The Hobbit Wager

I lost a Rotten Tomatoes wager to Everett Downing when The Hobbit scored a very-unwhopping 65% RT score (needless to say, I had much higher hoped). The stakes were loser draws winner as a character from the film. Here's the spoils of war:

I'm looking forward to drawing Ev as Jimmy Olsen when I lose our inevitable Man of Steel RT wager.

10 days...

Fantasy Football XVIII: Raiders vs Panthers

Drizzt Do'Urden and his trusty Guenhwyvar ambushed by the Raiders of the Oak Land!

3 days...

Happy Birthday, Emma Coats!

At 11:59pm, made it with one minute to spare! Mirthy birthday ya Dandy!

20 days...

Twenty-Somethings

Happy birthday to Ross Dickinson and Chris Chua, a couple of real Dandies!

This probably isn't the first drawing of an anthropomorphised d20 toting medieval weapons, but it's my drawing of an anthropomorphized d20 toting medieval weapons, dammit!

10 days...

Jtop Levels Up

While I'm on the subject of birthday cards, here's another that I did for my friend and fellow gamer Jtop.

Jay was gracious enough to pose with his new portrait. A stunning likeness, if I don't say so myself!

For Jay's birthday, we had a massive gaming marathon. 48 hours of Space Alert, Drakon, Street Fighter, Mortal Kombat, Marvel v Capcom, Left 4 Dead, Robo Rally, Resistance, Aye Dark Overlord, Star Wars Kinect, and Smallworld. Basically, the ideal weekend.

3 days...

Flashkick

More X-Men sketches. This is my buddy Tim's character, Flashkick, who has the ability to open rifts in space time through which she can teleport, or just reach out and slap someone from across the room. (Sketch by Everett Downing)

The original concept was a bit too Jubilee-ish. So we traded in the 90's jacket for the traditional unitard. (Sketch by Ev)

She's an ESL student from Korea. Her lack of communication skills have made it difficult to correct the constant mangling of her callsign. (Sketch by Emma Coats)

9 days...

Impulse

Paul's character in this week's X-Men RPG was the excitable youth, Impulse. Impulse is a big fan of the X-Men and can't wait to be part of the team. There's one Canadian hero he looks up to in particular.

Impulse's mutation is lighting-fast reflexes, bordering on precognition. This skill is particularly handy in the Danger Room, where there's a surprise around every corner.

Like assassin drones...

Sync gets a little irritated by Impulse's fanboy behavior sometimes, but ultimately recognizes his value as part of the team.

Tomorrow, I'll be taking a break from the X-Men sketches and switching to another part of the Marvel Universe for Chades Challenge LXXI: The Avengers!

16 days...

Interweb-Slinging

The Dandies tested out Marvel's new RPG system last night, and I played Spider-man. Of course, you can't play a mainstream superhero without doing some redesign drawings.

I grew up with Todd McFarlane's bug-eyed Spider-man and it always seemed the coolest, toughest looking version of the mask to me.

I also like Alex Ross's method of amplifying the chest logo to heroic proportions. I picture the spider legs bleeding into the costume, so that his only colors are red and black.

My friend Nate is a huge Spider-man fan, and he's always wearing a beanie, so the above sketch is sort of a nod to Nate. I almost gave him Nate's eyebrow ring, but I thought that was a bit out of character for tech-nerd Peter Parker.

I have some more sketches from the game, including cameos by Cap and Carnage. Stay tuned!

17 days...

Wild Sylvan

My gaming group, The Dandies, dove back into its Dragon Age campaign last night. The last time we had played, we left on quite a cliffhanger, but everyone was just too busy with work to continue. Now that we're even busier at work, we need our gaming sessions more than ever.

Nothing beats relieving stress like hacking a demon-possessed marsh shrub to pieces.


40 days...

Merry Shirtmas!

Along with this year's BluRay exchange (which I walked away from with a brand new copy of Moon--yesss), the Dandies and I also had our first annual Shirtmas. Shirtmas is exactly what it sounds like a Secret Santa exchange limited exclusively to t-shirts. 

I was tasked with finding a shirt for Everett Downing. Ev just had his second kid, so I know he needs a nanny. And the best nanny I know of is the Avengers' personal governess, Squirrel Girl! 

