Artistic Challenge 19: Names + Randomizer - Assignments Posted!

[Pyroclasm]

Ok, here's a randomizer, but we'll have a little twist this time.  Instead of signing up by naming an existing character, you will make up a name for an all-new hero/villain.  It will be their hero/villain name (not secret ID) and you should give no other descriptions about the character.  The names will be pooled together, and each participant will receive a random name and a random theme.  The task will be to design the all-new character that suits the name, and fits the assigned theme.

Start posting as soon as your image is done.  There is no due date for the actual posting, so don't panic as it approaches the challenge's "end date".

IF you want to be told a random art style to attempt, please indicate so in your signup post. (This may include but is not limited to Kirby, Timm, Anime, etc.)  This is not mandatory, but some people may be gluttons for punishment. :D

The next challenge starts on Sept. 1st.  Sorry, but since there will be no additional names, I can't give out new assignments.  If you signed up and just want to do another, use the second name you got and either pick a different theme or keep the same one.

Rules:
1) It must be your art.  No reposting or "kitbashing" of other people's art.  Obviously it's an honor system, but you don't wanna get called out on it and end up ruining it for others.
2) Nothing from Freedom Force or City of Heroes/Villains.  (Both have their own sections on FR.) If you make something (like a skin) that coincides with your art entry, you can link to the another thread.
3) Although technically not a work in progress thread, you can update the image in your post at any time.  You can also create a new thread featuring your work in progress and link to it.  I just don't want other artist's work buried under repeated postings of your progress.
4) Forum rules still govern subject matter.

Remember this is open to artists of all levels and all styles!

List of themes: (No one will get the same assignment)[spoiler]
(When you are given your assignment, you will get a name from the Avatar Permissions Thread and a number that corresponds to this list.)
1) Horror: Your character has been or is transformed into a creature of darkness.
2) Western: Your character came to be during the height of the Old West.
3) Ultimate: Reimagined for a gritty modern world.  This isn't your 616 kind of hero!
4) Child: Any age from baby to teenager.  Your character started his adventures at an earlier age.
5) Pirate: Forget modern times, your character existed durring the age of pirates.
6) Post-Apocalypse:  Some sort of disaster has ruined the world.  Despite that, your character continues to survive.  Conversely, perhaps the character came into being in this harsh new world instead.
7) Failed Clone: Whether the result of genetic experiments, a duplication machine or a magical bolt of energy, the character was duplicated.  Only it didn't turn out so well.  The character may be underpowered, overpowered, or just plain ugly.
8) Movie: Due to the success of a related comic character's movie, you've been given the task of redesigning this character for a mainstream movie audience.
9) Medieval Fantasy: Dungeons & Dragons, Lord of the Rings, Warcraft, etc.  You know the drill.  The character exists in a medieval world of magic & monsters.
10) Space Opera: Aliens, Space-age knights, Smugglers, etc.  Your character exists in a sci-fi fantasy universe or perhaps just a galaxy far far away...
11) Old: The character is just shy from living in the home of retired superheroes.  Perhaps this is at the tail end of the character's existence, perhaps how he/she would look on his/her last mission...
12) Robot: The character was built, not born.  It's abilities are completely artificial, perhaps being a robot, cyborg, android or other construct.
13) Fascist: Cold and imposing.  Where heroes are enforcers and villains are dictators.  Everything you'd expect for a Cold-War Soviet Union, 1984, Logan's Run, V for Vendetta, Equilibrium, etc.
14) Megalomaniac: Not just a villain, but the uberpowered bast**d that destroys the world's supers for their cause.  If you get this theme and a megalomaniac, just try and push the envelope further.
15) Silver/Golden Age: Totally retro.  The character existed in comic's past.  Part camp, Part innocence, all hero.
16) Pet/Furry: Lycanthrope (Captain America as Wolf), animal hero (Underdog) or perhaps just the character's faithful companion (Krypto)...
17) HEROES: This is a world where the ordinary are extraordinary and vice versa.  Just regular people who come upon powers.  What would their job be like?  What would they look like in a world where the heroes aren't musclebound beefcakes and their identity takes precedence over their abilities?
18) Evolved: The character's abilities have been increasing and adapting.  Think how over the years some comic characters gain new abilities or mutate into new forms.  Perhaps their powers are forced into overdrive making them freaks among freaks...
19) Magic/Supernatural: All heroes in this world derive their abilities from a magical or supernatural source.  Magical items, deals with demons, magical spells, etc.
20) Pro Wrestler: The world has no superpowered people.  But the luchadors are the most popular form of entertainment.  When you are a man, sometimes you wear stretchy pants in your room... It's for fun...
21) Historic: The catchall category for other historical time periods not covered in other categories.  Ancient Greece, the Rennascaince, Ancient Egypt...
22) Steampunk:  Victorian era sci-fi adventure ala Jules Verne, Alan Quartermain, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen...
[/spoiler]

Assignments Posted!

