More Cover Figure Work

This time I drew eMMA, star of her own comic and tip-top robotic butt-kicker.

 It helps when doing this kind of thing to have a rough idea at least of the pose you need. I sketched out a cover image with four figures (five if you count the silhouetted villain in the background). I knew how each figure would be posed and, again roughly, how they'd be layered atop each other. eMMA, the tallest, would be in the back.

My first try at the face didn't look right at all. The eyes are at an odd angle, and even when copied exactly, they didn't work. That's a trick of drawing: Even what's true isn't what works best. Artistic license isn't (only) an excuse for laziness. It can also means design and clarity trumps truth.

The cover is very close to being done, and I can tease it properly next week.

Adding to the Cover Yet Again

And men shall call him ... ARMORY.

I always start with the face and work down. Once I drew Armory's head, I enlarged it to make him look smaller overall. I used reference pictures for the Hosmer prosthetic. I'll play with the super-energy coming out of the prosthetic in the next day or so.

This makes three figures for the cover foreground, and I think that'll be it. Adding more will get awkward. I need to tackle that background anyway.

More on the 2013 Comic Cover

After drawing (and since tweaking) Focus for the 2013 comic cover, I posed for some more reference photos and started the other heroes.

I called this "the Wolverine pose." Hey, ladies.

ThenI turned myself into a rollergirl.

I made the head and eyes and mouth slightly larger and reduced the nose. I simplified the jersey lines from her previous cover too and added the bra. Sue Tonium in her energy form has no shadows, but I suggested planes surfaces as non-delineated blocks. I haven't decided if she should have a color to suggest energy. In all white, she looks more spectral than I intended.

Next I'll turn myself into a small boy. Stay tuned.

Starting the Comic Cover

I'm thinking of a group shot for the new comic cover, and I recently worked up the image for Focus.

The cover will crop her out at the knees, so there's no reason to draw any farther than the quads. I'm thinking of adding three more characters around her to highlight the leads in this issue. Massive spoiler: Focus is a lead for this issue.

The missus posed for the body, and I used my own head for reference.

Her original Muppetesque jawline was softened considerably, and I moved the eyes around. The mouth was enlarged and properly be-lipped.

Adobe Illustrator provides automatic trace and paint features, but I started this style before we had Live Trace (olden days: Oregon Trail, dial-ups, sundails), and I prefer to build the image myself.

This of course is not the first time I've used myself for reference as a lady person.

So. Progress.

The comic hits da streets in June.

Armory

Last summer I made a superhero character for a friend's son. He worried about surgery on his arm to prepare for a prosthetic, and I wanted to do something. I had eye surgeries as a kid, and it's frightful. So I made Arsenal.

Arsenal has a sci-fi right-arm prosthetic that's full of gadgets. He loved it. His mom loved it. I added him to my 2013 comic  (set to debut at HeroesCon).

And then I saw that the cartoon Young Justice has a character named Arsenal. Who has a sci-fi right-arm prosthetic that's full of gadgets.

Crap.

I really didn't want to change up my guy. I thought the design worked all over, and his mom helped create the hoodie logo, and damn it all to hell.

I suggested a change. If he can't be Arsenal, howabout another name starting with A? "Able" was a bit too on the nose. What other A words can suggest his gimmick?

"Armory."

But is that too punny? I mean ... arm-ory?

No, I thought. That's comics. That is wholly comic-y.

Yes. Armory.

I floated it by his mom, who approved.

So he's Armory now. I made his prosthetic more of a science-based Green Lantern gimmick, and he'll play a big part in the 2013 comic.

Now I gotta come up with a name for that.