Big in Japan...

 I was watching some old Gamera movies and this seemed rather obvious... :-)

Click to Embiggen

* * *

For those interested, here's the original pen-and-ink drawing:

This was done with brush-and-ink on 11" x 14" cardstock and scanned into Photoshop.  I colored it digitally--primarily with a chalk brush--over several MULTIPLY Layers.

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Wizard World Chicago Comic Con 2013 (Part 2)

Chicago Comic Con 2013

(Part 2)

Here are some other, random pics from the Wizard World Chicago Comic Con for 2013, Saturday, August 10, 2013.  (Click to embiggen!)

It's-ah Mario, Luigi, and the Princess.

From the Borderlands in the Lobby/Entrance...

Gar-Boys and Gargoyles...
(Ugh!  That pun was TERRIBLE!  But I still used it, of course... :-)

Part of the line for Norman Reedus (Daryl Dixon from "Walking Dead").
(He's the one waaayyyy in the back wearing the baseball hat by his name banner.)

My daughter being interviewed for ManCow TV
(She didn't make it onto the final cut, alas.  Better luck next time, Kiddo!  :-)

Zombie Heath Ledger fighting off Zombie Wonder Woman?
(Too soon?)

Zombie Wonder Woman

Lard Lad from "The Simpsons" gets my vote for favorite costume.

Harvey Birdman, Attorney at Laaawwwwwwwww....

Firefox!  (Don't tell her I use Chrome Browser by default...)

I prefer to think of this as a Mime with a Blowhorn.
It's funnier that way...  :-)

A bit of some Ultra-Violence from Alex and the gang.

Hammer-Time!

I dunno, but I think that guy on the right may be a little afraid of ghosts, after all...

Mrs. Darth Maul gets an interview...

Hangers on at the 501st Legion Booth. 

Darth Maul, also hanging out at the 501st Booth

Tusken Raiders hide their numbers by...
well, in this case there is only one of them.

Um, sir, your fly is open... Or: XYZ-PDQ!

Aren't you a little short to be a Stormtrooper?

Sif and Friend...

HOLY BATMOBILE, Batman!  Nananananna...

A parting shot on our way out the door.

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Wizard World Chicago Comic Con 2013 (Part 1)

Chicago Comic Con 2013

(Part 1)

Let's all go to the lobby...  Here's where we came in.

* * *

Living in the Mid-West, I've gone to the Chicago Comic Con on-and-off for the past 15 years or so, give-or-take.  The BIG one in San Diego is just too far away, too big, and sold out too quickly.  But, Chicago is a nice-sized show--big enough to draw some known names, but not so big as to be over-whelming.

That said, this year was surprisingly busy.  We went on Saturday, August 10th, 2103, and got there about 11:30am to let the line at the door die down a bit.  However, the joke was on us, as it was almost impossible to find parking in the area and the line still went on for about 75 yards at the door.  Sigh...  Good thing the line moved relatively quickly, so it wasn't too bad--only about 15-20 minutes to get in and through the lines.

I was also pleased to notice that there seemed to be a larger contingent of women at the Comic Con.  There are aspects of Comic Geekdom/Nerdom which can come off a bit "No Girls Allowed!", except as objectified beings with a thong bikini and a beach-worth of silicone.  And, IMHO, the only way for that to change is to have a wider involvement of the female of the species, if you will.  So, I was pleasantly surprised to see that happening.

So, we wandered about for hours, stared at some famous people, checked out Artist Alley (which was expanded this year--something else I was pleasantly surprised at), checked out some of the cool Cosplay going on (and there was LOTS of that this year, too), and just generally gawked at all manner of cool stuff.  

Robert Rodriguez was there with a touring version of Frank Frazetta paintings for a live-action version of "Fire and Ice" he is trying to make, so I got to see 18 of his original paintings.  HOLY CRAP those were cool!

Another view of where we came in...

* * *

A few years back, my kids expressed interest in going to the Chicago Comic Con with me.  My eldest daughter wanted to get autographs from wrestlers, while my youngest was just getting into comics and pop-nerd culture.  And now the kids kinda sorta hide their shame of being seen with me and public and almost look forward to going with me to Comic Con.  Whodathunkit?  :-)

Each year we've gone to Chicago Comic Con, my youngest daughter has made a costume of some sort.  This year, she went as a Wampa (while we didn't get much sleep the night before, that's brown eye-shadow under her eyes ;-)

Wizard World Chicago Comic Con 2013: Wampa -- NOT A TAUNTAUN!  :-D

* * *

In 2011, she went as a low-rent version of Bat Girl.  The most disturbing comment: As we were walking back to the car at the end of the day, a wife leaned over to her husband and said "Hey, you have the same underwear she's wearing!"  Um...

* * *

In 2010, a Warrior Princess.  And again with the heavy eye-shadow...  :-P

* * *

And, just so she doesn't feel left out... ;-)

Here's my eldest daughter at Chicago Comic Con in 2013.

* * *

And here she is with her FAVORITE wrestler, Kevin Nash, in 2010.  :-D

* * *

At the end of the show, my legs were sore from all the walking and I left with my usual mixture of "That was COOL!" elation and "Crap!  I really need to work harder and up my game!" depression.  Sigh...

Random pics from the Comic-Con tomorrow!

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Off to Chicago Comic Con!

Chicago Comic Con 2013!

