Norvell J. Rattman

Um... hey, it's a drawing of a rat.

This is a long one, so get comfortable and click below.

"Superman: The Movie" Little Golden Book

After I finished my drawing of Jor-El (see previous entry) from "Superman: The Movie," I thought it looked kind of like a drawing in an old kid's book.

So I added Jor-El's wife Lara and baby Kal-El and turned it into a page from a Little Golden Book, complete with dialog straight from the movie (edited a bit to fit the space).

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Jor-El

I've always loved "Superman: The Movie," especially the first 15 minutes or so. There's enough cool stuff packed in the beginning (Jor-El, the Phantom Zone villains, the destruction of Krypton) to fill an entire movie.

I also love those crazy glowing Kryptonian outfits. They didn't make some kind of complicated electric clothes-- they were made out of the same reflective material used on highway signs to make them glow in your headlights. They just shined a light on the clothes and filmed the result. A simple and elegant solution.

Marlon Brando made movie history when he became the highest paid actor in history (up to that time) for his part in "Superman." He reportedly nabbed $16 MILLION dollars for 15 minutes of screen time. And we're talking 1978 dollars too!

One thing I always wondered: Was it really necessary to call the film "Superman: The Movie?" Were they afraid we'd confuse it with "Superman: The Laundry Detergent Commercial?" "Superman: The High School Play?" "Superman: The Billboard?" Thank you ladies and gentlemen, I'm here all week.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.



Here's the original digital sketch of Jor-El.

Marshall, The Marchin' Martian

I was messing around in InDesign today and drew this. I don't do a lot of vector work, but I'm reasonably happy with how it turned out. I was experimenting with using only two colors (and various shades of them) as well.

He kind of looks like he could be a 1960s cereal mascot.

Drawn in InDesign. Most people are surprised when they find out I draw stuff in InDesign, which is traditionally a page layout program. But it's got most (not all) of the same drawing tools that Illustrator has, and I find it easier to use.

Christmas Creep

I saw the first Xmas tree of the season today (November 4th!). I saw it in the window of a house down the street.

That's just too frakkin' early.

Spurticus The Chickentaur

One of the lesser mythological Greek creatures, coming in way behind centaurs, minotaurs and harpies.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.



Here's the original Post-It Note sketch of the Chickentaur, drawn many years ago. I guess I was going through a pointillist phase back then. For the final drawing I kept the body pretty much the same, but the head went through some major changes. Not sure what was going on with the goggle-like eyes. And buck teeth didn't seem to make much sense on a chicken-man, so I changed it to a beak-like nose.

Gaspar Gassman

Imagine walking out to the kitchen in the middle of the night, turning on the light and seeing one of these sitting on the floor, spewing noxious gas out of every orifice.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.



Here's the original sketch of Gaspar. Pretty much the same, except I tried to make the gas jets a little less cartoony than they are here.