Yearly Archives: 2011

RP: Matt Murdock on fashion

(Courtesy of Comically Vintage.)

HM3: Dragon whip

Asder and I have completed work on his prize for winning Character Contest 49, now available in ItemRight-Blunts -- a dragon whip:

Enjoy!

META: Online comic book stores

Due to some recent unpleasantness at Heavy Ink, folks without local comic book shops are looking around for a good, reliable comic book vendor retailer online. For instance, I am in the middle of nowhere and at least 2-3 hours away from the nearest shop, so I need to get my fix through the mail. The Marvel Digital Comics are nice, but they're only Marvel and they're only digital.

Do any of you have recommendations on a good online store to manage subscriptions to a variety of titles?

Open Critique Friday #9

It's time once again for another Open Critique Day!

If you have a HeroMachine illustration or another piece of artwork you've done that you'd like some help with, post a link to it in comments along with your thoughts on it -- what you think is working, what you're struggling with, etc. I will post my critique of the piece, hopefully giving some tips on how to improve it.

Of course everyone is welcome to post their critiques as well, keeping in mind the following rules:

  • Make sure your criticism is constructive. Just saying "This sucks" is both rude and unhelpful without giving specific reasons why you think it sucks and, ideally, some advice on how to make it better.
  • Each person should only post one illustration for critique to make sure everyone who wants feedback has a chance.
  • I will not critique characters entered in any currently running contest, as that doesn't seem fair to the other entrants. You can still post it if you like for the other visitors to critique, but I will not do so.

That's it! Hopefully we can get some good interaction going here and help everyone (me included!) learn a little bit today.

(Image ©2006 Tom Fishburne, "Skydeck Cartoons".)

RP: Weak in the brain department, but strong in hugging!

(From "Wonder Boy" number 18, 1955.)

HM3: 80s Afro

I haven't heard back from Joel about this yet, so I'm just going to say, damn the torpedoes and full speed ahead. Joel, if you want any changes just let me know.

Anyway, here's his prize for winning Caption Contest 90 -- a "massive 80s style Afro" to join the two or three non-80s Afros currently in Hair-Standard (clear your browser cache if you don't see this one show up at the end):

The hardest part of doing an Afro is getting across just how dense and how three-dimensional the 'do is. You can't draw every single ringlet or curl or it ends up looking like a massive pile of scribble. So I tried to go for suggesting the masses of hair with just the jiggly lines at the bottom and around the edge, then putting in a 30% black screen around the face to indicate how it projects into the space around it.

Hope y'all like it.

HM3: Bandaged hands

Part 1 of 4 in Imp's Friday Night Fights victory prize request is up and available for your use in HandRight-Standard (clear your browser's cache if you don't see it):

The bandage part is color1, and the area that receives any Patterning. I figured you'd probably want to be applying dirt or blood or leopard spots (I don't ask) to the bandagy part since the skin is mostly hidden. If you'd rather I reverse it, just let me know. Color2 is the skin portion.

Return to the Cave of Time!

The time has come once again to embark on an exciting Choose Your Own Adventure! This time we are braving the classic "Return to The Cave of Time", only in its updated and expanded iPhone edition. So even if you've run it before, prepare yourself for more adventure, more challenges, more harrowing excitement than you remember. Once more, into the breach!

Continue reading

RP: Trouble on the Honeymoon

(Lifted from "Comically Vintage".)

HM3: Celtic Knots

Me, Myself, and I ... um, and I ... have finished his prizes for a couple of contest wins, now available in Insignia-Nature:

He requested a strand of Celtic knots to use as a facial tattoo, but after chatting about it, we thought it would be more versatile to break the string into individual bits that can be manually strung together so you can get just the effect you're going for. Here's an example, showing one of each of the knots all lined up:

Because of the way the strands run, to get the colors to work exactly right you might have to flip alternating instances, and then rotate them 180 degrees, to line up properly. Hopefully you'll find them useful.