RSC Arts

The 30 Characters Challenge 2013!

The 30 Characters Challenge 2013 is Here!
It’s that time again, for the 30 Characters Challenge “Because the world needs new characters…YOUR characters!”. What are the 30 Characters Challenge you may ask? Tyler James has put out the challenge again this year to create 30 new characters in 30 days. This is the fifth year for the 30 Characters Challenge. It has taken place every November since 2009. I’ve participated in it every year. The event now has hundreds of participating artists and writers of all skill levels. It’s a total blast! Check it out at www.30characters.com.

As an alumnus of all the past 30 Characters Challenges, I’m very excited to participate again. The first year was the only time I actually finished, so this year I’m very determined to complete all 30. Each year the challenge helps to strengthen my drawing style. I like to approach the characters and biography like Marvel’s “Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.” When I think of Character Designs, I see my characters in that format. I loved reading about characters and their biographies this way when I was a kid. If I have time I might even add a few “Comic Panels” of the characters in action Like OHOTMU did.

Everyone is invited to “Join the Challenge”, Registration runs until 5 pm Eastern Time, October 31, 2013. The challenge begins starting November 1st, 2013. So make sure to check it out and join up if you like having fun creating and sharing your own characters!

Here’s a site Banner I created with one of my original characters from the challenge!
Join the 30 Characters Challenge Here.

This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.

Alcatraz Original Inks

Alcatraz Original Inks

Here is the inking to my character of Alcatraz. This was created for the 30 charterers challenge held every November. I created a back story where for this character named Alcatraz. He is a pit fighter who dreams of escaping the fights. The only way out he believes is to never lose. Eventually, the bosses will move him out of fighting and work for them outside as an enforcer.

This inking was done on the original pencils. On 9×12 2ply Bristol paper. I use a 102 nip tip pen.

This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.

Dra’Zun, Guardian Droid Original Inks

Dra’Zun, Guardian Droid Original Inks

Here is the inking to my character of Dra’Zun the Guardian Droid. This was for the 30 charterers challenge held every November. I created a back story where this Guardian Droid has gone a little crazy. He’s raising and training a group of orphans. Eventually, there will be only one. He’ll put them through tests and trials to find one he believes is fit to live.

This inking was done on the original pencils. On 9×12 2ply Bristol paper. I use a 102 nip tip pen.

This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.

Dra’Zun, Guardian Droid Original Pencils

Dra’Zun, Guardian Droid Original Pencils

Here are my original pencils for my character of Dra’Zun the Guardian Droid. this was for the 30 charterers challenge held every November. I created a back story where this Guardian Droid has gone a little crazy. He’s raising and training a group of orphans. Eventually, there will be only one. He’ll put them through tests and trials to find one he believes is fit to live.

These original pencils were drawn on 9×12 2ply Bristol paper. I use a .7 HB pencil.

This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.

30 Characters Challenge 2012 – #2 Alcatraz

30 Characters Challenge 2012 – #2 Alcatraz

Character Back Story:
Like most fighters of the pit, nothing is known about Alcatraz’s past. What his real name is, where he was born, and who his family is. He ended up in the pit as most fighters do. At some point, he was abducted from his former life and injected into this dark underworld. The need is high for new recruits since fights often end with death. The life expectancy of a pit fighter is a little over a month. New recruits go through reconditions and rebuilding. First, their minds are erased, they become blank slates ready to be programmed to fight. To only care about fighting and winning. There are several managers (big bosses) that recruit, train, and house these fighters. Alcatraz fights for Boss Holiday.

Unlike most fighters in the pit who only dream of fighting and winning, Alcatraz dreams of escaping. To escape this violent world he knows he needs to survive the fights. This means he has to be smarter, tougher, stronger, and more lethal than his opponents. For him winning is living. Living for the next day, living to be free. He’s heard rumors that if you survive long enough, the “Boss” will take you out of the fights. Give you another job as one of his enforcers. Enforcing what, he doesn’t know. But he believes it has to be better than fighting every day to death.

When Alcatraz first started in the pits there was a top fighter named “Concrete Stain”, an undefeated fighter who had survived over a year. Then one day he was gone, not dead from a fight just gone. That’s when Alcatraz first heard the rumor. That elite fighters work for Boss Holiday on the outside, not just fighting for him in the pits. It might only be a dream but Alcatraz will keep surviving until he’s chosen until he’s free.

Behavior Traits:
Resourceful, Determined, Creative

Powers / Abilities / Skills:
Hand-to-hand fighting, Weapons (blunt objects, knives)

Notes:
I mentioned Boss Holiday in Alcatraz’s back story. He’s a character I created for the first 30 Characters Challenge. A Rockabilly Crime lord who employs “Super-Villains”

This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.

