Force Grey: The Lost Episode's New Title!?

After watching the WotC D&D stream for their live "Force Grey: The Lost Episode" (DM'd by Critical Role's Matt Mercer), it became clear that there was one true PC hero.  A giant among mortals.  A harden bulwark set against the forces of evil.  In short, a baby porcupine.

Click to enlarge (created in Photoshop)

Context: Dylan Sprouse was one of the new guests for the game (playing a Druid), and he managed to sneak in a way to both turn his character into a baby porcupine AND make it useful.  Truly the stuff of legends...or at least D&D bragging rights for some time to come.

WIP - Sketch to final (flipped for the parody pic)

Dice, Camera, Action: Diath's Cure

During the 11/29 "Dice, Camera, Action!" game, run weekly by Chris Perkins on the official Wizards of the Coast D&D Twitch channel, the party finally found a cure for poor Diath (played by ProJared).  The gauntlet was thrown down on twitter for some fan art - they suggested holy light, but all I heard when I listened was eerie darkness:

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Heavily influenced by Garney and Milla on the current Daredevil run.  I thought about going static image (a la the Were-pom that never came to pass), but I really thought we needed to see the goop crawling away.

Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew (Digital)

Back in April of this year, I drew a pen and ink sketch of Marvel's Jessica Drew.  Here is the digital update.

At some point I'd like to shift my character coloring from an interior comic styling, to a more painterly, comic cover look, to match how I enjoy digitally coloring certain other items.  This image highlights the difference, when you compare the sky, to the building to the character.  Hopefully, the shift was not too jarring.  I tried to bridge the gap, or ease the transition, via the way one might look at the image.

Overwatch: Sombra and Snowball

Blizzard's store leaked a pic of Sombra today, confirming her look based off of another slip up a few months back.  The image and pose makes it appear as if she can control omnics and other robots.

¿Quién es Snowball?

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Inktober #14: Bamboo

This Inktober prompt is "Tree".  I took a shot at imitating sumi-e with various shades of grey marker.  The result was serviceable, but you lose the ability to effectively mesh practiced stroke and end result.  For example, the you lose the ability to plan and use the natural drying of the ink on the brush to create lighter areas.  With marker, you have to jury-rig a similar look.  That said, not bad for a first attempt.

Critical Role: Iced Coffee

Let's continue the Goristro barista theme from last week for the current Demon vs. Dragon showdown on Critical Role (on Geek & Sundry's Twitch Channel, every Thursday).

Inktober #13 "Scared": Stranger Things

Today's Inktober prompt is "Scared", and my first thought was a sketch of Winona Ryders' Joyce Byers from Stranger Things!

The marker I used for the grey ink did not behave as well on my sketch paper as the heavy black ink marker from a different brand.  I'll have to dig into supplies to see if something works a bit better, or it is back to black ink and crosshatching.

Inktober #11: Transport

Look, I have no idea how "Transport" turned into a guy in a hazmat suit strolling along with a container of radioactive rice, but I enjoyed doing it!

Inktober #10 & #12: Titania and Gabby

Two Marvel characters for these two Inktober sketches.  The first prompt is "Jump" and the character is Titania.  I got a lot of this wrong: jumping is more She-Hulk's thing, the pose doesn't denote any comic book style action, etc.  I just wanted to do a little tribute to Josh Williamson for making Titania as awesome and powerful as she always should have been ('80 to the present) in his Illuminati run.

My Error: I didn't capture the motion or action properly.

The second prompt is "Worried" and the character is Gabby from All-New Wolverine.  I attempt was to get her when she (off-screen) hears the same water bombers Laura hears.  OK with context, but I didn't capture a strong enough look when you look at the sketch with out context.

My Error: the emotion isn't enough with or without context)

Inktober #7-9: Lost, Rock, and Broken

A buffet of quick Inktober 2016 sketches.  The first is "Lost", which of course meant the statue from Lost...

