Reference pictures

To say getting my mother to take a decent reference picture of me was an unpleasant experience would be a huge understatement. After about 20 attempts at 3 photos, I finally had some I could chose from.

Wearing my rugby compression shirt and shorts, I was able to get a better outline of the body, making it much easier when it comes to drawing the shape

Image number one. A picture of me at a desk. I'll be wearing a shirt for this one.

Putting the mask on. This will be MUCH closer.

The final pose.

 .....on to costume designing....

"It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum........ and I'm all out of guh"..........????????

More on the chosen quote, I've found a video/audio sample of Duke Nukem actually saying the line (kind of) in game...

I guess the audio sample shows what context it's said in and the attitude...... but I kind of guessed it anyway.

Anatomy

Since the beginning of this project, I've come to a conclusion that one of the most important things to consider when drawing the human form (in a realistic fashion) is the muscular system of the human body.

Although in Neal Adam's drawings. the muscles are often exaggerated to show that the superhero is in peak physical condition, I was lucky enough to come across a diagram for the muscle system but for body builders.

 Although this maybe slightly over-exaggerated, I think it is perfect for a reference to where the muscles should be and how big.

........I have an idea

A4 sized image with a storyboard divided into three sections (comic book style).


1st frame:

A shot of myself (drawn) in casual wear, possible sitting at a desk (ok, maybe office wear). Speechbubble or caption reading "It's time to kick ass and chew bubble gum..."

2nd frame:

A close up of my face as I put on the mask.

3rd frame:

A shot of me posing, caption at bottom right reading "... and I'm all outta gum"

My own designs....

After trying to develop my skills and techniques required to duplicate an original piece by Neal Adams, I finally bit the bullet and attempted to produce my own design...

Firstly I needed a reference image, so my dad took a picture of my posing as you might see a superhero pose...

The top was tight, and unflattering...

I began drawing in pencil, trying to get a general outline of the body shape. Once that was done, I began exaggerating everything. I made the arms bigger, the lats, chest, neck and also made waist smaller (a little too small.....).

I am quite happy with the result, though there are clearly a few things wrong with it, such as the waist size being too small, and the chest being relatively uneven. Apart from those issues I believe it is a good representation of me as a superhero. I am especially happy with the face/head/hair.

I shall proceed to colour this and post the outcome...

Captain America

 A sketch I did of Neal Adams' Captain America, fully in fine liner pen...

Original

My sketch

Second attempt...

With the same intent as that last blog post, I have copied another of Neal Adams' pictures. This time, it was of Superman.... here's the result.


Stage 1:

Again, on an A5 sketch pad, I sketched out the drawing in pencil, then went over it in fine liner and black marker.

Stage 2:

Same technique used as the last time. Brought the saturation down to 0 and using the Ctrl+L function in Photoshop, I altered the image so that everything drawn was completely black.


Stage 3:

Again, changing the drawn image layer blend mode to 'Multiply' enabled me to create layers underneath the image to colour without altering the drawn image. Six separate layers were used for the colouration of the suit, cape/boots, skin, belt, hair and the log.


Final Image:

 

Again by adding a layer with an 'Overlay' blend mode over the top of all the coloured layers, but underneath the drawing, it enabled me to use a medium grey for the shading, using different opacities for different strengths of shadow. After the shading was done, I added another layer to draw the highlights on top, again using different opacities.
Different from my last image, I added another layer titled "lowlights". Because I noticed that there were much more coloured shadows in the original picture, I did the exact same as the highlight layer, but with a dark grey. This dulled down the colour as well as making the area darker, as you can see on the abdomen.
Again, I added a gradient to the background to complete the image.