LINK by Michael Walsh

I picked Link this week mostly in celebration of Skyword Sword coming out. Unfortunately I still havent got to play the game because I'm kind of addicted to Skyrim, and want to finish my playthrough.

Anyways here is my Link, he's one of my favourite characters of all time and I've played almost every Zelda game all the way through. Went for an adult Link circa Twilight Princess. Loved drawing this character and am working on a colour version of this illustration (just not sure if it will be successful).

Check back in the next few days and hopefully the colour version will be up instead.

LINK by Ken House

Here's my Link, plus Ocarina-style fairies and a Zelda 1-style Armos. He's a childhood favorite of mine!

Also this week, we hit 200 art posts here at Spitballin'. It feels like some kind of accomplishment.

-Ken

A GOTHAM CITY CHRISTMAS by Gerard de la Costa

I was kind of excited when the Gotham City Christmas idea was suggested awhile back; I had my idea right away but fell behind in deadlines and had to put it aside. Being the procrastinating artist that I am, I couldn't put as much time into this as I would've liked (I really want to fix Harley's face to convey that she's going in for a big Christmas kiss -- I just don't get that from what I drew).

Confession time: the pose is based off this guy's photo since I was pressed for time to do any thumbnails (warning: NSFW); I really liked the playfulness of the models and felt it suited Harley and Ivy's relationship. The colour scheme was based off this guy's work; I liked the minimalism and the colour choices seemed appropriate for the occasion-- he's an ok artist, I guess.

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and here's to a Happy New Year!

-Gerard

A GOTHAM CITY CHRISTMAS by Neil Tavares

Here is my pic for the day after Christmas! I picked Baby Doll! My wonderful miss had the idea after we watched the Nostalgia Critic!... Her episode on Batman the Animated Series was so heart breaking and awesome! You all need to watch it!

Have fun for new years guys!

A GOTHAM CITY CHRISTMAS by Marcus To

A sweet holiday post from our friend and one of DC Comics' best artists Marcus To. You can check out his work on the currently running Huntress mini-series, as well as a healthy run on the recent Red Robin series, so he's no stranger to Gotham. Check out his website!

-David

Seeing my friends at Spitballin' Comics and their theme this week “Gotham City Christmas” I thought it was a good idea and put in my own piece to say: Have a To-rrific Holidays and Happy New Year!

Also don't ask me why RR is a chibi, I just wanted to is all.

-Marcus

A GOTHAM CITY CHRISTMAS By Nicole Turner

click to enlarge

I'm proud to be introducing this heart-warming Christmas guest post by Nicole Turner. I can't look at the expressions on the penguins' faces or Cobblepot's slippers without cracking up . Nicole's an extremely promising animation student at Sheridan College and an artist to watch for.

-Ken

I think the Penguin should be more grateful that his penguins managed to wrap those presents with their flippers.

-Nicole

A GOTHAM CITY CHRISTMAS By Ken House

Poor Croc's always alone on Christmas.

This theme allowed more freedom than any we've done in the past and that made it one of the most difficult as well, but seeing some of the other entries, I'd say it was worth it. Well, It was worth it-ish anyway.

Merry Christmas from myself and Spitballin', and let's make this bat-feeling last all bat-year!

-Ken

A GOTHAM CITY CHRISTMAS by David Cutler

Commissioner Gordon had the best intentions when he founded the Toys for Sidekicks holiday program, but public interest was weak at best. Merry Christmas, fellow heathens!

-David

A GOTHAM CITY CHRISTMAS by Dan Sadaba

Looks like Gotham Christmas week is finally rolling! This one's an awesome guest post from our friend Dan Sadaba, and it's so great I wish I'd thought of it. Damian and Dick's sweaters are something else. Dan's a freelance illustrator and former ESOL teacher, having just returned to the Canadas from Japan. Check out more of his work at his website!

-David

A GOTHAM CITY CHRISTMAS by Ryan Bullard

Hopefully you can guess what's going on here. I have three Batmans (batmen?) as the three Christmas spirits: Past, Present, and Yet To Come. They were supposed to be looking down at Bruce sitting in his chair after a long night of crime fighting, but I ran out of steam (and time) so it's kinda just them now. Merry Bat-mess.

-Ryan.