Followed by "Rock".  Gorignak, from Galaxy Quest!

Finally, for "Broken" I sadly did a quick and simple sketch of a tome; in this case representing the Guild Wars 2 Manifesto, and all of ANet's broken promises.  They took an innovative and balanced game and turned it into a generic MMO, complete with Best in Slot gear grinds, forced content to have access to best in slot gear (high level fractals, raids, collection quests that take the fun out of playing, and so on), and alternatives which were a soul sapping, over-grind for gold.  It was a cowardly lack of faith in the replay-ability of their created content for enjoyment purposes.  After the last Wintersday Festival, which introduced over-grinding to fun and optional PvE, I quit.  They brought me back with a blast from the past: a new Living Story and new and accessible PvE content.  Soon though, they will shift back to raids and exclusivity...and I'll be looking for yet another new game to play....

Critical Role: The Goristro Barista

From the 10/6 Critical Role on Geek & Sundry's twitch stream.  You know he is going to purposely put his thumb on your lemon cake and spell your name wrong on the little label.

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I am not sure if this form of irritation magic raises or lowers it CR.

Inktober #6: Sneaky Batman

The prompt for day 6 of Inktober is "Hidden".  A quick sketch of Batman skulking around in the dark is an obvious choice, but the surprise for me was: I believe this is the first non-Marvel comic character (or non-Vertigo, due solely to Sandman's pantheon) I have ever drawn!?

Inktober #5: Kamala and Bruno

The prompt for Inktober's Day 5 is "sad".  Last week, I had the chance to read the latest issue of Ms. Marvel.  G. Willow Wilson showed us the aftermath of Kamala and Bruno, the repercussions of his injury and her desperation to normalize things.  This sketch was spawned from that idea (movie of the week poster composition is totally my fault however...).

Simple pen and paper.

Inktober #4: Bastion and Ganymede

An Overwatch sketch of Bastion and Ganymede!  If you haven't seen the Bastion short by Blizzard, check it out here: "The Last Bastion".

The prompt for Inktober #4 was "Hungry".

More Inktober: Random Comic Villain & Day 3

Here are two more quick and dirty (describing the work and the photos) images for Inktober.  In the first, I still didn't realize there were daily prompts as part of the exercise....  So, we have a random and obscure Marvel Villain called The Living Laser.  The second image is on topic, and covers the prompt "Collect".

Pen and Grey Marker

Ink with Small Brush

Inktober: 10/1 Live D&D Game at Twitch Con

Here is a quick Inktober sketch of Commander Holly's D&D character, Strix, for the Wizard's of the Coast official Dice Camera Action game.  They were live at Twitch Con tonight, so I used her live cosplay as a reference and gave it a go:

Brushes and India Ink over a Quick Sketch

Excuse the potato quality photo of the sketch...

Medusa from the Inhumans

Don't get me wrong.  I am a big fan of Black Bolt, Karnak, and Ms. Marvel, but when Marvel pits the Inhumans vs. the X-Men there is only one choice for me: the X-Men.  My first comic over 30 years ago was the X-men, and those stories will always represent the best in Marvel's ensemble team comics.

That said, I have a friend that was not able to cosplay as Medusa for DragonCon, so I used an old image I started in 2011 which used her as a reference (see the first image), redrew it as a line drawing, and laid down some comic coloring on it.  If you cannot *be* Medusa, at least you can *look* like her in a comic panel!

Click to enlarge

Were-pom!

I love watching D&D streams.  I think the first one I found was "I Hit it with my Axe," and soon after discovered "Acquisitions Inc." and the Wizards of the Coast Extra Life marathons.  I discovered "Critical Role" about 3-4 episodes in, binged the back episodes, and it became regular viewing.  I love that Wizards is on board with so much of this, even running streamed games to support their 5E product releases.