For those of you who don't know, Squirrel Girl is the most powerful character in the Marvel Universe, having defeated Doctor Doom, Magneto, and Galactus. Ev's dream is to direct a SG movie starring none other than Toy Story 3's Kristen Schaal, so I drew this Shirtmas card for him. Kristen, if you're out there: Squirrel Girl--think about it!

I, in turn, got this fantastic H.P. Lovecraft shirt from my teaching partner, Paul Mendoza. I think I'll wear it to church Christmas morning!

Merry Shirtmas to all, and to all a plain white!

5 days...

The Heroes of Sandpoint, Part II

Last night was the conclusion to our first Pathfinder adventure, DM'd by Everett. Good nerd times were had by all! Accept Erick, who played the hapless halfling rogue, Hob, who nearly drowned...

...was nearly eaten...

...and nearly coughed up his hobbit balls.

Chris, who played our barbarian warrior princess, Zorba, faired better against the undead

And scored the victory blow against Black Fang, a local dragon pest.

 

 Here's Zorba, celebrating her victory with quiet dignity and grace.

 

And finally my character, the dwarven cleric Baz, glaring jealously at Zorba and all her new experience points.

More adventures to come! For all you gamers struggling with 4th edition D&D, I'd highly recommend the Pathfinder system. Much classier.

13 days...

The Heroes of Sandpoint

Our motley bunch of adventurers from last night's game: Bazir, the dwarven cleric; Xavier, the human wizard; Zorba, the human barbarian; and Hob, the halfling rogue. Last night's session was all about taking care of a nasty brood of goblins who had been bothering our local village.

At the end of our encounter, we learned that darker threats may be looming deep in the goblins' cave. The game ended with a crab/eel creature springing at us from a placid, black cavern lake. I didn't have any time to sketch the monster last night, but rest assured: art is coming!


20 days...

Big Bazir

Getting in the mood for DnD tonight with a sketch of my dwarven cleric, Baz. He killed a dire wolf once, and as you can see, he's very proud of it.

21 days...

Dr. Eustace Plebe

My Gamma World character is quickly becoming one of my favorite to draw. He's your run-of-the-mill post-apocalyptic genetically engineered prescient super scientist whose best friend is a walking refrigerator. Needless to say, when it came time to do a birthday card for our GM, Ev, it was easy to choose which character would be popping out of the cake:

(Erick plays our robot Artech)

Ev's take on Dr. Plebe and his blobby pal, Grimm:

Last session we ran into some radiation-shooting butterflies, illustrated here by Chris Chua.

Dr. Plebe took one in the taint.

I even started working out some expressions for a model sheet in case I ever need to animate this ugly sucker.

Neutral/Sour

Surprise/Taint Burn

My gaming group, the Dandies, is filled with artists, so we're always churning character and story sketches out. You can check out the Dandies' gaming blog, Dungeons and Shenanigans, for more of our gaming art and geekdom.

"Dungeons and dragons...it's thirty minutes of fun packed into four hours."

-Victor Lane, Dandy

While I'm in total nerd-mode, I should mention that Spawn 200 comes out today. This comic was a huge influence on me as a kid. Aside from my dad and brother, both artists, Todd McFarlane was probably my earliest artistic hero.

I haven't followed Spawn for a while, but I think I'll pick this one up for old time's sake.

48 days...

A Stroll Through Gamma World

A new year means a new campaign and the Dandies have kicked off 2011 with a romp through the post-apocalyptic wastelands of Gamma World. The game was DM'd by Everett Downing (left), but fueled by Lanesplitter's and Gordon Birsch.

Our pal Dovi gave us all electronic d20s for Christmas. They light up when you roll a natural 20. It's pretty sweet.


The party approaches a criminal outpost.

The best part about gaming with a bunch of artists is that you inevitably come out with some amazing character sketches. Here are a few from our first session:

The enigmatic conspiracy theorist Karnsen, played by Ross Dickenson. Sketch by me.

The gruff gelatinous mutant Grimm, played by Chris Chua. Sketch by Chris.

The genetically-engineered prescient, Dr. Eustace Plebe (aka "Slit"), played by yours truly. Sketch also by yours truly.

The cyrogenic super-computer Artech, played by Erick Tryzelaar. Sketch by Emma Coats.

53 days...