Zulu's art

[Mowgli]

I like the fact that you gave him simple white arms, with a bit of muscle. He doesn't have to be a complete skeleton. Smart choice. I also really enjoy your translation of fire. The stylized, curling colors look great!  :thumbup:

[zuludelta]

I like the fact that you gave him simple white arms, with a bit of muscle. He doesn't have to be a complete skeleton. Smart choice. I also really enjoy your translation of fire. The stylized, curling colors look great!  :thumbup:

Ooops  :doh:... I guess I wasn't very clear in my previous post., the Ghost Rider image isn't a re-imagining on my part, it's based on the actual look of the character as seen here. If there's anything I contributed to the design, it's probably my take on the stylized hologram flames. Glad you like the image though!

zulu, this pseudo animated style you have devolped and keep improving with every pic u post is actually impresive, i am in lovewith most of your desings,especially the cloak and dagger one, really creative urban look

Thanks juancho!

Have you considered trying any cosmic/mystic characters yourself?

I dunno... I'll probably draw Blade at some point in the future, although I'll do it as a straight interpretation rather than a re-imagined, "Ultimate" look... he's pretty "ultimate" looking already in his 616 guise.

Thanks for looking and posting everybody!

[zuludelta]

Well, decided to try something different tonight... here's Deathblow (from the early 1990s Image Comic):



Not Ultimate Deathblow... just plain old Deathblow, tramping about in the snow. I tried to do a sort of homage to the old Jim Lee/TIm Sale look, keeping it grayscale except for the the two strips of red facepaint.

[psychopanda]

Cool style going on ZD. I realy like the stark white/black background on the Deatblow pic.

[Tortuga]

The folds in the fabric look great.

[zuludelta]

Thanks for looking and posting guys!

I realy like the stark white/black background on the Deathblow pic.

Leave it to a panda to dig the black-and-white colour scheme :lol:

Here's an earlier drawing... I remember starting this back when I was still skinning for Freedom Force but never really went ahead and finished it (IIRC, I was doing the sketch in preparation for doing a skin/hex edit)... good thing I kept the scans of the original sketch. It's the UDON Studios version of Taskmaster from his 2002 mini-series:



One thing I like about doing straight-up interpretations of established characters is that I like the challenge of applying my own sensibilities to the character design. Hopefully I managed to stay true to the source material while having enough of my individual art style to come through (I just had to change the weapons from those blocky, "Liefeld" pistols to more realistic looking handguns!).

I'm actually surprised that the editors over at Marvel decided to revert Taskmaster to his old look. Don't get me wrong, his original costume is great but I think the overall reader reception for the updated costume was pretty good.

One thing that's always bothered me with how writers treat Taskmaster is that if he's supposed to be one of villaindom's premier butt-kickers, how come we always see him getting punked by all sorts of heroes? but this mini-series actually showed him winning for once... and I like how he isn't treated as a typical eeevil villain, but as more of a no-nonsense mercenary who just goes out and does the job that he's paid to do.

Anyways, here's an image I just wanted to show off... my 7-year old cousin saw me drawing in Photoshop when my aunt's family was visiting recently... apparently, he was so inspired that he went on the family's home computer that night, booted up MS Paint, and came up with this:

[BatWing]

hey thats not bad at all :thumbup:
when i use ms paint their in scribbles

[Reepicheep]

Hey, they're pretty good. When I was that age, I could never have pulled something like that off.



Your cousin's ones arn't bad either.

:P

[Courtnall6]

I was so very disappointed when Marvel made this costume change. Taskmasters' original (and current, thankfully) is one of the best designs around. Throwing street hockey gear, a hoody, and...sigh...twin pistols on him was very lame.

Great pic though zulu! I love the action pose. :cool:

(and yes I am aware that my current av is sporting twin pistols :P)

[UnfluffyBunny]

I loved the UDON look taskmaster personally ^_^
very nice work ZD

[psychopanda]

Leave it to a panda to dig the black-and-white colour scheme :lol:

Ironic, huh?!  ;)

As to Taskmaster's reversion...I'm guessing there was enough clamor from old school fanboys. I'm rather shocked if there are enough of them to cause such a change, but in a way happy that it happened.

I think the costume could use a color revision, but I'd leave it essentially the same. As I get deeper into artists/writers before my generation, I'm understanding the need to maintain the essence of a character. Sure, I would be the first to agree with anyone else that the new Taksmaster costume looks "cool!". But is it really Taskmaster? I think it loses alot of what he was about, a multi-tasking thug who could pull out almost any weapon the superheroes had, right back at them. His flaw...a copy is not as good as the original, so he loses in the end. But to me, it's fun to like the loser sometimes as well.

The new one looks, well like alot of generic street heroes or villains. Heck, he could be the new Firefly on GI Joe or something.

Anyways enough of that tangent, great work...and keep drawing! :)

[zuludelta]

hey thats not bad at all :thumbup:
when i use ms paint their in scribbles

Your cousin's ones arn't bad either.
:P

Yeah, he's pretty bright for his age. I used to babysit him a lot (still do, but not as frequently) so I guess I'm to blame for his preoccupation with comic book art. The funny thing is, I was talking to his mum a couple of weeks ago and she was telling me this story about how they were at a Langley flea market and he literally jumped at a stack of old 1980s "Web of Spider-Man" comics... the seller was so pleasantly surprised to see a kid with a genuine interest in them.   

