Scratches by Johnnykat

Hey all!

Well, I tried to make sure and pause long enough to snap a few shots off while I was developing my FArt submission for this month!

I have a pretty elaborate story line for my submission too, but it will only be posted in its entirety once I post the finished piece. Needless to say, when someone commented about a Praetorian version of Lord Recluse on the boards the other day, I about fell out of my chair since that is the subject I had been working on for over a month lol.

I hope these aren't too large for posting, but here it goes:

Hey again lol

Here is the finished version along with the full description:



Full-size version can be seen on dA here:
http://johnnykat.deviantart.com/art/...luse-172495358


“Liberator Recluse”

…and the Web of Resistance

This is my take on a Praetorian version of Lord Recluse.

Scene 1 – Discovery:
The story begins similar to our own dimension’s version of LR. The young Stefan Ricter sets out along with his friend Marcus Cole to find the Well of the Furies. Once discovered, the two men enter the temple to drink from the fountain of Zeus. This is where this story of these two men takes a dramatic twist from our own. Here, Marcus drinks from the fountain first and instantaneously a volley of lightning strikes blow through the roof of the temple striking Marcus!

Scene 2 – A Friend is Lost:
The successive strikes blast Stefan a considerable distant from the temple. Stefan is knocked unconscious and is retrieved by his expedition party. Stefan returns home believing Marcus dead and the fountain destroyed.

Scene 3 – Blast from the Past:
Stefan, after 10 years, has fully recovered from his injuries. He still wears his stylized arachnid mobility harness as a symbol of his genius and strength to his recently “acquired” Arachnos organization. In addition to Stefan’s new role as leader of Arachnos, he has taken on the alias of Recluse. It is as this time Recluse learns that Marcus was not killed those 10 years ago and in fact he did more then survive, he acquired superhuman abilities and is now being called a “hero!” Blind with rage; Recluse vows to return to the temple and unlock the mysteries that previously eluded him.

Scene 4 – Outside the Box:
Recluse rediscovers the now destroyed temple. His emotions run wild with the idea of Cole not dead and why Cole betrayed him by not coming to him directly after gaining his new abilities. It was Recluse after all who helped Cole – how dare Cole not share what was rightfully belonging to him as well! The fountain is dry and nothing is left but ruins. Recluse begins to take samples in hopes of unlocking something in the biology of the surrounding wildlife. While preparing to leave, he discovers a metal box half buried a short distance away from the temple. Recluse immediately realizes this box must be the fabled Pandora’s box!

Scene 5 – Metamorphous:
Years past and Recluse has slowly been secretly growing his organization while Cole has essentially taken over the world! Emperor Cole, as he is now called, did save the world but it has cost humanity a terrible price. Recluse has unlocked some of the secrets of the Well of the Furies over the years and has been able to maintain his youth with a serum created from the samples he took. His hatred of Cole has not dwindled and in fact it has focused into a singular vision of becoming the man that will overthrow Cole – the once savior and now Tyrant of mankind. Recluse has used his extended lifespan wisely and has created what he believes to be his most perfected formula yet, a serum that should be nearly identical to the magical waters of the fountain of Zeus! Not only does Recluse feel the time is right to take his new serum, he decides he cannot wait any longer and must also open Pandora’s box!

Scene 6 – Web of Resistance
Recluse is unsure if his serum was what changed him or opening Pandora’s box – maybe both! What he does know is that once he opened the box, Cole was no longer the only “super” on the planet. In addition to Recluse fully unlocking his own powers, all over the world hundreds of thousands of new super humans began to surface. In panic, Cole gathered those he felt were most powerful to join with him in maintaining his tyrannical rule. Recluse, continued to recruit all those super (or not) willing to resist the control of Cole. What was once an underground criminal organization, Arachnos, is now a global resistance force! And, who was once known only as Recluse, is now the symbol of resistance and is referred to by the masses as Liberator Recluse!

The intricate details are amazing, JKat!!!!

The art on here looks amazing but alas I am currently stuck just seeing on my iPhone - can't wait to get home and see at a decent size...


One thing I worry about for all entrants this month is the retcon thing... It's hard to show that through art alone... Specially one picture alone. I like how you went with (almost) panels to try to show the story.

No artwork to show at the moment, but I had some thoughts I wanted to share in light of events over the last few months...

