Art Thread

You all knew this was coming. And if I wasn’t so busy at work, it would have happened sooner. But seeing as how I just started Labor Day Weekend this afternoon, seemed fitting.

So I’ve been thinking about Adam’s costume and trying to make it as alien as its origin implies.

So you’ll probably recognize 1 from my icon. I like the stripe of starfield (in the animated series version of our game, moves with him) but I started to wonder what it’d look like if I pushed it further, hence 2 and 3. I really like 2. The star field skin really reminds me of the Silver Surfer’s look (the original cosmic powered’ superhero) without completely aping his look. The full chest sigil also reminds me a bit of the chest emblems of the Power Rangers’ and that’s awesome (Yeah, I’m from that generation.) It also implied as skin-tight protective shell and that’s cool too. I made 3 mostly as a way to try out some different options, but I think I prefer to glove- and boot-less version more. Same with the eye glows, but I could see that either way.

Opinions?

Weird Art Side Note No One Will Really Care About: I made Adam five heads tall here. That’s on the younger side of 13 (the rule of thumb age scale is 5 heads = 9-13, 6 heads = 13-17, 6.5 heads = adults) to better differentiate between the team members. Also, he is the youngest by a few years and we want a visual signifier of that. I figure Mercury and Link will be 6 heads tall while classically heroic Jason Quill will be 6.5. Ghost Girl is going to be weird since women are generally half a head shorter and people from further back in history are generally shorter as well, but I figure I’ll ignore history’s impact here and just go for somewhere between 5.5 and 6 heads tall.

author: Mike
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

Agree on the less covered version… makes him look younger.

author: *** Dave H.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

I get a vibe of “Rainbow Gladiator” from that costume. If someone ever mashed up Young Justice and MCU’s Guardians of the Galaxy, I think he’d fit right into the center.

author: Bill G.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

agreed that number two is pretty awesome. I wonder if you couldn’t do something kind of like the glowing eyes with number two by sort of doing more intense stars in the star field where the eyes would be?

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5476271

For further visual inspiration, with the internal star field I usually think of Genis-Vell, Mar-Vell’s son whose cosmic awareness was on all the time (eventually driving him insane).

More star field than colorful nebulae that it looks like Adam has, but maybe some of what you’re looking to do.

author: *** Dave H.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

I have always been partial to that ‘body-shaped window into space’ thing - I have a villain on DCUO whose whole body is a moving starfield, because I like the effect so much. So count me a big fan of that part of the design, for sure.

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5476684

*** Dave H. said:

For further visual inspiration, with the internal star field

Sorry.

Really, very very sorry.

author: Doyce T.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

So I’m on revision five for Concord and I really like it. Not a lot has changed since the above, except I made things slightly more readable and simplified some of his design (though some of that is due to trying to make it look in the style of like a Teen Titans Go or Star vs. the Forces of Evil-style show). I really like the glowing iris and the dark rest of the eye. Makes him look alien without it being off-putting or making his expressing look unreadable.

On to other folks. Since Doyce posted a nice starter for Mercury, I designed to build off that a little.

I vaguely remember Kathrine saying he had a jacket somewhere and latched onto that idea. Nothing is quite as high school as a letter jacket, so I jumped on that style. I also tried to go with the Mercury references without going full Jay Garrick with the helmet and everything, so instead I just made the wings part of a head-set or comms system. I also added some Booster Gold-style goggles because I love that design and if you’re going that fast and you don’t have phasing powers, you’re likely going to get blinded by wind.

I had a couple of ideas for symbols, all of them based on the symbol for Mercury. I kind of like my Mercury + Air design since it also references the Gale family, but it’s up for debates. And speaking of symbols.

