CHoW#304 :: The Sidekick

[Havok Reed]

@G@m: Thanks! To answer your question, no, I'm not avoiding hands (and yea, the hand is a whee bit small), I just wanted to finish the sketch cuz it was like the 3rd one I did. It will be there when I go digital with it. . I do plan on making a background, however, I don't have any ideas for it yet.
Now, about yours, are you really calling him Jesus, lol?

[Noun]

Lot of cool stuff here so far.

Gadbury: No crits on the technique, amazing as always. But maybe give him something a little more to tie him to the Punisher? As far as I know the Punisher's costume is pretty straightforward so it does work in that sense, but I might experiment with the skull insignia somehow. Not necessarily anything over the top but enough to make the connection really clear... I don't know though, it might be pretty clear to someone more familiar with comics than I am lol.

surfacemonkey: Awesome concept so far, looking forward to seeing this one colored.

alexLH: I think the main thing is to add more storytelling details. Something that visually connects her to Spiderman, maybe design influences from actual black widows as well. Right now she could be any woman running through an alley.

Havok Reed: Liking it as it is now. Keep it up!

Shorinji Knight: Great progress, keep going with this. Really like the direction you went with the innocent protege type sidekick.

G@m: I like the grayscale with touches of red, hoping you'll stick with this look for the final.

NickyBeats: Doesn't look stiff to me at all, definitely has personality lol. Even if the pose isn't crazy dynamic it presents a clear view of the character which is important.

Something quick I did today, all advice appreciated.

[G@m]

Shorinji_knight: yeah no problem. btw in your image is the cube behind punisher the butt of the weapon he's holding? if it is atm it looks like its following another angle, it may help if you try drawing the part of weapon covered by his arm on another layer to really figure out how the two parts connect. I've had the same problem with the spear, the head was at a certain angle and the rest at another
Havok Reed: yep he's jesus alright. Who's a better sidekick for a son of a god, another son of a god?
Noun: Due to my limited knowledge in comics i really can't tell whose sidekick she's supposed to be, capitan america maybe? if so her headress kinda throws me off, since i was trying to think about superheroes with duck bills
NickyBeats: Nice one there, really reminds me of the cousin of your hero, but with hair and less cleavage from the "war of kings" series Xenith

[Emilche]

yeah as you can see i'm not anywhere near where you guys are!(in terms of skill that is) but here is my sketch atm..

the thought of this one is, that the blue girl will be called agent Sweden... just because i'm Swedish

she will be the girl that captain america doesn't want as a sidekick but still needs her.

shes the one that will do the dirty work as assassinations and spying for captain america as he stands for justice! and as they say there is no justice in murder

[fyan]

Imagine Nite-Owl had a daughter or something like that. Kinda wish I have more time to finish it. Sigh. Day-job.

[z01ks]

Honiahaka (Cheyenne for "little wolf"; real name Thomas Hawke), sidekick for Wolverine or Old Man Logan

Basically a mutant native american Mowgli type character, maybe a little bit darker. This is an early sketch tho. I'm starting a new version...

JanJager whose sidekick is that? Hulk's?

[Kahel]

Ahhh... totally have no time for this one, but I just wanted to stick my head in a bit to say G@m, you had me giggling at your sidekick. (I am a terrible Christian I know, sorry) Ever played Bible Fight (http://games.adultswim.com/bible-fig...line-game.html) by any chance?

[z01ks]

I was feeling really tight with the last approach, so I'm trying to be looser...

[Dayle]

Here is my wip... Colossus from the x-men's sidekick, her name is Steele.

Havok Reed, I was thinking of Thor too! Have a look at his wife Sif... I thought the idea of them as a married couple on the battlefield could be really funny as she'd be the only one who could tell him what to do! Great take on it though with the Valkyrie... have you seen Arthur Hackers* I meant Arthur Rackham work based on Wagners operas?

Noun, looking really good! Try not to lose that rough sketchy feel you've got... it looks classic and suits the style.

[Pixeltuner]

Some colour on the sarge.

[Noun]

G@m: Captain America is correct, but 'duck bills' made me lol. I'm glad you pointed that out though because the headdress is supposed to resemble an eagle, so I've got stuff to fix if it's not coming across clearly.

fyan: Recognized the costume almost immediately. The only thing I can nitpick about is her left foot seems closer somehow than the right foot, even though her left leg is farther from us. It really has nothing to do with the actual design of the character... but it is a little distracting.

zo1ks: Prefer the first sketch for whatever reason, I like the pose a bit more and it seems to lend more insight into his personality overall. Looking forward to seeing where this goes though.

