Jack Burton

Son of a bitch must pay. Big Trouble in Little China is definitely one of my favorite movies. Most definitely up there with They Live and John Carpenter's other greats. Anyways, Jack Burton is simply a boss, and Kurt Russell really does a great job of giving Jack the charisma he deserves. If you haven't seen the movie, do so immediately. If you don't hate it, you'll probably love it. This halloween I was out of ideas so I decided to be good ol' Jack. The tank-top/wife-beater that he wears throughout the movie is really awesome, and was created uniquely for the film. The graphic is nauseating but attractive at the same time, in full 80's form, and I decided to draw in on a white t-shirt. I then cut off the sleeves and cut the neck off to create a faux wife-beater. It turned out looking half decent, but nobody I ran into understood who I was, understandably. Basically, I was really into Big Trouble for a little bit, so I decided to try and turn Jack Burton into an illustration. I sketched out the following.

I actually liked the simple drawing quite a bit, mostly just because of the movie. But obviously it was missing something. So, I decided to ink it, and add my favorite line in the movie to fill in some empty space, because as we all know I'm absolutely awful at creating background imagery. I used a Faber Castel brush pen and assorted thicknesses of Micron pens to do this. I scanned it, dumped it into photoshop, and adjusted the levels (Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Levels, on Photoshop Elements) to wash out color and pencil marks that were picked up during the can. It then looked like this

I went for the old school font that is used in the original poster to add some extra flavor. I ended up not really getting the writing to look that much like the original, but using the same colors really made it obvious. Colors on Jack himself were pretty easy, as I decided to go for some cell-shading instead of gradients like I had just taught myself on my previous cowboy project. I had tried to use gradients, but it just wasn't looking the way I wanted, and I think cell-shading was really the right call. Simple flat colors with a light and light and dark shade for each. For the actual background I just went with a gradient as I didn't feel like spending the time to draw one out(I did this entire thing, sketch to finish, in one night in a few hours). I added a circular yellow>blue gradient, and decided to add some quick yellow highlights to the sides of Jack to give the gradient a subtle lighting effect. Finally, I dropped an old paper texture over it(same one I used for the sensei illustration). All in all, it was a simple drawing but I love the movie, and it reminds me of it a lot, so I'm pretty happy with it.

-Pete

The Wrangler

So I was on like a huge Sergio Leone western binge at the end of the summer, and I loved it all. I actually had no idea what a badass really was until I saw The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. What an amazing movie. Clint Eastwood rocks my socks. The other ones(A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More) were both great flicks as well, especially For a Few Dollars More. Anyways, I have a ton of western sketches, which I'll probably get up at some point, but this one went all the way into a nearly completed illustration, so I figured I'd show it. The original sketch was alright, enough for me to warrant scanning it. Here it is,

There were some things I noticed directly after scanning that I knew I had to change. First was the lopsided barrel, second was the weird curvature of his front leg, and third was his eyes. They just looked bad to me. So I dumped it into Manga Studios which I hadn't used in a while, and started inking it. I fixed most of the problems and was way happier with it

Using gradients on photoshop elements is so damn tedious. Anyways, I have yet to to a background, but I like it for what it is right now. Call him The Wrangler. Can you dig it?

-Pete

Wally

At the beginning of the summer I interned at a company that designs greeting cards. It was pretty much what I expected it to be, just kind of a lot of sitting around and doodling/writing ideas out for cheesy birthday cards. But I think thats pretty cool, so I had fun. I made my own, and it involved an old guy going on about being "polite and reserved on you birthday," and on the inside it said something about how breaking the rules is totally ok. Awesome right? Greeting cards have to employ the worst kind of humor to be sold I guess. Anyways, I kind of dug how the old guy turned out, here he is. Thought "Wally" was a fitting name.

Vampire in the sun

Vampires seem to be all the rage these days, from that Twilight shit to its assorted parodies. They basically all just take lumpy dumps on the cool vampire movies of the past. But anyways, I decided to try my hand at half-assed action poses, and the vampire thing was just kind of an afterthought. Think I succeeded in that at least. The sketch for this was pretty awful, but when I dropped it into Manga Studios, and started inking it, it actually came out looking half decent(in my opinion). Here's the original,

Awful right? The fist really has no business being there, and his forehead is huge and weirdly shaped. But instead of ditching it, I decided to try and salvage it, and go this,

I think it's an improvement, however small of one. The hatching in the back took far too long, but it looks alright so I can't complain. Anyways, hope you enjoyed yourself.

-Pete

Time Travelin' Sensei

So I knew this one was gonna be cool when I started doodling it. I colored it right away with a strange grey and green color scheme, and dropped a gradient behind it. I didn't really realize it, but I had effectively ruined what I thought was a really cool sketch. Months later I rescanned it after I got bored and inked it by hand(first time around I had scanned in the pencils and inked it in PS), and started re-coloring it. Here's what I scanned in.

So I knew I wanted to redeem myself, and the drawing, so I really went full on with the coloring. I chose the colors I was most comfortable with, red and green(robin style), because I knew I could make it work that way. After I colored it, I attempted for the FIRST TIME EVER to create a background from scratch. The entire time I had a goal in mind to make it look like I knew what the hell I was doing, which is big lie. But, after like 5+ hours I was happy and called it quits. Also dropped a texture over it to make it look schweet. Here it is. Thanks for readin and lookin!

Ultmate Syke

Ok, some more fan art. This is way newer, 2009 I think. Trying to draw a favorite character in what seems to be becoming my style. Just a doodle in my little sketchbook, prismacolor markers all the way... Like I said, it's not quite as fun to draw somebody else's character, but it's cool practice, and a good way to "test" your imagination, like just style-wise. Anyways, hope you guys dig it!

Hulk!

I did this quick guy a long time ago to practice with my tablet in Photoshop. I'm kind of uploading old stuff so there's some evidence of progression. I don't enjoy drawing other people's characters as much as my own, but its fun to take a break every now and then to try and draw a classic.