A GOTHAM CITY CHRISTMAS by Michael Walsh

So pumped to see all the entries over the next week. Gotham christmas has to be one of the best ideas ever! I was originally going to do a super despondent modern batman, reflecting on all the christmases that he could have had growing up had he not lost his parents... and then I was like, poop no! Lets do something happy... and who is more happy then Adam West? So here is Batman and Robin giving presents to all the gotham children on christmas eve.

-Michael

MARTIAN MANHUNTER by Ken House

Here's J'onn's shapeshifter/psychic stress response, or alternatively, he's scaring small children.
It seems that the rest of the gang was in a tender mood this week, so I almost hate to end the week on a note of grossness. It's dedicated to Sarah anyhow.

-Ken

MARTIAN MANHUNTER - Neil Tavares

This week's pick is Martian Manhunter, a dedication to my lovely woman, Sarah

This is the first character that my miss fell for in comics. Darwyn Cooke's version of Martian Manhunter is the character that she connected with the most, and the character she continued to love. With good reason. He's strong, and kind, but also sensitive. He has so much more depth than some of the others in his group and yet you still never see anything of him in the comics.

I had to dedicate this to my wonderful better half, due to the fact that she has helped me through so much of discovering who I am, with my art, and as a person. I am a stronger artist, and person because of her. She is my inspiration.

Sarah you are the best thing ever!

Hope you all like it as well guys and gals.

MARTIAN MANHUNTER by Ryan Bullard

It's always fun to munch a creamy crunchy chocolate O-R-E-O


-Ryan

MARTIAN MANHUNTER by Gerard de la Costa

J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter. I actually like his new costume; the old one (boyshorts, pirate boots, x-suspenders and a cape... really?!!) just didn't make any sense to me. It always looked like J'onn was either heading out to a rave or hopping onto a Pride Parade float.

This sketch is dedicated to Sarah, Neil's better half. Her pleas that Neil's Martian Manhunter costume can be worn throughout the year (especially date night!) and not just on Hallowe'en, have always fallen on deaf ears.

MARTIAN MANHUNTER by Michael Walsh and Adam Metcalfe

I love the man Martian J'onn J'onzz. He has such a cool simple design, I especially liked him in Grant Mo's Earth 2 when he completely dominated the alternate Superman. He always seemed like such a forlorn, lonely martian so I tried to capture a bit of that.

Also, shout out to Neils' gal who absolutely loves this character, and with good reason.

Edit: Adam Metcalfe decided to throw some beautiful color over this image, It is now titled "It even rains in space."

Here's a quicky crayon job, liked the sadness in this one.

Tragical dopeness surrounded by the beauty of space. J'onn needs a hug.


-Adam

SKYDOLL by meaghan carter!

I haven't read skydoll since school. It's one of those comics that are so beautiful, you need to share it with other people. I'm really happy we got a chance to take a crack at this character!

SKY DOLL by Maya Nord

I was excited for this week because it was my first time picking the subject!

YAY FRENCH CHOBITS.

SKY DOLL - Neil Tavares

I always wanted to read Skydoll in animation school, but never got an english copy. Alessandro and Barbara are just gorgeous artists, that I drooled all over my friends books... it was awkward.

SKY DOLL by Ken House

Sky Doll's a comic that's always looked fun to me. I don't know if she's a sex bot or what, I probably should have looked it up. Too late now though.

-Ken

SKY DOLL by Gerard de la Costa

Sky Doll is just a treat for the eyes, simple as that (I'm talking about the comic book here though Noa, a so-called Sky Doll, isn't hard to look at either).

I'm happier with my pencils than I am with the coloured version but what else is new?

SKYDOLL by Michael Walsh

This isn't my usual style but I thought I would try out something new this week. Thanks for lookin'.

-Michael

STORM by Ryan Bullard

Oh man, Thor's swingin his hammer pretty hard..

- Oh Bwunnhilda, you're so wovely..
- Yes I know it, I can't help it.
- Oh Bwunnhilda, be my wuv!

- Return my wuv, a wonging burns deep inside me..
- Return my love, I want you always beside me..
- Wuve wike ours must bee..
- Meant for you and for me.
- Return, won't you return my love, for my looove is yours!


(again, opening the image in a new tab will have the original size)
-Ryan.

STORM by Andrea Scott

It's been a while since we had a guest post! This one is from our friend and Selena's roommate, Andrea "Seabiscuit" Scott, esq. Andrea's a freelance illustrator, burgeoning concept artist and full time reader of those weird fantasy paperback novels you see in that one section at Chapters or whatever and wonder 'who is it that reads these'? It's her! Check out more of Andrea's fantastic work in her online portfolio!

