Cheetah

Just trying to get back into the swing after a month or so away from doing any art. This is my interpretation of how DC’s Cheetah could be done, as perhaps part cat. I think this was touched on in a Wonderwoman Elseworlds book I read, although this look is a more akin to the original costume worn by the first Cheetah. Nude Model. Some textures. And a lot of work on the head. The eyes are the only bit i’m dubious about,but I don’t want to mess with it anymore.

Codename: BABETOOL

I may have solved my recent PC problems… well enough to get a picture finished. This is the title character from a COM.X comic book. The original image had the girl wearing the tshirt, boots and shorts. Everything else is added. I am particularly happy with the sword slash on the stomach. The poster at the back is from a poster page in the Trade Paperback. This is my first completed pic in a few weeks, but I can’t seem to get back up to my full manipping speed..heh..maybe i’m getting old.

Nomads: The Beast Unleashed

Image created to show an evolution in my Nomads RPG character – after an event which caused extreme stress (both physical and mental) to Hank, he underwent a further transformation into a more hulk like form (due to the gamma exposure). The image itself is based from an Ed McGuinness image of Hulk from during the run with Mark Waid i think.

Obviously the hulk usually wears ripped pants, but as Hank was wearing his X-Men uniform made of unstable molecule, it realigned itself to fit his larger form. I had to edit the lines of the original image to accomodate my character features and the uniform. I think I did alright. And also a new signature created from this image:

 

RPG Concept: Firefly

This was a concept pic I did a back before my pooter problems for a friends character for the Valiant RPG over at marvel-boards.co.uk.

I chose the pic of Rachel Leigh Cook, mostly because her hair was already pink (the color of the character’s) Other than RLC everything else was added to the pic, and all the jewellry she was wearing was removed(was wearing some chunky necklaces and rings). The wings were created using a fill called Digital Headache, which is basically like oil on water mixed with video feedback. Added a light and dark edge to the wings to give them some volume. they were set slightly transparent.

The bars are just gradient filled rectangles. if you look closely you will see them reflected in her eyes to. The background was just a grotty passageway image I found on google.. thought it looked like a dank prison. (Valiant are based in an old prison complex on Muir Island)

An updated BIO for the character can be found here (we moved to a new game)

Oldies: Jemstone’s Artemis Colored

Ok.. i seem to recall Jemstone saying he wouldn’t mind if I colored one of his pics. He would probably be as surprised as I was to find that i did! Back when i was experimenting with my color/texture style I had downloaded a nice simple pic to do it with.. guess what.. it was Artemis here. Go figure. I never submitted it at the time, so here it is, a little tidied up and with an appropriate background. Hope you like it.

Kevin Newburn’s Deadpool – Inked & Colored

I just love coloring Kev’s work. I think it’s his clean fluid lines. Anyway, I thought this would make a good mock cover for Agent X.

The coloring is done in using colorized textures, in this case my favourite leather one. I inked over the sketch using the vector pen. Added some extra detail to the costume in the form of raised seams. The shading was done on a seperate layer using soften on gradient filled shapes. This was the circular gradient offset to the left. This layer was built up and additional HSL adjustments done to give wrinkles. Needed more so added white lines on a soft light layer to highlight the wrinkles.

The sword is done from scratch, with the handle grabbed from a Deadpool pin up (i was getting lazy/tired). The Agent X logo was downloaded from JuvenileMike’s DSN site. The marvel logo I cut previously from an old cover scan. The background is from my stock and is made from an alleyway, colorized orange, and a flame pic on a screen layer.

Emma Frost / White Queen Early Concept for FXM

Going to be a bit busy this month with work, so here is an early concept i was playing with for the Magazine Theme Day over at DCG.  I prefer how it ended up (check Sep 1 post for what was eventually used), but this version does have something about it that is interesting i hope. The larger size may make some of the costume detail more obvious – especially the stitching.

