Fantastic Four: Fashion Forward Final!

Hey Guys! Thank you to everyone who contributed their suggestions towards my entry for Project Rooftop's Fantastic Four: Fashion Forward contest. So low and behold, here is my new look for Marvel's Cosmic Quartet:

A big thank you goes out to Brian Kane for his invaluable suggestion about altering the logo. I was quite proud of my design which used the letter "F" turned on its side to create the number "4" as well, but his  recommendation of intersecting the two, opened all sorts of possibilities with positive and negative space, not to mention made the whole thing more compact. Not to mention it kind of looks like a cross between the Facebook "F" (with the white character in a blue box) and the Apple Logo with a piece removed from the whole and repositioned on top.

This was a lot of fun for me, and hope you enjoy as well.

Yes. I can illustrate for you. I'm a traditional illustrator and can help you achieve your goals through art. Learn how to work with me at www.erikjohnsonillustrator.com 

First Glimpse for Fashion Forward

Greetings Fellow Artists! Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but I've been occupied by a handful of small projects lately that have been competing for my attention. The recent heatwave and a house with no air conditioning hasn't helped much either.

As much as I like to be a showman, and present my projects when they're finished, I thought I'd provide a sneak peek at the projects thats been consuming my time for the past couple weeks.

Lately, I've been working on an entry for Project Rooftop's "Fantastic Four: Fashion Forward" Contest.
Basically I'm looking to redesign the classic costumes of Marvel's First Family their fifty plus years in print!

Heres a rough idea of what I've developing for my submission

For me the Fantastic Four have been explorers and adventurers rather than urban crimefighters, so I came up with this idea for a cross between Star Trek and Super Sentai uniforms. I figured that since the FF would be first response to giant monster attacks or anything weird or science related in New York that their uniforms should have an easily identifiable top portion. When people see those white collar/shoulders they know that help is on the way. Also there new logo is on the right just above breast level.

These suits do not contain the increasing popular stitch lines, because I just don't like to draw them, and I especially wouldn't if I had to draw them on tight deadlines. Plus I always figured Reed Richards' unstable molecule suits that allow their clothes to adapt to their powers would be unique in their nature so that they can be manufactured to fit the wearer and not have the need to sew different pieces together. The only break in the suits that you can see here is the zipper that allows Sue to adjust her skirt for comfort as well as mobility.

In the final drawing I should probably address that there is are zippers running along the back of the suit as well as on the backs of the gloves and boots. A belt buckle will also be located from behind, because the contest is called "Fashion Forward", so I figure that utility should be in the back. haha.

  

With the contest deadline in less than two weeks, I thought I'd put out feelers on first impressions and thoughts on how I might be able to improve on these designs. I know I want redraw Reed and Sue actually using their powers, but from a design perspective I'm concerned that my ideas haven't fallen far from enough from the tree. I stuck with the FF's White and Blue color scheme from the '80s because they are calm and reassuring colors, representing the team's position as a more idealistic corner of the Marvel Universe, however I still seem to be sticking pretty close to the classic/simple collar-belt-gloves-boots design. 

Would padded knees and elbows be a help or a hinderance to their look? Would they look better with running shoes rather than boots? Should Reed even wear a belt or boots since he body's stretch powers don't limit him to a traditional psychical structure?

I'm starting to get a narrowed imagination, looking at this project by myself for so long and put it you dear viewers, what would suggest I do to improve and truly make Marvel mine?

Closing as the Man himself did, Excelsior True Believers!

Study Sketches

Once again its time to test my skills in quick gesture and observational drawing, courtesy of the lingering and mingling at the end of the Bible Study that I attend.

 The Note on the left says "Josiah kinda looks like Macaulay Culkin."

 

Notice how Jared's face gradually becomes more chiseled with each drawing.

 

Kyle appears more awake and attentive now that he knows he is being drawn.

Halloween Help

Dear Friends, Followers and Fellow Artists,

Recently I've been working on a project to add to my portfolio in order to make my work more appealing to children's publishers by including work that includes children in some way. This is my latest project, an image of a group of young trick-or-treaters dressed as "morally gray" characters (witch, pirate, devil) being given candy by a middle aged resident dressed as an angel. While the devil gets his treat, pirate peers into witch's cauldron, believing she received better treats.

I've been tinkering with this idea for a while now and was fairly certain I knew which compostion was best, but thought I could take advantage of Social Networking Technology to get a fresh perspective from other fertile and creative minds.

Any input; comments or critiques, that you could provide would be most helpful!

Thanks!

Sketchdump

I've seen a number of scanned sketchbook pages on DeviantArt called "Sketchdumps" to let viewers know what you're doing between projects. While I think the name is a bit off putting, heres a sample of some more of my warm up sketches from this past week for your enjoyment.

Go Gokaiger!

In order to keep my figure drawing skills sharp, I usually warm up with daily gesture drawings. Since the start of the year I've switched from sketching models in photos to watching episodes of Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger (which will hopefully be coming stateside as "Power Rangers: Pirates" soon)

The series features a multitude of various characters in skin tight colorful costumes leaping, running, kicking, punching etc. Its very much like watching a live action comic book, and briefly pausing the action allows me to reference cool action poses. Its been a great exercise in speed, proportions, rhythm and even lighting.

I've been wanting to post sketches for some time now, but I always kept putting it off, so what you'll be getting is some of the better samplings. Looking over them recently just shows the kind of improvements that I've made, albeit subtly, in a relatively brief amount of time. Let me know what you think and perhaps I'll post some of my other daily scribbles in the near future.

 

Captain Marvel

An entry for Project Rooftop's Fan Art Friday celebrating Carol Danvers' new moniker of "Captain Marvel" and change into a far more practical costume. It was a good opportunity to try and turn something around fast like this. Often I tend to go "long haul" with my compositions. Next time I try something like this, I'd like to work at including some kind of background.