Can't get enough of drawing BioShock stuff. I bought a new sketchbook the other day, and I decided to have some fun throwing down some messy ink and tossing some devil-may-care Photoshop behind it all. Try out some textures. Experiment, experiment, experiment.
None of these characters will make sense unless you're familiar with the video game BioShock. Here's the trailer(warning for violence). Hopefully you'll think that the drawings are cool nonetheless.
Big Daddy Bouncer w/ Little Sister
Baby Jane Splicer
As always, my weekly webcomic That's So Kraven! is updated. I announced last week that I am retiring the strip at 75 'webisodes'. However, I will be launching a new webcomic in the new year and I'm very excited about it.
I drew this ages ago but I never got around to coloring it. Keeping to a rigid once-a-week updating schedule means bringing a lot of unfinished drawings out of mothballs, shaking them out, giving them a quick coat of Photoshop paint and throwing them, unloved, out into the cold cold world.
I spend a lot of time thinking about villains and monsters. Some of my favorite media (Frankenstein, Hellboy, BPRD, BioShock 2, obviously Proof) feature monsters in leading man roles. The problem inevitably arises that the hero (conflicted about his role as a horrible monster but working for good) must rationalize his presence in a world that rightly fears him. It seems artificial; nobody I know walks down the street to fears that he/she is suddenly going to Hulk out and start throwing cars. It's unrelatable. The notion that it somehow boils down to 'fitting in' is laughable, too. A tyrannosaurus can't change its haircut and start working out in order to mesh with its chosen social subculture. (Although that'd be a sweet comic.)
The appeal of the monster-as-hero is obvious; they are fun to draw (artists love that), they are challenging to write (good writers love this) and they are excellent power fantasies (RAAGHH! BOOM! ROAR!). But, at the end of the day, it's always easier to massage the tropes if you pick a regular fellow who perhaps has a weird scar (Harry Potter) or the proportionate speed and strength of a spider (Scrooge McDuck). That way you can include lovely things like 'romance' (nobody wants to see Fin Fang Foom kissing anything), 'emotion' (besides, "Why do the villagers hate me?!"), and the 'redemptive arc' ("Does not killing this old man make up for totally killing that little girl?").
Anyway, I wrestle with this stuff as I try to figure out what's next for Archie Snow.
Here's Webisode Four of That's So Kraven!, my weekly webcomic with Trina Johnson, where we remove Raven-Symone from her own show and replace her with Kraven the Hunter. This week: Donna and Spiderman show down!
EDIT: Wow! The trailer for BioShock: Infinite was released today. Looks even more old-timey.
Very busy these days. Spent a week in New York (hello Elliot!) and I've been hard at work on a new storyboarding portfolio and working on a comic script for my first solo mini-series that I can hopefully reveal at the end of the summer.
Here's a birthday card for my buddy Jared, whose love of 100 Bullets (and Eduardo Risso) knows no bounds.
Next, a Spider-Man commission that took way, way too long.
Lastly, a BioShock Subject Delta I finished last night. I'll be coloring this one next week, it was a lot of fun to draw. Rivets and pipes and dripping water.
Okay! Another day of work and then a mini-vacation to Boston, then Canada Day in Ottawa with my family. Busy as a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest.
More BioShock drawings. The art direction in that game, by Scott Sinclair and based so strongly in Art Deco, is easily my favorite of any game I've ever played. I've been working in black-and-white so much lately that it's quite thrilling to play with washes and put colour behind them.
Big Daddy Rosie:
Little Sister:
For more information on BioShock, would you kindly click here?
My next quest, I suppose, is to stop drawing licensed characters and start producing illustrations. I think it's time to start making statements and telling stories rather than regurgitating stories I've already digested and enjoyed. Squeak! is a big part of that next step in my career, but there's no reason not to show more of it here, I think.
My dear friend Ken's birthday was a week or two ago. Here's a card I draw for him, belated as always. Happy birthday, Ken!
"What is the difference between a man and a parasite? A man builds. A parasite asks 'Where is my share?'"
Been obsessing over the Art Deco-inspired videogame BioShock 2 lately. Lots of interesting design work went into this this game; I particularly fancy the French-influenced diving suits on the villainous Big Daddies.
