Sketch A Day #12 - Adam Hughes Tonal Study

Found a great Captain Marvel piece by Adam Hughes on the web, and wanted to do a version with some of the similar tones on the toned paper to see how it would work. This uses both cool grey Copic markers and warm grey Copic markers on tonal paper with pencil, india ink and PH Martins white ink. While not entirely successful, this was an interesting experiment. thanks Adam for all the advice on working wet on wet with the Copic markers.

And please note that I believe Adam's piece to be infinitely better than mine, in both design and execution. He's a master at this stuff, so its just nice to have someone so solid in this type of work to look after for some ideas.

Wonder Woman 2 by Hughes & Yoakum

A far more illustrative approach to this one, as opposed to the graphic approach that i took on the first wonder woman piece. added some grey tone to this one as well. Click on the image to enlarge!

And "hello" to the 56 people who have come here in the last week by Googling "Watchmen Porn".

And i'm psyched that i still have two visits from Malaysia this week. Haven't scared them off yet.

Wonder Woman 2 by Hughes & Yoakum

The second commission piece, inking over an Adam Hughes sketchbook image. Fun in a lot of ways since Adam hadn't really finished and tightened the piece, which let me have a little more leeway in terms of actually interpreting them.

Almost finished here...

And "hello" to the one person who came to this blog, yet again, by Googling "Marvel Boobs".

Wonder Woman by Hughes & Yoakum

The first of two finished commission inking pieces. Hope you like.

Red Tide, Adam Hughes and other random bits of news...

Received my oversized copy of Steranko's Red Tide and was delighted to find that the printing is only about 10 times better on the oversized version than the more readily available pocket version. Well worth the money, which isn't that much, and time to find one.

I want to say "hello" and give a shout out to the two people from Bulgaria who hit last week, and the 4 from Malaysia.

I also want to say "hello" to the person who came here with the Google search "porn porn". Now, we've all done the first search, but do you need it so bad that you have to put it in to Google twice?

And, of course, some new Hughes/Yoakum Wonder Woman!

New Work: Mary Jane by Hughes & Yoakum

Another Adam Hughes ink job!

Love trying to get that Jazzy Johnny Romita hair sheen on MJ. Adam does interesting faces, not stereotypical women's faces, and I'm noticing it more now inking a few of these pieces than I ever did just looking at the work.

These are fun!

New Work: Donna Troy by Hughes and Yoakum

A little new something. Some more inks over Adam Hughes sketches for a collector. here is Donna Troy, a favorite from back in the days of the Teen Titans, is the cool starfield costume.

Ink and Copic Markers on Bristol. Starfield courtesy of Dr. Ph Martins Bleed Proof White.

Another Adam Hughes piece to follow!

New Artwork: Wonder Woman by Hughes & Yoakum

The finished piece for the Super Con auction of the Adam Hughes Wonder Woman. Enjoy!

I have no idea how many different versions of the artwork are out there, but this is easily the closest that I'll ever get to a Hughes original (I don't even have a con sketch from him in my art collection), so I wanted to make it good.

Coming Art: Adam Hughes at Super Con

A small sample of the Adam Hughes piece that many of us will be inking for the charity Art Auction at Super Con. I know that there are a few pieces floating around on the ComicArtFans site, but I wanted to post one here for everyone to check out. i'll post the finished inks now that I've got a new scanner that can do this large work!

The problem here is always the same with a penciller that gives you this much information: you can only mess it up if you're not paying attention. Adam has basically given you much of the line weight and detail, now you just have to pick and choose what to put in and leave out. Very different from the Michael Golden piece.

Which we'll see tomorrow.

Sane Comments on the Mary Jane Statue

I stayed far, far, farrrrrrrrrrr away from the whole Mary Jane statue when it hit, and even farther away when the ensuing firestorm hit the blog world. So imagine my surprise when I follow a Journalista link over to Phillopos live journal, and find actual discussion with nary a flaming post in sight about that same Mary Jane.

In the blog-eat-blog world of internet time, there clearly have been enough days to allow for the cooling of passions about the statue, and for there to be a good, general agreement about the whole debacle.

rachel edidin puts it succinctly:

Y'know what? I actually dug Adam Hughes's original sketch for the comiquette statue. MJ *did* look feisty, and while she was hella sexy, she also had a lot of spirit. I could buy that MJ discovering and being amused by Spidey's costume in the laundry. It was a cute pin-up, and it worked as a pin-up. The problem with the statue was that it had little or none of the charm of Hughes's version, and he was stupidly defending it as a direct translation of that art--and the intention behind it.

And with that, you pretty much have, word for word, my feelings on it. Men like the Hughes, they're sexy babes without looking like idiots, prostitutes or whores, and women like the Hughes, for many of the same reasons: sexy without being sexist. (Personal favorite: the Wanda in the Sentinel hand. Wow.) And none of that made it to the statue.

I never quite got the superheroes as sexy thing, to be honest, even when I was younger, until we get to the John Byrne Jean Grey, who had this "real" body. Yes, she was curvy and sexy, but John was a good enough artist to make her move, to make have have breasts that would actually flatten down if she was lying down, to have hips that would turn properly when she was surprised by Magneto. The John Buscema Sif didn't have that, the Herb Trimpe Betty Ross didn't, neither did the Sal Buscema Valkyrie. And I thought that Jean was pretty wow. All the art books that I had said to try to actully observe people, how they move, and John's moved a lot more like women than anyone else back then. Michael Golden's did as well when he came along.

And somehow, from there, we progressed to Michael Turner. sigh.

But I digress. Mary Jane, we know that you're a hottie, and if Marvel does break you and Peter up, it'll be a shame, but know that we loved you. Not for your thong, but for your spirit.