*TLDR ADVISORY*

There seems to be a one-way trend happening as of late in terms of giving artistic criticism, but not wanting to receive it or not liking when others here or on dA challenge the criticism to be given. It's an unfortunate turn of events when we have so many artists and appreciators of the arts who all share a mutual interest in CoH to be butting heads as much as we seem to do. Sure, some might enjoy butting heads, but it seems to be leading to some pretty negative results.

A little backstory...

I'm not one to be passive-aggressive about situations, so I do find myself being direct and blunt at times in hopes of finding a resolution quickly. With that said, speaking for myself there was a lot of positive energy when a core group of players attempted to start an all art-forum inclusive sg/vg group on Virtue. For the most part, it still has its active evenings and active players use the 606 channel nightly which is pretty cool! What started to concern me though is that some players began to express frustration about how other players played their toons. That's understandable and normal I guess - heck, I even joked along with it, but ultimately I have always stayed the path of any of the art-forum peeps that want to play should have an equal chance to play when events like "in the mood" or anything other art-forum sg/vg player wants to run a group event. Of course, ideally, if there is an established weekly event and another player wanted to run one too, then hopefully they tried to not pick conflicting nights or (inadvertently or not) stole the thunder/control from an existing event - made sense at the time (since the idea is all about inclusion for all).

Now fast forward ...

Situations developed where lines got marked in the sand. If some of us didn't exclude others to play, then this other player/group chose to leave. Hey, that's a perfectly cool choice, if a player/group is not happy with another player/group then just backing out makes sense. However, I for one took some blame as if it was my fault because I chose to keep it all inclusive and not turn it into an exclusive/invite only kind of thing. That isn't really fair, but I have to accept it obviously. This is where it seemed to start to really affect some game play and now has flowed over into the art boards. This is really unfortunate.

Ultimately, this is where I personally feel some negative reactions originated. It had very little to do with an image I created, but the image was imo a good excuse to use to fully severe connections. What I still just don't get is the eagerness to want to start a group, then want to exclude others, then blame or accuse me (or anyone else) of not wanting to play with ALL of the art people. I would of really appreciated the opportunity to reply directly to comments made directly to me, but unfortunately I've been personally blocked via global and apparently the frustration is so high I've been blocked via dA boards too! Again, blows my mind - specifically that I would be blocked from artist commentary! LOL Especially since I am nearly 100% sure I have never made one negative original comment on people's submitted artwork - by the artist or collector. I may have defended my comments that had negative undertones, but my original comments were always positive (that is my point).

A part of me feels like a person/group out there is expecting an apology from me and I have been told to look in the mirror about being a hypocrite, etc. Really?!? Hey, that's fine and I accept responsibility for whatever actions I took that may have led to hurt feelings. But an apology - NO WAY! LMAO I support all the gamers here that enjoy the game, enjoy the art boards and enjoy getting feedback here and on dA. I support having a fun-lighthearted SG/VG art group that is for EVERYONE to be included as was the original intent.

So with that all said, if a person/group still has issues and wants to have an exclusive thing going - hey, that's cool! But, going at lengths to severe all connections without friendly dialogue, block all communication, or one-way commentary/criticism without accepting replies/comments back does suck and it seems to have negatively affected others not even involved.

I am hoping this generates some reflection and possible consideration of future interactions in-game, on the boards and dA. Reflections that lead to more positive, constructive interaction and who knows possible reconsiderations of old misunderstandings for the opportunity of a more enjoyable shared experience.

On a side note though, if you happened to ban me from artistic commentary on dA, especially when we all happen to be a part of the City of Heroes group, I went ahead and blocked you back (just an FYI). Obviously, since original rounds of blocking was on your end, I will be more then happy to open my doors back up too. I am reachable by all here on the boards and in game, so it won't be impossible to start up some dialogue.

Anyways, like I said...this was a very tldr post but it was written with a clear message (I hope) and I do hope some of the hate that has been spreading around here can fade. Also, this post is a reflection piece - please feel free to comment, but I don't think there is no need to dissect it point-by-point. If you really feel the need take this and take parts out of context, it may just be better to PM me about - thanks!

Have a great holiday weekend all you crazy art people!

Hey all! Wowsers, it's the middle of February already!

So yeah, been super busy and I had every intention of this post being about open for commissions and freebies, but not quite yet!