It's Lou Ferrigno taking a picture of Nichelle Nichols for a fan.  I took this pic at Wizard World Chicago Comic Con about 10 years ago and it makes me smile every time I see it.  :-)

* * * 

D'oh!  Because I'm a moron, I thought I had this set to automatically publish last week but, alas, I still had it as a "Draft" posting.  Sigh...

Anyhoo, sorry for the lack of posts this month.  I was out of state on vacation and taking my Nerdlings off to Chicago Comic Con 2013 this past Saturday, August 10th.  I'm currently going through the pictures and will post some of them Thursday night/Friday morning.

Suck it, Roland Emmerich!  It's GOJIRA!  :-D
A costume from 2010 Wizard World Chicago Comic Con that was really great.

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The Man Who Laughs: The Joker (Colorized)

The Man Who Laughs:

The Joker (Colorized)

Here's a version last week's painting, Conrad Veidt's "The Man Who Laughs", as The Joker -- Now with color!

* * *

Not much in the way of process this time around...

I put a MULTIPLY LAYER over the gouache painting in PhotoShop, laying in flat colors.  Then starting building up shadows and highlights in the MULTIPLY LAYER, as well as some extra highlights on new layers.

This was done with black and white gouache on 6" x 9" Arches Hot Press paper which was glued to Medium Density Fiberboard with Acrylic Matte Medium.  I then scanned it into PhotoShop and colorized it.

* * *

I would also be remiss if I didn't point out the unintended visual progression of drawing from Venom to Venom-Joker, to Joker-Venom, to the Joker.

 

I didn't do it on purpose, but I found it mildly amusing when I noticed it.  :-D

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The Man Who Laughs: The Joker

The Man Who Laughs:

The Joker

Comic Book Nerds (such as myself) have long known the bit of trivia that the Joker is based on Conrad Veidt's "The Man Who Laughs", a silent movie from 1928 based on the novel by Victor Hugo.

I was going to use Conrad Veidt as a model for a Batman Cover remake I am doing for a friend for his birthday and, while searching for picture references, I happened to notice "The Man Who Laughs" was in the public domain and available at Archive.org--and is streaming on YouTube.  I've only seen stills from the movie before and thought this would be a good time to watch the movie.  Besides, I figured it would give me a lot more drawing references for the painting I will be doing.

Conrad Veidt as Gwynplaine in "The Man Who Laughs" (1928)

When you get past some of the acting ticks and troupes of silent movies (I'm definitely not opposed to silent movies--"Nosferatu" is still one of the most terrifying vampires out there, IMHO), there is definitely something affecting in the way Veidt plays Gwynplaine that is winsome and with bits of pathos.  The way he shyly covers his mouth (scarred in childhood by the king to have a permanent smile on his face as a cruel "joke" on his father, just before the father is put to death) and his painful self-awareness of his deformity when interacting with common people is compelling.

Of course, there just just no way to watch the movie without thinking of him as The Joker, of course.  I kept half-expected him to poison the crowds of people with Joker Venom, or Batman to show up at the end... something like that.  :-)

So, anyways, I used the promotional picture above as a practice for the painting I will be doing within the next few weeks if all goes to plan (and it very rarely does, alas).  Here's the process for those who are interested... and even those who aren't.

Here are the pencils.  I used a 6" x 9" sheet of Arches (#110) hot press watercolor paper, which was glued onto a piece of Medium Density Fiberboard with Acrylic Matte Medium.

* * *

Here it is after the first hour or so, done with black and white gouache with a No. 12 size Round Brush.  I just roughly shaped the values and shadows with the large brush.  Gouache is an opaque watercolor paint, so I wasn't too worried if things got too dark in the painting; I could just lift out the color and/or paint over it again if it didn't work.

* * *

Here is the painting after another half-hour or so.  Most of this is just tightening up what was started in the first hour, but there are still plenty of things remaining to be finished.  :-)

* * *

And here is the finished painting.  I did this mostly as a practice piece... and I thought it would be fun.  :-D

I will be posting a colorized version soon.  Probably next week.

* * *

This was done with black and white gouache on 6" x 9" Arches Hot Press paper which was glued to Medium Density Fiberboard with Acrylic Matte Medium.

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Joker-Venom Mash-Up

Joker-Venom

OK, I admit it is a joke gone too far... but just ask anyone who knows me and they will attest that when it comes to flagellating expired equus, I'm your guy!  

When I was finishing up the previous post of the Venom-Joker mash-up, I realized I should have Venom's coloration be reversed so he really looked like chalk-faced visage of the Joker that we all know so well.  And, it gave a shot of some extra nightmare fuel to the image, methinks.  Sure, there was Anti-Venom in the Spider-Man comics a year-or-two ago who was a negative image of Venom, but there is also a vague pun using "Joker-Venom", as it the toxin used by the Joker to kill people and leave a smile on their face.

* * *

Here's the black-and-white version.

I took the lasso tool and roughly selected Venom's face, avoiding the mouth.  Nothing too fancy.  Once selected, I went to IMAGES > ADJUSTMENTS > INVERT (also CTL+I), which reversed everything from black to white and vice versa (or should I say vice REVERSA?).  I then cleaned up the remaining areas with a black and white brush until I was happy enough and set about recoloring the face on a MULTIPLY Layer.

Done with a chalk brush in Photoshop and digitally colored.

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