It’s been a while since we’ve had a back to back winner, even though it may not feel like these two victories are back to back, considering the break we took in the CDC’s over Christmas. But the person who won the last CDC poll was also victorious this time out as well. And that person is Cliff for his Party Animals piece. Congratulations Cliff and well done to everyone who entered.
Posted in Challenge Favorites
Well, this week I’m reeeeeeeally gonna stretch my own rules. Whilst, there have been numerous artworks this week that I could have talked about (COTW regular RobM coming closest, go check out the latest work on his thread, it’s pretty damn sweet), one person has been being consistently amazing with practically everything he’s submitted this week that I felt I had to cover him. But when it came down to it, I’m an indecisive bugger, so guess what I’m gonna do.
Now, why am I covering multiple characters in a post that usually only covers one picture. Well, I have some very important points to make and Anarchangel is the best ‘machiner to use when demonstrating all of those points at once.
First off we have a definite sense of style. If you look at all of these pictures together, it is immediately recognisable who did them, by certain defining factors. The shading style is very distinctive, very subtle, not overused or overshadowing the design, more of an enhancement of what is already there than a stand-out eye-catch. Which really works for Anarchangels style. He has a definite knowledge of light sources. If you look at his work you can see exactly where the light is coming from, because he’s made it blatantly obvious.
Then we have inventive and well worked costumes. Two words I can use to describe these are cohesive and stylish. They look like they could actually be from comics or cartoons, even from a live-action movie. Anarchangel has a way of coming up with these really cool looking patterns with masking and insignias that other people wouldn’t think of (best example here is Tokyo Rose). And then we have the colour schemes. Simple, clean and effective. You don’t need to use more than 3 colours, maybe a 4th for detailing, but that’s the limit. The only one of the above characters that uses that 4th colour is Aeon, and that is for two small aspects of the costume, and they all look fabulous.
Lastly, we have an attitude to the characters. You don’t have to be the worlds greatest poser or face-maker to get across a character’s personality, you just need to have an idea of it and see where it takes you. All of these characters has a definite character despite being in pretty much the standard face-forward pose and most of their faces covered, just by moving the hands a bit here, changing the position of the leg there and a bit of shading on an eye to finish it off. By just tweaking certain things you can change a characters personality from serious to silly, suspicious to incensed. You can imply action, movement or power through a simple hand gesture. All you need to do is look and think, “how can I say this with what I have”.
Sorry that this was late. I’ve been feeling a little under the weather.
As for how this goes, you post a work of yours, finished or WIP (aka work in process, for those who are new to abbreviations), and then others give you critiques on your work. I do not mind if you post the occasional non-HM picture or piece of writing, but keep in mind that, though there are some, not all of us here are writers or do art outside of HeroMachine. All I ask is that you only post pictures that are your own design and not any that copyrighted or based off of copyrighted characters. As for pieces of writing, I’m not sure about whether fan fiction is allowed, but for right now, just in case, don’t post fan fiction either.
Also, again, if you post a work, it is highly recommended that you also give someone else a critique.
Posted in Open Critique Day
It’s simple, you answer questions about the Batman. As per usual, 10 questions with a total of 20 points to get and don’t post answers in the comments, just your scores. The answers will be below a jump from the post whilst on the main blog page, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, take a look at the questions on the blog first.
1. How many months after Superman did Batman debut? (1 Point)
2. Put these famous citizens of Gotham in order of debut (first to last)? (1 Point)
a) Dick Greyson c) Jim Gordon
b) Harvey Dent d) Alfred Pennyworth
3. Which Green Lantern villain is named in honour of one of the original creative team behind Batman? (1 Point)
4. What is the name of the corrupt Police Commissioner of Gotham in Batman: Year One? (1 Point)
5. What is the name of Jim Gordon’s successor as Police Commissioner in The Dark Knight Returns? (1 Point)
6. Who teamed up with Batman in Issue 59 of The Brave & The Bold, the first issue to instigate the Batman team-up theme that would come to define the title. (1 Point)
7. What year did Bane debut? (1 Point)
8. In 1983, Batman left the Justice League to form The Outsiders. Excluding Batman, name the original line-up of the team. (1 point per person, 5 points)
9. Name all of the men to have played Batman in a live action film (not including Ben Affleck, whose debut as Batman has yet to be released). (1 point per person, 7 points)
10. In 1979, the original Batman from Earth-2 was killed. Who killed him? (1 Point)
Posted in Uncategorized
Ladies and Gentlemen, it is once again time for our weekly caption contest and I am turning the focus away from Superhero and back to Anime this week. So your challenge is to give me your best dialogue for the following image:
The normal rules apply, which are: You are limited to Three (3) entries which are due by 11:59 PM Eastern Time on Tuesday January 20th. Of course I as always expect you to keep your entries no worse then PG-13 in nature and that you follow all the normal rules of the forum when writing your caption for the above image. That being said I wish you all Good luck!
Posted in Caption Challenges, Challenges
Last week I asked you to Give me your best replacement dialogue for the following image:
After another disappointing turn out for the contest I am once again not going to be a top 5 and instead just name a winner and thgat winner is ………………………
Posted in Caption Challenges, Challenges
Hopefully everyone is going to find something fun to do this week. It’s another random name generator challenge. This time out, I want you to go to this site- http://superhero.namegeneratorfun.com select make a random name and make it gender neutral, then what ever comes up, you do. Great thing about this site is that it not only gives you a name but a small backstory and a power set as well, some of which are brilliant Just to prove this, this is what I got- 
You can either follow these suggestions or completely disregard them, but you must use the name. If you do use the backstory and powers, please include them in your post, they’re always good for a giggle.
As per usual, no limits on entries this week and the contest will close at midnight Saturday (blog time). Please read the contest rules before entering, have fun and good luck.
Rules for posts, contests, and challenges that I am hosting: Original characters only, no copyrighted characters, no characters based on copyrighted characters, no characters based on RPG’s or other games. The characters must be your own design and not based on any character that might be copyrighted in any way. I have the right to delete any post that I believe crosses this line without warnings. Only post pictures and images that you have either created for this contest specifically or you know for certain have never been entered to a contest before. If you aren’t certain, don’t enter it, because I’m not going to go back through all of the contests and check.
Posted in Challenges, Character Design Challenges
[polldaddy poll=”8574987″]
Posted in Challenge Favorites
Three middle-aged nerds (including yours truly!) review all of the MCU movies in chronological order. Short, funny, and full of good vibes, check it out and let us know what you think!
Nerdmudgeon.com