Monday, October 11, 2010

Henri du Saturn, The French Courtier Alien

People are always asking me, "Bob! Where do you get your ideas?" I always have to give them the same unsatisfactory answer that I don't think they believe: I honestly don't know.

Take this illustration for example. Last week I was doodling, as I very often do, and this came out. An alien wearing the costume of a 16th Century French courtier. Why did I doodle this? I have no idea, your honor. Where did the idea come from? Again, I have no idea. I know as much about French Noblemen as I do cotton gins: a big fat nothing.

So where did such an idea come from? Maybe I saw an image of someone wearing such a costume on TV or the internet, and my subconscious mind remembered it. Maybe I was trying to come up with a weird character design, and my mind put "alien" and "costumed historical drama" together, and this came out. Or maybe my suspicions are true, and there's someone else living in my head who comes up with all this stuff.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Here's the original sketch of Henri, looking bored and privileged, as usual.

6 comments:

  1. Ha ha! He looks uppity. Maybe the night before you fell asleep and left the tv on, and it was an episode about that Centauri ambassador from Babalon 5.

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  2. Hmm, he does kind of look like that guy. I imagine his head to be bony tissue though, not weird hair.

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  3. I love him Bob (thanks again Keith for turning me on to Bob's brilliant art)... I especially like what you did with his mouth... just the few lines underneath the down-turned upper lip, COMPLETELY give him that French disdainful look. KUDOS

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  4. I don't care how you come up with the characters you create, as long as you keep creating them! They are always original and inspire me to draw. This guy is wonderful, I love his facial expression and his hanky :)

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  5. rogue: Wow, thanks for all the nice comments!

    Dawn: Thanks! A gentleman always carries a hanky when dancing the minuet, so that his partner doesn't have to touch his sweaty hand!

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