7.27.2007

Birdman - Part One

After watching a marathon of Space Ghost and Birdman episodes, I got the itch to draw up some retro animated goodness. I've already drawn my version of Space Ghost so now it's onto Birdman and his trusty eagle sidekick Avenger.

After doing a few quick thumbnails and working out some layouts, I started on the characters. As of late, I've been drawing the characters separately from the background and I've been getting some good results. Let's see if I can keep up the trend.

First the Birdman pencils...

Followed by inks...
As you can tell, I finished the left leg in the inking stage and also altered his right hand. At first, I wanted a strong fist emitting Birdman's solar rays but rather than giving him two blocky fists, I opted for the open right hand. While most of the line weights are thick and almost brush-like, the lines under his energy shield are meant to be thinner because I plan to make the shield slightly transparent.

With the inks in the can, I scanned the pic and added the colors in Photoshop...

Overall, I'm really happy with the way this came out. To coinside with the Kirby-ish inks, I kept the colors flat to give Birdman a real retro cartoon feel. This is also the first time I've employed a color hold (shield, wings) and it turned out pretty good. I'm definitely using this technique again.

That's it for Birdman. Tune in tomorrow for Avenger.

Bernie

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