264 – That Was Just Tempting Fate
Feb 242014
Finally I can get the Add New Post page to load! I’ve only been trying for 15 minute.
I was so concerned with just trying to get this thing to load that I wasn’t able to think of anything I wanted to talk about. I’m just going to pick a character and go with it.
Red Rich.
I like writing Red Rich. He has a very particular voice. It’s a mix of pompousness and silliness. I missed writing lines for him while he was out of the strip. It’s great having him back and an active participant in a storyline. He’s one of the few characters who translates almost exactly the same from the original Animus stories to the Funnies.
For a while I had trouble drawing Red Rich. My hand is shaky if I draw slowly and it really shows when I draw ellipses. What shape is Red Rich’s head? That’s right. An ellipse. I try to use a quicker, smoother stroke of the pen now so he looks a lot better than say a year ago. The biggest improvement I’d say is his ears. I have a consistent shape for them now. He has a slightly more round face than Todrick and his ears are a little shorter. I still need to count the lines in his tail to make sure he has the right number of stripes.
I find that Red Rich doesn’t look right if his eyes are fully opened. I like him best with his eyes half open. It’s just the right attitude for him.
As you may know, I someday would like to write a series of adventures starring Todrick, Cyran, Sass and Red Rich. There are key scenes that I’ve already imagined and in particular, one that features Red Rich where we get to see that he’s a lot more observant and self-aware than he lets on. He knows that the others think he’s weird, but he likes and is comfortable with who he is so he doesn’t let it get to him. I wish I was a little more like him in that respect. Maybe I should start referring to my friends as Citizens to get in the right mindset?
Anyway, that’s what I have to say about Red Rich today.
Feb 142014
Hey! It’s Friday! It’s also Valentine’s Day! I wish I’d have counted ahead. I could have drawn something nice for the day. Oh well! Maybe next year! For now, let’s just get on with the flashback! It’s back to the JOE team this week. G.I.JOE is probably my favourite toy line of all time though I’m sure one of my friends will remind me of one I forgot after reading this. But you’re not here to read as I reminisce on the toys of my youth. You’re here to see some purdy pictures! So purdy pictures you shall have! As always, you can embiggen a picture by clicking on it. Judging by the fact that I’ve dressed up as Flint on no less than three separate occasions, you’d be safe in guessing that Flint is my favourite member of the JOE team. (That, or I don’t think I’d be able to pull off the redhead look enough to be Scarlett! 😉 ) There wasn’t much chance then that I was going to cast Green Rich as anyone other than Flint. Here he is in both his original and Tiger Force colour schemes.
But that’s not all! On top of aping the pose from Flint’s blister card, I went all out and redid the whole card itself! If you saw the Oonch-Ho blister card on Facebook you may notice the logo is different as well as several other minor differences. I did Flint’s card first and I hand drew the logo based on the style used on his card. Well wouldn’t you know it, being that Gung-Ho was from an earlier wave, the card wasn’t quite the same. The logo was flat instead of raised. I searched out a font online and redid the logo in Serif DrawPlus X5. I could have redone the logo for this card as well, since DrawPlus features instant 3D effects. However, after all the time I spent drawing the logo (it took nearly as long as the mash-up) I didn’t want to simply toss it away.
And finally, here’s the comparison with the original mash-up.
Okay, so that’s it for this we–okay, okay! I can tell that you’re all disappointed that I didn’t do anything for Valentine’s Day so here’s Flint Rich in a special Valentine’s Day colour scheme! Bonus points if you share the Valentine’s Flint Rich with your sweetheart! Enjoy and have a good weekend!
UPDATED: The dates on the comparison picture were inverted by mistake. Oops! They’re correct now.
Jan 242014
You know what day it is, I know what day it is, let’s not play any games with each other and just get to the flashback, shall we?
I’ve been revisiting themes in the original order they first appeared on the site. Next on the list was Bill and Ted. All the pictures are embiggenable. Just click on them.
Bill and Ted was a small theme the first time around so it was likely this flashback was going to be the only time I revisited it. It made sense then that both Bill and Ted would be featured. Because I like Bogus Journey more than Excellent Adventure, I considered going with the movie poster that featured Bill, Ted and the Grim Reaper pressed up against a pane of glass. I love that poster. …But it wasn’t full body. I flipped through some pictures online and decided to be ambitious and try the original movie poster or at least the main element of Bill and Ted sitting on top of the phone booth. As I went along, I decided to just do the whole thing. I even added the caption and some “credits”. My character’s dimensions meant I had to lay things out a little differently but honestly, I’m extremely proud of the way it turned out.
I wrote about the trials and tribulations of the picture here. To get an idea, on the left is an approximation of how far I’d gotten when Paint crashed, compared to the finished picture (sans space and text) to the right and the uncoloured picture underneath:
If you’re thinking to yourself, “Gee, you didn’t have very much left to do.” then you can imagine how devastating it was for me to lose all my progress. I’m just glad I ended up with a backup I could use. I know for sure I wouldn’t have had the stomach to start the whole thing over from scratch.
Next up are just the heroes of the piece. Together:
And separately:
Finally are the comparisons to the original pieces. I remember that the originals were the first time I drew proper sleeves for the shirts the characters were wearing. They weren’t as bad as some of the earlier pieces, but my lines were a lot shakier. One of my big goals is to work on my brush strokes.
So that’s all for this week. Next week’s revisit is another more elaborate piece than I usually do. Come back next Friday to find out what.
255 – Are We EVER Going to Find Out How That Storyline Ended?