Something in their recent "Dice, Camera, Action" game caught my attention: during the Curse of Strahd #WaffleCrew play through, Anna Prosser Robinson's character was bitten by a Werewolf.  She tried to suggest to DM Chris Perkins that her character, Evelyn, was more of a Were-pom(eranian) than a Werewolf.

I needed to make Were-pom exist:

Digital Painting (a few hours in Photoshop) - Click to Enlarge.

Werepom!

"Werepoms gathered in their masses, 
wag their tails and beg for scratches. 
Fuzzy faces plot destruction, 
little dog of death's construction."

Replicant 76

Overwatch's Soldier 76 exposed!?  I think someone better call Deckard...

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I think this is only the second time I have posted something that is not an original sketch or illustration, but I saw this picture of Roy Batty again today and I couldn't un-see the similarities.  One original meme every few years is acceptable, right?

On a related note, Overwatch is GREAT.  The look, game play, characters, outside story content support, and in-and-out-of-game clues and mysteries combine to make this the best game in years.

Spider-Woman, Jessica Drew

Marvel's Jessica Drew (aka Spider-Woman):

This started as a nondescript practice sketch, and somehow
turned into a character I don't really follow all that closely.

Friends also don't let friends...

...paint their children...flying what might a sci fi warship...on posters?

Doing this as a first birthday present for the son of two friends (their daughter's first birthday poster is here).  Initially, I went for an Art Deco, old time astronaut helmet and rocket ship idea.  Unfortunately, that didn't work out as planned, so I switched to full on Mass Effect, drowned in blue to complete things.

Click to enlarge

Ms. Marvel and the Mayor

I changed up the last image to make it a meta, fanfic cover - Ms. Marvel writing about herself getting an award from the Mayor of Jersey City.  I imagine she saved them from giant robot bunnies, but this is her fanfic, so maybe mutant Dr. Doom clones instead?

Click to enlarge.

W.I.P. Sketches: Kamala, Laura, and Slippers

The X-23/Laura/Wolverine kick continues, but I also had a chance to read the new Ms. Marvel recently as well.  What a great character!  Everything I have read on the Ms. Marvel titles has been cleverly crafted, and pitch perfect for the character.  Laura gets the same care when in her own series', but as a guest hero or team member on other titles, it is really hit or miss.  Some writers seem to forget the mental aspect of the character, and opt for the easy "let's just have her be an angry Logan substitute".

Below is a fun thought I had, if and when they are paired together.  I am unhappy with how Laura's face looks in my attempts, and it seems to get worse with even the slightest tweaks.  I am going to have to scrap her pose and positioning, and start from scratch.

Second attempt to fix X's left side.  I need to redraw the head from scratch,
and then salvage the elements from this version that worked.
Click to Enlarge.

Sketching fails aside, I mean, come on!  Kamala's Wolverine slippers should be the stuff of legend!

Warm-up Sketch: X-23

I love the X-23 character.  I was shocked, because I was convinced it was going to be a retread of Wolverine and a gender swap so they could get away with it.  I am happy to say I was wrong - the only problem is that Marvel writers now want to pen a 95% normal Laura who has a "few anger issues lurking around from her past."  This is wasting the character's potential.  She was completely broken as a person, and to just toss away the wellspring stories that spring from that is a disservice to the character.  Give me the vacant stares and stiff shoulders when meeting the Fantastic 4's proteges over the forced date-an-Angel and "normal" reactions.

Ah well...here is a terrible warm-up sketch of X-23.  Even her conditioned hatred of being late seems to be a quirk that has been lost in the shuffle.

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Warm-up Sketch: Sabretooth Redone

For the first post of the new year, I'll use a bit of the new and a bit of the very old.  Here is a quick Manga Studio redo of one of my old Sabretooth sketches.  And when I say old, I mean this is a 20+ year old sketch!

2016 Warm-up

Here is the original:

Early 90's!!!  (I started work in Korea in '96,
so prior to that)