Some life drawing from the past year or so.

I made some refined orthographic views of a couple of old designs in preparation for modelling. I have a thing for retro-style flying cars. I find it’s more subtly challenging than, say, [random shape + windows = space ship] kind of design.

I’ve been brushing up on my modelling which is probably my favorite part of the 3D process, hence the clay rendering. These were all created with Luxology modo which has become my favorite modelling app and I can’t recommend it enough.

Here’s a Bruce Timm/JLU style Hal Jordan who I always wanted to see in his own series. Yes, I know the DVD is coming out soon.

Everyone models “cool” cars. Cool cars are so lame so I did an ugly one. This is a 1972 AMC Gremlin X based on the one driven by an old drag racer named Wally Booth.

This is based on an old robot design for a Future-Noir/Pinnochio/Cop-Buddy idea.

Here’s something I did up for Project Rooftop’s Batman 2.0 contest. I didn’t quite make it after succumbing to my darling little walking disease vector, however. I’m pretty happy with the way the costume so here it is.

There’s a surprisingly long history of taking existing properties or characters and putting them into outer space or the future. It’s such an obvious suit-think thing to do. I imagine that they think they’re being really clever by, as like to put it, “reinvisioning it for a new generation/90′s/millienium” (ie. giving them a hoverboard). You see, in the future you can have them fly around and use cool gadgets which is, of course, impossible if a story is set in the present.

Some of them are tolerable but most make me cringe. Space Family Robinson, Partridge Family 2200, Gilligan’s Planet, Flash Gordon, Stargate Infinity, Highlander: The Animated Series, Highlander: The Search for Vengeance, TMNT Fast Forward,  Speed Racer: The Next Generation, Marvel 2099,  Marvel MC2, Next Avengers, Zorro: Generation Z, Loonatics Unleashed (which spawned these awesome parodies, 1, 2, 3) and probably many more that I’m missing. I must admit, however that I have a soft spot for futuristic westerns and I did enjoy Phantom 2040 (with Peter Cheung character designs), Batman Beyond (mediocre Timm/Dini/Murakami is still pretty good), and Spider-Man 2099 (which is mainly due to Rick Leonardi‘s art).

The classic Batgirl’s portrayl always seem to come off as girly and lame despite her being a hero. A kind of second-rate Nancy Drew, if you will. Take this theme song for instance. It made more sense to give her an urban commando outfit with the kicks and escrima sticks like the ones Nightwing carries.

Julie Newmar is the Catwoman I always remember. I went light on the accessories because she’s not a gadgety character. They are heavy on the blacks which I don’t normally do but am starting to like.

It always bothers me that artists typically draw Batman and Superman with the same physique. I know there’s the metaphor in their relationship but considering who they are I imagine them looking very different. Batman is a slick and athletic billionaire. Superman is a big alien farm boy who gets his power from solar radiation so I made him more bulky and organic. The farm boots and the semitic hair give him a little more awkwardness that I think the character should have. I ‘m also addicted to the Liquid Ink tool in Painter. There’s some great inky and brushy effects that I used here.

I made an exercise for myself where I would try to redesign existing characters, giving each one a different style. Drawing old characters is an interesting challenge; all the superficial elements are already there so it forces you to think more abstractly. I started with Batman, of course. I love that the DC characters are so graphic, almost like they’re logos themselves. I made this one pointy and angular but a bit rubbery and goofy at the same time. It ended up more Timm-ish than I had intended but I think it’s a hard thing to avoid when unless you go more realistic.

They said I was crazy to work on this show but I can certainly say this was much more enjoyable that what I had been doing. On the plus side, when making a toy commercial for a non-existent product, really, the only victim is the client rather than society at large. However, the game is apparently now slated for an early 2008 release even though 2007 was declared to be the Year of Chaotic.

In case you were wondering, everything was drawn in Photoshop (the houses were drawn with the path tool) because it was easier to manage all the layers than in Sketchbook.