Rylandir

One of my all-time favorite sing-along-songs. Great video!

Amazing!!

First render?! That's actually very good.

Thanks all ... now to decide on what's next.

... and I'm finally done with this piece!!!

http://rylandir.deviantart.com/art/B...rait-107024697

I'm rather pleased with how it came out -- even though I likely should've reworked a few things to make the piece more angry/villanous.

Hopefully you all will like it.

Strange .. noone has yet mentioned Neal Adams. I've always loved his Batman & Superman.

This has been very slow going (and I'm already a slow artist to begin with) between RL work, gaming, holidays, etc.

But here's the progress on this piece so far ...

http://rylandir.deviantart.com/art/B...lats-104988390

... I took some of the feedback and incorporated it. I decided to forego others (mostly because things have been such slow going that I didn't want to lose any progress).

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... Indeed it does seem like the facial features are being swallowed by the large head. The goggles seem especially small for the proportions you're establishing in the general anatomy. A bit of enlargement on those details may serve the piece.

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Agreed. I had already determined to rework the area as I progressed. As a matter of fact, I'm thinking of changing the position of the face entirely and have him looking at the arc appearing overhead rather than down and to the right (as the original reference had).

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Also, I tend to find the rough-tone costume details (the head spikes, the bicep chains, the shoulder hooks) to be inconsistent with the softer flourishy tone of the pose of the hands and the sparky flick they're performing.

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I invested more time in the pose, since that was coming from the reference material. I wanted to make sure I got that right (even worked through a grid for measurements and keeping things in scale).

Anything that diverted from the source material (costume pieces, hands, etc), was more roughly added in. I still haven't arrived at the 'clean sketch' portion of my process (which occurs before any inking is done).

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I might suggest going the rougher tone side, trying to repose the hands into something more angry, like clenched fists, and upping the wattage of the arc between the two.

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Making the overall tone more 'villainous' is what I'm interpreting from this -- and I agree. More flexing, stiffer / taut hands, stronger facial expression (even though wearing a mask), a more violent electrical arc. Not sure if I can pull it off, but that's where I'm thinking of going.

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But overall I like where you're going with it, especially how successfully you're transferring your layout from the source material.

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Thanks much!

Heh ... yeah ... a big, bad, brutish villain with a petite nose -- I think I'll rework that one a bit. Good catch!

I'm a bit slow in completing my stuff (lack of RL time to devote to it usually) -- so the final piece will probably be a few more weeks yet.

But thanks much for the compliment!

Yes -- the right hand is something I'll be reworking a bit. I agree that the position of the fingers could be .. uhm ... a bit more 'discreet'.

I've worked on other items that were not CoH/CoV related, but my latest bring me back into the CoV world with a drawing of one of my villains -- Bloodspark.

This is partly a learning experience with being able to draw/color lightning and the lighting that it will provide. It should be fun and hopefully will not too difficult to grasp.

This is the current WIP sketch:

http://rylandir.deviantart.com/art/B...ketch-98038393

Any critiques welcome.

Kudos to you Jugg!

Everything else in this thread aside -- your willingness to step in and do what you feel is the right thing to do speaks volumes to your character. :salute:

So I've finished this (not 100% pleased, but I have other sketches calling me that I want to get to).

Thanks for the previous critiques -- I actually did change the final piece a bit, based on them.

http://rylandir.deviantart.com/art/S...trait-90670567

Interesting note on this is that I used no references (other than for the chest symbol).

I'll have to go searching for Fleischer's work since now you al have made me curious.

Thanks for the comments!

Wow -- lots of info! Thank you very much for taking the time to write all of this up. I'll go through it.

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Well, first off, I've gotta say, I like the pose- very Superman- and the attention to detail is good. Quite good, in fact.

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Thanks!

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* The small of his back is too far in- shift it out a little, maybe midway (or a touch further) between the existing line and the bit of crosshatching I'm assuming is his cape? Supes is a big guy, not that skinny.

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Good point here. I'm more used to drawing the lithe yet muscular guys (Spiderman for instance). Even most of my CoH heroes get a small waist in the editor. However, I do agree that Superman is more *massive* and should be wider in girth (and I've modified the pic to reflect this). Thanks for catching that!