30 Characters Challenge 2012 – #1 Dra’Zun, Guardian Droid

Character Back Story:
A rouge asteroid hit and destroyed the planet Azari Prime, home of the Dra’Azari Royal Family. The Royal family and the planet’s inhabitants mounted a vast interstellar survival plan. Financed by the Royal family and all the resources of Azari, 20 ark space ships were created. The survivors would travel to Azari-3, a colony on the outskirts of their solar system. Azari-3 rich with natural resources would be their new home world. The Royal family created their own ship for the voyage, it was to carry their entire Dra’Azari Family. Guardian Droids were built and placed in all ark ships, also named GD-Units. Their primary functions and programming were to care for the needs of the ark passengers. These droids would maintain the ships, cook, clean, and educate. On the Royals ship, there were 8 GD-Units.

Ezbeet Dra’Book (Ezbeet equaling to a Duke in Earth terms) sees this migration as a great opportunity to rise higher in the family court. He reprograms the Guardian Droids on the Royal’s Ark to turn on the family and kill them all. In the middle of the mayhem, Dra’Book sabotages all the escape pods and uses the only functional one to escape. The GD-Units manage to slaughter almost everyone on the ship within hours. A few of the royalty manage to survive the attack in the children’s nursery, including Ezbeet Dra’Hexra. Dra’Hexra uses the ship’s computer to reset one of the Guardian Droids, GD-Unit 5.

As a result of the reset, GD-Unit 5 malfunctions merging both its origin programming with that of Dra’Book. It believes that it must educate and protect the Royal family by eliminating it. It quickly destroys the other Guardian Droids to protect the survivors. GD-Unit 5 then gathers the remaining Royalty including the children. GD-Unit 5 explains that it must protect the Dra’Azari Royal Family. It then attacks them, killing everyone except the 6 youngest. It has calculated that it must educate, train, and manipulate these six children to be the new leader of the Azari people.

In the chaos of the GD-Units attack, the Royalty’s ark ship was sent severely off course. Years pass by and the children become adults, they began calling the Guardian Droid, Dra’Zun. “Dra” for their family name and “Zun” means teacher. In the years that have passed Dra’Zun has taught his students to be ruthless, calculating, and unforgiving in all matters. It has also manipulated their genetic code to enhance their strength, durability, speed, and intelligence. Dra’Zun’s final lesson will be to have his students fight and kill each other until the strongest and most intelligent one survives. This “Winner” will be the rightful ruler of the Azari people. He or she will begin by conquering small worlds to build an army, then take back the kingdom. Dra’Zun plans to remain as this true ruler’s faithful servant.

Behavior Traits:
Patient, Calculating, Loyal, ruthless

Powers / Abilities / Skills:
Invulnerability, Strength, Records of all Azari knowledge

This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.

Creative Writing – Alcatraz

Alcatraz
Who is she? The woman glides in and out of sight. From the corner of his eyes, she’s gone when he turns. Mists in the light, neverending white. Every night it’s the same, never catching a clear view. Sometimes he remembers the raven hair, others the feline glitter of her hazel eyes. Tonight it was an innocent come-hither half smile. He felt like he could almost grasp her name, the sweet taste of it on his tongue. The closer she is ignites a feeling about who he was.

Alcatraz was taken away from the cool calming realm with the sounds of yelling. Two of his bunkmates were arguing over something. There were always echoes of fighting and arguments in the background. He didn’t know how long he’d been here in this nightmare underworld. Had it been weeks, months, years? He remembers the first day, his first memory. A towering overly muscular dark-skinned man slapped his face, it was a quick sharp stab “Your name’s Alcatraz! This is your life now. You fight, you live, you die. The longer you fight, the longer you live. Be ready, tonight you’re making your debut to the crowd!” He felt the sweaty smooth scalp of his head. He remembers thinking it felt too smooth, newly shaven, raw. This was before his head was covered with new scabs over old scars that gave it its now rocky texture. Since that day he’s been training and fighting. How many lives had he sniffed out in the pit? The faces of his victories blurred into shadows. Specters that created numbness in his mind. A deep hole of darkness in his soul. He was alive unlike his past opponents but trapped in waves of pain, blood, carnage, and death. It was only in his dreams that he felt free, remembering what life out of the pits might be like. She was his lifeline, the woman he visited in his safe harbor. Was she a loved one from his former life or maybe the final piece of his decomposed soul that had any hope of being redeemed? Before every fight, he sneaks away to the light. Reaching for the warmth only she could give.

“Alcatraz your up!” He slides off the blood-stained mattress of his squeaky bunk. Wraps his left forearm with the yellowed bandages he uses for simple armor. Lifts his helmet, a mismatched cage of rusted and dented lead pipes. Slips his head in it and places it on his weary shoulders. Grabs his signature battle chain with the muscle-ripping hook and mechanically walks toward the area’s inner doors. The vibrations of the spectator’s roar ripple through the floor up his body. Tonight he would fight again for the bosses, kill for them. His life was their plaything, but they would never completely have his soul. Every day she would free it in his dreams.