PS: Have an additional theme idea you want added to the list?  Have a non-randomizer idea you'd want considered?  Just head over to the Challenge Ideas Thread.

Edit:
Some naming guidelines:
Think like an editor.  Would people by a book if it has vocabulary that more than half the readers will not understand?  Use existing character names as a guide for form & simplicity.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Think about your fellow participents.  Don't try to make this task more difficult for them.
You can put "Man", "Boy", "Woman" or "Girl" in the name if you so wish.  The recepient can switch the gender if it suits them.

To make this a bit more interesting and fair, give TWO names.  (Try to use different styles for the two.)  I will assign two names to each participant.  The participant can pick which of the two they will use.

[Pyroclasm]

I'll start this off.  The names are:
Freeform

Golden Panther

[The Pwime]

ah, what the heck.

The Fire-Fly

Hellspray

[Reepicheep]

the invigilator!

&

Saturday Man

[Pyroclasm]

Oh, and before we get to far into this, here are some naming guidelines:
Think like an editor.  Would people by a book if it has vocabulary that more than half the readers will not understand?  Use existing character names as a guide for form & simplicity.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.  Think about your fellow participents.  Don't try to make this task more difficult for them.
You can put "Man", "Boy", "Woman" or "Girl" in the name if you so wish.  The recepient can switch the gender if it suits them.

To make this a bit more interesting and fair, give TWO names.  (Try to use different styles for the two.)  I will assign two names to each participant.  The participant can pick which of the two they will use.

[style]

Dr. Vile


Hard Rock

[Panther_Gunn]

I'll start this off.  The names are:
Golden Panther

I resent that!  I'm not *that* old.....yet.  ;)

[UnkoMan]

You know what? I... I don't know if I should do this but, I'm going to go random art style on this one.

Shocktrooper

The Denizen

[psychopanda]

Hmm, I need something to get the art muse kicking again. I'll suggest:

Fire Gnat.

The Slicer.

I should probably add my avatar to the permissions thread, just need to get together a full costume pic first.

[daglob]

Windshear

Thermocline

[zuludelta]

Joe Blow

The Deteriorator

[Pyroclasm]

Two more days to sign up!

[UnkoMan]

Oh I am hoping I get a good artstyle... that I can actually emulate...

[psychopanda]

Oh I am hoping I get a good artstyle... that I can actually emulate...

Survey Says:

[spoiler]Mondrian![/spoiler]

:lol:

[Lionheart]

Fighting Falcon

Expector 8

[daglob]

Oh I am hoping I get a good artstyle... that I can actually emulate...

I used to be able to mimic styles if I read enough comics by the artist I wanted to  copy. That doesn't seem to work any more. My style is hopelessly stuck in the Silver Age.

[PreRaphaelite]

I may as well give it a shot and try to find time to do one.  :mellow:

The Lead Pixie

Dame Silence

[psychopanda]

I would like to do a co-op challenge with someone (any volunteers?). Probably as a second challenge. My preferences are in pencilling and/or inking, but I'm flexible to whatever the other collaborator has in mind. First poster to answer, "wins"! ;)

[UnkoMan]

Hey Panda... I was thinking I might do a second one myself. For the first it would be in whatever style I am given, and then I'd do the other name in my own style. How about for the second we do a sort of "dynamic duo" pairing, where we each do lines for a character, send it to the other, then both produce a finished, coloured picture containing both of our line drawings? I've done this before and it was actually pretty neat. What do you say?

[psychopanda]

Sounds great, Unko! :)

I wonder if Pyro will need some more names to add to the randomizer, if we're both taking on an additional challenge?

If so, I propose: Banner Man (or Woman) and Counter Strike.

[Pyroclasm]

Assignments have been drawn!
Participants just need to do one (1) of the names given in the assigned theme.  If you want to do both, I don't care, just pick the same or another theme for the second name.  Good luck!

Pyroclasm
Name: Fire-Fly or Slicer
Theme: Fascist

The Pwime
Name: Lead pixie or Hard Rock
Theme: Pirate

Reepicheep
Name: Freeform or Denizen
Theme: Pro Wrestler

Style
Name: Invigilator or Dame Silence
Theme: Robot

Unkoman
Name: Fire Gnat or Expector 8
Theme: Historic
Style: 90's X-treme Comics

Psychopanda
Name: Windshear or Deteriorator
Theme: Failed Clone

daglob
Name: Shocktrooper or Hellspray
Theme: Evolved

Zuludelta
Name: Joe Blow or Golden Panther
Theme: Movie

Lionheart
Name: Fighting Falcon or Thermocline
Theme: HEROES

PreRaphaelite
Name: Dr. Vile or Saturday Man
Theme: Western

[The Pwime]

Always the pirates... :P

Wait a sec, to clarify... are we talking "The Lead Pixie" as in the leader of all pixies, or a Pixie made out of lead?

[PreRaphaelite]

Ah, surely that can be up to you. ;P

[Pyroclasm]

Ah, surely that can be up to you. ;P

Yup.  You read into it the meaning you want.

