A Steaming Pile

I was originally going to make a TS Eliot  "Waste Land" reference (since that god forsaken poem's monopolised my entire head-space over the course of the week) but this title seamed like a more apt, lowbrow substitute, I think.  Much like the poem, though, we're going to traverse the debris of my efforts at creativity and contemplate the nature of the imminent rebirth.  Is there hope for a fertile future or has this arid terrain doomed me to sterility?

... And on that cheerful note, I present the Beast of the Apocalypse:

How on Earth did he get that wife-beater on??

Hellboy is, by a considerable margin, my favourite Superhero of all time, if I can even call him that.  What Mignola does with pulp literature, Gothic poetry, and a wide array of supernatural folklore and classic mythology sources,all on the pages of a comic book, is nothing short of genius. Which is why it's so odd that it's taken me so long to draw draw him (I done fanart of Tess Mercer for godsake!). The accompanying text is a quote from Nick Cave's Red Right Hand, which is such a perfect fit for Hellboy (I still remember buggin' out when it played in the movie) even though the song itself is completely unrelated to Hellboy. Interestingly enough, the whole Red Right Hand thing originally comes from John Milton's Paradise Lost (deep with the epic poetry today!) and refers to the exact opposite of both the figure in the song  and Hellboy.  Overall, I was happy with my tanktop-wearing interpretation of Hellboy (I've since seen much room for improvement), which marked  a significant step forward in my colouring techniques and from-building.

From one apocalyptic beast to two others:  These guys are the Twin Angels previously known as Toku and Rykou (Those names are soon to be changed). They are the two main characters of a series I once called Absolute Power (The title is also Subject to change... Did I mention I was 13 when I thought this up? Back then, I got really deep into Angeology and Demonology. I was also really into Shounen Anime. And Metal Gear. The end result of all those passions eventually turned into a series known as "Absolute Power"). They find themselves on opposite sides of a war that'll determine the fate of humanity. They are also the key to the war's end, as they are both the hosts of an apocalyptic power known as the Toren Beast (that I'm keeping). Their designs were vaguely inspired by Solid and Liquid from the Metal Gear Solid series (which would be more apparent if I'd presented full-body pics, but...), another all-time favourite of mine. 

These guys, or two of them at least, were shown on my very first "exhibition".  From left to right we have Joe, Raziel and Malik. Raziel and Malik are the half-breed sons of twin Angels (sort of), making them Gregori (Hence the title) while Joe is regular human (Ha! A Regular Joe, amiright!) with a supersuit.  The three of them are the main characters of second half of the story, which I hope to at least take a quick look at again some time soon.  As you can probably tell, if you cared to look closer, these last two drawings are a lot older than most on this, employing my older style. They are of the last that I did from this soon-to-be-renamed series. 

And speaking of chain-smoking, Gravelly-voiced one-man-army super clones...  here are my first Solid Snake attempts. The drawings, which I immensely enjoyed colouring, were just from a bunch of sketches I did when I should've been studying.  I just liked how they came out (despite questionable anatomy in some areas) so I ran with it (or them).  Hopefully I'll get to doing a Snake a Solid (when you're on fire, you're on fire!) one of these days.

So what can one glean from this coalescence of epochs that now lays before us, soon to join a forgotten pocket in the flow of time?  I can not begin to guess what the answer may be for anyone who reads this, but for me, there are awaits a hope for improvement. Room to build on what's come before.  And, like the viaduct resembling a bird of doom in the aforementioned Nick Cave song, a looming countenance of despair. 

That wasn't pretentious at all.

Friend of Friend

Al right.  So I won't even bother with any introductions.  As far as introductions go, I would say may skills range from competent to tragic, which largely means they never really dazzle (And honestly, they only ever  meander around the vicinities of apologetic and self-indulgent).  As such, the prudent thing would be to skip them, I think.  I have some time.  I have some art to show.  Let's do it(D'oh! How was that for an introduction?).

One of the curses of being an artist (or an aspiring artist, rather) is that you are inevitably asked by friends and relatives to draw things for them.  And while it never occurs to them that drawing is as much work as balancing a ledger is, you're always obliged to do it.  Sometimes begrudgingly, but you do it.  In this particular instance, I was relentlessly hounded by one of my good friends for well over a year. And after much dragging and procrastination, I eventually got around to it, using it as an opportunity to try and emulate something I'd seen on Rad Sechrist's Blog.  I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed myself.  So much so, in fact, that I soon followed with this:

Not only was I glad to do these, but I was glad that they were glad when they saw them.

Sometimes though, you're friends' creations inspire you to draw something for them.This character is the protagonist of an upcoming comic book series known as Soul Heir which will be, if I'm not mistaken, written and illustrated by THIS GUY. I honestly don't know that much about plot details and such (post apocalyptic type setting with an "Assassin's Creed meets Jak 3" type feel from what I can tell) but Haki over here looks pretty badass and I couldn't help doing some fan art. I took a few liberties with the costume but I tried to stay as true to the spirit of the character as I could.  Look out for Soul Heir this December.

Some fans need to calm down...

And every so often, I dabble in social commentary.  I drew this a while ago when I'd first heard about the DC Reboot and the protests that were going around. For the record, I'm not happy about the reboot either, but I just thought the reaction and some of the things that were being said at the time were a bit over the top, and it resulted in this little satirical (and hopefully humerous) piece. Weird how my mind works sometimes. I would do a lot more of these but, sadly, I'm not that funny (that I had to explain this a number of times to a number of people should be proof enough).

I should stop there.  While I'm still not posting as frequently as I'd like, I think it's somewhat commendable that I managed to beat the very neat five-month gap that separated the last two entries.  Catch you on the flippidy-flip.