-David

STORM by Neil Tavares

Thought I would do some big cool Storm pick eh? Well bullox to you! Here comes a little more fun follow up to my Apocalypse pic!! (link over on the side)

Storms pretty neat, never really been a huge fan though. Meh, Pikachu has got dis yo!

STORM by meaghan carter!

Ho man I never had so fun much drawing lightning! Storm is one of the coolest female characters I know in Marvel. She's a power house and doesn't really get acknowledged enough for it. Also, in general I kind of favor young characters with white hair.

STORM by David Cutler

I like Storm a lot. I think she's swell. I'd put her on my X-Men dream team. They falsely teased a Storm/Cyclops relationship on a recent Astonishing X-Men cover. Missed opportunity for a really fun will they won't they given both heroes are in pretty solid relationships anyway. I just want to see Ororo and Emma throw down.

The feeling I stole this composition or color pallet from someone else's drawing of Storm is strong with this one. I still like it though.

-David

STORM by Gerard de la Costa

I'd finished the bulk of this piece last night and wanted a night's rest before I added the highlights. So imagine my surprise when I saw that my composition mirrored that of Mr. Walsh's (kinda like showing up to a party and seeing someone else wearing the same dress -- embarrassing! amiright, fellas?).

Trust me, this was pure coincidence.

I really had no strong feelings about Storm until the X-Men's run-in with the Morlocks. Her new punk look and the way she kicked Callisto's ass sans her weather powers really made an impression on me. Plus, it didn't hurt that Paul Smith was entrusted with the art chores on the book (so good it makes my eyes rain!).

STORM by Michael Walsh

I was initially going to colour this but I really think the black and white turned out well and I didn't want to take away from it.  As for the character herself, I think Storm is probably my favourite Marvel woman. I couldn't resist drawing her punker incarnation, just so fun to draw.

-Michael

BEAST BOY by Maya Nord

I watched Teen Titans pretty regularly when it was airing, and it remains my sole exposure to Teen Titans as a whole, so as far as I'm concerned his name IS Beast Boy, and this is the only costume he's ever worn.

Anyway, this illustration is pretty simple, BB is all attitude and his shadow reflects his power. I read somewhere that Pteranodon was one of his favourite forms in the show, so I went with that.

BEAST BOY by Ken House

Tuesday night Beast Boy- I'd like to spend more time with this one, hope I get the chance.

-Ken

BEAST BOY by Ryan Bullard

Uh, now eventually you do plan to have beasts on your, on your Beast Boy week, right? Uh, hello? Yes?


(I think you can view it in a little bigger size if you "open image in a new tab", that's if you were into that sort of thing.)

-Ryan.

BEAST BOY by David Cutler

Jungle love, it's drivin' me mad, it's makin' me crazy.

Awesome pick this week by Selena--Beast Boy's pretty much my favorite non-Robin Titan, though that's only since the animated series. The 80s comic book version in the christmas colours always annoyed me. Gonna be a fun week!

-David

BEAST BOY by Gerard de la Costa

Upon taking a second glance, my Beast Boy came out slightly more feral than the Gar we're all accustomed to.

And yes, that is the Thundercats Lion-O glove that he's sporting. :-)

Fyi, the original drawing was done with a Grand & Toy ball point pen.

BEAST BOY by Michael Walsh

I kinda mashed up the costume from his animated appearance and the comics here but it seems to work out pretty good. Used this character as a good excuse to draw a crazy forest.

-Michael

THE ROCKETEER by Maya Nord

Hey guys! Long time no post, sorry about that. October was a hell of a month for me, but I should be back on schedule and posting regularly for the foreseeable future.

While I was aware of The Rocketeer, I wasn't really familiar with anything about it other than "oh it's that guy with a cool helmet and a jetpack and his girlfriend is Bettie Page spelt with a 'y'" so I had to do some research before starting on this. I had a few concepts for the illustration, but settled on this one in the end since it seemed both atypical and easy.

I was wrong about the latter.

THE ROCKETEER - Neil Tavares

For me, I did watch the Rocketeer as a kid, but that was about it really. I remember seeing the old movie and thinking how cool it would be to zoom around on my own rocket pack. I more than likely did zoom around the house afterwards, maybe with my favorite action figure zooming with me (Mikey of the Ninja Turtles). I would say that I did like him, and I have always thought that he was such a neat character, but I was never really "IN" to him. I had some real fun drawing him this time around. I tried to give him the respect he deserves. Hope you all enjoy, I know I did.

