Vera Milla

Okay, forget everything you may have heard about not doing the painterly thing again. Apparently, I suck at such predictions.

I've been in desperate need of a new desktop for quite some time now, one starring my newest spy lady character. Yes, I know she looks like the esurance chick, but I hope I've at least made Vera not as annoying as she is.

Had to assemble quite a few reference images for this one. First off was the pose, which I got from this lovely photo by Then I dug up some head shots of Milla Jojovich, plus a frame from some old concert footage of Lady Miss Kier of Deee-Lite for the hair. Finding decent reference for her shiney leather catsuit was strangely very hard. I would've though there'd be an abundance of suitable images now that we're living in the future and stuff. Had to dig up some stills of the four chick jewel thieves from Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. Even then, I don't think I followed it too closely. I think I made Vera a bit more diffuse, just because I likes the slightly grainy textute I was getting with the dodge/burn tool.

May update this one later. Want to design a sidekick for her. Got something in mind, so hopefully it'll be up soon.

The Negotiator

Been awhile since I posted here, been spending too much time at deviantArt, so I thought I'd shared the love this time.

This one came to me in a dream. Popped into my head for an instant, then I told a friend about it, who finally clued me in to the fact that it would probably make a decent next project. Had to fudge the scale of the saber handle a bit in order to get it in the frame and still have room to show some of the blades.

As good a job as Ewan did in the prequels, Sir Alec is the definitive Obi-Wan, even if he had his misgivings about the ensuing fandom that sprung up as a result of Star Wars.

Sir Alec has always been one of my favorite actors. He did a near perfect Hitler in the made for TV film 'Hitler:The Last Ten Days." I even read someplace that he considered the Hitler role to be his favorite of his own performances. He also did a turn as Jacob Marley in "A Christmas Carol" and, of course, his acclaimed appearance in "Bridge On The River Kwai."

Sometimes I try to imagine what the prequels would've been like if they could've somehow cloned a young Alec for the role. THAT would've been sweet methinks. It almost would've redeemed George for the whole Jar-Jar debacle...almost.

It's late. I collapse now...*thud*

Unfaithful

For those who might be wondering, I've been posting on deviantArt lately. Really liking it there. Still wanna post here, but it might just be highlights from what I put up there, at least for awhile. I like have a couple of different places for my art, each for different audiences, though I'd have to change/delete a few of the pics on here to make that premise work. ^^;

The link is down to the right, where it says "Lotsa Lotsa Links", silly!

Sketches!

More characters for my RP thread that I 'borrowed' from other, better works. Kovacs should be obvious to anyone who reads comics and/or keeps track of trailers for certain anticipated film adaption of a particular comic. Ethan is Samantha's younger brother, who's teamed up with Kovacs who, in my RP, has his own reasons for hunting Sam.

In the RP, Kovacs does NOT don his familiar 'face' nor does he go by his hero name. I wanted someone rugged and fit, and the unmasked Kovacs seemed to fit the bill. I also used Hugh Laurie from House as another model and merged the two of them. Thanks goes out to Kittyhawk of SGVY for suggesting him!


Playing around with expressions and how to draw her head from different angles. Her hair was tricky to get to work, but I hope I came up with something that's distinctive and easy to make.

Meet Winston...

He's Vera's new magical animal guide. Acquired from a Sharper Image store in the mall, he's the best Hermod could come up with on short notice, plus he had a discount card.

Right now, he's helping Vera survive in the forest by procuring food for her. (Hey, he's trying!)

Winston's primary job is reconnaissance, stealthfully checking out enemy positions from above with his highly attuned optic sensor eye thingies. Unfortunately, he's a wind-up model and his spring does tend to give out at the worst possible times.

He has other abilities, but I'll elaborate more on the RP thread later. As of now, it's 1:58 am and my creative ideas are getting a bit too random, even for me.

...and there!

Really like how these came out! Quick, easy and looking pretty darn slick IMHO.

Who are they? What's their story? Let's just say they're related, know each other very well, but have never met face to face. May reveal more to those who don't already know in future postings.

Beginning to think more and more that Flash is the best thing I've used yet for doing a cell-shaded look. Works great with either a Wacom or Cintiq and you don't end up tempted to play around with a lot of filters and effects. You just draw (and finish) the thing! I just might end up doing my comic this way, if I can get around my latest bout of writer's block...

Holy crap, it's hot!

AC is out again. Seems to be a karmic cycle for me. Every summer, no matter where I'm staying, an AC unit that I depend on for my very sanity either at work or home is destined to break down, and as always, it does so at the hottest time of the year. Got the fan blowing and the windows open, but I'm sweating off pounds just sitting here. Yucky, I know...

Anyhoo, enough of that....ARTWORK!!!!

New character(s) for a new RP thread! Well, more like an RP thread reboot, but still! Will tidy up and render, of course.

I'm very excited about developing this new storyline. I've learned a lot from the mistakes I made on the previous thread and now I think it's going to pay off.