Oct 31, 2012

PLAY BALL!!

These are some designs I did for a local screenprinter that does a lot of high school homecoming shirts. The highschoolers come up with the ideas. I draw them. Then the screenprinter colors them and (usually) adds the text in house.
I'm not sure why the Brave in this one is in a pit in addition to being burned alive. The concepts are just passed on to me as written notes and usually the screenprinter doesn't know any more than I do. I guess it could be intended just as additional ignominy for their foes.

In this one I added text just to show their designer how I envisioned its placement. Also, on my original sketch I had the alligator looking sort of dopey and happy. But word came back that the client wanted there to be across-the-board menace, which is understandable. I was a little on the fence about the dopey alligator version myself.

As with the text in the one above, the color here was just a "sketch" to show what I had in mind for the background - separating it from the foreground with one (or two) simple colors, plus using the color to create a ragged border. Another change from the client came back on this one - I had originally written "Curses! Foiled again!" in the villain's speech balloon, but an alert teacher must have vetoed that. Whether out of personal sensitivity or a finely honed awareness of the sensitivity of parents, we can only speculate.

The text here was going to be "GMO the Jets!" I think but --- oh wait, my bad, it was actually for a chemistry class celebrating a chemical holiday of some sort.

Well that's all I've got, now go get 'em, team!

Oct 12, 2012

State of the Stands (Oct '12)

We now present some important observations gleaned from a quick perusal of the comic book racks...

Francesco Francavilla's comic art has a level of detail about like old 30s comics, but he uses more modern fancy layouts. His coloring is very "artistic" too, not the typical overdone computer coloring - it's minimal like the drawing, with occasional unexpected color choices punching it up.

Alan Davis (does he go back to the 70s? Seems like I've seen the name in old X-men comics) has a 3-part series running thru several of Marvel's "annuals" that looks good. It seems like a more 70s style