 

A Thing in the Swamp

Ok.. this is totally not my normal style. I was just messing about with my pen and the various brush presets in PSP8 and this emerged. The only definite additions were the grass and a dark green in the background. The rest I just drew on the tablet fairly randomly. If you look at the pic from a few feet away and squint.. it kinda looks like a figure made of leaves and plants…. hence the title…I added some lighter ‘leaves’ to give some definition and we have an impressionist Swamp Thing.

Press: Lion Heart Comic Cover

I thought it might be a good idea to do a comic cover for my RPG character Lion Heart. Lion Heart is part of Valiant a UK based team, formerly run by the government. The team were formerly media darlings, but have now been made scapegoats and are currently being trashed by the media. In this issue he meets the Valiant team for the first time, while battling the evil ninja Shadow Reavers…killers on the payroll of The Faction.

Character BIO:

Lion Heart

Real Name: Cameron Angus

Occupation: Martial Arts Instructor

Height: 5′ 8″

Weight: Approx 11st

Eyes: Blue/Grey, Glow white when using powers at higher levels.

Distinguishing Marks: Long burn scar down left arm where lightning struck. This also glows when using powers at higher levels.

Description: Cameron had been staying in Stirling for a few days, when he decided to pay a visit to the Wallace Monument. As he was looking up at the monument, a freak storm appeared out of nowhere from the east. As it approached the monument there was a huge release of energy, which travelled down the tower, and into Cameron, knocking him unconscious.  A few days later, as he recovered in hospital, he read about a battle between the X-Men and an unnamed being which ended up on Edinburgh Castle. The battle had ended with a huge release of energy. Cameron wondered if this was related to his accident.

It was shortly following his release from hospital that his powers began to first manifest. As he was riding his motorcycle to Glasgow one night, the whole machine began to glow, as if lit by some internal source. Screeching to a halt at the roadside, Cam leaped off the bike, fearing it was about to explode. As he let go of the machine the light subsided, leaving it untouched, and looking perfectly normal. He reached out to the bike, touching the handle bars and found by experimenting that he could cause any metal part to glow and By concentrating he could vary the intensity of the light.

A few months later, he was jumped by a mugger while walking home through Glasgow one evening. As he struggled with the man, Cam caught his assailant by the wrist, his hand over the mans metal watch. It was difficult to tell who was more surprised by what happened next. As they struggled Cam caused the watch to light up, and as it reached an almost white peak, there was a flash and a crack like lightning and the mugger fell to the ground stunned. Deciding that discretion was the better part of valour, and knowing the police would ask questions he wasn’t ready or willing to answer, Cameron ran into the night, catching the Subway home.

Thinking it would be best if he got some space to try and make sense of his powers, Cam rented a cottage out in the middle of nowhere, and began practising with his powers, becoming proficient at generating streams of a plasma like energy using a metal rod to channel the field in the direction he desired. By using a hollow tube he found he could create plasma ‘pulses’ like bullets.

It was at this time Cam was offered a job in London, and having nothing to keep him in Scotland, decided to take it. In london he carried on as an Instructor during the day, but at night prowled the darkness, dispensing justice on hapless muggers and criminals who crossed his path. As time passed, he obtained a sword and guns to use to further refine his channeling power, and secretly created a costume, threaded with metal for greater strength. His ability to fly was discovered by accident, when one night he slipped while running over a rooftop.

As he fell, his power kicked in flowing through the metal threading of his suit, slowing his descent. Theorising that his suit was also capable of channeling his plasma, he found that he could change direction, and achieve powered flight.

Abilities: Lion Heart has the ability to generate highly charged plasma using metallic objects as a conduit. Skilled Marksman and Swordsman. Exceptional Athlete and Martial Artist. Using metal threads laced through his uniform to channel plasma and create a frictionless field can achieve flight capability at up to 200MPH for approx 2 hours.

Weapons: Chromium Steel/Vibranium Sword, Chromium Steel/Vibranium Guns (Contain no shells. Used as focus to create and channel plasma projectiles.