Still wrapping up a few pieces that were requested towards the end of last year - so thank you for your patience! * ahem, you know who you are *

And holy statesman, there is so much going on with the game right now - go figure that it happens now when I'm either buried under art or snow drifts. lol

Anyways, I'm still around (which reminds me that VexXxa's Friday night's "In the Mood" is about to start soon...d'oh, which also reminds me I haven't posted to her thread either in awhile. )

Even though I haven't posted lately, it looks like some new artists have popped up which is cool and I hope to see more of their work and also see them run with us on Vex's Friday night thing soon!

Alright then, see you all in game later!

Finally! Something new to show...a few things in fact.

So, here are a few preview close-ups from the first page of a 2-page commission for Caemgen. My working title for this project is called "Encounter in Eden" and the pages together function as book ends. They don't flow seamlessly together, but definitely work off each other and flow together. (Check back in the coming days to see each page as they unfold).

Page 1 - Close up of Caemgen



Page - 1 - Close up of Fenian



Page - 1 - Close up of Daybreaker Alpha



I also wanted to say thank you to Caemgen for his patience on these. "THANK YOU!"

Once both penciled pages are fully revealed, I'll also be posting full colored versions (sometime in the following weeks).

Thanks for checking these out!

It looks like it will be an awesomely epic piece!

And, perhaps my eyes are being fooled by all of the detail you've drawn, but... um, did you accidentally Escher Caemgen's elbows? They appear to be glued on backwards. Basically, the bones are showing through the musculature in ways that bones and muscles don't go.

And Daybreaker's visible arm has a similar oddity. Does his armor mimic the shape of musculature, or does he have two oblate pods on the outside of his arm? If it's supposed to be muscles, then that shape goes on the inside of the arm and would not be visible from this angle. It just looks odd to me.

Other than that, as I said, it looks pretty dramatic.

Be Well!
Fireheart

WOW Johnnykat! There is a ton of detail in these! Great stuff!

Really nicely done! Great details!

Thanks all!

Yeah Fireheart, the over-sized gauntlets are doing some weird optical stuff on perspectives and how the elbow joints are bending. I'm probably going to tweak that area a bit on both arms for Caemgen. On Alpha though, there are metallic reflections and line work for the "starshot" detailing running along the upper arms that are challenging on the eyes as a black and white (pencil) at the moment, but I feel this will all make more sense when the colors are added in. Thanks for the feedback.

More coming soon...

Having already glimpsed the full scene of each pic I gotta say I can't wait to see the final version!!

I got a sneak peek of the entire kit-n-kaboodle and they are amazingly detailed!! This is going to be an epic piece when JKat is done!!! So stay tuned!

Hi all!

OK, so here is the final pencil of page 1 (still subject to slight edits lol).

Yep, looks super!

Everything works for me, except Caemgen seems to have 2 left arms.

I think it's the perspective of the glove being behind the muscles in the upper arm. If the glove super-imposed those arm-muscles, then it would clearly be in front, and might not appear to be behind his body. Does that make sense?

Be Well!
Fireheart

Hi everyone!

So here are my sneak peaks of page 2 of the "Encounter in Eden" project for Caemgen.

Fenian Wolf:



And, Unrepentant Fenian:

Thanks Ironik!

Every time I look at your posted teasers, I am amazed at the details, JKat!! I can't wait for them to be finished!!

Happy Day after St Patty's Day!

Here is the second panel (page) of the "Encounter in Eden" for Caemgen.

Inks and colors to come, but that may be a little ways off...

That's really Great, Johnnykat! The detailing in the costumes and the scenery are awesome and there's a strongly dynamic energy to the poses of these two 'misunderstood' ladies.

So... this is to be a Triptych? I wonder who the monstrous entity in the center panel will be?

Or... is this an image of Caemgen's inner conflict?

Be Well!
Fireheart

Well Fenian Wolf goes both ways... Not like that you pervs! (she's totally all about the chicks!) She's mainly good and out to help but the boundaries are a bit... flexible to her.

The second Fenian was the short lived "Evil Fenian" who was still a very active character when this art started but who has since fallen off into comic limbo...

That's to say, there is nothing in the middle here, the two groups are targeting each other.

I love the second panel, JKat! I cannot wait to see both panels colorized!!

really good pencil work JK.

Thanks for the kind words!