Throwing street hockey gear, a hoody, and...sigh...twin pistols on him was very lame.

The twin pistol thing does seem to be a very divisive issue when it comes to character design, you're definitely not the first person I've talked to (on-line or in person) who finds it ridiculous... I think much of the associated negativity stems from the fact that it was all the rage during the 1990s (and I think most of us can agree that a lot of the '90s comics were forgettable pap). I never really gave it much thought, though... just always assumed that it was an affectation unique to the era but had no feelings about it either way. Glad you dug the pose!

I loved the UDON look taskmaster personally ^_^

I don't know why, but for some reason I thought you would  :) Incidentally, I prefer it myself, but in a "Wolverine's brown costume vs.old yellow and blue costume" kind of way... I like both the original and the later costume, but always felt that the newer one was less garish in terms of colour.

I would be the first to agree with anyone else that the new Taksmaster costume looks "cool!". But is it really Taskmaster? I think it loses alot of what he was about, a multi-tasking thug who could pull out almost any weapon the superheroes had, right back at them.

Good point about the UDON design sort of losing a lot of the elements originally associated with the Taskmaster. I guess that the 2002 costume does fail in communicating that particular aspect of the character. Sure the new costume had wrist attachments that could generate "hard energy" facsimiles of Cap's shield, Spidey's webs, and Wolvie's claws but unless the reader were to see them in action, it wasn't really all that apparent. What I think it does succeed at doing is making a worthwhile character more appealing to a different, perhaps a younger, reader demographic that would have dismissed him in his original costume.

Thanks for all the comments guys!

[UnkoMan]

I'm going to pipe in here. Twin pistols are... awesome. I can understand why people don't like them, and yeah they got waaaaay overused, but they are still rad. You want to know why? The Shadow. Really, do I need to say more? There have been tons of other characters who have made twin pistols work, and work well.

On Taskmaster, they work well. That's not to say he should only use them, he shouldn't. He has an in-character reason to use any and every type of weapon available (as long as he'd have been able to view experts using them). But yeah, I thought they worked really well. I didn't like the "hoodie" look at first either, but it actually makes more sense than a cape, and the padding makes a lot of sense too. Plus, come on... that mask is way cooler than a simple skull. Not to say skulls aren't sweet, but aren't there enough fellas floating out there? But who has a mask like this? Nobody.

And I've got to say... I love how your cousin used the same head shape over. It's really cool, that he had the good sense to do that.

[zuludelta]

Been busy helping a fellow FR'er with a personal art project, so i haven't been able to do any new drawings for the past few days (it also didn't help that I was in Whistler over the past weekend). Running low on inspiration today, though, so I decided to do a straight-up rendition of a Marvel character to get the creative juices flowing. Here's Silver Surfer:

EDIT: pic updated, see my subsequent posts

He's always been one of my favourite superheroes, both from a visual standpoint and character-wise. In my opinion, he stands as perhaps the most iconic of Jack Kirby's designs. It works so well that most people who view him just plain miss how ridiculous the idea of an alien on a surfboard is (which I've attempted to remedy by drawing the board as simply an extension of his metallic form which he extrudes when he is in flight, much in the same way it was done by Brandon Peterson in the Ultimate Galactus trilogy).

[psychopanda]

Very cool. My only suggestion would be, make the front of the board less angular and more rounded. The way it is now, his movement flows and then stops right in front of us.

[MJB]

Loving the art Zulu. Keep it up.

-MJB

[zuludelta]

My only suggestion would be, make the front of the board less angular and more rounded.

Good catch 'panda, updated the pic with your suggestion.

[UnkoMan]

...I actually kinda liked the old board. The new one is nice though, and makes more sense.
The only problem I had with it was the arm coming towards us. Forshortening is tough obviously, especially with this "focus just on outlines" style, but it looks a bit clunky to me.

You know what isn't clunky though? The face! The face is sheer awesome and, as it should be, has the highest detail. I love it.

And come on, don't all aliens fly around on surfboards... or skis?

[zuludelta]

The only problem I had with it was the arm coming towards us. Forshortening is tough obviously, especially with this "focus just on outlines" style, but it looks a bit clunky to me.

Yeah, I was halfway through with the drawing when I realized that the angle I chose would make it a little tough to sell the foreshortening on the left arm. The easiest way to do it would be to make the hand bigger than it really should be, Kirby-style, and give some more visual cues to indicate where the elbow should be:



Better?

[psychopanda]

Good catch 'panda, updated the pic with your suggestion.

I think that's working alot better. :)

[UnkoMan]

Totally agreed. You've got it down now.

[zuludelta]

Thanks for all the feedback guys... here's a little something different... it's my take on Dr. Strange's Sanctum Sanctorum:



I'll probably keep tinkering with this scene on and off... maybe add some floating wizard pedestrians and air-whales and whatnot.

