Other People's Characters: Hawkman

You've probably noticed most of my artwork is of original creations. That's not by accident. While I love watching, reading, playing, whatevering other people's creations, I don't really enjoy writing or drawing them. At least not most of the time. But every once in a while I wonder what my interpretation of another's creation might look like. You probably caught a previous serious of Wandering Koala meeting up with other famous characters like The Spider, The Phantom, Jak Phoenix, Lobster Johnson, Todd McFarlane's Spawn, and The Heckler by Keith Giffen. Those were really fun to do. So I decided to try another set, but this time just focusing on the characters from others.

Hawkman is a character I never liked until DC Comics' big Zero Hour event. They transformed Hawkman into a really cool character, and I picked up several issues. It was written by William Mesner-Loebs and drawn by Steve Lieber, both people whose work I usually enjoy. In their version, Hawkman was actually the combination of generations of Hawkmen and had supernatural powers. I'm not sure why others didn't enjoy it as much as me, because it's become a pretty forgotten chapter in the character's history.

I drew this work with my usual Staedtler 2B pencil, inked it with a Crayola marker (the original broad stroke kind) on Strathmore Sketching paper, and colored it in Adobe Photoshop with a few textures in Corel Painter. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I'm also amazed at the line quality one can get with a Crayola maker. Who says Jamba Juice isn't an inspiration for the arts!

As always, let me know what you think!

Watercolor Pencils

I discovered watercolor pencils sometime in high school. I started using them exclusively along with a crowquill pen and Koor-I-Nor ink.

What I love about them is how versatile they are and how beautiful the color is. Being in a pencil form, you Koor can use them like a colored pencil, then brush a little water over them for some cool effects. Or you can scribble on a separate piece of paper mixing the colors you want in the proportions you want them, then use a brush to color with them like watercolors. Being watercolors, they are translucent and capture light beautifully, reflecting absolutely gorgeous colors. If you spray fix them, then they brighten (and some colors darken) like pastels for even more effects.

My favorite brand of watercolor pencils is Crayola (and they are by far the cheapest). Crayola offers an 8-pack with a brush, or a twelve pack with no brush. The boxes open up like Prismacolor boxes with a slit in the middle so you can set them up at an angle at your desk. My second favorite are Design (now discontinued). Prismacolor comes in third. I've tried other brands, but they've been very disappointing. My favorite paper to use them on is bristol board, though sketch books work amazingly well. Sometimes I use waterproof ink, and sometimes I use water-soluble ink to give my drawings darker shadows. Again, watercolor pencils are so versatile, you can use them with anything!

This drawing is one of a series of three I did in college. I inked the drawing with a Pilot Precise V7. I was still trying to figure out my style and how I wanted to make lines. This series turned out really well, and I'm still proud of them today.