More Creative Writings

This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.

Creative Writing – Susanna, part one

Creative Writing – Susanna, part one
The sweet burnt smell filled Anthony’s inner nostrils as the waiter passed behind him. “Hmm, fajitas, those smell good.” Tony as his friends called him was meeting an old friend this early autumn evening. It’s been 40 years since he even thought of Susanna. He was very surprised to receive her phone call the day before. They had never been sweethearts, at least that’s how he felt. Tony knew she had a major crush on him in high school. Sure they had gone on a few dates back then. Tony wasn’t a bad-looking guy back then, at least that’s what he thought. “No trouble with the lady’s.” Now he was rounding the final years of his fifties. After a lifetime of experiences, he was no longer that go-lucky youth Susanna had fallen for. After time in the army, three kids, and a failed marriage; he was now a very grumpy old man. Tony waited in a booth wearing his favorite blue cap. A proud veteran Tony’s cap sported a VA patch. He wears it to cover the bold spot he started getting in his early thirties. Susanna didn’t know he was bold now, at least he didn’t think so. “Would she still want to meet this old grumpy old man?”

Tony feared she wouldn’t recognize him or worst, she would see him and one step turn around walk out the door. “Forty years, it’s a lot of time, we’ve lived our lives……people change…….She’ll have changed too.” He wondered if he’d even recognize her. Susanna, with her curly strawberry blond hair. It use to always remind him of a summer sunset. Maybe she was already sitting in the restaurant, at a table, or at the bar. Deciding if she still wanted to meet. Why did she want to meet anyways? Tony realized he didn’t really know. Her call was short and quick, “Hi Tony, How have you been, Wow it’s been a long time, hope things have been well, can we meet at Blue Corn, Tomorrow at 7:00, See you there….” Did he even say a word to her? Those short statements were all he really remembered from the conversation. Did she say more? Did she say why she wanted to meet? Tony was so surprised by the call, it had all happened so fast, too fast. He looked through the half-open blinds out the window. It was getting darker. The nights had started rolling in sooner this week. “Shorter days and longer nights”, he always liked this time change during the Fall season. It was a breezy fall evening, much like the one he remembered seeing Susanna last. It had been homecoming, the night of the big game. The night of the famous and tragic accident. The accident changed everything that senior year in high school.

More Creative Writings

This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.

The 30 Characters Challenge 2012 is Here!

The 30 Characters Challenge 2012 is Here!

It’s that time again, for the 30 Characters Challenge “Because the world still needs new characters”.
What’re the 30 Characters Challenge you may ask? Four years ago in 2009 comic creator Tyler James put out the challenge to all creative people to create 30 new characters in 30 days. I participated and accomplished the goal that very first year. The annual event held in November now has hundreds of participating artists and writers of all skill levels. The site has been updated and redesigned for this year’s challenge. (www.30characters.com).

As an alumnus of all the past 30 Characters Challenges, I’m very excited to participate again. The first year was the only time I actually finished, last year I was able to get up to 20. So this year I’m very determined to complete all 30. Each year the challenge helps to strengthen my drawing style. This year I plan to pencil, ink, and try coloring all my characters. I like to approach the characters and biography like Marvel’s “Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe.” When I think of Character Designs, I see my characters in that format. I loved reading about characters and their biographies this way when I was a kid. If I have time I might even add a few “Comic Panels” of the characters in action Like OHOTMU did.

Everyone is invited to “Join the Challenge“, the registration deadline is Tuesday, October 30th. And the characters will start going up on November 1st. Make sure to check it out!

Here’s a site Banner I created with one of my original characters from the challenge!

This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.

30 Characters Challenge 2011 – #4 Lilith

30 Characters Challenge 2011 – #4 Lilith

Character Back Story:
Lilith is Adam’s first wife before Eve. She refuses to be Adam’s subordinate and states that she is his equal. When Lilith leaves the Garden of Eden and Adam the angels Sansenoy, Senoy and Semangelof are sent to bring her back. She refuses to go back to Adam so a bargain is made for her freedom. The price is the deaths of one hundred of her children every day. Lilith complies but gives birth to more than 100 a day. Through the many centuries, Lilith has slowly birthed an army of daughters and sons to take back the world she believes rightfully belongs to her. Their numbers rival the angels themselves. She has raised her children to hate and pity the “Children of Eve”. There is a war for Earth coming and Lilith plans to win it.

Behavior Traits:
Independent, Motivated, Headstrong, Manipulative, Driven, Cunning

Powers / Abilities / Skills:
Invulnerability, Flight, Telepathy, Motivation, Limited Teleportation

Notes:
Lilith is a character from my comic project “First Legacy”, this is a working title. She is taken from folklore and was mentioned in the character back story of a character named Aurora Light a few years ago. I used is a challenge to revisit the comic idea.

This blog post was originally published on my former website, Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Artist Blog.