Revenge of the Fifth/Sixth - 2019

Revenge of the Fifth 2019 /

Revenge of the Sixth - 2019

Hey, I made it just under the wire of being only one week late!  Um, nevermind trying to diagram the meaning of that sentence... It boils down to I was busy--mostly out of town--during "May the Fourth" and "Revenge of the Fifth"/"Revenge of the Sixth", so it messed up my schedule quite a bit.  But, excuses are like E. coli... everyone has about a trillion of 'em.

For some dumb reason, "Revenge of the Fifth" seems more popular than "Revenge of the Sixth", even though "Sixth" is a better pun of "Sith", IMHO--although "Fifth" has the singular advantage of being the next day to "May the Fourth".

Anyhoo, once again, my lone, Quixotic vision of having Jaxxon the Rabbit being returned to "Star Wars" canon has motivated another cartoon/comic strip this year.  Why do I keep doing this to myself and others each year?  What part of "Quixotic" don't you understand?  :-P

This time around, Jaxxon is Quantum Leaping into Darth Vader having a heart-to-heart with his son, Luke (if you'll forgive the reference to the 90's TV Series, "Quantum Leap").

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STEP ONE:  It's the quickly scribbled blue line pencils, done in Clip Studio Paint EX.  The canvas is 1,500px x 2,250px at 600dpi.

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STEP TWO:  The inks were done in Clip Studio Paint EX, with a standard inking brush. 

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STEP THREE:  Finally, the coloring was done on a series of Multiply Layers.  When it was done, I imported the image into Photoshop to reduce the resolution and output it as a .jpg for the Blog you are indifferently starting at right now... as... you... read... these... words...  :-P

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint EX.

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May the Fourth Be With You - 2019

May the Fourth Be With You!

Hey, it's my "May the Fourth Be With You" for 2019.

"But, John," I can hear you saying, "it's May 11th.  You're a week late!"  Yes, well, that is true... but I was busy!  So there!  

"But, John, where is Jaxxon the giant, green, Star Wars rabbit?  Aren't you supposed to be on some Quixotic quest to get Jaxxon back into Star Wars cannon?"  Very true!  But, that post will have to wait until either Sunday May 12th, or Monday, May 13th, when I do my posting for "Revenge of the Fifth/Sixth".  See?  It all makes perfect sense!

Anyhoo, this a really dumb mash-up which I alluded to last year when I used the Power Droid/Gonk Droid/GNK Droid for one of my "Unwanted Valentines".  In fact, I used most of the drawing of the GNK Droid from the "Unwanted Valentine" and just added the arm and He-Man's sword.  Two parts of my childhood, Star Wars and He-Man, brought together!  You got your chocolate in my peanut butter!  And you got your peanut butter on my chocolate!

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STEP ONE:  Just for fun, I included the line drawing for the Power Droid.  It was done on a 1,500px x 2,100px canvas at 300dpi.  When I dropped the resolution to 200dpi for posting on the Blog, it resized to 1,000px x 1,400px.

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STEP TWO:  Hey, it's a bunch of colors which were done on a series of layers.  I used the Radial Perspective tool in Clip Studio Paint to make the radiating lights from the He-Man sword.

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Done digitally in Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint EX.

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Mini-Paint: Death Star Droid Action Figure

Action Figure Painting:

Death Star Droid (3B6-RA-7 Protocol/Spy Droid)

For no reason at all, here's a watercolor/gouache painting of an action figure I owned as a kid: the Death Star Droid (although, he was actually seen on the Jawa's Sandcrawler on Tatooine, so... Sandcrawler Droid?).  It's been a while since I've done a "Quick Paint", and no real reason I shouldn't do more of 'em, now that I think of it.

My Mom was doing some spring cleaning, going through a bunch of old action figures we owned as kids and, when I was visiting, I saw the Death Star Droid action figure and felt like painting something shiny.  So, here we are.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils done with a .5mm mechanical pencil on 6" x 9" Canson XL watercolor paper.

