d r a g o n b o n e s    

Always been a fan of Norse mythology. Thanks to that, I’ve never been a huge fan of Marvel’s version of Thor. I know, I know – just being honest. He’s a god, and he always seemed… awkward in the standard Marvel world. In recent years, I think that they’ve done a much better job of placing him within the world without making things so odd.

At any rate, when the folks over at Xion decided that the May Art Jam would be Thor, I figured it would be a good time to have a go at the ol’ Odinson. I decided to make his costume a bit more traditional – a bit less… tights.

As should be obvious, this needs a lot of work yet – especially in terms of Mjolner. I like the more traditional shape of the hammer, but it needs some knotwork to finish it off. This was really just meant as a quick sketch though, so perhaps another time.

A quick concept sketch of Ororo Monroe – aka Storm of Marvel’s X-Men. I redesigned her costume just for fun (not that you can tell too well from this shot). The X-Men come in a solid second place for my ‘all time favorite comic series’, following hot on Spider-man’s heals. Yeah, I was a Marvel kid growing up.

As I grew up, I found an appreciation for DC. They tend to create more iconic characters, imho. Or rather, they did when I was a kid. Both companies (and many more) blur the lines a bit more often now, but it seems (to my memory at least) that Marvel was always about muddying the waters a bit – making things not so clear cut. Peter Parker started out trying to make a fast buck with his powers. Ororo made people believe she was a goddess. That always made those characters more real to me.

I love a good icon, but when I was a kid, I wanted to understand right and wrong, and it didn’t seem like those lines would ever be as clear cut as they were for Batman or Superman. I was a Marvel kid.

Regional Information

First, I would like to thank the lovely folks of MAC (Media Arts Council) that I met last night for all the great information that they happily shared at their Media Icons photography exhibit. What a great bunch of folks, and they were very helpful when it came to some plans I am putting together for my next big project. (Which I’m not quite ready to reveal just yet.) I’m looking forward to attending more of their events. They really put on quite a show.

Next comes a little link love for some of the blogs that I’ve started following, but have failed to mention here. I found myself thinking that I should help spread the word about these sites, so here we go…

Unusual Vantage Point

First up is Project: Rooftop or P:R for short. Dean Trippe and company do a wonderful job of hosting competitions to re-imagine classic super heroes and their costumes.

This is the sort of project site that I find terribly interesting and inspirational. When I’m looking for something to kick start the creative juices, I swing by P:R and get a bunch of new ideas going in a very short span of time.

If you’re not familiar with them, you owe it to yourself to become so.

Freeware and Frugality

Next up we’ve got the Freeware Illustrator. The concept behind this blog is, imho, simply fantastic.

Starting from the most humble of beginnings (a PC gifted from a friend) the author / artist known on the blog as Lukeo25 is chonicling his journey as he seeks to use only free hardware and software to run their graphic design shop.

We’re all familiar with the concept of the starving artist, and while I’m not sure that art, as a business, has it any worse than any other business financially, this seems a great starting point for those artists who might just be starting out, are doing it ‘on the side’ or are just plain strapped for cash. Really? It’s a delight to read, and provides a lot of good information.

Deviantart

And lastly – for my Deviantart link of the day: the #Art-Studios group. I’m kinda a freak for pictures of other artists studio spaces. I’m not sure exactly why, but it’s something that brings me a lot of joy. Perhaps it’s got something to do with my art supplies fetish. Seeing so many supplies displayed (often) all over the place just brings me a chaotic moment of joy.

A video of the fan art I did of Telepath – created by Comfort Love and Adam Withers.