Sunday, September 26, 2010

What is SHCC?

I've gotten a few e-mails referring to what we do here at SHCC as a contest. It isn't, just to clarify. Anyone and everyone is welcome, and no one wins some splendid prize for the "best ever _____". It's just a way to network, share ideas, and enjoy each others artwork, creativity and love of all things superhero related.

There is indeed a core group of us from the Memphis College of Art that tend to contribute every time (more or less) and that I consider regulars, but there are also regulars NOT from MCA, people that I've never met.

It's not a contest, or an exclusive club...just draw, submit and enjoy!

ALSO to address a point brought up by a submitter, entries MUST be drawn by YOU. No tracing, generators or coloring line art drawn by someone else.

I hope this clears some things up and that I will get to see many entries from everyone, and many new faces in the coming months!

Monday, September 20, 2010

Shane McDermott's Nova

Shane McDermott never fails to impress with his redesigns!


Nova as imagined as Sir Richard Rider, the Celtic Knight with the powers of a sun or something.

ATTN: Nova Contributors

Justin got an e-mail from a blog watcher that took particular interest in the Nova submissions. It went as follows:

"As a main contributor for Nova Prime Page and Cosmic Book News and a long time Nova fan (I mean long time) I have to say coming across your blog and seeing how you taken Nova and re-interpreted him as mythical variations is excellent - especially the Ra ones - although out of all of them I love the first one as he's very near to my own Nova619 redesign. If you'd like to send any of them to the fan art gallery at Nova Prime Page (google it) - if you contact webmaster Doug Smith c/o nova64@mchsi.com I'm sure he'd be happy to put them in the gallery there!"

If you're interested in submitting your Nova to his gallery, the webmaster's address is listed above (nova64@mchsi.com). Thanks again for all the great work, guys!

Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Hero for 10/3/10 is...





We're doing another theme (and will probably continue to have themes in the future, due to popularity and the creativity on the part of the contributors), this time being to depict Nightwing as an artist in a genre of music OR depicted as a member of a musical movement. Feel free to go crazy with this...punk rock Nightwing, rockabilly Nightwing, country Nightwing...there are plenty of options to choose from!


He is due by 10/3/10 so make sure to get them into 23spades@gmail.com before the third!

Nova!

Here are the mythological Novas SHCC received over the past few weeks! Great job guys!


Kyle Frink's Nova:

Not knowing much about the character, I decided to redesign Nova's suite to be more of a space/ survival suite and less like painted on spandex. As for the cultural theme portion of the challenge, I wanted to do a homage to Atlas in Greek Mythology with out being too obvious.

Joel Priddy's Nova:

No description given.

Kayla Cline and Justin Wheeler's collaboration Nova:

We both wanted to do a Baphomet inpired Nova, so we worked together to make this guy. Justin designed him, I (Kayla) drew him, Justin inked him, and I colored him and overlaid some Baphomet imagery.

Alex Barton's Nova:

No description given.

Matt Ryan's Nova:

I can't find a whole lotta justification for the sword and the wings, but I think they look awesome. I wanted him to appear like an archangel, or someone that would have been interpreted as one.

Pete Taylor's Nova:

I read about the Nova mythological designs and had an idea for a Norse Nova but somewhere along the way I forgot it had to be mythological and changed my design to a WW1 version! I think it was a doodle of a Nova-style flying helmet that did it.

Mayon Maxey's Nova:

Here is my submission for your Nova Redesign, Mythological version. I decided to recreate Nova as a Mayan superhero. My attempt to show a connection to the modern day Nova includes him having large feathers in place of the star on the front of his helmet. He also has three Mayan versions of the sun wrapped around his neck. Hope you enjoy.

Jeremy Todd's Nova:

I thought an Egyptian theme would suit the character pretty well. The gold and blue color scheme was pretty easy to transfer over. And the fact that Ra's head was that of a falcon fit well with Nova's crazy helmet. Had fun coming up with this. Hopefully I'll be able to work on the coloring and add a background later.

Elliot Boyette's Nova:


Witchdoctor Nova!


Cody Barnhill's Nova:

I was really proud of all the time I put in to it, the loving crafting of form and composition, the re-imagining of such a classic hero. I think I captured his larger than life presence here.

Derrick Dent's Nova:

Here's my Nova redesign put through an Ancient Egyptian filter. Lots of fun experimenting with hand drawn layers of texture.