I’d originally wanted to make everyone’s design associated with a different shape (Lines for Mercury, Hexes for Quill, Circles for Link, Triangles for Concord, and Waves for Ghost Girl) but as I thought about it, I thought it’d be nice if everyone did have one common element and a triangle (in different forms) would be easy to incorporate. If I want that path, however, I’d be disappointed we didn’t name ourselves the Tangent. Oh well, too late for that now. :stuck_out_tongue:

author: Mike
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5557525

@Mike - Trust me, you do not want to start the trig jokes.

(That said, I do like the Hex-Q logo. In modern corporate design parlance, it would probably stand alone, with the full name written beside it, whether Technology or Foundation. I could see Jason having a necklace with that logo, that also serves as a personal key to stuff at Quill properties, comms with the other family members, etc.)

author: *** Dave H.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

Last one for tonight. Jason Quill presents a lot of interesting challenges from a design prospective. As an homage character, it’s easy to just create the same character or a caricature like Action Johnny. Instead, I started with Jonny Quest as a base and added flair unique to Jason.

So let’s start with the overall outfit. I wanted Jason’s shirt to extend down to his hands since his nano-bot army is over the top of it like an armor. I’m not sold on the gloves, but I think I might just go for thumb sleeves and simplify it down. The glowy bits serve two purposes: 1) I love glowy bits and I will add them wherever I can and 2) with the “hive-mind” Jason’s nano-swarm has, I mentally associated that with bees and wanted to use their stripes as a design element. As a bonus, I got to use art techniques from Josh Burcham (artist for several runs of Transformers comics) and we’ll revisit those and more when we get to Link.

The nanobot cloud is… weird. You could just as easily go with a cloud, but I I wanted to bring in more hexes, so I made a custom brush. I don’t know how well the dark color work, but I do like the little glows in there. Maybe I’ll go with just showing the shirt transform. That’s an easy one.

Though it’s hard to see, I added a little ear thing that would represent his mental connection to the nanobot swarm that I sort of based on the biotic amps from Mass Effect (also something we’ll revisit with Link). Everything else is sort of standard. I gave him some khaki combat pants so as to say “Yes, I fit just as easily into a tech start-up as I do into a combat zone.” It’s little, but I enjoy it.

Opinions?

author: Mike
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

I mean, Jason is Dave’s, so take my input with a grain of salt, but HOLY CRAP I LOVE IT.

Both your reasons for having the glowy bits on Jason’s arm are sound, but #1 is best.

Really like the different logos on people. All these cool designs make an excellent argument for calling you guys Icons. :slight_smile: (…thinks Waters, to himself, but lets it go.)

I like Mercury’s jacket a lot, but I looooove the logo you came up with for that jacket. It’s sweet. Quill’s is a close second.

I like how many of these look like concept art for Young Justice, and then Adam looks like a guest star on Steven Universe. :slight_smile:

author: Doyce T.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5558634

Lot of fun, thanks!

I like the idea of the bots being hex shaped (allows for all sorts of interlocking building blocks and strong surfaces. I still think the should be individually microscopic, and, yes, do that sandstorm-style effect. I had thought of something jet black, but the idea of some glowing bits (representing networking elements / anchor points) is a cool one.

No real reason for Jason to have gloves – fingerless ones (vs. 2/5 fingerless) makes sense, though. He is used to doing enough with gadgetry (or firearms) to want his fingers free.

Love the use of the logo.

Jason definitely needs to be wearing some sort of shirt. The “live show” against Iconoclast taught him that.

I think the glowy bits add a nice design element. If he ever gets more gadgety, they can serve an actual useful purposes, too. I’m not usually a glowy panel kind of guy (the late 90s Iron Man armor was awful), but it works here.

(“Dad?” “Yes, Jason?” “What are these glowy panels for?” “What do you think they’re for?” “Nanobot control elements?” “Nope.” “Force screen projectors? Chronometric anchors? Emergency glide wing extruders?” “Nope.” “Then what?” “To improve your visibility to traffic at night, if you insist on wearing black.” “DAD!”)

