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30 Characters Challenge 2010 – #3 General Grimm

Noran Grimm grew up in a world ruled by logic, strategy, and calculation. The planet Dethathoun was one of the first planets to be conquered by the Cyber Lords after their own “Great War”. For generations, the Dethathouns were shaped by the Cyber Lords to become their field generals. Their inherent skills in problem-solving and tactical thinking made them the perfect soldiers and leaders

Noran’s family was among the most decorated of these Generals. Leading armies of Foot Soldiers in campaigns to conquer worlds across the galaxies. Norans father Jurvan Grimm lead the campaign that conquered the entire Acarien System. Making him the first and only Grand General of the Cyber Lord Army. Noran rose through the ranks of the military very quickly, becoming the youngest Dethathoun to become a Field General. His strategies in warfare were unmatched by his piers. Noran armies conquered or devastated hundreds of planets in the name of the Cyber Lords.

The Cyber Lords’ greed for power once again pitted them against each other and began an interstellar war. They fight for solar system territories. Like the War that destroyed their home world, they were now destroying the cosmos. As a result of the interstellar war, their resources were being depleted too quickly. Noran Grimm was sent to a remote planet named Earth with a battalion of Foot Soldiers to secure the planet’s rich resources. The last communique received from Grimm was a warning that the planet had defenders. With the war devastating the Cyber Lords armies no attempt has been made to find General Grimm.

30 Characters Challenge Creative Notes:
For this drawing, I was trying to make the character of General Grimm look stern. Like the commanding officer, he is. A man of tactician thinking. I think I was successful in the rendering. I’ve been starting off this series of drawing with blue lines and then tightening the pencils with a normal black lead. I’m enjoying the process, but feel like my drawing is coming out a little too stiff. I do feel like my inking is improving with every new drawing. – Shazam!

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

30 Characters Challenge 2010 – #2 Zarruk Xeon

30 Characters Challenge 2010 – #2 Zarruk Xeon Last Survivor of Tanigor

Zarruk Xeon is the last survivor of the planet Tanigor. A world much like the earth in size and population. Tamigor was protected by a group of superheroes. Zarruk was among the most recognized and respected among them.

The planet was devastated by a Cyber Lord and his army of Foot Soldiers. Looking to expand his growing interstellar empire, this Cyber Lord invaded Tamigor. But this world was heavily populated with super beings who fought back. The battle rocked the entire planet. With heavy casualties on both sides. The planet’s heroes couldn’t withstand the Foot Soldier’s larger numbers, up to billions. The world was eventually completely destroyed, with all life extinguished.

All life except Zarruk Xeon. It wasn’t his super strength, durability, or flight that saved him. It was his ability to absorb energies. The energy staff of the Foot Soldiers actually made him stronger. But not strong enough to save his world, his wife, or his children. Zarruk Xeon is now stranded on a dead planet. Searching through the rubble for a way off it. His only driving force is to avenge all he has lost at the hands of the Cyber Lords.

30 Characters Challenge Creative Notes:
Like my 1st 30 Character drawing of Foot Soldier of the Cyber Lords, I tried to use a new technique of starting my drawing with blue pencils. I then refined the drawing with normal pencils. This is the second time I tried this, I feel like the image came out a little too stiff. This is probably a result of me making most of the initial blue lines very tight instead of loose as I did in the last attempt. I am happy with my inking of this character design. I’ve been using a 102-nib pen when inking. It’s been a fun learning process. – Shazam

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

30 Characters Challenge 2010 – #1 Foot Soldier of the Cyber Lords

The Cyber Lords are a technologically advanced species that destroyed their home planet in “The Great War”. During the war, they would take inhabitants from other planets to be their Foot Soldiers. Using wormhole technology allowed them to travel through time and space to gather their armies.

They would modify their new soldiers by wiping their minds and reprogramming them. These new mindless beings would be outfitted with specialized cybernetic enhancements. Giving them great speed, strength, and agility. Their main weapon on the battlefields was an energy staff capable of leveling buildings. At the height of the war, each Cyber Lord had billions of Foot Soldiers. The surviving Cyber Lords seeing their world destroyed by the war made a truce. They agreed to leave the planet and use their wormhole technology to travel the universe and start their own individual societies. Using their vast armies of Foot Soldiers the Cyber Lords traveled the cosmos and began conquering worlds.

