Old School Gaming Drawings

I decided to do some drawings of classic NES games, since I already seem to have a decent sized collection of those. Unfortunately, for a couple things in both of these drawings I used one of my worst enemies - preset gradated shading. I absolutely hate the way preset shading looks. I still believe in doing everything yourself. Preset shading always looks so sloppy and out of place, like a child who just learned the concept of shadow colored it, and these pictures are no exception. These drawings were ultra rushed, so I got too lazy to color the sky and even draw or color the ground in the Super Mario Bros. one. The sky's gradated shading looks fine, especially since that's how Nintendo themselves shaded shies in the SNES Mario All-Stars, but the ground is straight up hideous. I quickly drew a bunch of slabs of stone with the mouse, then colored the cracks, the decided to rush together a preset downward shading for the rocks cos I was too tired to do it by hand by that point - bad idea. I plan on doing the ground over by hand and posting a better copy. For now, I posted production step pics below so you can at least admire the character work without that nightmare behind it. Everything besides the two parts I mentioned before (sky & ground) was colored by hand on the comp.

As for the Ninja Gaiden one, only the building in the BG are auto-computer done. The tops of the buildings look good, but I couldn't prevent that bright-ass red in the center that turns to grey. That's what makes it ugly. Once again, I was rushing to the max. If only I put more time into making this. I saved steps of this one as well, though, so I should be able to fix it. Everything else besides the building shading was done completely by me. The pcture is of one of my all-time favorite NES games, and video games, period. Ninja Gaiden was a huge part of my childhood, so I figured "why not do a picture for the blog for it". In this picture are - Ryu Hayabusa, Jaquio, Irene Lew, and a ton of enemies from the game that came out at a time when one was able to be intimidating whle wearing hot pink and purple.

I know earlier this month I said I was going to do more holiday drawings, but I've been occupied working with some people so I've had no time, and now the holidays are over. Well, I was going to do one for one of my personal favorites, Will Vinton's Claymation Christmas Celebration, a little-known but great special that aired in the late 80s, but I didn't like the way the pencil work came out and decided to forget it. I will, however, do a regular themed drawing of Herb and Rex, the two totally gay dinosaurs who hosted Will Vinton's holiday masterpiece soon. Until then, enjoy what's up.

Happy Holidays

Just did up these the night after Thanksgiving, then colored them this morning. The subjects should be obvious - the cast of Rankin Bass' "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer", Karen from "Frosty the Snowman", and the Grinch from Dr. Seuss' classic, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas". The coloring job is kind of whack because I did it real rushed, but they're still enough to bring you some holiday cheer. I'll probably post some more holiday themed artwork, so if you liked these, stay tuned. Also check me out on Deviantart.com. I've got a decent sized galler up now.

Mr. Funnyman - Volume 1 Cover Artwork

As promised, here's all the covers to volume 1 of Mr. Funnyman, my original comic book series. I did these four works over the past two weeks. Below this post is one with a preview of episode 1. As you probably know now, I'm trying to publish my work, so I figured this would all be a good taste. All concepts, artwork, and everything below is by me, Brendan Corris. Enjoy.

If you'd like to see higher resolution versions and the full artworks without the logo and what not, go check out my Deviant Art gallery that's just gone up at : http://brendancorris.deviantart.com/gallery/

Mr. Funnyman - Episode Preview

I present to you a previw of episode 1 of Mr. Funnyman (my comic book series). This episode, titled "The Intro" is one of two comics in issue #1. There are 4 issues in the first volume, all with two episodes and two 1 page shorts each. I'm only posting these 14 pages so viewers can get a taste of what Mr. Funnyman is all about and so you can see whether or not you like it. Enjoy. (Click the thumbnails to view the full, readable size)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween. Just decided I throw up a drawing of some of horror films' greatest faces. Sorry for the some what crude coloring job, this was a very rushed picture since I wanted to put up something special for Halloween in between my busy work on some comic book covers I'm doing. I once again resorted to coloring it on the computer since it would take much quicker that way, though like my other computer colorings, it's all drawn 100% drawn by hand with mouse by me, even the coloring in the background and the shading on the characters. I drew Michael Meyers, Pinhead and Jason last night, then threw on Leatherface and Freddy this morning and colored the thing all in about an hours time, so that is why the coloring may look a bit rushed - it was. Well, soon I'll have those for covers finished and I'll post them with some sample pages of Mr. Funnyman.

More on The Curses of Spinthra

It's been a while since I posted more artwork for my video game I'm still working on, The Curses of Spinthra, and what better time to post artwork for a game about ghosts, monsters, goblins and nightmare creatures than October? (and because most of this artwork is from 2008 and there's no reason for why I haven't posted any of it yet). Almost all of these drawings were colored on the computer (still by me and not a cheap program that does 90% of the work for you, though) so the quality is not too great.

