fixed.

here, finally, is an updated and accurate costume study of eric bana's "nero" from the new star trek. if i ever draw nero again, it will be based on this design, but why would i?

drab clothing attack

so yesterday i realized that the reason i hadn't found any really good photo references for eric bana's character in the new star trek movie is that i remembered his name wrong. so this time around i had a better idea of what my subjects look like. nemo is the bulky one on the left:

"what they look like" is drab. the romulan costumes are long black jackets and black clothes. i adjusted the colors to suit my own purposes, so it wouldn't just look like a big black blob:

the brown beard layer was conflicting with the shading a bit, so i just made it a black beard at 40% opacity. still reads well enough as stubble, i think.

i wanted to include the other crew members, but a kirk/spock battle with romulans makes the most sense (and is in continuity). so, there might be yet another color doodle of the star trek crew forthcoming.

killing klingons

as promised, a star trek action shot:

i had been planning to have them fight nero or just some generic romulans, but then i realized they'd look too similar to spock. i changed it to a klingon at the last minute, and quickly realized i didn't have the first idea how a klingon dresses. the main reference i used ended up not being very good, so a had to change it some in photoshop, and it's probably still not that accurate.

i also realize that young kirk and spock probably never battled klingons that looked like this, but i wasn't about to bother drawing a klingon that just looked human. it's also possible that they never impaled anyone with spears, either.


again, a lot of black areas that hide all the work i put in to shade them. when i started drawing this klingon uniform, i thought the arms and boots were going to be metallic blue, then i realized that the image i found on google was an obscure take.

i actually kinda like how the costume turned out, even if it isn't accurate. it's always hard to refine a detailed outfit into my simple cartoon style, hard to know what aspects best convey the theme and what can be edited out.

it's also hard to decide how to draw a character whose costume has changed time and time again over the last several decades. not only do you have to decide which one is associated with the character, but the photo references you use won't necessarily match. i need to learn to exercise more artistic license.

is it silly that the whole reason i bothered to color this is that i wanted to see my kirk and spock in plain yellow and blue shirts?

nero

yesterday i was working on a caricature of nero from the new star trek , and i came to the conclusion that i need to exclude a few key identifiers for black and white ink drawings:
1) facial tattoos. eh, they were stupid in the first place.
2) facial scars. as black marks, you can't tell what they are.
3) beard stubble. tough call, cause without it he looks like any other romulan.


a couple of these can be solved in the coloring phase (when applicable). i like the bottom right version best, where i changed the color of the scar lines and filled in a beard shape with a multiply layer.

now i just need to draw him beating the snot out of spock.

UPDATE 05.21.09:
so, there was a good reason why i had so much trouble finding photo references for eric bana's "nemo"; that wasn't his character's name. it's friggin' NERO. i have shamed myself.

BOLDLY go.

working out some star trek character models here. for some reason scotty was hard to nail down (i've de-emphasized the worst ones); i guess i felt compelled to distinguish him in particular with something more than just his haircut. ahh, drawing.

in hindsight, darkening the black clothes in ink was clearly a mistake. i need to get over that habit.

getting pumped to draw these guys in full-color action.

P.S. great movie.

who doodles the watchmen?

last week, i had been working out how to draw "nite owl" from the watchmen, as the release date of the movie drew nearer and my excitement built, so he was where i started at our weekly meeting.

somebody must have mentioned star trek, cause captain picard and diana troy also showed up.

the female superhero is my attempt to remember atom eve's costume (from the comic "invincible"), but i forgot that she wears long sleeves and no skirt. not bad for freehand, though, i think.

and lastly, 2 more recent attempts to recreate the arm-break scene in watchmen. of course, nite owl wasn't in costume in the real scene, and this is the costume from the comic book, not the movie, but i can draw whatever i want, so leave me alone.


and speaking of watchmen, here are some earlier costume doodles, starring my good friend greg steele as the comedian and the undoodlable kyle almas as ozymandias. you can see i tried and tried to work out a way to draw kyle's face, but to no avail. that giant head looks nothing like him and is inexcusable.


i don't know if this is more or less flattering, but i really like it. a lot.