John Carter of Mars. Part Two

So I am plodding along with this latest endeavor and I am having fun still. Did some tweaks here and there and know that there are more to come in the days ahead and I oddly look forward to that. I really love the exploration. I am working on a background that I took inspiration from old travel/destination posters so we will see if I can pull that off. I freely admit to not liking to do scenery or backgrounds but so far it's been fun. We will see if that lasts.


Here is the sketch of the title character a bit further along from my last post. I think I showed this before tho. Hmmmm.....

The same goes for Tars.

Here is a pen sketch of Deja done recently in my sketchbook.

 

The mocked up composition with some exploration of the background.

 Starting to lay in layers of elements in Illustrator to create my background. Lots to do here!!

John Carter of Mars. Part One

I have to admit that I really don't understand the logic of Disney for calling the movie simply 'John Carter'. I was very excited for this movie but like many, I was underwhelmed by the trailers and posters and just about everything else leading up to the release of the movie. I did get to see it premiere on the Disney cruise ship and I actually enjoyed the movie and look forward to getting it on disc when it becomes available. I'll let everyone else keep debating the merits of the movie and the original source material. I only read the original 'Princess of Mars' entry and only occasionally glanced at the Marvel comic version. I own the first issue of that but mainly because of the Gil Kane art.

So here is my take on the three main characters. I did not base them on the movie or comic or the gorgeous Frank Frazetta covers of the books. These are totally my take on them and I had a lot of fun thinking about how to interpret them. I hope you enjoy this journey as much as I am creating it.

You may have seen in a recent post the digital doodle that showed my compostion for this piece, so no need to re-post that. Here you can see my initial ball point pen scribbles in my petite sketchbook.

Here are my digital explorations or Tars Tarkus. All drawn in Photoshop.

My final pencil drawings in progress.

Here is the start of my thinking of value and starting to refine the composition. I really like the exploration part at this stage.

Dark Shadows

Deviant Art is having a Dark Shadows contest that the finals will be judged by Tim Burton himself. I thought it would be fun, win or lose. Here is my entry and the link to the entry site in case you are interested.

Dark Shadows Contest

Per usual, here are the steps leading up to the final pic.

Sorry for the delay

I know that it has been a while since I last posted. Unfortunately, there are events unfolding in my household that have been keeping me from drawing and painting as much as I would like. Please bear with me until this passes and life can resume as normal. I have been doodling here and there but that is all I can do at the moment. Here are some of the scratches that may (and should) one day be finished pics.