Undated; probably around November 1993.

Well, it's The Crow again.  This is hardly unfamiliar territory for the blog, right?  This time (or that time, when I drew it), I decided to approach the character slightly differently from past attempts.  This time around, I decided I'd focus on what was really the heart of the story, Eric and Shelly.  As you may or may not know, Eric comes back (or is brought back) from the dead to avenge his and Shelly's murders.  The effectiveness of the comic book comes from the numerous flashbacks to their relationship interspersed throughout the book.  So, while it's an all kinds of crazy revenge story, the book does a pretty fantastic job of highlighting just what they both lost. 

Also, when you're 19 years old, this kind of story just kills.

Anyway, the picture is something I'm actually quite pleased with.  Something a little different for me back then, I think the set up and layout of it works at least reasonably well.  I'd probably approach it differently now, but I like how it works.  Who knew?

Music: "I Am Stretched On Your Grave" - Dead Can Dance

From the Crypt, 11: It's Not Death If You Refuse It

7/11/92... Happy Birthday to me! Good to see I was out celebra... oh, wait, I was home drawing...

Well, this is good ol' Eric, otherwise known as The Crow. You've seen him on this blog before, though it's been some time. This particular version of him is based on the comic series that, like The Evil Dead and Sandman, was a gateway for teenagers into whole new worlds of fiction beyond those boring old superheroes.

Driven to create the comic in the wake of his girlfriend's tragic death, James O'Barr created a haunting, lyrical, disturbing and beautiful work of art about love, death, revenge and redemption...

Or at least that's how I saw it then. To be honest, I've not read it in many a year- part of me is afraid to, fearing that, like so much of the past, it won't stand up to the harsh light of time. Perhaps I'll take it off the shelf and give it a read through sometime soon. Who knows, it might still have some of the impact it had then.

This picture was heavily influenced by O'Barr's drawing style- his Crow was drawn as though he were almost sculpted, but with a fluidity to the character itself that always reminded me of a dancer or gymnast. I tried my best to bring some of that to my version here, though as with most of my characters, it can't help but look stiff and poorly posed. Not to mention all the anatomical errors (I've just now noticed how out of proportion it is). Damned little hands, too. I also just now remembered all the hell I used to give myself when it came to drawing the boots. They were always just supposed to be combat boots, coming to below the calf. However, with my drawing, they always seemed way too big... I've only now realized it's because I was drawing with the 'superhero' proportions (at least 8 heads high) rather than a more realistic height- so his legs were always too long to look right. Ah well. Anyway, that's that. I've done more than a few Crow pictures throughout the sketchbooks; it was a big influence back then. I'm pretty sure it will turn up again before long.

MMMMMmmmmaybe something Friday. We'll see.

Music: "Dead Souls" - nine inch nails

Posts of Halloween, Final

"It's not death if you refuse it."

Welcome to the last Halloween-related post I'll be putting up here for a while... well, for a year, most likely. Rest assured (or be warned), this isn't the last you'll see of supernaturally-oriented characters, or even scary Hollywood-type characters; this is just the end of using Halloween as an excuse.

Today's posting is an old favorite character of mine, the Crow. Back in the early 90's, the Crow was pretty huge in the comic world. It was a very popular independent comic about a guy who's brought back to life to avenge his and his girlfriend's murders. What made this much more affecting than it sounds was the sometimes lyrical quality to the writing- sometimes literally, as the Crow would quote music. Moreso than that was the backstory to the book- the creator of the comic actually wrote the book in response to the death of his girlfriend. The depth of feeling he put into the work really helped it transcend its somewhat pulpy roots, and was popular with the non-comic-book crowd. So much so that it was made into a movie, which most of you have probably heard of, if only for it was while filming that movie that Bruce Lee's son Brandon was killed. Cheery stuff.

Anyway, for me personally, The Crow was a gateway into a whole new world- one where comic books didn't all have to be about superheroes smashing things up, and creators could talk about real-world issues (though certainly not foregoing their fantasy routes). To be honest, I haven't read the book nor watched the movie in a few years now. I know my nostalgia-meter is typically buried in the red, but I'd like to think that the book and movie would still hold up pretty well after all this time.

As to the picture itself... I'm fairly pleased with it overall, though I think it might have been better had I not attempted to color it. The character is basically black and white, so trying to work with those options, given my relative newness to Photoshop, makes the results somewhat... lacking. The lines are somewhat buried underneath the layers of color, though this actually leads to a less well-defined figure. One of my biggest drawbacks with my character drawing is the fact that I grew up drawing superheroes, who are essentially nothing more than super-defined musculature models. It's hard to draw normal-looking people. Even dead ones like this guy. It's hard to know when to put the pencil down, and keep from rendering ever last damn muscle. But, I'm trying. Oh- this version of the Crow is pretty much a split between the comic and the movie.

That's about it for this trip through Halloween. Thank you all for coming back to visit so frequently- hopefully it was a pleasant diversion while at work. It's been a challenge to put up so much work, especially based around one general idea (no, really, I don't sit around drawing Halloween-type stuff all the time...), but I think it's gone pretty well. Which isn't to say I wouldn't be perfectly happy to pull all the pictures down and re-color them when I've learned more about these dang computer programs.

Coming Monday- reality! Well, my version of it, at least.

Music: "It Can't Rain All the Time" - Jane Siberry