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STEP TWO:  Here is the quick under-painting, done in about 20-30 minutes.  I kept the palette very limited--Carbon Black, Titanium White, Yellow Ochre, and Ultramarine Blue.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished painting, with a total time of about 4 hours... much longer than I intended.  One of the problems with painting something so shiny is that because I was a moron, I just held it in one hand and painted with the other (I needed it close enough to properly see the detail of what I was painting).  So, any little turn or change in position in my hand, caused a significant change in the lighting/highlights with the action figure.  Sigh...

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Done with watercolor/gouache on 6" x 9" Canson XL watercolor paper.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019 - Part 6

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

Well, it's my last submission to the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog for 2019!  The month just flew past, faster than a NOS-fueled Mechano-Chair!

In this case, it is a callback to the side-scrolling video games of yesteryear, with their pixels and jaggies in all their 16-bit glory.  Yes, it's M.O.D.O.K. vs. Arnim Zola, engaged in... MORTAL KOMBAT!  [Queue the titular 90's techno song.]

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STEP ONE: Here is a little peek behind the curtain with a scan of the original doodle which became this post.  It was just a quickly scribbled idea in a sketchbook (about 30-to-60 seconds), but it ended up pretty close to the finished drawing.

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STEP TWO:  These are the digital pencils, done on two separate levels--one for the characters of M.O.D.O.K. and Arnim Zola, the other with the slightly Kirby-esque background.  As usual, they are just a quickly scribbled mess to give a rough idea of what goes where.

The original drawing canvas is 2,100px by 1,500px at 300dpi.

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STEP THREE:  And here are the digital inks, done in Clip Studio Paint.

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STEP FOUR:  Followed by the colors, which were done on a separate Multiply Layer.  Hmmm, now that I look at it, I probably should have done the Cosmic Cube in blue outline.  Oh, well.  Live and learn.  Well, live, anyways...

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STEP FIVE:  And, finally, to get it to look like a right-proper 16-bit video game screen, it took a surprising amount of trail-and-error.  Originally, I imported it into Photoshop, dropped the resolution from 300dpi to 72dpi.  But, Photoshop was anti-aliasing it, so it just looked blurry as heck and not like an old 16-bit video game.  

Finally, I figured out to use the Resample option for "Nearest Neighbor (hard edges)" when resizing it, which kept aliasing and made the downshift in quality jaggy in all the right ways.  

So, for those of you nerdy enough to care: It went from the original 2,100px by 1,500px at 300dpi, then shrank the image way down to 504px by 360px at 72dpi while keeping the aliasing, then blew it back up to 1,200px by 857px at 200dpi.  Ta-da!

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This was done digitally in Clip Studio Paint with an assist from Photoshop.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019 - Part 5

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

Oh, my, yet another March M.O.D.O.K. Madness submission!  I'm pretty sure I'm wearing out my welcome to poor Pedro and Brendan with all the spamming I've done of their mailbox this year... 

I actually had this idea last year, but wasn't able to get around to it 'til now.  But, I thought it would be funny to have M.O.D.O.K. being hypnotized by a fake Cosmic Cube ala the Anglerfish, with some rather large, sharp teeth just at the edge of the panel.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils, done in Clip Studio Paint on a 1,400px x 1,500px canvas, at 300dpi.

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STEP TWO:  And here are the digital inks.  Nothing too fancy, although I intended to colorize the line work for the "Cosmic Cube" to a blue color.

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STEP THREE:  I did the coloring in Clip Studio Paint, then moved it over to Photoshop for converting the image to 200dpi and saving as a .jpg.  Photoshop, naturally, has a much better engine for saving images as .jpg's.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint -- with an assist from Photoshop.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019 - Part 4

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

Hey, it's another March M.O.D.O.K. Madness submission!  This time, done in a more Cubist vein (eat your heart out, Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso... oh, wait, that pun was completely unintentional--shame on me for missing it the first time through).

I was half-tempted to make it even more abstract and just the barest suggestion about it being M.O.D.O.K., with more geometrical breaks in the picture plane  Maybe next time...

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STEP ONE:  Here is the quick breakdown of the Cubist concept on a 1,200px x 1,600px at 300ppi canvas

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STEP TWO: And... done!  Well, pretty much all that was left to do was extend the planes a little bit, accentuate the edges here and there, and push a few shadows to give the illusion of depth (well, as much depth as you can get with a Cubist-style drawing).  I dropped the resolution down to 200dpi, and the image to 1,000px x 1,333px--suitable for posting.

