Sunday, June 10, 2012

598 - Happy Birthday To Me (3)


"STORM'S A-BREWIN'!!"




Yes, another trip around the Sun, another kewpie-doll pin-up rolls out on June 10th, courtesy of Happy Birthday To Me Day.  Once again, this took longer to draw than I thought it would, but boy howdy I am pleased with the result.

Strangely enough, "Storm's A-Brewin'!!" was intended to be one of the first entries ever for JSVB.  I wanted to start New Year's 2010 with some great art (or at least a well-rounded set of puns).  Instead, I caught the mother of all head colds and then broke my computer.  Besides, back then I had a lot of trouble drawing in comic book art style, so I doubt I could have rendered anything like this.  I don't follow superheroes at all.  The few comics that remain in my bookshelf are the notable exceptions to my baseline neglect of that genre.  I had to spend a fair amount of time working myself up to the level of ability needed for presentable comic hero art.  Even so, I am trying to emulate an older style of comics and not so much the stuff we see today.  I like the look of halftone on ink!

Storm is the intellectual property of Marvel Comics.  My version is intentionally set apart from any definable Storm iteration.  My inspirations were lovely Halle Berry for the model, and the CMYK colour system for the costume.  Since Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow are traditionally the cheapest colours for printers to use (on account that they most easily blend to make other colours in halftone), those are the only colours that would appear as solids on a comic book page, unless the printer paid extra for a custom colour such as a particular red for a hero's cape. 

Drawing this picture raised some interesting questions.  Is there any way to make the costume skimpier?  Yes, but I'm happy with this version.  Is Storm right or left handed?  I stopped wondering after I began to lay ink.  Do the kitchen appliances need to be plugged in?  No, they undoubtedly run off of mutant power, or at least some clever eternal battery designed by Professor Xavier.  Storm could easily boil the coffee by sticking her finger in the pot, but then who would want to drink it?  You don't know where her gloves have been.