Colored/Inked in vectors in PSP X2. Simpsons Backdrop from google with some additions and recolor to make it dusk. Foreground using gradients. Logo from scratch.
Original Art by fellow DCG artist TemporalDave
Tag Archives: DC
Loston Wallace BatGirl – Color/Layout: LocalHero
Found this half finished coloring of a Loston Wallace pic in my WIP. Had a couple of hours free so I thought I would finish it. Digital Color in PSP X2. Logo done in vectors.
Paul Ryan’s Batman & Robin Colour: LocalHero
Digital Coloring. First using my updated PSP X2. Text by me. Color by Me. Background by Me. Drawing: Paul Ryan. Decided to go for a retro color scheme.
Michael Turner’s Wonder Woman (Colour/Layout: LocalHero)
A digital coloring of a Michael Turner sketch. Think it turned out really nicely
Mike Wieringo’s Superman
Just a coloring of a Mike Wieringo sketch I thought I would do as a tribute to a talented artist taken from us too early. Background/Layout from scratch.
Supergirl – Art: Bob McLeod Color: Local Hero
Digitally colored in Paintshop, was just a quick excercise to pass half an hour. Original drawing by Bob McLeod. I particularly like how the bricks turned out done using a gradient fill on an multiply, overlay & multiply layers each offset a couple of pixels.
Supergirl – Lost Daughter of Krypton
Just a quick manip of Kristiana Loken as Kara Zo-Rel. Multiple background layers – new york (yes I left in the towers!), couple of exploding planets overlayed and some kryptonian script. Supergirl herself is recolor of Kristiana’s original clothes with some alterations to make the belt/skirt and the cape added from scratch. removed some (few) blemishes and enhanced the eye color. Little ship in the background is kara escaping the explosion. Wanted to do a more realistic version of the current costume, but I prefer the highly saturated feel, these are comic characters after all. This is an homage to the helen slater supergirl promo poster of her flying over new york
A Rainy Night in Gotham
Just an experiment mixing some images I found on Google with a formerly unfinished work in progress I had. Colored/inked using vector shapes. The rain effect was done by creating a new layer. This was then filled with white. I used PSP’s Add noise filter to add gaussian noise (25%) coverage. Then used the motion blue to create angled streaks. duplicating this layer multiple times (setting each layer’s blend mode to multiple) I then merged them and used the negative function to reverse the layer setting it to screen. this layer was then moved below batman but above the background. repeated the process with slightly different settings to create a layer of rain in front of batman. simple when you know how;) I couldn’t remember who did the drawing originally. As soon as I can or if anyone recognises it, I will add credit here.
SuperGirl – Peaceful Summer
Well this is a manip I have been working on of Kristiana Locken as Supergirl (the actual photomanip isn’t finished but I wanted to try something different with what I have done so far.) The original pic of Kristiana was of a magazine cover and she is wearing a purple swimsuit. I manipped on the costume (will provide details when I post the actual finished manip) and then have been trying to tweak it for the past week or so. Anyways I wanted to submit something new and I thought I might try giving it a sketchy look.
I have tried this before with various levels of success and failure but I think this one turned out ok. I merged all the layers in my WIP together to get Kristiana in costume cut out on a layer of her own then I found a nice background at eldargraphics.com which matched the lighting and coloring of kristiana quite well. flipped the background to match pose and merged both layers together. duplicated the layer. On one layer I added some random white noise and then used my trusty old penpartner tablet and began to ‘scratch’ away at the picture to give the impression of pencil strokes. The other layer I used the edge preserving smooth at max and then enhanced edges and finally traced contours to give ‘layout’ lines and add some definition back to some of the shapes. all in all I think it came out quite well.. and now back to the manip itself.. maybe.
Above Metropolis
I found a sketch of superman in my images folder, i’m not sure who it was by, possibly Khary Randolph. Anyway I decided to color it in PSP using vectors. Picked out the best lines from the sketch and used bezier curves to ‘ink’ the drawing. I didn’t like the angle of the left hand (looking at the picture) hand or foot and so drew my own. Then picked my fill colors and line colors. The shadows are done with vectors also and set to multiply at 25%.
The pink sky background I found on google. I added the city skyline at the bottom using filled shapes to create the buildings and set it to soft-light. The superman logo at the back is my own vector one.
I like how it turned out, a sort of retro animation feel.
Ken Wright’s Green Lantern
A third image I found on://www.kenwrightonline.com The style of Ken’s art just seems to lend itself to a simple/cartoon like coloring style.
