Geek Fallout 98: Top 5 Fights!

As many of you know I am a reoccurring co-host on the Geek Fallout podcast. For our 98th episode about the Top 5 TV and Movie Fights, I thought I'd share clips along with my thoughts about some of these defining moments in pop culture.

Listen to the full episode here and follow along with my picks below.




5. Nada vs Frank, They Live

Expertly paced so that it never becomes excessive or boring.

4. Ripley vs The Alien Queen, Aliens

Just like a slasher movie, when you think the killer is dead, they always pop back up for a final showdown.

3. Superman vs Darkseid, Justice League Unlimited episode “Destroyer”

I love how this scene meshes action with character development, raising stakes without being overly excessive. It also shows why Superman is so admirable, its not the measure of his muscles, but its how he chooses to use his strength, even to restrain it that makes him truly powerful.

2. Enterprise vs. Reliant, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Theres a great deal of tension in the lack of music and the anticipation of just taking a single shot rather than if this were a firefight with unlimited ammo. 

1. The Legendary War, Gokaiger v Goseiger 199 Hero Battle

You’ve got close to two hundred superheroes teaming up to fight an invading army of aliens. That’s just a recipe for awesome!

But if the fanservice isn’t enough its bookended by the little “we are ready to give up our lives to preserve the people of Earth!” What more can you ask of heroes?

Now I want to here from you. What are your Top 5 Pop Culture Fights? And why?

The Many Faces of Lon Chaney

To prepare for Halloween I put out a call my Twitter account asking what I should draw. I got many colorful responses that I'll be posting throughout the month, but the one that got my attention right off the bat was a request by Michael May (of Michael May's Adventureblog!) for silent film icon Lon Chaney.

I gathered up some reference photos of Chaney in little to no makeup to get a grasp of what his face was like. He has a very unique portrait; The high brows, cheekbones and hair combed close to the scalp make him like grim like a skull, and yet he has big ears and a teardrop shaped nose that feel like they belong on one of the Muppets.

To demonstrate his extraordinary makeup, I dropped the opacity on his face and drew some of his monster faces over top. This was part was rather challenging as it was difficult to tell sometimes were the prosthetics started and ended.

The Man in the Beaver Hat
from "London After Midnight"

Erik, from "The Phantom of the Opera"
You can trust a guy with a name like that.

Now I want to hear from you. Doing a "character design" project like this was very out of the ordinary. Is it something that I should continue with something similar?

What would you like to see me draw during the month of Halloween?

Sketch ya' later!

Creature Commission Cover

I caught a bit of the Halloween Spirit when Brian commissioned me to do this cover, saying "Do whatever you want". It took me a while to come up with what do, until I saw the Creature figurine on my desk and decided. "Eh, why not?" (Hear me talk more about this Creature toy on the Geek Fallout podcast here! )

Since posts about process get more views and comments I'd take you step by step through how I drew this cover.

Rough pencils to establish the most important shapes

Then I establish the darkest shadow eras and after that the finer details.

Then I repeat the process, but in reverse. 

With my brush pen I draw in the darkest shadows.

Then I fill in the small details with Micron pens.

Finally I double check to make sure I haven't missed anything 

and bumping up contrast between thin and thick lines as best I can.

In the meantime, I'm thinking about doing some rough sketching without necessarily preparing for a project, so that can be better figure out what it is "I want to do" for something like this in the future. Just trying to cultivate my artistic identity. Its weird having a blind spot on something so personal like "what do you like to do?"

Also I'm still taking suggestions and commissions for Halloween.

Sketch ya' later!

Collector's Corner Publication Party

Much like Coy's Comics over the weekend, Collector's Corner had their own Michigan Comics Collective Anthology Publication Party. The sketch requests I got at this event were rather few, but very unique.

Wonder Woman

Rocket Raccoon

Rocket Raccoon in Color!

Baby Zelda, Epona and Link

Sandman vs. Black Cat

Sandman vs. Black Cat in Color!

Joker on Bane Venom Steroids

Request for a "Cool" Batman

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Fantastic Four Collaborative Cover
with Sean Seal and Joe Freyre

In the meantime, I'm tinkering with some commissions while I brainstorm ideas for Halloween. If you have any suggestions, I'm all ears!

Sketch ya' later!

Coy's Comics Publication Party

This Saturday at Coy's Comics we premiered the Michigan Comics Collective First Anthology! To promote the book, the store featured plenty of sales and sketch events. We even had special custom cards made for the occasion!

Brian Hitsman's original team, The Global Defense Force

Carl Sagan

Samus from Metroid

Gambit

Galactus

Baby Groot

Jean Grey

Superman

Attack on Joker

Click to ENLARGE

This week, an oddball juxtaposition between comic book hero Batman and the anime series "Attack on Titan". The idea was to combine two similar things, the new Faceless Joker (which I think looks incredibly silly) with the Colossus Titan (which I think is quite scary).

Eagle eyed viewers may recognize that the parody product isn't an especially original image. The composition is taken from directly from this promotional image for the show. Also Batman was reversed and traced from this page by Bruce Timm. The pose was too good to pass up, not only did it match Eren's look, but was an example of Batman himself encountering a giant.

The motivation for this project (aside from the general goofiness of it) was to produce something simple that didn't require much planning so that I could concentrate on practicing in Photoshop, determine how to render something like the face, which has a lot of detail, without going overboard as well as experiment with different tools, textures and techniques.

Originally I was going to tinker with Elsa from last week, but thought that I might be more likely to want to continue if I was working on something I hadn't previously posted and considered "finished". That and its been a slow traffic kind of week and experience has thought me that mash ups with The Joker are ratings gold!

Sketch ya' later!

Warm Hugs for the End of Summer

Continuing with the commissions that I posted last week, Emily was eager to have me draw some other Disney characters as well. In her request for Olaf, I saw an opportunity to polish up a sketch I had done earlier this summer. I may tinker with this one a bit more, I could really stand to experiment with my application of color.

Another animated Disney sidekick who stole the show that Emily was looking to have drawn was Groot from Guardians of the Galaxy done up in this Alphonse Mucha Art Noveau style. 

I had hoped to make this a do a double theme with Olaf and Groot both giving hugs. Although tree huggers are likely to come away with plenty of splinters from Groot. Ouch! 

I may come back to that some time later, but its September now, so I'm starting to brainstorm ideas on what I should do for Halloween next month.

Please make any suggestions you would like to see in the comments!


Sketch ya' later!