Cheers all!

Neil

THE ROCKETEER by Ken House

Here's the Rocketeer, a character whose film I have vague memories of from early childhood. The bits of the Dave Stevens comic that my little bit of research turned up looked surprisingly violent.

-Ken

THE ROCKETEER by Michael Walsh

I've had a really crazy week so I didn't get to put in as much time on this as I wanted but am pretty happy with the turnout. A little sketchier then most of my entries but I did have a lot of fun with it!

-Michael

THE ROCKETEER by Gerard de la Costa

It's my pick this week and I've always had a fondness for the Rocketeer ever since my friends and I managed to score some passes for a preview showing at the Cinesphere way back in June of 1991. This led me to seek out Dave Stevens' comic which is just so easy on the eyes -- do yourself a favour and pick it up!

My version has Cliff Secord's girlfriend, Betty, donning the helmet and rocket pack because, well, let's face it, we all know my penchant for drawing cheesecake will not be denied! And I'm still on my cardboard paper kick, this time with red ColErase pencils.

ATOMIC ROBO by meaghan carter!

My choice this week, and I chose to pay tribute to one of my favorite comic book characters going right now. If you like to laugh, you should read atomic robo. If you like sci-fi, you should read atomic robo. If you like vampire dimensions and insane dinosaur scientists, you are in for a treat.

ATOMIC ROBO by David Cutler

It's Atomic Hobo! Other than having seen the comics laying around the apartment when Carter and I shared an apartment, I'm not terribly familiar with the character. But, from what I understand, he's one of those Hellboy/Wolverine types who's been alive a long time and you often see his adventures during various points in the 20th century. I could be very wrong about that. Anyway, after a failed attempt at something more traditional and some inspiration from one of my favorite tunes, I decided that at some point his brain got scrambled and he traveled America as a vagrant with one of those novelty robot dogs.

I don't remember at what age I discovered I was more or less the last person left on earth romanticizing the hobo life, but it came as a blow I can assure you.

-David

ATOMIC ROBO by Ken House

Atomic Robo's simple, anatomy-ish design was a lot of fun to draw, I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the batch.

-Ken

METALUNA MUTANT by Ryan Bullard

Well I'm kinda late to the Halloween party, but I think you'll get over it, right? Right.
My Universal Monsters pick was The Metaluna Mutant from 1955's "This Island Earth". At first I really didn't know what I could do for the mutant besides just having him stand around or trying to kill someone, but then I remember the one thing all monsters have in common: They're super horny.

Almost every monster I can think of is trying to steal our lovely earth women for their own twisted monster needs. So I just ran with that, and ended up adding the horniest of all monsters, the Martians from 1962's "Mars Attacsks!" trading cards and there you have it. I imagine the Martians saved the Mutant from his doomed home of Metaluna in order to worship him in all his brainy horniness. God help our women folk.

-Ryan.

FRANKENSTEIN by Ken House

Here's a quick Frankenstein, slightly late for halloween.

-Ken

MR. HYDE by Gerard de la Costa

My initial idea was the one that's been done to death: split screen both faces of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde a la Two-Face. Meh. Too easy. Still having way too much fun with cardboard, markers and white pencil.

Happy Hallowe'en everyone!

-Gerard

WOLFMAN - by Neil Tavares

So here is my All Hallow's Eve pick, the Wolfman. A little more wolf than man. I have always been a Wolf lover vs Vamps. Vamps are so prissy and wimpy… I can't help it, and this isn't even having Twilight twinkle it's way into the monster world. C'mon, Vamps are out of commission like 50% of the day. Depending on what werewolf movie you watch, they can change 24/7. However the full moon is a bit of a complication ha ha. Bottom line, Wolves are rough tough and rugged. Vamps are a little pale and wimpy for my liking.

Cheers all!

Neil

Creature from the Black Lagoon by meaghan carter!

Hide yo kids hide yo wife!

DRACULA by Michael Walsh

Really busy with a bunch of commissions and other work this week so had to keep it pretty simple and quick. That said I still had a lot of fun with this one , trying to keep a likeness to Bela Lugosi and still keep it creepy.

-Michael