed still, in the clarity of impending death the courtyard took on a crisp, cold quality. As if they were just beneath the surface of a frozen lake. He thumbed the card in his hand growing heavy under the weight of inevitability. He looked at the symbol on the front shaking his head slightly.

"I guess it's come down to this once again."

There was something in his head---not even a voice, just a thought that did not belong to him.

The pleasure is to play, it makes no difference what you say.

Mogo nodded and flipped the Ace of Spades face up on the ground. The symbol burst up from the ground, swallowing the magician in inky darkness before the brute's massive arm could reach its target. Then it began to spin like a top, stirring a powerful current of wind around its axis. The men in the courtyard were shifted roughly by the gale, and the ones imprisoned and restrained by the card soldier were suddenly set free, as all the cards from Mogo's deck were sucked into the expanding vortex save for the Joker who stood impassively on the sidelines unaffected by the wind.

The granite armor thug held his ground against the force, but flailed in vain against the darkness, unable to connect with anything beneath its surface and repelled from entering any further. When the final card flew was swallowed up, the motion stopped and things were still again for a second. Just a brief second when Mogo's enemies could feel their hearts pounding. Feel a tinge of fear nagging at their spirits as they gaped at the column of night.

An immense roar resonated in the courtyard, shaking glass free from the broken windows overhead. The pavement vibrated beneath their feet, then an immense scaley tongue emerged from the black, whipping around and burning with hellish green flame before being sucked back in and reapperaring inside the maw of a giant armored skull. The thing's dead dead eyes gleamed as it came forth, slashing the iron tuskes of the helmet bolted to its surface. The armor plates screamed and hissed from the friction as it rose over the terrified men.

One clawed gauntlet pounded the earth, plowing through the concrete as a second burst through the side of the nearest building, eventually finding purchase as the thing pushed and lifted itself up over the conflict, the top of its spiked form a good three stories tall. It roared again, flames pouring from its eyes, chains pounding on the surface of its demonic breast plate as the sadistic inhuman eyes turned towards the diminuitive stone figure below.

The brute threw up his hands in panic as an enormous iron claw effortlessly scooped him up, lifting high in the air before slamming him down into the pavement below. The tremor
from impact knocked the others to the ground as well before their paniced legs could carry them to safety. The stoneman screamed, large chunks of his armor breaking away as his horror would no longer permit him to control his powers. The deathbeast raised its fist
and slammed it down on him, again and again, the ground cracking and crumbling from its fury.

It slammmed the ground
It broke stone.
It broke flesh.
The eyes were burning.
It's breath was acid.

The Fist rose again, the shadow of pain in the sky, plummeting like a comet to hammer them into oblivion again.

Nothing in particular. I'm going to be discussing shape language and hopefully developing different designs from rough volumes, sillhouettes, etc.

Hi guys,

Time for another livestream tomorrow. I think I'm going to be doing some creature sketching.

Welcome back mang!

I use a trackball mouse. They never wear out, are super easy to clean, and take up very little of my crampt desk space to use. Also, if you're accustomed to using them they are better for your wrist.

Actually I did have one wear out because one of the buttons wore out, but it took years and I also think I spilled coffee on it repeatedly. They're also a bit tricky for pvp but if you're truly hardcore you can still spike on time.

Geeze I thought Foo came back and my heart went pitter-patter. wtf?

I think I still have my Intuous 3 mouse, I'll have to look for it.

Slapstick


The joker vaulted out of card with an explosion of laughter and confetti. He spun through the air and landed precariously on the edge of one of the diamond cards. As he wiggled back and forth to regain his balance, his fool's sceptre lashed forward and caught an ice blast that was flying towards Mogo, sending it ricocheting back towards the blaster and catching another man square in the chest. The thug was knocked roughly to his back and slid across the floor as the joker finally fell off his perch and landed on his head. He imediately sprang back up again and started cartwheeling towards Mogo's assailants.

He slipped on a paper bag, just in time to avoid a bolt of force projected from a thug's outstretched hand. He jumped to his feet and arched his back to stretch out a kink, right as knives whizzed by either side of his torso. He blushed, covering his mouth in embarrassment as his pants fell around his ankles. He knelt down to grab them with his free hand, as a large chunk of pavement thrown by the largest thug sailed overhead. He laughed and pranced his way towards them, waving his belled hat and club in a jaunty manner while the crazies glared at him with impotent rage and disbelief.

The joker swayed slightly, smiling as the largest attacker's dark, blocky arm swung past.
Mogo rubbed his jaw.

"Granite armor. Geeze no wonder..."

A blade wielding figure behind the joker, maybe a former Tsoo warrior, moved into position for a thrust. As the blade shot towards the fool's neck, he dipped forward. The weapon pierced empty air above as the joker's foot shot up and thrust into the man's jaw, knocking him back and off his feet. The energy blaster came in for an uppercut, which caught the joker square on his outstretched jaw. But the fool's entire body went with the motion and brought his feet in contact with the blaster's chest, knocking the wind out of him and dropping him to one knee.

