Category: Art

Here’s a tip I learned through the process of inking this half of the cover of Atomic Press’ “World Wildlife Federation of Justice” supplement for Mutants & Masterminds roleplaying game: if you’re using #1003 comic book paper and you feel like flipping the paper over so that the little blue lines won’t subconsciously affect the artwork as you draw on the page – DON’T. The back of the paper has a different ‘tooth’ than the front and if you try to use a nib to ink over the pencils that you have worked long and hard on, the ink will bleed into the fibers of the page so you don’t get clean lines. As a result I had to use a brush almost exclusively on this page which was a limitation I didn’t need.

Anyway, this is more or less the final linework. I’ll be spending some of the weekend colouring and some of the weekend trying to put together a DVD for the Saturday Morning Cartoon Party next week at the Rio Theater!!

Click on the image to make it bigger.

I’ve already started some colour studies but they’re too hideous to inflict on you at this time. So here’s the line drawings – now it’s time to try to name the characters again….

(click to enlargenate)

Give up? Enormouse, Astromandrill, The Great Wolverini, Dynamole, Shaolin Monkey, Haardvark, Crackerjackal, Metalligator, Octopussycat, Go-Rilla.

Originally Dupligator was going to be in here but I swapped in Octopussycat for a number of reasons, partly because I didn’t want two alligators in one picture, but also because the main reason I was putting him in was because he was going to be a sample PC in the book, but I’ve put the kibosh on that due to game-breaking powers. Which means those powers may be better suited for a villainous character, and I am more than okay with Dupligator switching sides.

I have my favourites. You?
(click to enlarge)

Commenters have spoken, and I have listened. Behold!

Black and white only, but colour studies coming very soon.

John posted a comment about how my female characters are all very slim. It’s true, and it’s something I have been thinking about throughout this entire process, since I created the first draft of Octopussycat and Tasmanian Daredevil years ago.

Truth is, there aren’t very many female funny animal characters, and the few there are are based off popular male characters, like:

What do these characters have in common? They all look exactly like the men they’re based off except change of clothes, eyelashes, and bows in their hair. BOWS!!!

Actually there are a couple of good models for lady toons, which is partially what inspired my gals:

Both cats, as you can see. The Tom & Jerry cats are always very old school 30’s movie star type with the heavily made up eyes. Differences are smaller features on the face, with the exception of the eyes. I think the worst offense for female animal toons is to plot the ridiculous blonde wig on, like they do, usually followed by a brushing of the hands.

Anyway, where was I? Oh yea. So I’ve tried to keep my female supers distinctive from the male form, and yes that has so far meant that they have small waists and larger hips. It’s something I’m working on and conscious of but by the same token – they are superhero characters which typically demand the ‘idealized’ bodies. Emphasis on the ‘typically.’

The other staple of the female form in cartoons is this:

Which certainly has its place. But references for what I want to achieve are few and far between so I feel a little like I’m blazing my own trail (despite the fact that I’m ripping off years of established toons).

Oh, and here’s some bonus sketches of Octopussycat:

Here are some color schemes for Earthquack. Discuss!

What you are looking at is a (very rough) colour study for half of the cover of the World Wildlife Federation of Justice supplement for Mutants & Masterminds.

How many characters can you name? I’ll give you a minute to try – click the image for a larger version!

Give up?

Top row: Shockatiel, Woolly Marmot

Second row: Salamancer, Hypnopotamus, Doctor Gnucleus

Third row: Tarmadillo, Earthquack

Bottom row: Rhinosferatu, Velocelot, Cardinal Sin.

Not all of these characters are going to be in the supplement, but we (that is to say Atomic Overmind Press and I) will be releasing additional PDFs as time goes on.

What I learned doing the colour study was a) I put two very dark characters (Tarmadillo and Rhinosferatu) right next to eachother, b) I have no idea what colour Salamancer’s costume should be (I do like the orange skin with dark spots), c) I need to do a lot more work, such as nail down the costume colours for Shockatiel, Velocelot, Dr Gnucleus (also his fur colour) and Earthquack.

You may be asking “where’s Elk Diablo, Elephantom, Chinchiller and Clock-A-Doodle-Doo?” and to that I reply “mfirldlbx.”

Also I thought of two new really crappy character names today: Contortoise and Plantypus. Yes, a stretchy tortoise and a platypus that controls plants. Only slightly better than plantelope, don’t you think? Or VegetaBull – the bull who’s in a terminal coma! Oi.

When I was originally sketching up the World Wildlife Federation of Justice I couldn’t get a handle on Octopussycat’s design. Here’s the last one of that old series:

Here’s some reworking I did on the weekend:

Not sure about the colours but I’m reasonably happy with the design.