The Green Hornet
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
A quickie here of another of my pulp favorites. The Green Hornet.
I suppose this is more of a classic look, based somewhat on the serials. Dynamite has gone to a look like this as well with it’s classic Green Hornet comics, but No one ever makes the mask into more of a cowl like this, and that’s what I’ve always wanted to see- very Batman influenced.
Freddy Kruger
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
It’s Halloween time, and I can’t think of a monster I’ve drawn more often than Freddy.
There were a couple of promotional shots of Freddy in a trenchcoat here and there and I’e always preferred that look. Why it only ever made it’s way into New Nightmare and none of the other movies, I’ll never know.
Those arn’t just random ridges on his face by the way, watch and you’ll see I always follow the lines and contours of his face. It’s a pattern I fell into a long time ago, and just makes the most sense to me when drawing Kruger!
Finally, you’ll notice one addition to the glove. I must have been seeing things, but I could swear when I was younger I saw a little hooked blade on his thumb on the boxes for NOES 2. I know it’s not there, but I’ve always kept it anyhow, for the sake of novelty, it seems like it’d be a good tool to add to the glove.
The Punisher
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
I knida wish I drew him more like Jim Lee or Mike Zeck, but really my Punisher always ends up looking more like Whilce Portacello.
I insist that we not have the cylendars on the front, the flat teeth going flush with the belt just looks better to me, though I always loved the cylendars on the belt. I like him as a superhero, and that’s why I always kept the white highlights on the gloves and boots. It’s not the most popular way, especially nowadays, but it’s still my favorite look.
Jesus
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
I don’t make any effort to hide my Christian leanings, and it’s only logical that I would spend enough time on the subject of Christ to have developed a definitive version.
Here’s the thing, when I pray, when I talk to Jesus, my mind’s eye pictures something I can relate to. The traditional robe and sash are fine, and I always draw him with dramatic long flowing hair, but to me the more personal Jesus is in a T-Shirt and leather jacket like me.
This Christmas, I challenge you to really find a personal way to relate to Jesus. This is my way.
Star Trek
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
I don’t necessarily want to present Kirk and company here. I think that would be a different post. I’m talking more about the general LOOK of Star Trek, and the TNG era in particular.
The uniform changed to something better accepted in the third season and I really liked the addition of the belt, but felt it didn’t quite go far enough – I always wanted to see those uniforms resemble the red tunics more and always drew them untucked under the belt.
The black uniforms were always too much black for me, especially on Voyager. Â I understood them more on DS9, work uniforms that you wore to get dirty. I Like the idea in Generations that both uniforms were in service and imagined you’d see more of the black ones in engineering. Still, adding a stripe around the cuff of the sleeve added just enough more color to me and I always drew them like that. Apparently the producers agree with me as that showed up in the first contact uniforms.
Finally, I always wanted to see a vest underneath. We got those in the TOS films, and the red undershirt is hinted at in TNG. Again, we’d see these kind of vests full on in the TNG films, but I created this stripped down version for the traditional uniforms – a version that worked better with the purple undershirts of DS9.
These are my characters from my Star Trek series, based on the RPG we’d play which eventually spawned comics and videos.
Doctor Who
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
  For me, the Doctor is always number 3, preferably in green.
A lot of the way I draw Jon Pertweek is based more on Frank Bellamy’s illustrations for the radio Times than on the actor’s actual features. It’s something I should correct, but it’s hard to change now….
Deadpool
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
Would you believe I was never that big a fan of Deadpool?
my main experiance with him was in the pages of X-Force where he was just another standard issue Leifield character, and a fairly bland one at that. It wasn’t untill much later when I started playing Heroclix, that the judge, Jesse got me to take another look.
Deadpool is fun, but not one I’ve been drawing for years. Still I foiund him popping up in Violent Blue and here on the blog and quickly developed my own take on the character. Not a lot of details, I do try to keep to Liefields interesting tendency for short gloves and boots, but most important to me are the eyes. They need to be big and round, not narrow. I want him fun and goofy, not sinister.
Deadshot
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
Man, I was obsessed with Deadshot before it was cool. Does that make me a hipster?