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* The right-hand bit of his abdominal muscles doesn't look quite right (well, left-hand side of the page, his right ). I think (maybe somebody who knows for sure can chime in?) that the abs should be ending sooner- there should be a defining line before they 'wrap' around his body like you have them.

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Yes -- I agree with this also, but I intentionally left this as is during this phase (perhaps I should've stated that I'm not finished with this piece yet). The reason why is because that defining line you refer to will be made during the coloring (I didn't want a hard line defining that side). You can see what my plan is with this if you happen to look at the original sketch.

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* His arm(s). He looks like somebody hung a small watermelon from a well-muscled shoulder (the shoulders, by the way, are excellent work, although you may want to bump his left shoulder outwards slightly/bulk it up if you follow my advice of shifting the back line out a bit). The... argh, this is where my lack of formal training in anatomy is annoying... tricep, I think? The muscle under the bicep, anyways... flattens out slightly- it's not a rounded bulge like the bicep is. Also, his elbow is... odd. Even on a heavily built guy, the elbow still sticks out a bit, and it's got a visible line- it's not just an indentation.

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Going back to the *Superman is massive* idea, I purposefully made the arms big. And, yes, you got it right -- that's the tricep. More muscle definition (as well as elbow definition) will be added during the coloring/shading/highlighting process. However, I'll likely be keeping the overall size (just a matter of preference really).

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* The "S" shield is... uhm... flat. It makes him look a bit like his chest has been pushed in a little.


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More definition will also be applied here during the shading/highlighting (look at the original sketch again for reference). I didn't want a hard/black defining line breaking the symbol.

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* The neck *might* be a trifle on the long side... looks that way, anyways.


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Just a trifle, but I also don't see Supes as a no-neck muscle-bound figure (not that this is what you were suggesting). Probably not something I'll change though.

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* I'm still trying to pin down what's bothering me about his face; I think it's just the slightest bit too small, making him look a bit alien (... er, you know what I mean). The space between his sideburn (or where it would be, anyhow) and the corner of his eye is too big, leaving a bit of 'dead space' that niggles at the brain and makes his jaw seem too long, even though it isn't. And he's got a huuuuuuuuuge forehead, thanks to the small face. Enlarge the face, but keep the bottom lip where it is.


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Agreed on the forehead. I had tried to a bit of a receding hairline, but went overboard. I've gone ahead and reduced that a bit. Doing that helped remove some of the 'vast real estate' that his face was showing, so I didn't bother to enlarge the face any.

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* A minor nitpick, but maybe fluff the back of his hair out a bit? Right now it looks painted on, it's so close to where his skull would be, roughly (I'm not sure on this one; something about that area is bothering me).

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I understand your point, but I'll mildly disagree here. I envision Supes with a crew-cut, so I did want the very close-cropped hair. It's probably due to the fact that I'm old enough to have seen the old George Reeves Superman serials

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So... once again; good pose, very nice attention to detail, just needs some cleaning up in composition.

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Very good critique! Again, thanks much for taking the time. I appreciate it.

I'm not sure if this sort of fan art is allowed here, but figured I can always have it removed if it is a problem.

Supes was the one that started it all for me when I was a little tyke. I figured I should pay him a tribute with my next art piece.

http://rylandir.deviantart.com/art/S...-Inks-89001853

Very, very, nicely done!

Thanks everyone for the welcome & comments. I apologize for the lateness in replying, but I'm away on family vacation and only having limited access to the 'net.

I hope to be introducing more drawings, although I do tend to be slow. However, CoH is an almost limitless source of inspiractions.

By way of introduction, I've been a CoH player for several years (45-month reward vet).

By way of my post count, you can see that I rarely post.

However, after a loooooooooooong hiatus, I've once again taken up my pencils, moved into the digital age, and have started getting back into the swing of things.

I feel I've progressed enough in the past couple of months, to finally introduce my first art piece into the forum without too much embarassment.

http://rylandir.deviantart.com/art/Tigre-87136999

Projectionist -- loved the look.