The earbud for controlling the swarm isn’t needed, as I think of how the “power” was installed in him (thanks, Dad!); his entire skeletal structure is an antenna. But it would make sense that he’s loaned out to the team some from the collection of comm earbuds his family kept on hand (and went through like candy), for any who want one.

Cargo pants are fine, and make perfect sense given his background. Probably wears hiking/combat boots when going out to the field (when he has a moment to put them on), just because of the nature of the sort of stuff he’s used to dealing with.

Overall, good stuff.

author: *** Dave H.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

Doyce T. said:

I like how many of these look like concept art for Young Justice, and then Adam looks like a guest star on Steven Universe. :slight_smile:

Bill said in the Episode 6 thread that each of our heroes represents a different sub-genre of superheroics and that really helped me solidify things. The designs need to look like they fit each other, but you should also get a feeling that they come from that particular sub-genre as well. I may have made that picture to chime in on Bill’s comment, but it really helped me zero in on the design as well. The Saturday morning hero shows (Steven U, Star vs., Teen Titans Go) all have very simple, clean designs (this is a cost decision for cheaper animation, but it has its artistic merits as well) and I really wanted to pull that in for Adam’s design. Before I feel like I was over designing it and while it’s not too different from the costumes I have at the very top, you can also tell that the simplification is there and it fits the sub-genre he represents.

Along that same line, emblems and icons are important to almost all superhero genres so I wanted to try and bring those in as well. Given Link and Ghost Girl’s sub-genres, however, I don’t think I will make such distinctive emblems, but they will still be there if you know where to look (and I’ll make sure to point it out).

*** Dave H. said:

The earbud for controlling the swarm isn’t needed, as I think of how the “power” was installed in him (thanks, Dad!); his entire skeletal structure is an antenna. But it would make sense that he’s loaned out to the team some from the collection of comm earbuds his family kept on hand (and went through like candy), for any who want one.

The earbud is actually just supposed to be the external antenna of a larger internal structure like you described, though the internal skeletal antenna has some fun as well. It’s always kind of funny to remember Jason is a cyborg, but it is true.

*** Dave H. said:

I think the glowy bits add a nice design element. If he ever gets more gadgety, they can serve an actual useful purposes, too. I’m not usually a glowy panel kind of guy (the late 90s Iron Man armor was awful), but it works here.

After sleeping on it, I think I need to redesign the placement of the stripes a bit. The original intention was something like a wifi symbol (shades of the Troll perhaps?) and the largest panel making something visually like elbow patches on a jacket, but I sort of feel like they’re haphazardly placed and don’t help the overall design that much. Again, another design pass on those will probably help quiet a bit.

I’m probably going to touch up Jason’s design a bit based on the feedback, though I’m going to try and focus on getting something functional for Ghost Girl…

author: Mike
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5558878

It’s always kind of funny to remember Jason is a cyborg, but it is true.

Yeah, great, let me quick drag in all the Transformed baggage, too. :slight_smile: (Calls to mind Martin Caidin’s original Cyborg novel, which eventually became TV’s The Six Million Dollar Man – both the novel and the pilot episode played on that theme of feeling inhuman after such massive body replacement surgery, and having someone he rescued stare in horror at the bionic arm where the skin had been torn off.)

Jason definitely doesn’t think of himself that way, and would probably be even more upset if his nose was rubbed into it. The process was relatively non-intrusive (calcium-linked nanotechnology that bonded to the skeletal structure, no surgery required), and recall that the bots were initially designed as an autonomous self-defense; only Jason screwing around with them has made them directable and usable for something other than adaptable self-smart armor.

Hmmm. Add that to something Jason needs to discuss with the AI.

author: *** Dave H.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

Lunch time sketch trying out different forms of the nanobot cloud and Jason’s shirt stripes. Open to opinions.

author: Mike
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

The first picture is, stylized, closer to my vision of the nanobots. I like the tech construct bottom picture, but that’s a bit different power manifestation than I had been thinking. :slight_smile:

And, let me just say again, these are all awesomesauce, and I’m really jazzed you’re doing these illustrations.

author: *** Dave H.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

Funny story: the “Quill-Spheres™” in the bottom picture are actually partially inspired by the Walking Eye Robot in the opening of Jonny Quest. The rest of the inspiration is from Voltron (all the orbiting gear on Voltron, Zarkon’s mech, and the Crystal RoBeast are just cool).

