ple-THOR-ah

Hey Guys,

The weekend was good to me, but I didn't get much drawing done. I got married back in September of 2008 and Now I have in-laws to visit as well as my other family and friends. But, they felt like family long before Crystal and I got married, just the same. Always good food and good company when we go down there.

With the avengers movie hype going, the business man in me thinks it would be a smart investment of my time to develop some Avengers pinups to pimp at the shows I'll be attending this year. I've squared an Ironman away, and I decided to tackle the god of thunder himself. Thor has always been a blast to draw. I'll admit, I've never cared for the comics, but his costume is so darn cool. Classic Kirby. The new costume that Copiel designed in nice and I'm loving what that guy did with Thor, but for my money, you just can beat the good old days when costumes were more spandex and less armor. I've seen most of my favorite characters redesigned in the last 10 years to costumes that incorporate armor into them. I'll always love the old green goblin, Doc Oc, Culture, Electro, Cap, etc. Can't beat the classics. It's just cooler. But what do I know, I'm old.

As for my art post today, Ihave a lot of the preliminary work I've been doing for the Thor Illo. This is just the tip of the iceberg for Thor roughs I did in my sketchbook. It's becoming very difficult to come up with a truly original pose that pushes drama and perspective and tells a story. I was reading where Josh Middleton had similar problems creating Stock covers for DC using the big characters over there. How do you put a new spin on a character that has been drawn from every different angle by artists much more talented than you are. In my case, you don't you just kill a bunch of trees trying. The first few are initial approaches followed by rough pencils, followed by inks. I'm still not happy about this. I like my work to look animated but I'm trying to move more toward a nice amalgam of cartoony and realistic. Not quite there. As always, feel free to offer some constructive criticism.

best

jwalk