Green Lantern: There Can Be Only One
I saw this base image of an underwear model and I thought with this pose he might make a good John Stewart GL. And then I had the idea that for some reason he has ended up with two power rings (a fellow Green Lantern was killed in whatever battle this was and John took the ring rather than it fall to enemy hands) Anyways that’s what I thought. This is another of me trying to keep my hand in until I get really inspired. Lots of smoothing and smudging on the costume, think it turned out quite nice. The planet background I had downloaded from somewhere but recolored it here. The dirty green interlocking tile texture is one of my own made from multiple source materials.
Believe! Superman/Superboy Concept
Just keeping my hand in with manipping really. Here we have Marcus Schenkenberg (whom I’ve used before – see my ‘Blink’ piece) as a younger Man (Boy?) of Steel.
Had to do a fair bit of cleaning up on the original image as there was a lot of text to remove. The costume was made by first creating a composite texture made up from three separate elements – leather, faux suede, and chainmail (much reduced in size) – to try and give it some texture (similar to spidey’s movie costume which I love the texture on the blue sections) Then I created a layer to apply the texture. Using the lasso tool to create appropriate areas, the texture is applied at various angles to match the body shape at that area. I then mask of the extra leaving the areas that would be the suit. Using the same mask I duplicate the original model layer, tweaking the muscles and smoothing/smudging where necessary. this layer is then duplicated again with the original layer’s mode was set to multiply and the second layer’s mode set overlay.
The logo was created from scratch in vectors a while back for another project, simply here reduced and distorted to fit the chest then used to create selections to apply the soft embossed feel. I tried to give the cape a believable flowing feel, not sure if I did, but I like how it turned out. It started with a solid block of color on a layer behind supes. Using the lasso tool I created gradually darker blocks of the red (using HSL adjustment) to give the feel of folds in the cape. The same method used to create supes shadow on the cape. Then used free hand soften tool to blend all the shades together. Over the whole lot applied a gradient fill to darken the cape further where it curves over the shoulder to light at the bottom.
The actual shoulder pieces are on a layer to the front of supes, again beginning with a couple of solid blocks of color. Used gradients, the lasso and HSL to create the tighter folds and wrinkles (where it’s stitched/joined to the costume). Over the whole lot I introduced some granularity. This had the effect of giving the cape some texture post smoothing. blended in the flag in the background to further enhance the ‘belief in something larger than yourself’ feel.
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.
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.
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..;)
May I see your ID Miss?
Well I was playing about with a quick Jennifer Connolly as Wonder Woman manip, and it came into my head that since she had all these dealings with Steve Trevor, Wonder Woman would probably have some sort of military clearance – and hence the idea for a DOD ID card..
Black and white photo of Jennifer, smoothed out the flowery bathing costume she had one and removed the straps. Found a decent Alex Ross pic of Wondy and grabbed those lovely metal’s he paints. Applied a halftone effect to this black and white image. The card was made up using a rounded selection to create a drop shadow/edge effect. The background text was created as normal and then used as a fill pattern. this filled layer was distorted using the wave filter and the excess cut off. The DOD embossed stamp over the picture, and the colored logo are from the DOD website (check it out they have various seals and logos available in multiple formats for download) The text was added and I used Eyecandy glass filter to give it a raised feel.
What was the Question?
I had downloaded this pic of Orson Welles from the Third Man with the intention of using it for the Back to the 40s theme day, but i decided to go with Cap America instead. This was just a quickie experimenting with some filters. Smudged the face to remove the features. created the logo from scratch using vectors. added a drop shadow, them deformed the layer to look like it was receding. set this to soft light. applied a watercolor filter over the whole pic and then worked on the edges to look like the paint was layered on.
Iron Man Vs Steel
My attempt at colouring Dean’s great drawing. I won the coloring/painting contest over at C2F with this entry. Looking back at it myself, I think they both would have benefited from a bit more shading at the joints etc. Ah well. Hindsight vision is always 20/20!
You Love Me? Don’t Make Me Laugh!
Over in the DCG Forum No Topic Jemstone was kind enough to post some pics of his day at a convention. One of the pics reminded me of an Alex Ross piece I had downloaded, so I thought I would put them together. The sharp of eyed amongst you should be able to see some fun additions.
The New Green Lantern
Shania Twain as the new female Green Lantern in the upcoming Warner Bros series. OK.. i made that up.. but the look i was going for was the sort of promo page you get in tv guides 🙂
Started out with a picture of shania in a purple pvc outfit. extended the vest part of it to make it look more like a uniform. then began adding textures per previous art notes. the mask is done the same way. She had her hand against the wall for some reason.. so i put a door switch there, and then the sliding glass door moving to the left. All the lantern logo’s done from scratch. I put in the large one on the wall behind her using a screen layer and blurred it to make it seem more diffuse.