I have an idea on how to solve this in a visually appealing way. Scott Wegner did it with Dr. Matsuda’s Odic Form in Atomic Robo and the Temple of Od #5 (just with more glows and more organic than I’d go with). The only issue is that I already lean heavy on my Atomic Robo inspirations and I think it makes me a better artist to think about how I’m going to draw things myself instead of leaning on my inspirations.

I’ll think about it in the back of my head. I’ve got a good bead on my design of Ghost Girl, so I think I’ll focus on that tonight as planned before my mental image shifts drastically.

author: Mike
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

Everybody loves the Robot Spy …

author: *** Dave H.
url: https://app.roll20.net/forum/permalink/5560263

So Ghost Girl…

So, I have a bit of a digression to go on first. I kind of wish these forums had a spoiler tag so I could mark them out because I imagine I’m going to go on for a while. My first comic book was the third issue of Justice League/Teen Titans: The Technis Imperative. I won’t delve into that too much due to it being an event comic (and an event comic done right unlike the yearly event comics Marvel does) and Linkara already having done a better analysis of the comic than I could hope to, but the important part was that it was a direct lead-in to the Young Justice series (the comic, not the show). I own the entire first year of Young Justice and they are a treasured part of my comic collection. One of my favorite characters from that series was the ghostly Secret. When I learned that there was going to be a Young Justice cartoon, I was excited to see how the adaptation would be, but a bit disappointed to learn that Secret wasn’t involved. I found out later that she was in a second season episode (I’ve only watched a handful of episodes of the first season, so I haven’t seen it) but still it was disappointing to find out such an important character to the original series was being left out. It’s for that fondness for the character that I added in a bit of Secret’s design into Ghost Girl.

I really don’t like a lot of what I did here, but I think that’s more my sketchy style and the narrow space I tried to work within. I didn’t want to deviate too much from Margie’s picture so I had some pretty specific bounds to work within. I did add a nice little bit of design though: the fishnet glove. I imagine it was a gift from Power Pony or one of her other coffee house friends or fits this love and excitement for the modern world that Ghost Girl has. I wanted to play with the idea of adding in other little gifts and such, but I think it’d eventually overload the design (also, I have no idea how she hold on to those gifts).

I wanted to post this here at this point to get some group input and hopefully come up with something better. Going forward, I think it’d be a good idea to design a creepier version of GG that comes out when she’s full-on ghost (like when she overpowered Iconoclast).

author: Mike
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop

1. Well, if she can hold onto Link’s phone, she can hold onto a different gift. Though whether it can travel with her through shadows, etc., is probably a question for Margie.

2. Love the (comic) Young Justice – at one point in the past few years I binged and bought the entire run, digitally, just so I could read it. But, then, I’m a Peter David fan, and will usually buy any comic he writes. (I’m actually doing the same thing, more slowly, with his Captain Marvel title, which I coincidentally pasted some pictures from above. But I digress …)

3. YJ the Comic and YJ the Series are very different things. Both wonderful in their own way, but really not comparable in tone or story.

And while Secret (who is a great character, yes) does show up in the YJ cartoon, it’s only a tangentially related character (name and supernatural connection). Fantastic episode, to be sure, but not the character from the comic.

4. I like GG sort of fading away at the bottom of her hemline. Very spectral. I like both of the drawings very much, though perforce she’s a less visually interesting character than, say, the fantasy ones you did last campaign.

Doing something with a contrast of When She’s Scary is, I think, is a great idea.

author: *** Dave H.
url: Community Forums: Art Thread | Roll20: Online virtual tabletop