MISS MARTIAN by Gerard de la Costa

I really don't know anything at all about Miss Martian other than what I've seen on the Young Justice cartoon (her catchphrase is so unfortunate AND so annoying! And to think it's Winnie Cooper from "The Wonder Years" voice that we're hearing.). I know she's got the hots for Superboy so I wanted to incorporate that into the image somehow.

I really don't know where I was going with this one; I initially liked my preliminary sketch and started inking it but once I got some colour into it the black line felt too heavy so I deleted it. Now it feels like construction paper cutouts. Love it or hate it, pass or fail, stumbling over this piece has taught me a lot. Let's see if I can successfully apply it to next week's character.

Also, welcome to Spitballin', Ryan! Hope you have a good time and I look forward to seeing some fabulous artwork.

-Gerard de la Costa

MISS MARTIAN by David Cutler

Hellooo, Megan! It's Miss Martian week on Spitballin' and I'm back from douching out on Blacksad, trying to get my contribution in early.

I'm mostly familiar with Miss Martian from the Young Justice cartoon show, rather than the comics, but right from when they introduced her I was into the concept. Green Lantern aside, Martian Manhunter was always the guy in the JLA big seven who never managed to be a legacy character. Everyone else had Kid Flashes and Aqualads and lasses all over the place, and for the longest time J'onn never managed to franchise. She fits in with the classic teen sidekicks really well, I think. She may be off the Teen Titans, but she's for sure on my Titans dream team.

Also, this'll be Ryan Bullard's first week as a full time, regular team member here at Spitballin'--we had to bring him on after he blew us all away back in Kraven the Hunter week. Can't wait to see what he (and everybody else) cooks up!

-David

MISS MARTIAN by Ken House

It's Miss Martian week, and with the relaunched Teen Titans seeing her benched and the loss of relevance that comes with Manhunter's JLA founder status being written out of continuity, It feels like an appropriate time to show Megan Morse some love.

This week, we're also welcoming our newest member, Ryan Bullard. Good to have you aboard Ryan!

-Ken

BLACKSAD by Neil Tavares

Hey all, I really like Black Sad, unfortunately, I have never read it. Every time I pick it up, it is in french. So what happens is I just end up looking though the thing like 7 times just taking it all in. I planned this one out earlier in the week. I really wanted to do something a bit more than the ones that I have done up already. I hope you like it, I am pretty pleased with it.

Cheers

-neil

BLACKSAD by meaghan carter!

Blacksad is one of those books that will make me realize 'Wow, I can't draw.' It is just so unbelievably well made. And I can tell from talking with other artists- if you ask them about 'Blacksad' they immediately look to the heavens and groan about HOW AMAZING IS THAT BOOK RIGHT?

BLACKSAD by Michael Walsh

I love Blacksad in every way. its a solid series of noir detective stories with some of the most beautiful comic book illustration I've ever seen. If you haven't had the pleasure of reading this series grab the Dark Horse hard cover, you will not be disappointed.

-Michael

BLACKSAD by Gerard de la Costa

In thinking of characters to tackle on a weekly basis I knew immediately that one of my choices would be Blacksad. I wish I had the gift of gab to express my love for the hard-boiled feline detective and the gritty world he inhabits. I'm eternally grateful to my local library and its graphic novel section for introducing me to the awesomeness that is John Blacksad and to Juanjo Guarnido for showing me that you can draw anthropomorphic animals and not have it degrade to yaoi catboys.

As soon as Dark Horse Comics released the hardcover collected edition, I was all over it like a fat kid on a Smartie! Everyone should own a copy for their personal library of graphic novels... I'm just sayin'.

Still getting used to Photoshop and its endless menu of choices. At the risk of being Mr. Obvious, backgrounds are really not my thing.

-Gerard

BLACKSAD by Ken House

In the mood for cat men? Well my friend, you are in luck. Spitballin' is your fix for gruff European cat men, all week long. Blacksad!

-Ken

BLACKSAD by Omar Farouq

Omar's another awesome recent graduate from Toronto's Max the Mutt Animation School illustration program with great hair and intense ambition and all that good stuff. You cannot physically stop this guy from drawing, it seems, and he did this awesome Blacksad portrait for us so early on (basically immediately after we asked him if he wanted to participate) I wanted to throw this up early and start Blacksad week off right.

Check out Omar's online portfolio, too, it's the jam.

-David

BIG BARDA by David Cutler

Like a streak of light, he arrives fashionably late!

Big Barda was my pick for this past week and I'm getting mine in just under the wire. As a young idiot in the 90s listening to Green Day and Our Lady Peace, I never got Jack Kirby at all, and I really never got the New Gods. I remember first encountering them when Barda and Orion joined Grant Morrison's JLA around issue #16 and finding them hopelessly embarrassing. Kids are stupid. I now love Kirby and rank Barda as my second favorite character of his, one of my favorite costumes of all time. It takes a certain swagger to pull off the kind of helmet that would make Galactus feel under-dressed, and Mrs. Miracle does it nicely.

-David

BIG BARDA by Ken House

Barda week! I don't know much about Barda, Mr Miracle or the New Gods, but from my little research I can tell I'm missing out. The costume could hardly be more fun to draw; I'm promising myself to rip-off the headdress thing for an original character at some point.

-Ken

BIG BARDA by meaghan carter!