Art Notes: This was based around a sketch I found on google of Punisher shooting at Spiderman. Used the sketch for shaped and the face, shadows and textures added. got rid of the chest skull. Rest of the pic is made up from textures and images I already had on my PC.

Flash Photography

Well, my first submission of something done in Poser. Just a tester really, I am still getting to grips with the program when I get a minute or two. The Flash model was downloaded from Animotions. Post work done in PSP8: Lightning, new backdrop, motion blurring/ghosting, framing. Added some fingerprints from those annoying people who don’t hold pics by the edges..;)

Kevin Newburn’s Daredevil – Inked & Coloured


I took the comments on the coloring of Kev‘s Hellboy to heart, and decided to do an inking & coloring of his Daredevil image. Done in PSP8 I started out by drawing over his image using the Vector Pen tool in black at 1.5 point to make vector shapes. I used this for the main outlines and body features. At this point I thought about which body parts overlayed others and so if you see the image uncolored, it looks a bit messy. I then used one of my leathery textures, colored deep red as a fill for the shapes, reduced 50% and rotated 45

ParkVengers #0: ParkVengers Assembled

Just thought I would introduce the cast of ParkVengers, I plan to use them in a few funnies when I feel the need for a bit of quick comedy art.. (ie. when my main manips have me tearing my hair out)..got a few in the series to kick off.. the rest will appear as and when;) Note: IM you will have seen already, all the others are new (I redid Cap again from scratch, to get that chainmail look he has again these days;))

Nomads: In Defence of Beastly Memories

This is a collection piece I did using mostly images I had previously submitted, pulled together as part of an image based on my current Character in the Marvel-Boards.co.uk RPG – Nomads. The only new parts, are the unmutated Beast created from a bust (recolor, replace head, new eyes) and The Beast in the corner (colored form the Ultimate Beast). My Character is Hank McCoy aka The Beast. This depicts him remembering his former Defender’s team mates – Hulk, Valkyrie, Iceman, Angel – and himself before his transformation.

Nomads – Profile: “The Beast”

Real name: Henry “Hank” Peter McCoy

Occupation: (current) Adventurer, (former) Biochemist

Identity: Publicly known

Legal status: Citizen of the United States with no criminal record

Other aliases: None

Place of birth: Dunfee, Illinois

Marital status: Single

Known relatives: Norton (father), Edna (mother), Robert (uncle)

Group affiliation: (former)X-Men, Defenders

Extent of education: Ph.D. in Biochemistry

Base of operations: Mobile; (former) Xavier Institute, Salem Center, Westchester County, New York State; Defenders Mansion, Colorado;

History: Henry McCoy’s father, Norton, worked at a nuclear power plant where he was exposed to massive amounts of radiation during an accident. Norton was unharmed, but the radiation affected his genes, and as a result his son Henry was born a mutant. Unlike most superhuman mutants, Henry showed signs of mutation from birth: unusually large hands and feet. Thanks to his superhuman agility, strength, and speed, Henry became a star football player as a teenager. His remarkable athletic abilities attracted the notice of Professor Charles Xavier, who was forming the original X-Men.

He joined the X-Men, taking the code name “Beast.” A brilliant student, McCoy completed his doctoral studies under Xavier’s tutelage, and finally left the X-Men and Xavier’s school to reorganize another super-hero group, the Defenders, into a more formal combat organization. His X-Men cohorts Angel and Iceman served in the Defenders along with him, alongside The Hulk and Valkyrie.

After battling and subduing the Absorbing Man, Hank took it upon himself to try and find a cure for Creel’s situation. Valkyrie returned to Asgard and obtained a sample of the herbs used by Loki to give Creel his powers. Developing a serum he believed would cure Creel, Hank was preparing to inject Creel when he broke loose. As Hulk and Hank struggled to subdue Creel once more, Hank was accidently injected with the serum. The serum interacted with Hank’s mutant gene and the ambient Gamma radiation from the Hulk causing radical physical changes.

