Just another mild-mannered blog featuring artwork by me, Collin J Wood, and many things that interest and inspire me…
Starfleet Starfighters? A Starfighter Carrier that deploys from the underside of a Sovereign Class Starship? I dont think this idea sold too well. Not too sure who drew these, some of the ideas arent very original (a Sabre class starship morphed into a Starfighter?) Nevertheless, I thought it would be neat to include these…
After reading the collection of comics in the Superman/Batman:Public Enemies series, drawn by the spectacular Ed McGuinness, and with a little time to kill while washing laundry at the local laundromat…I decided to take a crack at drawing Mr. Amazing in his unique style. This was no easy task, for me anyway. I’m not used to drawing in such clean lines. But thats one of the things that I like about his style…it has a very classic and refined look. I used some of this character model drawings for action figures as reference, most useful of all being one for Auquaman…
This was drawn on Canson Comic Art Board. Looks unfinished. I think it may be about time to fill in the black…or, perhaps color it in SketchPro?
A few posts and many moons ago, I showed you all a drawing of Mr. Miraculous, done in the animated style of The Batman. Well, his wasnt my first attempt at drawing in that style. In fact, Mr. Amazing was the first…and actually my favorite. It took a few passes, but this one turned out exactly as I wanted it to.
What led to this idea..well, the appearance of Superman in the show, of course…
I found a couple more peices of concept art from John Eaves and Ryan Dening. These are from Star Trek Online and Armada, i beleive…
I mentioned in my last post how there came a time when those Knee-flap things just had to go. I liked them at 1st, but after seeing Mr. Amazing in flight, they just didnt make sense. So, I decided it was time for a redesign, an upgrade if you will, of his costume.
Here we have 3 sketches of his new look. Ok, so the knee-flaps didnt go away entirely, but they did get a lot smaller and more stylish. Added some piping and worked in more white areas on the body to break up the overall darkness…and the hair…well, i need to decide on blonde or brown soon…one of my goals for 2015 is to actually start drawing the comic book. I’ve been working out plot points and characters for a while now…
After settling on the new color scheme for Mr. Amazing’s costume, i just had to try it out on more comic-book-like drawings. I started with the original sketch, then created a new one in a more dynamic pose (not my best, but again I was trying something new). And instead of markers, played around with coloring in an ancient version of PhotoShop.
Looking at these now…that 2nd drawing might be the piece that led to a need to get rid of those huge knee-flap things…
Sometimes, its fun to try new things…both in life, and in art. With the concept of Mr. Amazing firmly established, and as I was beginning to work on new character ideas, i spent a little time watching the animated series Justice League Unlimited. It was a fun show, I loved the plethora of superheros included. The animation style was simple yet cool. After watching a few episodes, an idea spawned…Could I make an animated version of Mr. Amazing?
After a bit of searching online, I found quite a bit of reference material from the show, including production art and character model sheets. It took a couple of tries, but in the end I was rather pleased with how he turned out.
But you’ll notice there are two versions, two different color schemes. I first colored him in his original color scheme, and while i thought it looked great, I decided to try a more dynamic version. Sadly, I dont have a vast variety of markers in varying shades of colors, so I was going to try layering the red over the grey to give it some shading. I started with the grey, then took a good look at it and thought…the white really works with the black, then throw in the red highlights and viola…Mr. Amazing has a new color scheme.
Immediately after completing the sketch of Mr. Amazing, a color rendering was a must. I’m not a fan of inking my own original pencil work (mainly cuz each time i try, i manage to royally mess something up), I xeroxed the sketch, then colored it in. This scan doesnt do it justice, but you can get a good idea of how he looked in his original color-scheme.
Next up came a portrait, something I had never really done before. Using some references from Michael Turner sketches of various super hero protraits, we were able to complete the 2nd drawing presented here. Yes, that is his hair trying to form the shape of an “A”…a silly little not to Superman and his “S”-curl. I couldnt resist…
I thought today would be a great day to go way back to the origin of my 1st original comic book hero, Mr. Amazing. Eight years ago this sketch was completed, after many Many attempts.
Things just kinda fell together after some inspiration from Superman Returns (yeah I like it, what are ya gonna do) and X-Men: The Last Stand (fantastic soundrouck by John Powell). Dont ask where the kneeflaps came from, just seemed to work at the time…
A little overdue, I know…but we are back in action here with 3 covers from Michael Turner’s series Fathom. Each features one of the characters that seemed to make up a kind of trinity for the series: Aspen, main character of Fathom, Sara Pezzini, wielder of the Whitchblade, and the ever popular Lara Croft: Tombraider.
Collinization 2.0 