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Done digitally in Painter 2019.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019 - Part 3

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

Well, another March M.O.D.O.K. Madness submission!  This one was sort of meant to resemble a block print/screen print, or perhaps a spray paint template for graffiti-style posters.

This one is a bit of a letdown from a direct ripoff of Charles Schulz like the last post, but what'cha gonna do?  :-D

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STEP ONE:  I didn't bother to do any pencils, just went straight into drawing in Clip Studio Paint EX using one of the ink brushes.  I used the Symmetry Ruler, so all ink lines were mirrored on both sides.

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STEP TWO:  I exported the image to PhotoShop and resized the drawing.  At first, I was intending to just do it as the strong black-and-white image, but thought I'd colorize it with a flat orange/brown color scheme with a Lighten Layer. 

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint -- with an assist from Photoshop.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019 - Part 2

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

Hey, it's time for another submission to the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog!  In this case, I had the idea of using the very first Peanuts comic strip (formerly "Li’l Folks") with M.O.D.O.K., Arnim Zola, and Doughboy replacing Charlie Brown, Shermy and Patty.  It was completely unbidden, and not one of the projects for March M.O.D.O.K. Madness I had planned; but, once in my head, it would not go away until I got it done.  So, here it is!

Here's the first "Peanuts" cartoon, so you can compare and contrast...

I did have do some thinking as to who was going to replace whom in my version.  Was it going to be Arnim Zola skipping merrily down the street, and M.O.D.O.K. complaining about how much he hates Zola, with an A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) sitting beside him?  But, since it was March M.O.D.O.K. Madness and NOT August Arnim Agitation, I figured it would be M.O.D.O.K. for Charlie Brown.  But, who should sit beside Arnim Zola?  Not a member of A.I.M, or even Hydra...  That's when I remembered Doughboy from the issue of Captain America I had--Zola's own creation as the Bio-Fanatic.  He would fit perfecting in Patty's place.

So, with the characters chosen, it was just a matter of plugging them in and using Charles Schulz's style.  Done and DONE!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quickly scribbled digital pencils, done in Clip Studio Paint EX on a pencil layer which I color blue, being a creature of the olden days when Non-Photo Blue was a thing used to setup for printing.  Even though it is easy to hide any color chosen, I still like the look of blue line artwork.  The aesthetic appeals to me.

And, yeah, I wanted to include the obvious joke of turning "Friends" into "Fiends" by crossing out the "r" in "Friends".  Let it never be said I'm nothing if not obvious!

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STEP TWO:  Here are the digital inks, also done in Clip Studio Paint EX.

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STEP THREE:  I colored the four-panels in Clip Studio Paint, then imported it into Photoshop so I could add a Filter for Color Halftone (set to 35% opacity); I also dropped the opacity of the original drawing to 70%, as well.  There was also a vintage paper texture I added over top, set on a Multiply Layer and lowered the opacity to 75%.

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SIDE NOTE:  I really like the vintage-paper look, which gives it a newsprint feel.  I **ALMOST** used this as the finished pic, but I had already gone through and colored everything, adding the vintage paper texture last.  So, here are both examples to look at and compare, just for fun.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint -- with an assist from Photoshop.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019 - Part 1

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

Oh, hi, I didn't see you there!  It's March already, so that can only mean one thing: It's time again for submissions about everyone's favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing: March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2019 has begun!

In this case, it's M.O.D.O.K. showing the same dismay I am that it's March already.  Yikes!  Where does the time go?  It must have been all that snow I have been shoveling the past few weeks here in the Midwest, but I was caught up a little short for the first day of March.

Anyways, with that in mind, here's my first submission to the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog, with plenty more to follow!  It was done up so quickly that I didn't even bother with pencils and other niceties.

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Done digitally with Clip Studio Paint EX.