As the thugs regrouped for another attack, the joker took his scepter and in a wide arcing motion...beat his own head with it. Upon impact, his whole body began to shudder and shake. As the motion reached the bells on his cap and his feet, deafening sonic vibrations began to fill the courtyard. Mogo sat on the ground and covered his ears as the ground around them began to crack and then liquify. The smaller thugs were thrown around like ragdolls, people further away clutching their ears and stumbling dizzily if they were not already incapacitated. The joker clapped his hands over his head and the vibrations stopped as he wavered there, hand over his mouth while his whole head began to turn green with simulated nausea.

"GET THAT ONE!" A man on the outskirts of the fight staggered to his feet and pointed at Mogo. "He's the one! Get him!"The Granite armor warrior turned away from the fool and looked for the magician. He was unaffected by the vibrations, pylons of earth rising up from beneath the ground and stabilizing his enormous bulk. He began wading through the bodies and remaining card soldiers, raising his huge stone fists as he made his way to squash Mogo to a pulp. The joker waved his scepter and the belled peaks on the end elongated and shot out, wrapping around the stone man's neck as the joker struggled in vain to halt his forward motion.

The figure was close now. Looming over the still huddled magician.

"Aw crap.."

BTW these pairings will be more conventional comic art. Action shots or cinematic poster style compositions.

Actually I spent the most time tweaking the face and the cowl. Then I roughed in the torso rather quickly by comparison.

I went to my local comic shop today and spotted a new book: The Marvel Art of Marko Djurdjevic. If anyone is not familiar with his work, he's really awesome. Particularly his covers. So looking over his stuff, I thought it would be good to include some multi-character pieces in my sketchbook project.

If anyone has any requests of pairings they'd like to see in the sketchbook (of the characters that were preordered), let me know. I can't guarantee I'll actually be able to any of the ones suggested, but I'll take it under consideration.

Some color:

Wow nice one!

update:

Happy BDay!

Was messing around with one of my Zbrush heads, thought it might make a decent Catwoman. Wip.

His linework is really good. Once you have this colored I think it will be a real stand out piece in your gallery.

New Arrivals


It should have ended with the spades. They were the most offense oriented suit. Often the diamonds could stop an attack purely by absorbing or deflecting all the damage--long enough for the clubs to cage the enemy and hold them for the arrest. The hearts could repair the damage the cards took in the process and extend their fighting abilities. So in a perfect world, Mogo wouldn't even need to call on the spades. But when it was necessary, they didn't mess around, and if things went poorly then some of those arrests would have to be deferred in lieu of an ambulance ride.
The queen didn't hold Mogo's bias towards preserving life and limb, but she still desired his approval, however misguided he may be. When her whip lashed out at the firearm she managed to cut through the barrel without severing the man's fingers. A slower follow up strike broke the man's right collar bone and drove him to the ground. But he remained whole and didn't suffer an amputation in the process.
She smiled at the king of spades as he spun around, a large weight on the end of a cord shooting forward like a bullet towards one of the vagrants. It bounced off the side of his head knocking him out and then, as the king retracted the line, it wrapped around a second man's leg jerking him off balance. There was a moment of relative calm as the courtyard was littered with groaning men physically pacified or contained by Mogo's deck.
Then a bolt of energy blasted through one of the cages, sending a small group of clubs spinning through the air. A new group of enemies had entered the space from a side alley. And unlike the first group, these had some super powers.

"Oh great..."

There were maybe five. They were wearing grungy castoffs like everyone else, but they were larger, more powerful. Maybe guards that had been culled from the Tsoo or the outcast. One lifted his arms and caused a rain of frigid slush that had the diamonds slipping and shifting around as they tried to move their defensive formation to the frontline. Another man set several of the cards on fire with jets of flame from his hands, while a third hulking figure blocked the ranged attacks of the spades.
They pressed forward, blasting their way through the defensive ranks of the diamonds and clubs. The hearts were hard pressed to repair the damage being inflicted on the other suits. The King made an emergency hand gesture to Mogo before being encased in a layer of ice and falling flat on to the ground. The king and queen of diamonds struggled to slow the advance of the hulking figure which seemed to grow in size as it pushed against them. The spades leapt on the fire blaster pummeling him into submission but taking heavy damage in the process, maybe 5 of them burned beyond repair as he emitted a last burst of flame around his body before losing balance. A large chunk of ice abruptly crossed Mogo's field of vision. He stepped back and knelt down behind the nearest diamond, pulling one of the remaining two cards from his hand.

"Hope you can do the trick my friend." The face on the card smiled and winked back.

Will be starting the Livestream in about 30 min.

Congratz Pyro!