Burning the Deck

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<<< "You're Such A Card"

Well, here he is. Had a lot of fun with him (you could say I've been struck by a Joker-Gas-Bomb), even if I'm not 100% satisfied with the outcome. Here's to you Jeff Matsuda! May you splorge out unique creations until giant canaries take over the world!

Joker: Part 5 ( Rendering )

I've really been enjoying rendering this fella. Using a Noise filter on a brush gives a nice texture. Speaking of textures, not sure how much I'll use them. I've used one for the background, I might use another for the clothing...maybe hair. We'll see. Need to come up with the design on the card as well.

Joker: Part 4 (Line Art Fix and Flat Colours)

I finally figured out what it was about the line art that looked wrong. His whole body was slanting in one direction and it looked really unbalanced. Using lasso and transform tool I got that elbow twisted into a better position. At least it doesn't look like the table/surface ain't made of ice and he's a second away from slipping off screen. Meant I also had to quickly fill in the space with a hand that I had to trace over a photo of my own (as its hard enough for me to draw hands on paper, on Photoshop it'll be tediously time consuming.) I realised, half way through doing flat colours, that his sleeve was defying gravity, so I had to fix that again. I'm not too sure about the folds. Also the level of neck exposed was unbalanced on one side so I brought the jacket to the centre a bit more.

Joker: Part 3 (Line Art)

Don't know how much of the LineArt will be seen in the finished outcome... it's there if I need it though. I am no good a smooth outlines, haha!

Joker: Part 2 (Sketch)

Boy! Matsuda Joker was a pain to draw. Luckily I had a figure of the very guy to use for reference. Very handy for his hair and face.
And yes, that is my appalling workspace. It's either that or the kitchen or the table where to computer is, which is so cluttered that it's not worth it unless using reference on the monitor. Probably would be better if I had done the sketch smaller or landscape as I quickly ran out of paper space. Had to adjust the sketch on Photoshop a little as well. Hopefully it's alright. I'll come back to it after a break to see how it looks then.



My plan for the final look is to have it tilt a bit (like in the second picture above.) Though I'll decide how much of a tilt when I finished it.

Joker: Part 1 (Insert Deck Card Pun Here)

I've have wanted to do fan-art of the Joker designed by the brilliant artist Jeff Matsuda for ages! I know a lot of people hate his design, though I can't see why. You can't compare Matsuda's Joker no more than you can compare Ledger's Joker to Nicholson's, they are completely different species. I have always liked TV programs/cartoons/films that look really different and stand out, like the Ginga series and Silverwing cartoon and this is no different. You gotta admire a Joker that can almost physically match the Batman and doesn't make lame attempts when in hand-to-hand combat. And that crazy hair-do! Makes mine look neat (and that's really saying something. haha!) Actually, I think it was watching this animated series that got me into Batman in the first place (I don't think the original series was showing on TV.) As dedication seems about time I did some Bat-art.
















Originally I planned it to be a House of Flying Dagger's Paraody ( I must add at this time I had this idea stewing in my head since December-ish) because Joker's sleeves in his first appearance were sooo long, like the girl in the film during the Echo Game scene. It seemed wise to turn away from that film and so the first thumbnail was thought up. Still, I was going "Nergggg!" mentally. Mainly because it didn't seem to make any sense. So I'm going for something more menacing rather than with action. It's going to be quite a dark, tonally, and hopefully will pull off alright. Only problem I can think of is my problem with hands, and as Joker's hands are going to be one of the main focus points I need to get them right. Luckily Matsuda's Joker has quite boxy/square hands so it should be quite simple. All I have to do is incorporate that into my photo reference. Boy! It ain't easy to control a camera with one hand while doing a pose with the other. And yes, my skin really is that pale... almost as pale as his...oh dear.

Redtooth Character Sheet

Redtooth Character Sheet
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The Finished thing....just felt I couldn't do more to it.

Redtooth: Part 8 ( Almost Done)

Time to get some reference, as I wasn't sure how to go on. Looking at the picture of the Southern Giant Slender-Tailed Cloud Rat I noticed the hands and feet are black with a fleshy colour on their palms/pads and the claws are a sort of ivory. I then moved onto figuring out the dark markings on the back and neck, it also helps to separate the arm from the thigh a bit more. Hair was added afterwards, I sort of imagine Red' spiking up his neck fur ( inspired by how teen's today use gel and also the threat pose of cats/other mammals) to make him seem more intimidating. It was hard to get it look satisfactory, as using a hair-brush stamp made it look too repetitive. So I literally gave him hair cuts with a small eraser on 100% opacity and cut away at the strands so they now look more individual and a bit more grizzly.




Now time to add textures. The Rusty Texture is from ImagineFX's resource files and the Purple-stuff is my own experiment with paint. The Rust is going to be used for the metal and the purple for the skin. I mask so that the textures are only on their certain part and put the layer filter to "Soft Light" and lower the opacity down till its barely visible, but just enough to give some texture.




So, I'm just thinking of adding rust to the metal, but I'm not sure it really needs that level of detail... we'll see. That hand is also annoying me. Need to change that.

Redtooth: Part 7 ( Getting There...)

We're getting there with the rendering. All the features (the body, clothing and metal) are all on separate layers and one colour to make things a bit simpler. The clothing won't stay salmon pink and I'll probably remove the strap around his wrist. Looks like he has a watch on, haha!

Redtooth: Part 6 ( The Old and the Body )

I curiously found the old coloured versions of the first draft in the depths of my external hard drive... Holy Twinings Tea! They are bad.Problem is that I was painting them the same way I painted Asmodeus (see June, Part 1) and their both totally different surfaces.
And yes, that is a bra and a semi-see-through top Red' is wearing, one of the reasons why I changed his design (that and the pose....*shudder*)

I should really speed up my process. I'm being too lazy...