Getting started...

For my first entry of the Liefeld Redesign I've decided to do a splash page of Shaft showing off the bow and arrow. It is kind of like the sketch I put up here where the bow drops and he catches it only more dynamic and on a comic art board. No background planned but I may whip something up in photoshop. I am going to get this done over the next 2 days. After that I definetly want to do one for Badrock. If I still have time I'll do Diehard. Sentinel is kind of a weak concept looking back now. It would be cool as a subplot or a small side story but it isn't as much of a change of "character" as Shaft so it is less interesting.

I picked up some great books. The first, Mitch Byrd's Notes to Draw From Comic Book Illustration. The second, Perspective! For Comic Book Artists by David Chelsea. After reading the Byrd book I see now how I fk'd up the perpective on the last panel of the Ironman page. O well.

I also picked up a couple Prismacolor Markers. Wow! I can't believe I've never seen these. They were 3 bucks a marker but worth it. The whole set was $150. So I decided to just get greys and experiment with black and white. Look


I know I didn't concentrate on light source or anything but I was just experimenting to get a feel for the markers and see what tones work best where. These are characters from "THE UNKNOWN" project. I was looking up some info about printing a comic out and I found a great place through PencilJack. Color cover + 24 black and white pages for only $.85. Sounds good. Too bad we are still working on script and thumbnails :(.

Take care!
Dan

The Villian

Rob Liefelds characters redesign Challenge Update

Diehard - I imagined steam puffing out of the slits in his face mask and out of the tubes on his forearms. I am on the fence about the Predator style shoulder gun. The shield is there just because the original Diehard had one. This one would be of energy. Perhaps it only becomes visible when it's deflecting something.




This is the sketch page that gave birth to the villian. I started with a scene of Shaft burning a photo of the old Youngblood. I needed there to be a reason Shaft would go awol. I knew it would be a battle situation where the other characters would be badly wounded and killed. I thought about the current situation in Iraq. I imagined a situation where the government lies to Shaft just to get him to do something he would never have done.

One example is blowing up Muslim Mosques. Maybe the government tells him there are large cache's of ammo and weapons hidden in the temples. Of course there wouldn't be and many, many civilians are killed. But one of the temples is a very holy site, similar to Mecca, and when it blows open a new Muslim god emerges. He begins empowering the faithful to defend their lands. The emergence of this god unifies all the Arab Nations and he acts as a Spiritual and Military Leader.

Shaft and his team try to fight their way out of the Middle East battling the empowered followers all the way into Turkey, to the brink of Western Civilization. At this border they face the villian. He destroys them in a large battle the result of which would be the characters I have designed. I envision it like this. Shaft and his team see city lights lighting the night sky. Lights of skyscrapers and bridges and billboards. Some of the soldiers drop their bags, others celebrate, Shaft smiles says something like "Think you guys can keep up." He begins running full speed toward the city while the regular soldiers follow right after. Sentinel and Diehard fly overhead. The city is NUKED. Floating in the center of the mushroom cloud is our villian. Close up of his eyes. He has a type of super vision and he sees our heroes out in the desert. Battle Begins. When it ends Shaft is about to be killed when Supreme rushes in to save him. Supreme is on the same level as the villian and he is able to fight him off. When Shaft asks, with blood dripping from his face, "Where the fuck where you?" we cut away and see Glory naked laying across a bed insinuating they were getting it on.


Here is Badrock's scene. The turbaned guys are the empowered followers. I imagined them with glowing eyes and flaming swords.


And here is a detail for the villians face. I was trying to give him a evil look. His costume would be armor but I wanted him to have a cape. But not the cape of a hero, a cape of a conqueror.

Ok I need to stop this planning out now. The idea is pretty much set and now everything has a reason and I am confortable. There are alot of details missing but they are unnecessary.

Hope ya liked

Dan/Deun
ps if your just checking this out for the first time scroll down for more drawings and ideas.