Dayle: I like the indentations across the arms/chest, add some reflective properties to the skin and I think the idea will come across even more.

Pixeltuner: Can't think of anything useful to add really. Liking the concept and execution as is.

[z01ks]

Update... Trying to do the forest but I'm not very good with textures...

[kingkostas]

Interesting topic and interesting entries mates. I dont have enough time to immerse myself on the piece, but i wanted to do something. I dont know a lot about the superheroes but i remember that my favorite back then was the iceman [ and they didnt show him that much ]. So i took iceman and did waterman to be with him . I wish i had the time to better plan this out and work on it.
My critique will be just an overall approach. Use the competition as a way to apply some knowledge you acquired from studies. Maybe try reading loomis or whatever when you work on the piece. Fix your anatomy in the beginning, check how you should approach toning etc. In few words, always go back and compare your work to the fundamentals. By the end of the competition we will have discovered something .

[alexLH]

In response to crits, I've tried to tie my character more to the original spiderman design. No 4. is my favourite, but I thought you guys could offer some valuable feedback. Continuing with the widow theme, and just calling the sidekick 'Widow' now. The red hourglass symbol is a symbol that occurs naturally on the actual black widow spider.

Lesson: do your research and don't create characters that basically exist already!

Note: the character will be under a red light in the final comp, hence the red skin

[alexson]

Hello! Fun topic! It's a bit last minute, but I hope I can throw together something before the deadline.
I was thinking of doing a sidekick for Spawn, one of his hobo friends from the alley that has had enough of being kicked around by angels, demons and whatnot and decided to join spawn in the fight. Some quick sketches to start things off.

[Havok Reed]

Progress so far. Trying to finish this by tonight, I wont have time tomorrow to do anything else with it because I work until 3pm EST which is 7pm GMT so that would leave me with just enough time to turn it in when I get home.

Had to make fixes to head. Trying really hard to go with a Comic book feel of rendering.

[Gadbury]

Thanks for the feedback, Havok Reed & Noun - I was thinking about trying to work the skull insignia in there somewhere but couldn't find a good place for it. Maybe I'll try it painted over his police badge or something.

Good advice Kingkostas. I'm reading Michael Hampton's Figure Drawing Design and Invention at the moment, its a really great book. Just reading over some things before that I was kind of aware of, but the book explains it really well and its easy to understand.

Close to final with this, probably will only try to tweak slightly before tomorrow.

[NickyBeats]

nice one Gadbury! i love Michael Hampton !! best figure drawing book ive ever read! im going through it right now ha. love your cover dude.

[G@m]

I'm almost done with this, i think :|

[Dayle]

update... Hopefully I will get it finished tomorrow.

[NickyBeats]

trying for a more dynamic comic cover approach....

[alexson]

Started painting on my guy.

[alexLH]

WIP#2, about 90% done. Still need to render some areas properly (bad habit I know).
Am I ok putting my details at the top of the image? I know the rules say the bottom, but I'm sure I've seen people deviate before.

[Gadbury]

NickyBeats, Thanks - Yeah the Michael Hampton book is awesome, I've only just started reading it. I like the new direction you're taking with yours, much more interesting and dynamic pose

Character sheet

[Shorinji_Knight]

Thanks for the crits Noun & G@m!

Everyone is doing some pretty cool ideas. I always enjoy checking out the Chows because of all of the great stuff people come up with here. Even though I don't really intend to go to the finals this time, it is still fun to play along.

Anyway update on mine... not finished rendering the figures, but I couldn't resist doing a cover mock up.

[NickyBeats]

gggnnnaaaarrrrrrgghhh.............

re did the cover again... the bitch!

[Shorinji_Knight]

Nicky, that's looking a lot better! I like that you made it more dynamic.

[Gadbury]

I agree, really nicely done figure, you do that after reading that book? You should finish this one!

[Pixeltuner]

I think I'll check out that book as well. Just recovered from flu sneak attack so didn't finish this one, but might help with some more dynamic posing

[NickyBeats]

pixeltuner - dude, do it! its really comprehensive. very nice descriptions. has a great flow throughout the book. goes from loose --> to detailed, from big to little. and maintains a very easy pace of reading/drawings. some books are too convoluted in their wording. or too scientific. he does a great job of keeping it very focused. and i love his style. very dynamic, but very accurate. highly recommend it. by far the best book on figure drawing i have ever purchased.

thanks a bunch Gadbury and Shorinji! ! ! much appreciated !