Holy crap guys.

Guess what I did... I made business cards with the wrong blog printed on them, so now I post at the other blog.  I was then nice enough not to let any of the extremely few people who read this know.  Check out my new garbage at:
CharlesGratnerIllustration.blogspot.com

Anatomy of a pin-up Part 1

Every year the Indy webcomics group puts on the Comix Rock Art & Music Showcase. With it we do a mini comic that is available only at the show and features characters based around the girls from Creme de les Femme burlesque. This year I was in charge of writing and designing the characters. Since the headliner of this years show is the concept band, Five Year Mission (they make songs based on episodes of Star Trek) we had a theme of science fiction and Star Trek.
Creme de les Femme do a Dr. Sketchy show before the bands start and the girls who participate get a pinup of themselves in character in the back of the comic. I figured I'd do this post and show some of the process I went through to get it done. I found it particularly challenging because I wasn't all that comfortable drawing metal and then had to make it into a likeness also. I assure you there are plenty more drawings and things I could have posted but to show you everything would take forever. So I hope you enjoy.
P.S. I designed and screenprinted the poster for the show too. Some variants are up for auction at the show on July 9th too. I plan on doing some post about that process too.

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Anatomy of a pin-up Part 2

1st step was the costume designs. I sat down with one of the ladies from Creme de les Femme and we went over some designs. Since the girls make all their own costumes we had to make sure I didn't go off the deep end with costuming. The Julie-8 character was fairly simple. Metal body, lab coat, bob haircut, and volume knob pasties. Yup you read right: volume knob pasties.
Then the troupe decides which girls get which character and I then assigned each artist to the characters. Reference of the girl is sent to each artist along with the costume designs.
I immediately start with a realistic pencil sketch of the face and work different poses of the face from that as I try to simplify noticeable features that make that person recognizable. One thing I found troublesome was since we had character designs before we knew who was playing who we had to throw different hairstyles and colors on some of the girls. You'd be surprised how a big change in hairstyle can change how you see a person. Ask the guys who had to make brunettes blondes and vice versa.

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Anatomy of a pin-up Part 3.

Sketch fool, Sketch!
I check out a lot of metal reference photos. I really dug for photos from car shows to get a look at some chrome and how light and shadow would go to extremes on a molded bumper. I you d myself staring at my truck hood on a sunny day just studying how the sun and shadows of trees would mark the seams and lines in the paint. Some people think that's crazy, but its that kind of study of light and life I hope will make me a better painter. I didn't worry if everything turned out looking like her and tried quite a few poses to have a lot to look at and choose from. I think I would do pretty good with her likeness, but as soon as she got the bob haircut, it didn't look like her at all. I drew a few of her with her normal hairstyle and they looked just like her. Then I'd put the bob on top of that drawing and poof, she was gone. I wouldn't normally make this many sketches, but since I was having trouble with the likeness and was new to metal I took my time to try to get it right.

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Anatomy of a pin-up Part 4.

Here is the final pose I chose. Nice and sexy without being pornographic. Well it probably is to some, but they're prudes.
I pencil it all, including the metal shading since I'm a rookie. This way I can get the jist of it, but I still make decisions during the coloring. I outline with a FaberCastell pen then color with Prismacolor marker on Bristol.

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Anatomy of a pin-up. Part 5!

The final product waiting for titles. My friend Lee is putting graphics in the book and doing layouts, so it's off to him for the final design available with the mini comic only at Comix Rock, July 9th.

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HORRORHOUND contd...

Here are a couple more commissions I did at Horrorhound weekend in Indy. So much fun to do these. Its great when people can walk away smiling with something you have done for them. I met one of my favorite artist, Daniel Horne this weekend too. He could not have been nicer or more gracious with his time. I hope to keep in contact with him and get some helpful feedback on my paintings. I also made a friend with Sal Lizard. A comedian who dresses as a zombie claus. I never got to see him in the full outfit but we had a lot of fun and a lot of laughs. Special effect artist and horrorhost too. Other comicers as well. Hope all who made it out had a good time and those who didn't get to, I hope to see you guys soon.

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