How much do I love Dave for picking Big Barda this week! What an awesome character. Just a female that is unabashedly a warrior.

I tried something new this week. I broke out my old warm grey copics to tone the original drawing for this, and then scanned and colored over it. I kind of like the effect I got with the shading, as quick and scratchy as it is.

-meaghan!

BIG BARDA by Michael Walsh

Who doesn't love Kirby? I've actually never drawn The Big Ol' Barda before so I had to really think about how I wanted to render her stylistically. I had to include some kirby crackle, it wasn't really a choice. Oh yeah and the inks are on my Blog.

-Michael

HARLEY QUINN by Neil Tavares

Here is little miss Harley, welcoming home her wonderful "Mista Jay" Made this one a quickie, about 2 hours. I am pleased. Tried my own take on her, a bit of a cross with the original and the new reboot for her. Enjoy folks!

-Neil

HARLEY QUINN by Gerard de la Costa

This week's choice is Harley Quinn from the Batman family. I figured everyone would be drawing the red and black costume so I thought I'd change it up and sketch out her costume from the video game Batman: Arkham Asylum. I was really impressed with the character designs they did for the game and hate to admit that, even though I've owned the game for a couple of years now, I still haven't beaten it.

Everyone either loves or hates Harley (I fall into the "loves" camp) and you have to admit, it's pretty impressive that a character that was created for Batman: The Animated Series made it into comics continuity.

This is my first attempt at getting over my Photoshopophobia and applying digital colours; obviously, I need a lot more practice but was pleased with how she turned out. Check out my blog for the pencil version.

-Gerard

HARLEY QUINN by Ken House

It's Harley week and she is far and away my favorite Dr. Quinn in popular culture. I Can't wait to see the rest of the batch!

-Ken

HARLEY QUINN by Elise Vermeulen

Guest Post! Elise Vermeulen is a recent and promising graduate of the illustration program at Max the Mutt Animation School, where a lot of us cut our teeth the year before. A few of us saw her work at their industry night graduation showcase deal and thought she was pretty rad. Check out her online portfolio, too. Great job here, Elise!

-David

It was really fun drawing her. I originally wanted to do a more dynamic pose but I just couldn't get it for the life of me. I ended up drawing this instead but I still like it. Also I miss using copics for coloring. 


-Elise

HARLEY QUINN by Michael Walsh

Don't have too much time this week so I went pretty simple again. I've always loved the Harley Quinn character, and find it kind of awesome that she was actually introduced in the animated series and then written into the comics. She was just that cool.

HARLEY QUINN by meaghan carter!

Can we just stop and talk about how much I LOVE Harley Quinn? She's so incredibly adorable. The design, the giant mallets. Even the beaten housewife syndrome she's got going with Mistah J. We love you for real Harley.

KRAVEN by Ryan Bullard

This week we have a special guest drawing done by a good friend of mine, Ryan Bullard. When we went to animation school together, I always loved this dude's stuff. I really couldn't get enough of it. I'd ask him to draw my stuff in his style all the time. He really seemed to be drawn to these raptor people I made up a while back. Anyways, go check out his blog, you NEED to go there - http://idiotwindblowin.blogspot.com/

Cheers all.

-Neil

KRAVEN by Neil Tavares

Ok, So I was really pumped to do this one, even though I saved it for the last possible moment. I just had a bit of a vision in my head that I really wanted to pull off. So I really hope I did. I figure i'd have him a little closer to Parker due to him being a hunter and all! Anyways, hope you all like!! Cheers

-Neil

KRAVEN by Ken House

 

This week I completely ran out of time, which is a shame because Kraven's my own first pick and I love him pretty hard. My entry here's part of a slightly bigger piece, along with Spider-Man and a cityscape in back. I'm still working on it.

For those unfamiliar, Sergei Kravenoff's the world's greatest big game hunter. He's defeated every beast that walks or crawls with his bare hands and never gets old because of a potion he takes. But as we all know, being young forever is really depressing and Kraven's punched so many lions that it isn't even fun anymore. That's why he decides to hunt the deadliest game of all, the Spider-man!

Anyway, don't listen to anyone that tells you he isn't the best.

-Ken

KRAVEN by Gerard de la Costa

This week is one of the reasons I enjoy being a contributor to Spitballin': it's not because of the character choice but for the simple fact that I've never drawn him before. I'm stretching creative muscles that have lain dormant for too long and, with each unfamiliar character, being pushed out of my comfort zone. I like it!!!

I have no feelings towards the character though, to me, the open chested lion vest screams bad 70's porn dude. And what's up with the manpris and ballet flats?

Casting: mustachioed Tom Selleck from his Magnum P.I. days, hairy chest and all.

-Gerard

KRAVEN by David Cutler

I love the classic Lee/Ditko Spider-Man rogues gallery more than any other in comics, and even among those, Kraven is up there. Kraven was always a pretty cool cheeseball, but he really came into his own in the 80s, in no small part to the "Kraven's Last Hunt" storyarc, but also because he looked so cool fighting the black-costumed Spider-Man. It's all the orange. Look at him, in his Peg Bundy animal-print jeggings. Cracks me up.

This wasn't going to have Spider-Man in it, originally, but I started having fun with it (a rarity the past little while) so I just went bananas. Drawing Spidey's noodle webbing is exhausting.

Really great Spitballin' choice, Ken!

-David