Finally! Here's the Hulk!

The Incredible Hulk Transformation_Color

Okay, I admit it. It has been a while since I have posted anything, but like I had said in an earlier post, there's a lot to look forward to in the coming days. So here it is! The Incredible Hulk Transformation! It took me quite a long time to finish this one, and it had nothing to do with the amount of school work I had although that did play a small factor, but primarily I wasn't happy with the original cuts that I wound up starting all the way back to the beginning. Before I go any farther, for those of you who are unfamiliar with the term "cuts" it means shadows and highlights on the figures. There are two types of cuts: soft and animated style. Soft cuts are what you would tend to see in superhero comics, and that would be more ideal to this Hulk drawing, but I don't know how to do soft cuts since that's taught in the Advanced Digital Coloring class. Instead I used the animated style, which technically would fit my "big foot" drawing style anyway. So I wasn't happy with my first set of cuts, and since I had forgotten to place the cuts on separate layers I had to start over. Thankfully I still had the flats. Another colorist term, "flats" are the first thing that you have to do when you start a coloring project. You delineate each shape with basic color, and although I didn't when I first started the Digital Coloring class I now try to use basic colors that will be close to the final color. Not only will flatting make it easier to color, but if a problem arises at any point you can easily start over because you still have your flats...unless the problem occurred in the flats, which I have had happen once, and take it from me, it's not a very good feeling to have to redo the flats. It's also the slowest part of the coloring process, but I am getting faster at it.

Although the Hulk is clearly the dominant figure in this drawing I find that it is more about the tortured soul within Bruce Banner. I am a huge fan of the 70s Hulk television show with Bill Bixby, and even though this Hulk is definitely of recent comics I was thinking more about Bixby when I was doing Banner. It may look nothing like Bixby, but I wanted the turmoil that Bill Bixby brought to Banner in the show. In homage to the show, if you look very closely at Dr. Banner's eyes, they're bright green.

Originally the background was just supposed to be bright red, but then I got this idea to have a progression from dark red to bright red to show the growing rage within Banner. By the time the red reaches its purest, brightest form, the Hulk appears, and the transformation is complete.

Fear Agent


Fear Agent

There are five artistic jobs in the comic book industry: a writer, a penciller, an inker, a letterer, and a colorist. A colorist has to color other people's work, and this cover of Fear Agent by Chris Samnee was the first time that I had ever colored work that wasn't my own. It was a new experience for me. This was our first project in the Digital Coloring class, and frankly, I got so sick of this cover because of how many times I had to work on it. It became pretty clear after this project that I was going to have a coloring problem. The problem was how many colors I tended to use in my palette. In three straight critiques I was told that I had a rainbow palette, and in the case of the third critique, I was trying to stay more aware of the colors that I was using to make sure that I didn't have a rainbow. Finally, I just decided to ask my professor, Nolan Woodard how many colors should be in a palette. He told me that there really isn't a set number, but it is best to have four to five colors, and the fifth should be the one that really pops. Armed with that knowledge aided me to fixing Fear Agent and resubmit it.

As you can tell, there weren't any cuts used for this project. The goal was to use flat color and temperature to make Fear Agent pop off that page. I had resubmitted this originally at midterms, but Nolan thought that I could do better, and he chose not to count it. He gave me another chance at resubmitting it. I worked on it again, but this time, I decided to go around to different people in the Sequential Art Department and ask for their opinion. I made the necessary changes that they recommended, and this was the final result. However, I have no idea yet what Nolan thought of it.

By the way, Nolan Woodard was the colorist for the actual cover.

The Modern Masters

I have been to the High Museum of Art in Atlanta  for several exhibitions such as the Terracotta Army, the Leonardo Exhibit-after taking Dr. Jasin's Western Art II class I refuse to call it the Da Vinci Exhibit-and Monet's Water Lilies, but the Modern Masters exhibit had to be the best of the bunch. I went there on the opening day of the exhibit in October along with Abagael Warnars, Lisa Tolbert, and Melody Ledford as members of the Atlanta Art History Society. It featured the works of Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, and many other 20th Century artists. I am not the biggest fan of 20th Century art except for architecture and sculptures, but it was a blast. I finally got to see a Jackson Pollock painting in person, and frankly, I still have the same opinion of him. When it comes to Pollock's drips I can only think of a line from a Top Cat episode where TC sees a painting at an art museum that the curator was raving about, and when asked if he sees what the painting is saying Top Cat replies, "It says don't drink while you're painting."   

Marcel Duchamp...what can I say about him? He was a very bizarre individual whether it was buying someone else's work and simply adding something to it to make it his own artwork or taking a urinal and lying it on its back before entering it in an art exhibition. However, he did inspire me. Abby had made the mention to me that we were going to pick one of the artists and write a non-fiction story about them, and then we were going to send it to our club adviser, Dr. Jasin. Lisa wanted to write about how Pollock was a murderer, and since I came up at the end of her talking about it I can only surmise that Pollock's drips are actually blood splatter from his murders. I thought that it was a joke, but it wasn't. So I came up with an idea for a short story about Marcel Duchamp called The Man with Two Minds, and it had to be the best short story that I've ever written. As far as I know, however, it was never given to Dr. Jasin.

I enjoyed seeing Matisse's work, which I knew that I would since he was one of the few 20th Century artists that I like although I am not a huge fan of the biggest Matisse painting that the museum had, Dance, but they did have other pieces of his that I did like. I also loved the sculptures of Constantin Brancusi. So I would highly recommend that you go to this exhibit if you're in the Atlanta area, and you don't have to be in love with art history like me to enjoy it.

Final Thoughts

The Fall Quarter of 2011 is over, and now it is time to return to working on projects that I had put on hold such as the Vampire Mouse mini comic. I have just finished flatting The Doo Family Portrait, and so I will be starting on the coloring very soon. I am also reworking two projects from Digital Coloring even though I can't resubmit them now, and so it's more for my own benefit such as putting them into my newly created color portfolio.

Since I won't be posting again in this upcoming week I want to wish you and your family a Happy Thanksgiving!

Until next time, this is Billy Wright wishing you all a good night. So long, everybody!