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Unwanted Valentines: Jason Voorhees

Unwanted Valentines:

Jason Voorhees

This time, it's a Valentine from Jason Voorhees from the "Friday the 13th" franchise.  Most of the "Friday the 13th" movies are in the "let's get naked and split up" vein of the killing teenagers genre.  They were OK when I watched them growing up, although I am probably one of the few that thinks "Jason X" (ie. "Jason in Space") is probably the best of the bunch.  Not that it is saying much, of course, but I am always a sucker for self-reference and meta-humor.

I debated doing the "We're a Machete Made in Heaven" as "We're a MATCH-ete Made in Heaven", but thought the misspelling would be more confusing.  Saying puns is one thing; spelling pun is something else entirely.  Oh, well.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils, done on a 1,500px x 2,100px at 300dpi.  I used a blue-line layer in Clip Studio Paint to quickly scribble the image.

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STEP TWO:  The digital inks were also done in Clip Studio Paint over top the digital pencils.

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STEP THREE:  The coloring was done in Clip Studio Paint on a Normal Layer below the inked layer.  As much as I like using Clip Studio Paint for everything, it turns out (unsurprisingly) the .jpg engine works much, much better in Photoshop.  So, I imported the project into Photoshop, the canvas was re-sized to 200dpi (which dropped the size down to 1,000px x 1,400px) and saved each layer as a separate .jpg. 

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint with an assist from Photoshop.

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Unwanted Valentines: The Joker from "The Dark Knight" (2008)

Unwanted Valentines: 

The Joker from "The Dark Knight" (2008)

This time around, it is an Unwanted Valentine from "The Dark Knight" (2008).

I will admit I really wasn't sure what to think of the first production stills that were released showing Heath Ledger's version of the Joker.  I was a little apprehensive at first, but when I saw it in the theaters, it was a great performance.  (And, no, I don't buy all the nonsense about how Heath Ledger got in too deep with the darkness of the character and that's why he died.  Nah, that sounds like bubblegum, pop-psych B.S.)

Anyway, his version of the Joker really blew the other versions out of the water.  I thought the high-watermark was Jack Nicholson's version, but he seemed goofy and cartoonish next to Ledger's version.  Normally, I find dark, angsty comics/movies rather boring (I got my fill of those in the 90's, after all).  But, in this case, it really worked, firing on all cylinders--A scary, nihilistic terrorist who has absolutely nothing to lose and wants to watch the world burn.

"Let's put a smile on that face!"  Yikes!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils, done on a 1,500px x 2,100px at 300dpi.  I used a blue-line layer in Clip Studio Paint to quickly scribble the image.

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STEP TWO:  The digital inks were also done in Clip Studio Paint over top the digital pencils.

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STEP THREE:  I finally got around to figuring out how to do the same lettering effects in Clip Studio Paint as I do in Photoshop, with the wide stroke/outline around the red letters.  I also used various brushes to color the image.  Then the canvas was re-sized to 200dpi (which dropped the size down to 1,000px x 1,400px) and saved each layer as a separate .jpg. 

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint

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Unwanted Valentines: Kuato from "Total Recall" (1990)

Unwanted Valentines:

Kuato / "Total Recall" (1990)

It's time again for Unwanted Valentines!  Y'know, those super-nerdy Valentines you would give to your loved ones, if you wanted them to give you a semi-quizzical look and mutter "What the %$#@ is this $#!&?".

This time around, it's the mutant, parasitic twin, Kuato, from the, um, "classic" featuring Ah-nold, "Total Recall" (1990).  Actually, I do have a soft spot for "Total Recall", as well as "Robocop" from Paul Verhoeven.  ("Starship Trooper" is also mildly amusing.)  Kuato asks Douglas Quaid (Arnold Schwarzenegger) to start the Turbinium Reactor to bring the atmosphere back to Mars.

Also, lemme tell ya, Kuato is ripped!  Lookit those abs--you could shred cheese on 'em!  I guess, when you're a mutant, parasitic twin, all you can do is hang around all day and do crunches...

Oh, and **SPOILERS** for a nearly 30-year-old movie: I always thought the movie was a dream, starting when Ah-nold went under at Rekall, Inc.  Mostly 'cuz one of the techs before he goes under says something to the effect of "Huh, blue skies on Mars... that's different," caught my attention; at the end of the movie, blue skies on Mars.  Tada!  It's all a dream!

