Legion World Forums LEGION OUTPOST Bits o' Legionnaire Business vv's art thread - updated 4-29

Nice. I like the hair.

Oh, before I sound rude, how's your comic coming along?

on hiatus. my cohort and i are working on our portfolios. so i might post up some out-of-continuity pencils from the portfolio. i'm also planning on making three legion pages and three marvel-related pages.

Ah, good for you and good luck. I didn't know you were into Marvel too, of course, that could mean I haven't looked at all your stuff.

Oh, yeah, I'm gonna revise some of those requests. I don't think I shou;ld've asked for so much.

Spring: Rokk. Summer: Imra. Fall: Garth.

Oh, and scratch that one of the two LL's making fun of 3boot if you want.

Like the costume. Remember how everyone complained about the early appearances of the new Kara? I remember a lot of complaints about panty shots, and about the short skirt often making it look like she couldn't be wearing anything underneath. Somebody asked that Supergirl's costume be done like a figure skater's, with a skirt over a one-piece, so the upskirt shots inevitable with a flying heroine wouldn't seem voyeuristic. Shows how strange people are, since the amount of coverage isn't necessarily any different. But still, I like your choice. It lets you get away with thigh-highs and still not put the feminist fangirls on edge.

the thing is, with this, we were specifically going "we want a panty shot that isn't gross". there are two big problems that artists have a difficult time overcoming in not making a really gross picture.

1)a lot of comic book artists have problems drawing clothing. the fashion sense that characters in a superhero comics drops below sealevel sometimes, probably because they're used to drawing essentially "naked flying person" with some colors on top of them to represent a costume. they were hired to make sequential art, not design clothing. most superhero fashion has an eye towards "distinctive" rather than "logical" or "nice looking".

2) inappropriateness. to be honest, a lot of comic book artists (and i've seen this from male and female artists) have no...filter. the problem with panty shots a lot of the time is that sometimes artists don't think about the fact that they're not drawing porn. one of my biggest pet peeves is "really detailed lady parts through undies". nipples visible through costumes and a costume suctioned tightly to a vagina in no comprehensible way. for some reason, when artists draw ladies, they go a little stupid?? bat-nipples, we all noticed those, right? but ladies continue to have nipples RIGHT THERE.

i've seen supergirl look like a perfectly respectable girl in both her current and old outfits. i've seen her also look like a total skank in both too. even powergirl, i've seen looking very regal, but i've also seen her looking like her breasts are trying to fly away as violently as possible.

unfortunately, not all artists can... i don't know, CALM DOWN? and i partially blame editors for not being sensitive to that kind of crap and going "what, no you can't draw a camel-toe, ERASE THAT". for my money, it's wiser to just give the artist a less troublesome costume in the first place rather than open up the possibility of that artist just drawing her like a coke whore.

a lot of artists art not good at drawing ladies, and part of that is because they go "i'm drawing a lady! well let's make something hot!" of course, their idea of "hot" means "bad anatomy". it's really sad because you'll see that same artist draw a car or a dog just fine. someone just needs to take them aside and go "listen, just pretend you're drawing a car, don't freak out". it's the sign of a crappy artist, to be frank, because you can tell they got set in a way of drawing "guy anatomy" and "lady anatomy", so everyone looks like they can benchpress a car, even the guys in the background!! and they're not looking critically at their art anymore.

another part of that is posing/representation.if i told you to draw supergirl with her arms pushing her boobs up at the viewer, a lot of artists would just go with it. if i told you to do that with superman, most of them would go "wait, what?".

if i said "I'm shameless. Let's go with an ASS SHOT. Superundies detailed. Balloons from above. He's walking, restless as always. We can't take our eyes off him. Especially since he's got one fine ass."

again, you'd probably be like "vv, what are you smoking". But that is word-for-word (with the she's switched to he's and panties switches to superundies) a transcript of a frank miller script. and someone read that and went "this is acceptable writing".

like you said, no one looks at a figure skater and goes "whoa, they look so inappropriate". it's all a matter of presentation, believable anatomy, and believable rendering.

and then vv spoke for so long that she blew up darkseid.

I blame Rob Liefeld for 2. Anyone else notice artists started drawing that way when he became popular?

i'd say jim lee started it, actually.

Well, from what I've been told, Lee was one of the others who had to copy Liefeld. And then Lee managed to redeem himself. Only what I've heard.

i have to say that i wish everything on the internet had the "auto-thumb" function. that's seriously the most useful, time saving thing in the world to me.

anyways. super couple!

v v:

Quote

...a lot of artists are not good at drawing ladies, and part of that is because they go "i'm drawing a lady! well let's make something hot!"...

Well, the short-form term would be "sexualized."

If I had my way, nobody would be allowed to graduate art school without proving they've read at least a few key passages in John Berger's Ways of Seeing.

That would include not just the "skanky" artists but the ones who can draw "nice" girls or "good girls" and just draw the same one over and over again. In the case of something like Chadwick's Concrete, this gives you these sort of blanky-balloon-faced females who seem to exist in an entirely different galaxy than the male characters;Even when they're standing together in the same panel.

[grumble grumble]

Oh, and I can't imagine how your portfolio could look bad, v v. These are really great.

At the risk of sounding like a yes man, I have to agree with her.

At this point, the only way your portfolio would be bad if someone switched it for a 1987 copy of Playboy.

Another really great image just like Brainy and Nura! Its so obvious you love these two characters, vv, it really comes through. Love it!

Are you seeing a different image from what I'm seeing?

cobalt kid...what!! hahah what that's imra and garth!! are you just kidding or did you grab a diff picture!! or did you just type that on accident!!

although imra does look EXACTLY like querl... i mean they're practically twins, the same giant pigtails, the same boobs..

hahaha haha oh god. <3

oh and here's one of the port pages, first one i've finished. oh my god, so hard. i just... i feel bad for ever ragging on a comic book artist ever. i don't know if i could have done 50 better @__@ GOD!



thanks again for all the sweet words, guys ;__;!!

cleome: I TOTALLY AGREE. for both men and women characters, it's like "LEARN A DIFFERENT FACE!!!"

v v, that's terrific. I love how the art nouveau-type door shape kind of holds the whole composition together.

Oh, and as long as we're dreaming out loud, can they all learn about different facial expressions, to go with the different faces ?

vv, that sequential page is pro level as far as I'm concerned. Great job!

LOVE the Imra/Garth love scene. Very sweet.

Ooops...vv, meant to say "another really great image just like Nura and Brainy" in reference to your last Nura/Brainy one! Damn typos...

Dude, your stuff is so adorable. I want to HUG THEM ALL!! It's weird 'cuz Imra and Garth are like Scott and Jean to me (READ: boring but dependable until someone throws a wrench in the system-- thanks, Morrison) but you really show the feeling behind it. And that makes all the difference.

thanks guys ;________;!!!!!!!!!


not really legion.... but almost.



i'm going to marry silica @___@!!! oh my god. i'm positive she'll come back and be amazing =__=!!!!

something my cohort will ink up for me. vril playing with lyrl with a puppet

Love the detailing on Silica's skin. And Vril with little Lyrl. Vril Dox with hand puppets.

This may be in bad taste, but was this before or after Lyrl went insane, because a Brainiac with hand puppets... think about it. It's still cute nonetheless. Good job, vv.

VRIL!!!!!!!! I LOVES IT SO HARD!!!!!!!!