I almost forgot that back wall was reflected in the wall next to her, so i had to repeat the process for the logo’s reflection. The pattern in the GL text is actually stripped from a JLA Secret Origins Wallpaper and features lots of GLs flying to OA. The font is called Armor Piercing. Added WB & DC logos from Net and my own logo. Final thing i added was the GL oath which was one once in green then blurred and once in black on top.
From the desk of… LocalHero
This is a little bit of fun I had early this morning.. it’s amazing what an inability to sleep can do for creativity! I wanted to do a bit of practice with perspective, so I found the pic of the desktop on Google. Then I layered on some of my recent pics and even some works in progress I am currently working on. Using the freeform deformation tool, I tried to match the perspective of the desk and pc screen. I added the C2F logo to the cup by deforming it, then cutting the top and bottom of the square logo pic to give a curved edge. then I darkened the furthest away edge multiple times as it curved round the cup. this layer was set to softlight. I duplicated the logo layer and set it to color. the art page shadows were done using the vector tool to draw straight black lines which were blurred. the shadow of the page hanging over the edge of the desk was done using a gradient fill. the cap/wolvie pic i did recently i tried to make look like a comic by duplicating that layer a couple of times offset slightly. A little bit of cutting of my first Invisible Woman pic and a new shadow, and the pencil looks like it is on top now. The WIPs showing are all based on Tom Derenick sketches. Just a bit of fun, but surprisingly effective. I am definitely going to use this to frame other art in future.
Superman – Last Son of Krypton Colored
This sketch was downloaded from kodiakcomics.com. I wanted to do something a little different in the coloring because of the chest detail. I made a copy of the sketch on a new layer. on a layer over that i applied a blue suede texture on multiply. These two layers were merged to provide the base for coloring the pic. i filled another new layer with the blue suede texture. using the lasso tool, i followed the outline of superman to cut away the excess from both layers. I then used the lasso and colorize tool to recolor each layer for the cape belt etc. The suede layer was set to overlay to enhance the color and texture. I then ‘inked’ over the main borders and edges. Then i created a new dodge layer for use in the highlights. these are softened gradient filled selections. The cape was darkened under neath using a gradient fill on a multiply layer. The background is made up of several more layers – my vector S logo, a black-white gradient, a white-blue gradient, and the ‘circuit’ texture. I deformed the bottom section of the circuit to create the floor for supes to stand on. I added the gradient at the join to give the impression of a curve where floor and wall join. The s-logo has a blurred corona around it on a dodge layer.
Smallville Promotional Concept
Just messing about with layers and such. Found this pic of Tom Welling on the smallville website. Recolored the tshirt from red to blue. The logo on the shirt and on the wall behind are from my own vector version. I tried to make the chest logo look like that plastic stuff they put on tshirts that you arent supposed to iron. This layer is on twice. once set to dodge, the other set to color.
The background wall is intended to look like faded paint. the logo layer was blown up and softened, and set to softlight. cut out where tom was standing. to add a bit more to the background, the wall not covered by the logo has a blue gradient fill on a multiply layer. Smallville ‘hoarding’ added as a flat black layer, overlayed with a noise texture. text created from dc comics cover, distressed slightly. added 3d lighting using eyecandy glass filter. drop shadow added. added logos to bottom.
Challenge: General Zod
JuvenileMike issued a challenge to do General Zod way back in November 2002 on C2F Here is my interpretation of Zod from the latest Superman run. I took some liberties, but i think they work.
The base model for this was body builder Chris Cormier. I started this months ago and have dipped in and out on a fairly frequent basis. The helmet was proving to be a complete and utter bastard, but i had a bit of inspiration when i found a nice clean pic of the Predator Mask, which i messed about with until it had a pleasing feel. The tubes were created by combining various sections of different industrial cable tubing bit. Added shading and shadows by hand. I particularly like how the eyes turned out.
The cloak started out as a piece of velvety fabric which i duplicated a few times and smudged together, adding hi and lo lights. The chainmail is an overlay layer containing the whole body with texture added and distorted to match muscles etc. The tunic is the body promoted to a layer of its own and smudged and softened. shadows were added to lift it away from the body where needed. The superman cloak was done using the vector tool and painted manually in various shades. Overall there are well over 100 layers in this piece.