[UnkoMan]

Well, I figured since we get two names, one could be our single and the other our joint picture.

Oh man... '90s x-treme. Somehow I knew I'd get that. This is going to be ridiculous.

[psychopanda]

Woo...busy weekend, but got this done:



Edit: updated origin after Unko's post.

Origin:
"AAAAIIIEEEE!!!" screamed the last of the Protean Corp Scientists.

They say your whole life flashes before your eyes before you die....well, that wasn't really true in Nelbert Finnerovski's case. Maybe most of project's life flashed before his fading synapses, but certainly not his own. Protean Corp had offered him and his cadre big money to jump on board this new wonder project. Oh the things they could do with bio-technology these days. But why limit themselves to merely cloning sheep? Why not think bigger? Much bigger? What about Superheroes?! Field technicians had spent years collecting samples from battlegrounds across the world. The sweat off a discarded glove, a single strand of hair, a chipped nail, even a pair of undergarments auctioned off of ElecAuction! Carefully, diligently, all these samples were assimilated, collected, categorized, compiled, and archived. It was up to Nelbert and the rest of his coworkers to take this cornucopia of cloning materials and make something bigger out of it. Yet, months of labor proved fruitless. Frustrations rose. Tempers flared. Bankruptcy loomed.

Till one fateful night, on a 3-day bender...one of the techs...exhausted beyond measure....made a mistake! The next morning he awoke to his Superiors giving him the worst verbal lashing he had ever experienced. "You clumsy freaking oaf!! LOOK! LOOK! at what you have done!!". Slowly the tech started to realize the drool stuck to his face....the....pink drool...of the SPILLED samples he must have knocked over....combining them into one big icky mess! One of the other scientists looked up and took notice of the strange "drool". "No, that isn't drool...it's something else..." Scraping the remnants off the tech's cheek and scooping up the rest into a petri dish...she conferred with her coworkers. The pink mass was actually growing...replicating itself...forming organs...this actually looked promising. For weeks they observed the "failed clone" with excitement as it grew.

Yes, all seemed good until it started to develop reasoning...inside its twisted brain it saw how they stared at it. Its skin could not be as smooth and perfect as their own. It had no flowing hair, sleek muscles. They thought it was oblivious, laying there in its cylindrical support tube. It overheard things and it knew it would never be called the lovely things that Francine had whispered into Steve's ears that late night they had stayed in the lab. It was becoming quite obvious that it would never be loved, needed, wanted, comforted. And one night....it had heard how the Superiors were talking of terminating the project...and that was when it knew it had to act.

The heat was burning within its hands, bubbling, and each time it grasped the flesh of one of the hopelessly fleeing scientists...it burned more...and it became angrier...worked up to a frenzy...

Yes, all these things flashed through Nelbert's mind. How could he know the inner thoughts of it...this...this Deteriorator? Was his mind hopelessly filling in the pieces of the story to make sense out of this chaos? Or were thoughts being transferred into his own brain from it...? His logical mind demanded an answer and searched his reasoning...but it was TOO LATE...

EDIT: After TrainWreck's recolor and some feedback, I took another shot at coloring my entry. Turned out alot different from what I expected. Muchos Gracias to TW for his suggestions!

[UnkoMan]

That's an awesome design. Pink and meanacing go hand in hand, right? But what's his story? His powers?

Okay, so here's my entry number one. Expector 8, the historicly extreme '90s comic.



Okay, so his gun is too small, but note how the flowing scarf hides his teeny tiny feet. Anyhow, the being who became Expector 8 came from a test tube. This is all man has left for reproduction, after they were wiped out by a horrible illness with its roots in the bubonic plague. These genetically bread super beings are created to be the peak of humanity... yet still, they succumb to the disease after five short months. The purpose of these men were to be trained to go back in time to Europe in the 1300s. Scientists believe that if they could analyize the disease there, they would be able to stop it in the future. The first seven models, however, failed in this mission... dying of sickness before they could finish their ultimate mission and discover where this sickness came from.

Will Expector 8, the last of his kind, succeed where his brothers failed? Though having lived past the five month mark, his time is short... His symptoms are many... Yet still he must press on against a vast conspiracy of aliens posing as demons, seeking to bring about the end of the world.

[psychopanda]

Okay, so his gun is too small, but note how the flowing scarf hides his teeny tiny feet.

:lol:

As for the lack of story on my entry...I told my Wife when she looked at it (well, after she quit yelling "Ewwww!") that he has the powers of pink yogourt. ;)

Nice job on yours. The background story might be a little too complex for the writers from a certain company, but I like it.

[zuludelta]

Great entries guys.  :thumbup:

Expector8 looks like he could have been a villain from Trencher (Keith Giffen's 1990s Image comic).

[Pyroclasm]

Hiroki8 asked to sign up via PM.
The assignment is:

Name: Banner Man or Counter Strike
Theme: Old