**SPOILER (Part II)** For those curious out there, "Total Recall" (both versions of the movie) in almost no way resembles the Philip K. Dick short story the movie was based on, "We Can Remember It for You Wholesale".  Shocking, I know!  :-P

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils, done on a 1,500px x 2,100px at 300dpi.  I used a blue-line layer in Clip Studio Paint to quickly scribble the image.

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STEP TWO:  The digital inks were also done in Clip Studio Paint.  The ink brush engine in Clip Studio Paint works fantastic, IMHO.  Very close to a true ink-brush look... or what passes for an ink-brush look in my hands, anyways.

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STEP THREE:  The coloring was also done in Clip Studio Paint, and then it was imported into Photoshop for the lettering across the top, then re-sized the canvas to 200dpi (which dropped the size down to 1,000px x 1,400px) and saved each layer as a separate .jpg. 

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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Shameless Self-Promotion: David Bowie/Pan's Labyrinth Mash-Up

This is another one of those posts that don't exactly fit the category, but is a sort of self-promotion, nonetheless.  But, also sort of humbling, too.  One may go so far as to coin a term as to being both humble and bragging at the same time--a "humble-brag", if you will.  What's that, it's already a term?  And it's a term that's been around for over 15 years, coined by the late comedic writer and actor, Harris Wittels?  Huh, who'da thunkit?  One may also say I'm humblebragging that I knew the origins of the neologism (all that listening to "Comedy Bang Bang" finally paid off).  Anyhoo...  Why am I wasting time with all this nonsense when there is posting to be done?  Onward!

Here is a redux of the Mash-Up by Stephanie B. (name withheld to protect the guilty!)  :-P

Stephanie B. is a great fan of the movie "Labyrinth", and somehow found my mash-up of David Bowie as Jareth the Goblin King in "Labyrinth" with the Pale Man from "Pan's Labyrinth".  Much to my delight, she was inspired enough by it to do a "diamond painting", giving it her own, unique spin--and she was kind enough to send me a picture of the finished project.  I really like the way it looks like a 16-bit conversion, giving it a real nostalgic, retro video-game feel!  It almost makes me almost think there must be an alternate universe in which Nintendo NES did a game for "David Bowie in 'Pan's Labyrinth'"...

While Stephanie said is wasn't necessary to include any links (she already shared the picture with her friends and family), I do want to thank her for sending me a picture of her hard work.  She did a really amazing job on it!  Thanks, Stephanie!

And here is the original digital painting I did in Photoshop...

I admit, it's pretty cool to see a reinterpretation of one's work.  Familiar, yet so different.

Well, enough patting myself on the back over the work that someone else did...  Back to my regularly scheduled, ultra-nerdy posts when it is time for "Unwanted Valentines" to make their triumphant (?) return for 2019!  Be there AND be square!

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This! Is! 2019! - Happy New Year - 2019!

Happy New Year!

It's another year already?  What the heck happened to the previous one?  Gone too soon, gone too soon...  Anyhoo, Happy New Year!

I want to take a moment to thank everyone who has stopped by to briefly glance at my modest site--It is all greatly appreciated, more than you know!

I have plenty of resolutions in the fire, and lots of irons to break.  Oh, wait, reverse that: I have plenty of resolutions in irons and and fires to break!  Um, that isn't right, either.  D'oh!  

Happy New Year to all and I wish you all the best!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quickly scribbled digital pencils, done in Clip Studio Paint, on a 1,500px by 2,100px at 300dpi canvas.

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STEP TWO:  I got a couple gift cards for the holidays, which I used to get a new art program to play with, Rebelle 3.  It is interesting, and much closer to using actual watercolor digitally, as well as acrylic painting.  The program is a little limited, but has a few tricks it does really well.  I prefer inking in Clip Studio Paint, chalk/charcoal in Painter 2018, watercolor/acrylic in Rebelle 3, and re-sizing in Photoshop.  Sigh, that's too many programs!  :-S

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Done with Clip Studio Paint and Rebelle 3

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