Darkstalkers: Jedah pin up...

Hey everybody, I recently took part in Udon's contest for their Darkstalkers Tribute book, which I didn't end up in the final book, but that's cool. Alot of other artists, who did really great pieces didn't either, so I don't feel so bad, and plus it was my first serious attempt at doing a coloured piece and I feel good about it.

It was a learning experience being under the gun, since I only had 3 days to work on it from start to finish. Prior to this, I was working on a project that finished up on February 25, so on February 26, I was finally free to get started on this pin up for the contest.

The reason, why I chose Jedah, is because he's a cool character that showed up late to the Darkstalkers franchise, which was essentially the last game they made with that franchise. He's also a character that is visually cool, and not many people would know to draw, so I was hoping that would work in my favour in trying to get the pin up into the tribute book.

I spent February 26, at my drawing table working on this pin up, luckily I was smart enough to have done a rough version, enlarged it and light boxed it onto the art board prior to the 26th.

Penciled & Inked - So apologies to any inkers out there, due to the tight deadline, I chose to butcher this piece by inking it myself, after penciling it, lol. Knowing that I was gonna be the one to ink it, really freed me up from all the cleaning up of the piece I would normally do, if someone else was gonna ink it, which in term, saved alot of time for me, lol.


Flat Colours - So once I finished inking up the pin up on February 27, I also scanned it on the same day and started laying the flat colours out on Photoshop. I was taught that the flat colours are meant to be the highlights of the colours, so that's what I did with them.


Final Version - So this only left me to do all the colouring on February 28, to where I added depth and shadows with 2 additional colours. And if you noticed in the initial inked version there isn't a background, and I added that in, with Photoshop. So the moon, the castle and the bats were created using tools that are fun and easy.

The might of Dan Hibiki

Here's a sketch I did of Dan from the Street Fighter series. Dan is a great character, because or in spite of his overconfidence, arrogance and ego. Normally in the Street Fighter universe, Dan is the butt of all jokes, due to his "qualities".

A friend of mine, commented on the fact that, I made Dan look very cool and powerful in the quick sketch I did; which is true, but the fact that he's holding up a wooden sign proclaiming his greatness, even though he's looking cool and all; fans of Street Fighter know that in a few seconds, he's gonna fall flat on his face or something to that effect.

It's funny that a character, who's history was starting up as a retaliatory character, by Street Fighter II designer, Akiman against SNK's creation of the Art of Fighting, which he thought to be a rip off of Street Fighter; could have so much popularity to this day. Many thought that he would be just a joke, a jab at SNK, but somehow the fans took to his personality and bizarre behavior and fell in love with him like I did. It just goes to show you, that we all love a great loser, lol.

FVZA#1 pg 30 Test page & Breakdown

Hey all, this is my new blog and to christen it's launch, I'm showing a test page I did for Radical Comics for their soon to be released comic book FVZA. Normally I get labeled as being just a guy that can only draw muscular guys in tights, and nothing much beyond that.

So I relished the opportunity to be able to draw something different than what I'm normally known for, which was a zombie apocalypse/attack going on in a small town. I've attached page 30 from the script from where I drew from, along with the breakdown and final page, so you can see the progression of each.

FVZA – Season One: The Year of the Vampyr

Part One (Second Draft) 44 Pages

David Hine – 29th September 2008

Page 30

Panel 1

The main street of Corben. The citizens are all in various stages of infection,

shambling aimlessly along the sidewalks and wandering into the road. Sarah’s car

speeds erratically through the street, knocking one of the walking undead flying.

CAPTION (Landra): At least one tried to leave the town.

Panel 2

On the road out of town, Sarah’s car swerves off the road to avoid an oncoming farm

truck.

CAPTION (Landra): Sarah Peterson almost made it to Highway 45.

Panel 3

Sarah’s car is in a ditch at the side of the road. The truck has come to a halt in the

middle of the road and the driver, a middle-aged man in check shirt and denim

overalls, is hurrying across to the crashed car.

[NO COPY]

Panel 4

From inside the car. The two boys are huddled on the passenger seat, their mother

slumped over the wheel. She is conscious though. Her eyes are wide open and her

teeth are bared in a crazed smile. We’re looking past her, through the window, where

the concerned farmer is peering in anxiously.

[NO COPY]

After reading that, it makes it pretty easy to adapt it into visual format.
Breakdown


Now onto the breakdowns for page 30. The main things I was told to keep an eye on when I was drawing this page was to remember be cinemagraphic, atmosphere and perspective. And hopefully I was able to mind all of these things when drawing this page. I kept the angles of the panels on a skew to give a sense of chaoticness in the situation and give it an uneasy feeling as well.

If you look at the panel 3 breakdown and the final page, you'll discover that I changed the angle/shot. The reason is that the cars in panel 3 of the breakdown were way too similar in size, which would make it visually boring for the reader's eye. Plus the change of angle in the final page, allows the reader to follow the farmer coming out of his truck, as he unawares approaches the car, and along with the readers discovers the horrors inside.


Final Page


Part of the fun of drawing the first panel on the final page is that you get the chance to put in all these small little details that are just plain old fun. On the bottom left of panel one, you'll see a zombie eating someone's intestines, which is a small moment, but something that adds atmosphere. And the zombie being splattered all over the car's hood and windshield is just goofy enjoyment, cause you have to have a reason, why the driver can't really see the oncoming farm truck in the following panels.

Normally, I usually hate drawing cars of any sort, so this page became a bit of a labour to get through because of it, but in the end, I think because I had photo reference, they came out much better than if I had decided to go from memory alone.

I was a little worried about the expression on the woman's face in panel 4, since it seemed like she going into a huge joker grin there. But given her psychological condition and all she's been through, she's starting to crack at the seams at this point, so in the end it was cool.