30 Characters Challenge Creative Notes:
For this drawing, I decided to try a new method of drawing. I’ve noticed a lot of professional comic artists start their drawings with blue pencils. I just recently watched Modern Masters: In The Studio With George Perez DVD and George Perez used this method. So I wanted to try it too.

I started my drawing with blue lines. I used a 0.7 mechanical pencil. Very gesture and bulky, this helped me get the idea of where I wanted the drawing to go. I then refined the drawing using a .05 HB Mechanical Pencil, adding shadows and hatching. I’ve recently been sharpening my inking skills. What I do is ink other artists’ comic pages. It’s fun and has been helping me learn new techniques. So I was excited to bring this into my own work. I can see it in the inking of this character design. I like using a 102 nib and a size 4 stable brush. – Shazam!

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

Renegade! Part Two – The Inks

I started creating this piece for a silent auction being held at the Bubonicon Science Fiction and Fantasy Convention. Here are the finished inks. I decided not to enter it but continued to finish it. The original drawing was on a 24″x19″ 2 ply Bristol board paper. The next step was inking it. I’ve seen a lot of great comic artists use a grey wash in their inkings, so I wanted to try that. I also added some movement lines in the background of the main panel. I used a 102-nib pen and a brush to ink it. In the past I’ve focused on digital inking, but lately, I’ve been enjoying inking by hand. Once I finished inking this piece titled: Renegade. I framed it and hung it on my wall. I’m proud that this piece and I had a lot of fun working on it.

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

Fright Night 4th of July Weekend Drawing Jam

The original cult classic Fright Night movie has always been one of my top favorite vampire flicks. So when I heard there was going to be a remake, I was very excited. Then I learned it was going to be filmed in Albuquerque, NM. That’s a 40-minute drive from Santa Fe (where I’m living right now), I was Super Excited.

It turns out the Assistant Prop Master on the film was looking for local comic book artists to work on the movie. They were looking for completely original work in the genre of monsters, demons, dark goth, swords/sorcerers, witches, devils, and all things scary. The film director would then review all the submitted samples. Wow, what an opportunity!

Not having a lot of this type of work in my portfolio I decided to do a jam session and create some. The samples need to be received by July 5th. So I spent all day of July 4th penciling and inking several pieces. I created some zombie comic pages and a few monster pinups. ( a Werewolf, Frankenstein type create, and a Vampire.)

To be honest, these weren’t my finest pieces, so I wasn’t overly surprised when I wasn’t chosen for the project. But I had a blast working in a different genre. It’s always good to get out of your comfort zone and explore new territories. It’s also really cool to know that a local comic artist will have his or her stuff in a major motion picture!

Here’s a sampling of the pieces I created in my 4th of July Horror Drawing Jam!

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

The Hunter – Character Design – From Sketches to Final Ink – Part 3

A few months ago I was looking through some of my old drawings. Ones I did while I was a kid up to when I was in college. I found my original sketches for a character named “The Hunter”. I had redesigned his history and biography a few years ago, so I decide to redesign his look too.

For the past year, I’ve been digitally inking my pencils. I usually use Adobe Illustrator using vector points. I like using the pen tool to create crisp sharp/smooth lines. But for this inking, I wanted to go old school and use a real brush and pen. A process I do not use very often. I had a real blast inking it by hand!I didn’t want to lose my pencils so I scanned the original and reprinted them on card stock. I used Adobe Photoshop to replace the original black lines with blue lines. This way it would be easier for me to ink them.

Here are my final inks of “The Hunter” I had a real blast with this piece. I started with very rough sketches to tight pencils and finally to a finished inked piece. In my next blog post (that’s right I have one more to go) I’ll show you what I did to vectorize my final inks so I can print them at any size without losing the quality of the inks. – Shazam!

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.