Tuesday, April 22, 2014

The Adventures of G4!!!

HOLY SMOKES INTERNET, IT'S BEEN AWHILE!  TroyToTheMaxExtreme here with another important message.

About maybe a month or so ago, I was commissioned to draw an art piece for someone at my current place of employment.  She heard through the grapevine that I was into comics and superheroes, as well as could draw fairly well.  I suppose that was right up her alley because the drawing was for her son, AND HE LOVES SUPERHEROES!  Well I jumped at the chance to do it because I haven't drawn anything in a long while, plus she said she'd pay me just about anything I wanted for my time and effort.  Awesome.

Below is the progression of this said drawing.  I hope you all enjoy...


This was my initial design jumping right into the drawing.  The made up character "G4" was my co-worker's son, she asked to be in the drawing as well as their dog.  Since she said his favorite character is Nightwing, I thought throwing a Nightwing mask on the dog would be a great addition.  This drawing kind of fell apart.  I jumped right in without really placing anything and everything was disjointed to me.  I mean character's legs couldn't even fit on the page!  I did end up adding Nightwing and Spider-Man to this before I scrapped it and considered it a warm up exercise. 



The next day I sat down and just started over.  I took more heavily to reference, rather than just memory, and this is what I came up with for the G4 character.  It's probably my favorite part of the entire new drawing.



Now, when I get drawing and into the zone hours can pass in what seems like minutes.  I usually plug into some earbuds and some podcasts (or just as often movie scores), and just hit that sweet spot.  With that said I sat down and drew for 6 or 7 hours that night until about 4 am, and ended the session with this next picture.  I wish I would have taken more pictures because Nightwing made some drastic changes as I progressed.  I was going to leave his entire costume, just the linework, and no black fill.  I already thought the drawing needed more pop to it so I filled in his costume leaving highlights.  Now this was scary because I really liked what I had and I'm doing it old school with real ink and no computer touch ups.  And to be honest, I'm not really all that good with inking in the first place.  But I think it turned out pretty well and as I finished with their dog, which as you can see changed from a Nightwing-ish hero to a Krypto type, I was satisfied and headed off to bed.



The next session I sat down and started adding Batman as well as another canine.  Earlier that day, the client said that "G4's" birthday was coming up and they got a new puppy.  She asked if it would be any trouble to add that puppy to what I had.  I said no probably not, then got to thinking where am I going to add this puppy?  I think I squeezed him in there pretty well.  As for Batman, I've always been a fan of a more scary looking Batman.  Pointy, you could say.  The longer ears and gauntlets, as well as when artists draw the "cape horns".  So I add those to about every Batman I draw.



Here is a closer look with some more inking done...



And here is what I finished with at the end of that session.  Both Batman and the new pup fleshed out.




After some deliberation, I blackend up Batman's gauntlets, as well as added more detail to the cowl.  I will probably add more detail to Batman as the drawing progresses, as he is front and center.



The next day I sit down and start Superman.  Here you see I'm roughing him out and don't even have his entire body done yet.  His face also went through an incarnation before this one, as I tried to get a likeness to Christopher Reeve, but beefier.  Here is a detail of the pencils...



And here is how he fits in with the crowd.



Here he is starting to get inked.  You can see I also add more to Batman.



And here is Supes primarily done being inked.  I believe I go back to him as well for a touch up or two.



Although G4 is a DC fan, he also likes Spider-Man as well.  Ol' Webhead here was in a different pose when I first started that I couldn't get to fit tucked behind Superman.  I erased him and started over.  Here he is right before I got into really inking the fella.



And here he is complete and with the whole gang.



Now I had room for one more character to balance out the drawing.  I was reluctant to put another "Bat-Family" character in there, because G4 makes for a great Robin type himself, as well as there is only one other character that isn't DC in there, Spider-Man.  But as I thought it over, what is Batman and Nightwing without an actual Robin.  Also, the Tim Drake Robin costume is my favorite one anyway.  Here he is as the pencils get finished and the inking starts.



Here is the complete drawing, and how I sent it in to my co-worker.  I'm pretty proud of this piece, not only because it was a larger drawing and I think I filled the space well, but because it got me back into drawing.  I hope you all enjoyed this little guided tour as much as I liked drawing it.


3 comments:

  1. I hope G4 took it home and colored it up really nice!

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  2. Thank-you for sharing, sir! After hearing about the project, it was exciting to see your process! Very cool! :)

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