So....

I just finished a fun commission for a really cool woman, Veronica, who wanted an image of herself and her husband to be as Wonder Woman and Superman as a wedding gift. I thought it might be fun to post the entire series of drawings I did in the development of the final image to show my process:) As always I would love to hear what people think!

Initial thumbnail.

Veronica left it wide open as far as what I could do for this image and this was the first thumbnail I sent her. She loved this pose so I began to refine the drawing.

More refined drawing

In this tighter drawing I began to tweak the anatomy of the figures and spent some time trying to figure out the structure of the male characters forearms which ended up being pretty tough. I also adjusted the legs and feet of the female character to make her look more joyous and happy:)

I also began to suggest clouds and think about this image as a complete composition.

More refined drawing still!

In this version I spent some time refining the hands, expressions and costume details. I also added the date of the wedding to the image. I noticed in the previous version that the male characters head and neck looked a little skinny so I adjusted it somewhat. Still working on those forearms:)

Even more refined drawing:)

Detail, details, details:) Just little things with the expressions, hands and costuming details. His shoulders still didnt look quite right and I thought his upper legs looked kinda bulky. And also her lower foot looks weird, right? The forearms were driving me crazy!! I was literally standing in front of the bathroom mirror holding three pillows to my chest to try and see what this should look like!

Yes.... this is my life:)

Final pencil drawing!

So here was the final pencil version, highly contrasted prior to being printed in duotone for inks. Got the forearms sorted out and the Superman logo on the cape. Slimmed down the legs a bit, by adjusting the slopes of the quads and hams, and got the lower foot straightened out! Put some shadowing on the males back and on the soles of his feet. I tried not to have too much black in this image because of the happy and joyous nature of the image but I like s little spot black just to give the eye visual hooks to move around the imag and to give the process of "looking" at the image a certain tempo. I feel that the eye slows for areas of high contrast and detail so using these elements help dictate the way in which a viewer "reads" an image. 

Final image:)

And here are the final colors:)

Realy bright and mostly primaries. 

The color story is bluer and slightly darker at the bottom of the image as the two characters lift up into a brighter and oranger sky. The two face, if you look closely are being highlighted by each other to suggest love and happiness:) AWWWWWW!!

The darker clouds below them also help to suggest the visual narrative of the two characters embracing and rising above and danger/unhappiness/rainy days etc.

So this was it! Really fun project and I was happy with the final product as was my amazing client!

If anyone has any questions or comments on what I have done here please feel free to comment or connect with me at ted.helard.com

later, skaters:)

In an attempt to get back to my blog and start posting some fun stuff here is the first three panels of the new Annie and Foosh strip featuring the triumphant return of everyone's favorite lame villain, Poop McDouche. I will be posting the other three parts of this strip as I finish them as well as more daily drawings and some other stuff I have been grinding out.

Yay comics!!

Daily Drawings 1/23/12

Throwing up a sample of my Daily Drawings from 1/23/12. I have finally segued out of the "ugh, this sucks, sucks, sucks" stage of my daily drawings and the last couple batches have loosened up and I am liking the images I am producing and enjoying the process again. I was doing some concept sketches for some new Rollr Girl illustrations and a Conan fighting a cyclops illustration and I am finding it is easier to capture the pose and figure quicker. So I feel I am seeing some of the benefits from this regimen of daily drawings manifesting in my daily work:)

I really liked the pose 21.. there is something about the pose that is slightly turned away from the viewer that I thought was cool. I have a natural tendency to draw straight ahead, straight profile or straight 3/4 turns so it is fun to see more subtle rotations of the masses of the figure.

Sucking and why you have to push past it.

So...

... it has been ten days since I have posted any Daily Drawings and this is because they have sucked. I have fallen out of love with the whole idea and I did the drawings begrudgingly and the whole process became desultory. But I have slogged on. I have honored my commitment to doing thirty of these a day and though many of them I wouldn't show my best friend they currently reside in the folder marked "done".

Here are a few samples... "shudder"

The highly anticipated "Rollr Girl" full color signed and numbered print is now available for purchase. I am only going to print 25 of these and as many of you know my last print run sold out very fast! So if you want to purchase a signed and numbered great full color Rollr Girl print just follow this link! If you don't have PayPal contact me and we can work something out! Thanks so much!
T$

Rollr Girl 2 inks!

Inkf for the most recent Rollr Girl:) I thought these turned out pretty good! I will be coloring this this week and have prints a limited run of prints available!

Daily Drawings days 6 7 8

So I still knocked out my 30 drawings on Sunday morning (new years day) even tho I was pretty slungover following some late night debauchery on New Year's Eve with the lovely wife:) I am finding that I am still struggling with the basic standing pose. I think I don't have a strong enough visual icon in my mind of what that pose should look like. The relationships to the lats and the rib cage as it extends past the chest and the juxtaposition of the pelvis the upper torso mass (especially in the 3/4 and profile view) is where I start to get lost. So I spent most of today working on standing male poses, some from reference others just from my imagination.

Yesterday I did a bunch of cool drawings from reference of gymnasts. There is nothing about the human figure in motion depicting strength, grace an dynamism that you can't find in gymnast images! Wow! Just really cool stuff. Figured some stuff out about the twist and bend of the female torso and the relationship between the stretch and squash of the planes as the figure contorts. Keeping on trucking:)

Day 6 drawings:) I Liked this male standing pose. The feet look very planted and the figure reads very well.



Day 7 drawings:) I liked this series of sketches they were fast and loose.

Da7 8 drawings:) I really liked the upper left sketch! Very powerful and emotive with a very readable silhouette.

The coming of Poop McDouche!!

The first strip featuring Annie and Foosh and introducing an amazing new super villain Poop McDouche!