February 26, 2010

Old Skool Felicity

I was inspired by some vintage covers and I think subconsciously for a long time, the work of Matt Kaufenberg over at (http://skutterfly.deviantart.com) has been inspiring me to do this one off retro-vision of Felicity, a bit like I did with the fake NES game cover.

I pulled out some of the oldest comic covers I could find, curious most of all what a retro Felicity might look like, I looked primarily at old artwork and designs of the Batmobile. Essentially I wanted to make a version of the ship that looked way old but still recognizable. An easy way to do that was to turn that 'Cool' dial all the way down, haha- Yikes it's ugly! For T-gate I figured even though it'd be a futuristic story, a retro version wouldn't quite be ready for a holo-head and as the robot designs I researched contained re-occuring domes and curves I decided on a 'Light' Bulb type head- fitting ofcourse as 99 nicknames him Lightbulb.


I threw colours on the inks making sure to try and limit my palette and go over the lines now and again(for that authentic retro-look!) I also made the choice to 'down-grade' 99s goggles, seemed it might look out of place to be the 'hovering' Neon orange of her actual design. A cool little thing was that the goggles she sports here are the actual original goggles, that were a design element for a long time during the characters initial conception.

Lastly I applied visual effects like textures, grain, stains, dot-pattern. The 'child scrawling' is of course a nod to past ventures but primarly inspired by the previously mentioned Skutterbug, plus it just adds a cool, real aspect to it.

-T

February 22, 2010

Suit Up

More Magpie, continuing off from the previous post!


Beta Suit.

Like more than a few Supers, Elliot chose her crime-fighting ways, she simply didn't choose her powers. I always liked it when there was a 'Home-made' effort to a symbol or costume. A crappy 'Trial' version outfit before the Super-suit comes into the mix. Magpie is no different- even sporting a metallic baseball cap with 'Lady Luck' scrawled on it, a nickname soon associated with the hero during her first year 'on the beat'. The theme of 'Magpie' is established story-wise so the colours she wears still reflect that. A younger less experienced Ellie sports the suit, body language suggesting more storm than calm, less elegance and experience.

Super Suit.

The Super-suit itself hasn't changed considerably from the original designs. Elements like the belt(complete with shiny keys and locks, to further suggest the theme) have been removed in favour of flexibility(was unable to pose her in the very 'acrobatic' manner I want her to move.) And flared trousers too, trimmed to support the acrobatic feats. Also, to contradict earlier designs- the black on her suit is of a Matte surface, not a shiny 'glossy' one. Also for no real reason, her tail coats seem to get even longer each time I draw her.



-T

February 21, 2010

Who me?

Ellie (Magpie unmasked) -
I wanna talk some about designs and suchlike but I'm actually suffering the cold right as we speak! So instead I'll upload the images and talk about them when I'm done. I'm looking forward to actually properly using my blog again.

-T

February 07, 2010