12 Weeks of Gesture with Mark McDonnell

Now that Comic-Con Megaman Cosplay insanity was done, and Final Fantasy Football was wrapped up at Anime Expo, I decided that for far too long I had neglected to do what is perhaps most important for an artist animator and draftsman: Fill sketchbooks.  I was terrible at making myself sketch in college and for five years out here, and it was time to get to it.  It was intensely uncomfortable at first.  Just going from the Cintiq back to paper was an adjustment.  With any luck, the progress is evident as these are in chronological order.  About halfway through I had just turned in what I felt was another terrible female model session.  I couldn't do good faces quickly with a few strokes, or nail down appealing body shapes.  I sat down with a veteran guy at WB, and for about an hour he pawed through my sketchbook. He gave me tons of abstract advice, none of which I remember verbally, but that I think showed it's affect on the work that took place afterwards.

THESE ARE AN ARRANGEMENT OF 1 to 5 MINUTE POSES, PERFORMED BY MODELS THAT BROUGHT COSTUMES AND PROPS.

THE MOST TIME SPENT ON ANY ONE GESTURE WAS 10 MINUTES, WHICH ONLY HAPPENED IF I REALLY LIKED A POSE, AND NOT THE ONE THAT CAME AFTER IT.

RIGHT CLICK AND OPEN IMAGES IN NEW TAB TO ZOOM FULLY.  THESE ARE HIGH RES.

Let's start with the bad and improve from there.  Not every single pose made it into these panels, so consider them the highlights.

"The Mermaid"

"The Gangster"

"The Goblin"

"The Genie"

"The Bob McKnight Effect" occurs.

"The Demoness"

"The Bruce Lee"

"The Nurse"

"The Chieftain"

"The Swordsman"

Please feel free to drop opinions, critiques, or general thoughts.  What appealed to you more?  What appealed less?  What caught your eye, for good or for bad?  What was your favorite page?  Why?  

Final Fantasy Football VII

So for the last few months I've been digitally painting for a series I thought up called Final Fantasy Football VII. I think my time here at MAD has filled my brain with mush-up-itis, so I ended up combining two things I love into a fun bunch of exercises. One day on a poorly maintained football field in the slums of Midgar, our protagonists and antagonists took to the gridiron to settle things in what would be the greatest game of football ever played.

I tried to improve my skills along the way and feel I learned some good things about color, lighting, cloth, composition, and design. At my DeviantArt, I wrote a small blurb for each piece and some quotes by other characters of the series about the piece's star to add some richness to the story.

DeviantArt!

Mousy

Quick 30 minute speed paint.

Making Megaman

A friend of mine recently had a Marvel vs Capcom party.  I dibbed Megaman and thus commited myself to quite a challenge.  I decided if I was going to put a costume together, I couldn't halfass it with cardboard and duct tape.  So I set forth to aim for quality while also winging it from start to finish.  Here's how it went down.

Starting out, I decided that the helmet was the most important piece of the Megaman pie, with the buster coming in a close second.  I knew a paper machet or foam one would not cut it, so I decided to invest a little money in a European style motorcycle helm.  The GLX satisfied the retro Megaman look the best and getting it in white would be perfect for a spraypaint job.

Removing the visor and taping off the padding, dark blue went first.

While the helmet dried, I turned my attention to the Buster.  Again, if I could find a ready made piece of construction for cheap, I was going to go with it.  Wandering around a Big 5, I knew the second I saw this giant travel mug that it would make a great megabuster.  At 12.99$, there were no excuses available.

I started by sawing off the handle with a jigsaw.  I put a nail through the side of the mug and through the bottom of the handle, then gluegunned the top.  Later I would come to wish I had waited for this part, but anxiousness and lack of planning tied me up a bit.

Took a quick photo once the glue dried.  The grip is ergonomic and very comfy!

I then stopped by a local electronics store and got some LED strips for lighting fx.  I bought some 9Volts, a switch, and some wire.

Used a strip of brass from my metals and jewelry days at SCAD to carefully lock the red LEDs into a circle.

I have a small box of random findings leftover from assemble-able furniture projects.  This metal L strip seemed like it would be good for housing the trigger inside the buster.  I just needed to use my jewelry saw to widen the hole a bit.

Fit the trigger in there and it was solid.

Then the soldering experiment began.  I had never soldered wire before, and it was fun and surprisingly easy.

I also bought a big siren light of some sort and centered that between the LEDs

This is where putting the handle in first came back to bite me.  Getting the LEDS in and soldering was more difficult than it needed to be because of this. 

Having bought some foam from Joanne-Fabrics, I cut out a donut piece and sawed out the whole center of the mug's unscrewable top. 

This way I could attach batteries and fix stuff, then screw the buster back together with ease.

Progress made.

Taking a break and going back to the helm, it was time to do the blue striping.  Taping everything off very carefully, I applied the light blue.

And it came out decent!

This was the moment I decided that to be a noncreepy Megaman cosplayer.... I would need to shave.

Now, with a day left before the party, I had a little time for some gravy, so I set out to attach some yellow LEDs to the side of the buster.

I decided against foam because it would not protect the LEDs if they got bumped, so I used some small pine pieces and with the jigsaw and jewelers saw, hollowed out two pieces to house the lights.

Once attached, I covered the lights in foam and paper towels to prep for spraypainting.

Once the paint dried, I tested the LEDs and everything was working reliably!

This was a short videotest to document the progress with my first lighting project.

I did the boots last minute and feel they are the weakest part of the costume, so I will skip to the supergravy.  E Tanks for the party.  I quickly made the graphics in photoshop.  I went gameboy style and opted not to kill my printer with all blue sheets.

Bought a 12 pack of steel kettle and wrapped them with double sided tape!

And now for some pics that were taken at the party.  Hope you enjoyed this process post for my Megaman Cosplay!