[psychopanda]

Cool! If you want a more ancient feel, you could make the pipes more like an aqueduct/brick tunnel.

There's a funny story told by one of the Comic pros...something about them making a trip to the address of Dr. Strange's Sanctorum (it's given in one of the books)...well whatever was there, looks nothing like the Strange's house! I think there is a building that looks alot like Avenger's building though.

[zuludelta]

There's a funny story told by one of the Comic pros...something about them making a trip to the address of Dr. Strange's Sanctorum (it's given in one of the books)...well whatever was there, looks nothing like the Strange's house!

IIRC, the address (which escapes me right now) was actually a tiny apartment being shared by the Strange Tales writer and artist at the time. it was one of those deals where the place was so tiny they had to fold/dismantle the artist's desk/lightbox just to have enough room to lie down and sleep or something.

zuu i miss your skins. you're such a fantastic artist. :)

Thanks for the compliments... coming from you, that's high praise indeed. I haven't been skinning for a good long while now, I've pretty much moved from PC to console gaming but who knows, maybe the itch will hit me one of these days.

Anyway, I'm collaborating with my older brother on a series of Punisher images... he's a huge Punisher fan and the real artist in the family, I'm just the space-cadet/slacker middle offspring  :lol: I'm surprised we haven't actually worked together on anything, despite the fact that he's been a professional in the commercial art/gaming business for a few years now and that he knows that I dabble off and on in it myself. Here's a look at the partially completed first image (it's actually a full body shot):

EDIT: pic removed, updated images in my subsequent post

He did some real tight pencils, and I'm almost sorry that I have to cover the linework with my colouring (no inking!). Still needs a bit of work... the colours aren't final, they're just to help me visualize everything and I'll probably revisit the face when all is said and done.

I'll probably dedicate a whole series of posts (or maybe even a thread) showing the process from pencils, to clean-up, to colours.

We've been talking about pitching a mini-series or something (a lá Marvel's 1602 but set in a different milieu), but nothing really fully formed right now and these images are sort of a test case to see how well we work together.

[psychopanda]

IIRC, the address (which escapes me right now) was actually a tiny apartment being shared by the Strange Tales writer and artist at the time. it was one of those deals where the place was so tiny they had to fold/dismantle the artist's desk/lightbox just to have enough room to lie down and sleep or something.

I hadn't heard that before!

Does your brother work for EA? Can't remember if you live in Vancouver, but I remember seeing the building when we were walking around.

[doctorchallenger]

IIRC, the address (which escapes me right now) was actually a tiny apartment being shared by the Strange Tales writer and artist at the time. it was one of those deals where the place was so tiny they had to fold/dismantle the artist's desk/lightbox just to have enough room to lie down and sleep or something.

I hadn't heard that before!

I think it was Bill Everett's address - he followed Ditko on Doc Strange - it was the apartment that he shared with a much younger Roy Thomas, and someone else.  As I recall, Everett slept on the couch.

ZD hI have been really enjoying your work in this thread.

[zuludelta]

Thanks for the responses and thread views guys, and I'm glad you like what you see doctorchallenger!

Does your brother work for EA? Can't remember if you live in Vancouver, but I remember seeing the building when we were walking around.

My brother works for an independent studio, but they occasionally get contracted by EA and other game publishers and companies to create content. And yeah, EA has it's offices in Burnaby, which is sort of a Vancouver suburb.

Well, here's part 1 of the Punisher series I'm doing with my brother:

Pencils:



final image (resized to fit the forums... actual image is 1000 pixels x 2000 pixels in 300 dpi):




Notes:

- the colour scheme for his quasi-costume is loosely based on Tim Bradstreet's Punisher covers

- the handguns are Sig-Sauer P-226s (for those of you who're into that kind of thing)... I think I read in an old issue of The Punisher's Armory (just one of the gazillion Punisher spin-offs they pumped out in the 1990s) that he uses a Llama .380 and a .45 caliber semiauto (rechambered for 9 mm ammo) as his preferred sidearms, but the SIGs make more sense to me... higher magazine capacity and better reliability overall, seems like the kind of weapons Frank Castle would prefer.

[Nymph]

Niiiiiiiiice!

[Blkcasanova247]

Excellent! :thumbup:

[zuludelta]

Stepping away from the Marvel universe for a minute, here's Storm Shadow, based on one of my favourite action figures of all time, the 1988 Storm Shadow:



notes:

- the tattoo on his right forearm is 既濟, Symbol 63 of the I Ching (The Book of Changes), which is used by the fictional Arashikage Clan (to which Snake-Eyes also belongs to) as their sort of family symbol. The hexagram itself has many interpretations but it is most commonly read as "in completion". The trigram order (water over fire) is also sometimes interpreted to mean persistence or perseverance.

- his left hand is posed to form one-half of the 九字印 (kuji-in: the nine mystic seals) hand symbol for 臨 (rin), which in ninjutsu is used to invoke strength (no, he isn't flipping the bird to the guy on his left). This practice of using manual representations of the nine seals to grant the user power/insight is also called Nine Hands Cutting.