Efram Moisterberg

Just a drawing of a little fishy guy. Kosher, of course.

When I was adding color to him my first instinct was to make him green, but that seemed like too much of a cliche. So I played with the color sliders in Photoshop and settled on a less common blue. I added a little bit of red to his face, belly and fins to give him some life.

I based his eye on that of some kind of lizard I found online. Not sure if the scale effect is working, but it's the best I can do.

I was just about to upload him when I realized I'd forgotten to add his underwear that were in the sketchbook doodle I did of him. D'oh! So I had to go back and quickly add his tightie-whities. For the record, here's the naked version that almost was.

 Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.

Here's the original notebook doodle. I know it looks like pencil here, but I swear it's drawn in ink.

And here's the more polished digital sketch.

Now THAT'S Realism!

This month DC Comics began a company-wide relaunch of all their titles, updating the look of their characters for a new generation of readers. This is nothing new; they did the same thing back in the 1960s when they changed the Flash (among others) from a guy wearing a Mercury helmet to a guy in an all-red suit.

Here's an image of the all new Justice League. Look closely and you'll see that most of the characters seem to be wearing some sort of form-fitting armor rather than spandex. You also might notice they're no longer wearing briefs on the outside of their costumes. DC says that from now on they have a strict "no underwear on the outside" policy. They actually felt the need to announce that to the public. According to DC, the underwear look was silly, outdated and most of all, unrealistic.

Because as we all know, a man who can fly and shoot heat rays from his eyes is the ultimate in realism. A man who wears his underwear over his pants? Well that's just ridiculous. Who could believe such a thing?

I may be missing something, but when was it decided that comics are supposed to be realistic? Isn't the whole point of them to as unrealistic as possible? You know, escapist fantasy literature and all that? If you're going to make them realistic, then aren't they just... novels?

I just don't understand how one can demand realism from a book about a man who squirts spiderwebs from his wrists. That seems like a heaping helping of industrial grade schizophrenia to me.

Late For Work!

It's only a matter of time before I accidentally leave the house like this.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.



Here's the original sketch for comparison. Not a lot changed in the final drawing, other than tightening up lines and proportions.

Myron Peaksblatt

This was a fairly quick little drawing; about an hour and a half.

Coloring tip: I've noticed that if I add some faint red coloring to a character's face, usually on the nose (or sometimes cheeks) that it helps to add some life to them. Even if it's a character with green or blue skin, it's kind of like they look a little more real when they have a little bit of blush on their face.

I apologize in advance for his stained drawers.

Drawn in Photoshop on the graphic tablet.



Here's the original sketch for Myron. Note that this is a digital sketch, instead of the usual paper ones.