The voting on the drawing contest hasn't even started yet so there's no rush on getting started on the next one, though I've got some thumbnails done. (More on that some other time.) In the meantime, while I work out my story in my head (almost ready to start) I've been goofing with the next Mafus/Leaf collaboration. Christian and I are working together on a Perhapanauts pinup. I'm pencilling, Christian's inking again and we'll figure out the coloring later. I'm actually working on the final pencils now but I thought I'd just post the initial rough for now and milk this baby for two or three posts.
The biggest challenge was settling on a cryptid that hadn't already been done to death. I was going to do Redcap but, after some Google-style research, I was surprised to see how often this character has turned up in comics and movies. Christian made some good suggestions too. But I ended up going with the Megalodon. I'm a big fan of Steve Alten's MEG novels and the idea of one of those 60-foot prehistoric sharks coming up from the deep just chills me to the bone.
I did two or three roughs before settling on this one. My favorite was a shot from above with the Meg coming up under the boat, knocking the team into the water. I liked the shot but there wasn't any opportunity for character bits and I really wanted to draw Choopie. He's my favorite character (I LOVE when he meets his future self and asks how he dies. CRACKS ME UP!) and drawing him small on the page without giving him something interesting to do would take some of the fun out of it for me. So I decided to go with a less dramatic shot. Now I can have Choopie doing his thing, making off with the chum bucket for God knows what. (Well, I suppose we can guess what he wants with it.) and I can have a little fun with Big too. I didn't have room to fit in the whole team but I got in my favorites, including Molly, nicely providing us with some scale.
I wasn't terribly happy with the rough at first. Big doesn't seem very imposing here and his left hand just looks ridiculous. Luckily for me, Craig gave me some pointers on how to fix some of the other problems (like a bunch of weird tangents I didn't catch). The second rough came out much better. I'll post that next time.
7 comments:
Matt,
I really enjoyed the MEG novels as well so I think that was a great choice and you can never go wrong with Big, Choopie and Molly, IMHO.
I really like the line work on Molly's legs in the rough, very graceful and elegant.
Niiice.
That's a great pinup so far.
Those stories always creep me out.
I mentioned on Todd's blog how spooked I was after seeing JAWS.
After all, living in Florida, we tend to go to the ocean alot.
I think I've only read one of the MEG novels, which as I recall, wasn't too bad. It got me to buy his Loch Ness book, which was a little "meh." I'm looking for something to read, so's perhaps I'll peep the missing MEGs.
That's one bad arse looking shark. Looking forward to inking this piece, so hurry up, wouldja?!
Matt looks great so far. Looking forward to seeing it progress.
Always awesome to see the art, Matt...it's looking niiiice(< siad in best Borat impression).
Cannot wait to see more!
Always the inspiration...
I like this one even better than your Sphinx. Can't wait to see how it turns out.
This looks like it's going to be a fun pic Matt! I've been trying to come up with a pin-up to send over to Todd and Craig, but I just can't seem to get the time at the moment and everything I try just looks like crap. I haven't worked on anything in forever and it shows, so until I can find more time to get back into the swing of things, it's going to wait. But I do love me some Choopy!!
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