Harry Potter, Big Trouble in Little China, Metal Gear

[walterostlie]

I started a sketch blog with a couple of local, artist friends called Drawn Blanks. We pick a new topic every week and post art daily. Kind of like Eclectic Micks or Comic Twart.

If you want to check out the site it is at http://www.drawnblanks.com

Here are some of the pieces I've done

[Lord Dubu]

You have earned a special place in my heart.

To say that Big Trouble in Little China is my most beloved film of all time is a tad of an understatement.

[walterostlie]

I know, right. Big Trouble is one of those movies I played over and over. And that was VHS days where you had to rewind stuff to watch it again. I think when I was a kid it never dawned on me how ridiculous this movie is, especially when seen through Mr. Burton's eyes.

[Einar]

That HP piece is awesome. Grats! The other two are not that strong, but I still like them. Nice work.

[walterostlie]

Thanks Einar! If you got the time, I would love your crits on what you didn't like.

[Terminator X]

The HP is definitely the best one here, but I love them all.

Chalk up another devoted fan of ol' Jack Burton (seriously, John Carpenter and Kurt Russell together could never make a bad movie...I bet if JC had directed Flicka, it woulda ruled).

[Einar]

Thanks Einar! If you got the time, I would love your crits on what you didn't like.

Ok, lets see if I could say something useful.
With Little China I think my problem is that the colouring is not homogenous enough, it is a bit watercolour-like so figures loose deifnition, especially Dennis Dun's face (I admit, I checked his name on IMDB). And the truck would worth more empahsis, it is kind of lost because of the thin contours and pale colours against the dark suites in the foreground. Maybe a bit of play with line widths...
With Metal Gear, my main issue is the strong hatching I guess, and this is just taste, so I am not really giving good feedback here. Well, it gets the strongest on the face with the accompanying shadows and this again works against well-defined shapes (darker side of the nose, under the nose, this is what I mean).
Hope there is something useful in this comment what you can use in the future. Your pictures are quite nice anyway, grats again.

[Mase]

Punks from Chinatown - this can't be good! Love the BTiLC poster.

[Yann]

I like the Metal Gear image the best (the Potter one is awesome too) but the panels at the top don't really seem like they belong with the image, I think they may stand out too much apart from everything else....maybe it's the stark white and that the panels are lined up prefectly horizontally?

[Orphangrinder]

So awesome.

[Toddoss]

The Metal Gear Solid one is IMO by far the best one. Great pacing on the storytelling aspect and the foreshortened hand looks great, wrist is a little boney. Fun bits of hatching and the colors are fitting. This has story action and an awesome cardboard box!! I'd buy this as a print at a con. Now I would've made the font more opaque to make it easier to read. You're selling us the gag line not the picture in this little comic and we have more than enough Snake action to compliment the text.

[Juggertha]

I bet the Potter one sells great at the Cons.