Erik M. Held's Nova:

Hail Rikadu son of Ryadem, blessed of Shamash, God of Justice and the Sun! The basic interpretation is through Babylonian/Assyrian mythology (BabyloNova!). Shamash needs a hero and chooses Rikadu as his defender of Law (remember, Shamash gave Hammurabi his Code). He grants him a sword, shield (that, as pictured strapped to his back, manifests wings of a mighty eagle) and other articles of power. Shamash also gets his father Sin, God of the Moon and Wisdom to bless Rikadu with great knowledge, as well as the Wisdom to wield his Sword of Justice (notice the crescent moons on helm and hilt); Ishtar, sister of Shamash and Goddess of Love, War and Fertility, gives him her Spear of Beautiful Victory, which can pierce any foe's armor and heal any ally's wound. The three symbols on his chest (and elsewhere) are the ancient seals of these gods.



Thanks for submitting! The next superhero will be announced tonight, so keep looking.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Next hero...


The next hero, to be e-mailed to 23spades@gmail.com BY September 19, is...



This time, back by popular demand, he will be themed. Your job is to take Nova and interpret him through a culture's mythology. You could, for example, interpret him through Greek mythology and treat him like Apollo. (BUT, any culture can be used.)

Since he is basically (from my understanding of Alex's explanation of him) a friggin' sun and fights evil planets or something, he should fit into a mythological context pretty easily!

Shane McDermott's Storm


One more storm, this time from Shane McDermott!

I didn't know much about Storm so I did a little research and learned that she and her mother are from a long line of African witch-priestesses with white hair. She spent part of her childhood in Cairo, lost her parents there and even spent time as a thief before joining the X-Men. Or something like that. It was fun to hunt for images of African priestesses and trinkets that she might have picked up and held onto during her days as a thief in Cairo.

Monday, September 6, 2010

Derrick Dent's Storm

I don't encourage submitting heroes late, but it's really hard to turn down posting ones that are so awesome! So if you do turn it in late...just make sure it's really really ridiculously good looking. Like Derrick's!

I wanted to play with the idea of her being able to manipulate the weather of her immediate surroundings, so I tried to draw her as a composer/puppeteer type of figure.

Sunday, September 5, 2010

Storms


Here are the Storms! We didn't get as much of a response this time around, hopefully due to the fact school is starting and everyone is busy...I hope to see more submissions next time around!


Rudy Jordan's Storm:

This is Mizz 'Ro, queen of the meteorological system of planet Earth and the imaginary 1st world African country of Wakanda. This design is the antithesis of Storm's current AXM look (not AXM:Xenogenesis, that look's great), where she's being portrayed as a Tina Turner (circa Thunderdome)-impersonating, drag-queen/bag lady who feels the need to wear everything in her wardrobe all at the same time. I wanted her to have the sleek silhouette she sported during her biker punk heyday, that's why she doesn't have a cape. The lower half of the costume harks back to her silver Jim Lee jump suit and the top half to her legendary Dave Cockrum black leather bathing suit with peekaboo holes.

Don Edwards' Storm:

No description given.

Scott Brazee's Storm:

Storm: Ororo in a casual everyday outfit. I wanted to pay tribute to the classic X-men uniform hence the yellow and black color scheme. Also it may to small to see but in addition to the X on her head band the buttons on her scarf and shirt as well as the straps on her shoes also have X's on them.

Kayla Cline's Storm:

I decided to just try and interpret her in my style. The arm is pretty straight and weird, I know, but I like it. It's kind of sloppy and unfinished because I was trying out inking with this new brush...I gave her an iguana because I based her a little on my roommate, Angel. There's a hurricane viewed from a satellite overlayed on top of her.

Marie Provence's Storm:

No description given.

Erik M. Held's Storm:

Prof. O. Munroe, the Weather Mistress: Donning her vortex pack, Munroe becomes a defender of her people against the threat of the gentlemanly villains, the Stormlords. The contraption sucks in weather, breaks it apart into light, wind and water particulates (19th century science!) and redirects it accordingly to 1) the Lightning Gun, 2) wind cannons/propulsion packs, 3) optilights, 4) anti-personnel vents, 5) shock stick and a few other odds and ends. All controlled by a few cranks,a switch and the steam regulatrix. She can even reconfigure the apparatus to briefly contol a local weather system. Is there nothing copper pipe and SCIENCE can't do??

Thanks for submitting! The next superhero will be announced tomorrow, so keep looking.

Storm

Storms will be posted later today. Please make sure to e-mail them to 23spades@gmail.com today.