I remembered him from the DC Who’s Who, and when he showed up in Suicide Squad I was fascinated. When Ostrander did the miniseries around ’88 I was hooked.
Luke McDonell laid a lot of groundwork for how Deadshot would look, but I have to say it was Geoff Isherwood’s simplified design that really resonated with me, and really informs my take.
Spider-Man
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
Spidey’s got to be skinny. I mean he’s got muscles, but they shouldn’t show.
I always liked how Erik Larson drew him, skinny, with the flexibility of Tod McFarline but not so cartoony. Spidy’s suit seemed darker during Larson’s run and I like the idea that the blue part is so dark it’s almost black.
Rogue
When I wrote on that Gambit piece that I should think about tdoing Rogue, I meant it. I was actually done with this catagory of post for the year, all scheduled and written up, but couldn’t get that one out of my head so here’s one more.
It’s got to be the 90’s costume, though there was a brief period in the 2000’s where they had just restored the costumes after the Morrison run, slightly updated and with higher detail – more buckles and quilting. I like that and try to incorporate it in here, along with losing the head band. That’s rough because it drastically changes her hair style, but for the better I think. I don’t like it just straight, but too curly looks dated, we’re somewhere in the middle of that.
The other thing about Rogue is she kind of…busty. More so than any of the X-Men, she’s always been drawn top heavy, and we’ve represented that here as well.
Gambit
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
Man, I hate to jump on the bandwagon, but in the 90’s I was absolutely a Gambit fanboy.
I’m not sure who my influences are here .Andy Kubert and Fabien Neichez were doign a lot of the art on the X-books at the time. I missed Jim Lee’s run entirely.
I always wanted Gambit to have realistic proportions, much liek the heroic proportions of Green Lanter, but perhaps even more lean. I never liked it when he was drawn like a bodybuilder, somehow that just didn’t suit him. I’d prefer to see him with the body of a basketball player than a football guy.
The lines on his collar arn’t random. It’s just one of those things, I hate looks that are random, I NEED continuity, so I always drew his colar as a star with a couple extra lines throug hthe sides to keep it from being a pentagram. I also tried not to go overboard with the hair, it’s easy to do, but begins to look bad when viewed objectively.
I should really do a Rogue one of these days to…
Green Lantern
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
Green lantern is based, not so much on an artist rendition (though it’d be Dave Gibbons if anyone) but rather on the Super Powers figure – the first action figure I ever had. My friend Johnny Em likes to call this “Heroic proportions”. Solid, but achievable.
The Shadow
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
Time we looked at my second favorite hero, The Shadow.
There’s a heavy influence from Eduardo Baretto from The Shadow Strikes, but really I prefer a little more kinetic feel to it.
The basic design is based on the look from the 80’s Hefler Baker run, and the look that I was getting from the covers. Sadly it’s pretty inaccurate, especially from what Walter Gibson envisioned, but it’s far to burned into my brain for me to change now!
Robin
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
We did batman last time, so let’s get into the logical next character – Robin!
While Aparo defines my Batman, to me he never seemed to understand the Tim Drake Robin (my favorite). Breyfogal (who is a heavy influence on Batman’s utility belt for me) really gets Tim’s face and hair, but Tom Lyle defines the suit for me.
The muscles are smaller and less defined, but still fit. Again, he’s Lean, just like Batman.
I was sad to see this suit go and never understood why we moved away from spiky hair, for me this is the way I think Robin should look.
Batman
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
My definitive Batman is drawn by Jim Aparo. Interestingly enough, I prefer Aparo inked by someone else, but his way of drawing Batman has always stuck with me, particuarly the lean face.
Lean all aroun actually, muscles designed for speed and accuracy, and always tensed, coiled like a spring, ready to strike.
Superman
My personal definitive way of drawing iconic characters
We’re going to start this net subject with my favorite hero; Superman.
I’m very influenced by John Byrne’s superman, but even more by Jerry Ordway’s way of drawing him. It’s flawed in the face, the nose isn’t quite small enough. The chin is a bit too big.
The muscles are big, yet relaxed. that’s the thing about Superman, great power that you don’t have to show off.
Argo City Comics 