His skin turned green and he grew fur over his entire body, his ears became larger and pointed, and his canine teeth became larger, resembling fangs. The serum also further increased his superhuman agility, endurance, speed, and strength. Driven over the edge by the pain of his transformation and his changed appearance, Hank turned on his fellow Defenders, badly injuring Warren and Bobby, while Valkyrie and Hulk were concentrating on Creel. Hank then disappeared into the wilderness.

Tracked down by Xavier using Cerebra, Hank is finally coming to terms with his transformation but is still troubled by terrible rages which he struggles to keep under control, knowing that in losing control he might free the animal within him and lose his humanity forever. Now known as “The Beast”, Hank has become part of a ragtag group of adventurers, pulled together to try and mend the rips in the fabric of time and space. His Current Team mates are Sinistra (Victoria Essex, daughter of Nathaniel), Marie LeBeau (wife, and mother of Gambit’s as yet unborn child), Sam Guthrie (Cannonball, in his 50s had more or less retired from active heroics), Otto Octavius (New York’s premier hero after saving it from many menaces, including his long time foe The Spiderman), WildChild (The teams other beastly member.. beastly by nature and personality), Scott Summers (a young mutant just beginning to understand his optic blasts), Collosus (former member of Weapon X, now battling against them) and Eve (the younger daughter of Kurt and Wanda Wagner, niece of Magneto). Together they are “The Nomads”.

Height: 5 ft. 11 in.

Weight: 355 lbs. Eyes: Yellow/Orange

Hair: (originally) Brown, (currently) Green

Other distinguishing features: Covered with fur, unusually large hands and feet, pointed ears, fang-like teeth Known superhuman powers: The Beast has the superhuman strength, agility, endurance, speed and dexterity. He is strong enough to lift (press) 4,000 pounds. His legs are powerful enough to enable him to leap 30 feet high in a standing high jump, and 50 feet in a standing broad jump. He is able to crawl up brick walls by wedging his fingers and toes into the smallest cracks and applying a vise-like grip on them. He has enough power to smash through a eight-inch thick oaken door with a single blow or tie a six-inch solid steel bar into a knot.

He has the agility of a great ape and the acrobatic prowess of the most accomplished circus aerialist and acrobat. Ha can walk a tightrope or a slack rope as easily as most people can walk on a sidewalk. He can walk on his hands for many hours, or perform a complicated sequence of gymnastic stunts such as flips, rolls, and springs. He can easily match or top any Olympic record at gymnastics apparatus (such as flying rings, climbing ropes, horizontal bars, trampolines). Further, his manual and pedal dexterity is so great that he can write using both hands at once or tie knots in rope with his toes.

The Beast is quite fast, able to run on all four at approximately 40 miles per hour for short sprints. His stamina is approximately quadruple that of a well-trained athlete in his prime. His physiology is durable enough to permit him to take a six-story fall without a broken bone or stain (providing he lands on his feet). At the time of his further mutation into his present furry form, his metabolism underwent a period of accelerated change. As a side effect, he was able to metabolize and recover from penetration wound to his body within a matter of minutes. Since then, his body’s metabolism has stabilized and he no longer has quite such a rapid recovery rate. He is still able to recover from most wounds within a few hours.

Oldies: Superman

Just another oldie that never quite came to anything.. this was just me playing about with with shapes, and shadows and was inspired by a Loston Wallace sketch of the Superman.. the insignia I added just now from the vector one I had created for my Supergirl pic. I quite liked this basic kinda style, but when I deliberately set out to do a shaded face, it never quite came out the same.

911: Do not go gentle into that good night

I found a picture of Captain America while browsing, and thought it just evoked that feeling of battling through adversity. I just added a couple of filters, nothing fancy. I also get that feeling whenever I hear the Dylan Thomas Poem that shares the picture’s title:

Do not go gentle into that good night,Old age should burn and rave at close of day; Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right, Because their words had forked no lightning they Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight, And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way, Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay, Rage, rage against the dying of the light. And you, my father, there on the sad height, Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray. Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

In memory of the lights that went out on September 11th 2001, New York City.