These drawings are old because this game is taking a real long time to make. I'm the only guy behind it, so I do everything from sprite design, level design, event and settings design, controls, gameplay, everything, so it will be a little while before the game is totally finished, but someday it will be.

This is a drawing of the main character which you assume the role of, Duke Legend. He's your typical jacked guy with a big sword and a mean mug who marches into the castle of evil to destroy every monster within (not even a joke, in the world of video games that is an average dude).

The final boss of The Curses of Spinthra is the creature called a "black witch" which is made ruler of the Nether-world every 100 years when ne is born. The picture at the top of the post contains various poses of her. Spinthra, being a witch, can magically assume other forms to help her trick or defeat her enemy. One form (pictured to the right) is the temptress form, used either to lure men to their doom or to do things her regular itty bitty form can't. She can also turn into a spider (which her hair resembles) to crawl into tiny spots and scale walls.

These are the first three boss fights you will be faced with on your quest - Medusa, a Manticore & a Wyvern, and the Minotaur. If you're lame and you don't mind spoilers and you'd like to see all of the boss characters in The Curses of Spinthra, you can add yourself to my MySpace page that I haven't used in over a year and view them in my photo album.

Lastly I'll post one I did completely on paper (all the other ones were hand drawn, then scanned and colored in Paint) of Spinthra in various poses. The colors came out kind of horrible on the computer - all that blueishness in the background was way more purple on paper (same with on her tongue) but whatever. I posted the black and white one too for anyone who might want to see some production in my drawings some times.

I promise to post more Spinthra artwork soon, including more old artwork never shown to the public, new artwork, and hopefully even screenshots. Stay tuned.

As you may have noticed, I had to add a warning before entering my blog. Nobody told me I had

to, I just decided it would be a good idea since there is animated nudity on here, and I'd rather put the warning on first instead of Blogger just finding it on their own and shutting down my blog.

The Lost Vikings

I recently did a drawing that I colored on the computer ,which I rarely like doing, but it came out pretty good so I decided to post it. Although it was colored on the computer, it was almost all done in MS Paint, meaning I still drew the entire background and did all the shading on the characters myself. Basically, the only cheat thing (Photoshopesque crap) in this drawing is the light from the top left corner. I did the drawing of the three main characters, Erik, Baleog and Olaf, from one of my favorite video games (and one of the most under rated) of all time, the Lost Vikings for the SNES by Silicon & Synapse (now known as Blizzard) and Interplay. Don't even ask why there are elements swirling in the background, they're really only there to create a cool background that will effect the coloration of the vikings. Maybe if you really need to come up with some kind of reason you can say it's the Norse gods or some corny shit. It's a little epic for a game that was a comedy, but whatever, it looks cool. More artwork to come (if you've never played the Lost Vikings, go find a copy).

About My Comics - "Stupid" & "Mr. Funnyman"

I've posted plenty of artwork I've done so far but not very much of my own creations (Rick the Raptor and The Curses of Spinthra are it as of now) so I decided to post about my two biggest comic projects that I want published.

First is my graphic novel, Stupid. I finished drawing and writing this comic in 2007. I started it in mid-April and finished it in early May making it my quickest work to date. Over the years of 2008 and 2009 I would randomly go back and do clean-up and text editing. I now have a fully finished 125 page black and white graphic novel. This comic, although not as good a work physically and concept-wise as some of my other creations, has a special place with me. I based this comic on the first comic book character I ever created when I was only a wee artist in 1992.

The story follows the happenings in a strange world, mostly surrounding an area known as Kawnk. This land is ruled by the Beasts, a race of reptilian-monster-people who are headed by the twisted and domineering President Lasher. For as long as the Beasts can remember, they have used strange little creature-people called "That Things" (since no one can exactly say what they are) as slaves. The slaves are given degrading names by their Beast masters. When Lasher is informed by his council of the existance of "That Things" not in the Beasts' captivity, he dispatches his guards to find them. The guards return with only one, which they name Stupid. The now imprisoned Stupid can not adjust to this life of torture and, with a little help from some new friends, plans to bust him and the rest of the slaves out to freedom.

I'd like to publish this comic before any of my others since Stupid is my first true character, but whatever comes my way I will settle for. The book's a comedy/adventure story. The only trick now is to find a publisher who will put out my work.

Next in the line of comics I wish to publish is Mr. Funnyman, a comedic parody of textbook superheroes. This is an on going series of books. Each book will contain two episodes and two shorts (four books a volume). I've completed all of volume 1, and a lot from later volumes. This too is based on characters from my childhood, and in my personal opinion is the funniest work I've ever done.

Mr. Funnyman follows the never ending battle between meat-headed, conservative superhero, Mr. Funnyman, and the evil, living pin, Pinhead. Pinhead's created a serum that can combine objects into humanoid creatures to help him play out his evil desires. Mr. Funnyman, with the help of his not-so-compatible, scrawny, liberal sidekick, Adventurer, must continually stop Pinhead's evil plans and fight off Bush Gardens, Electro Gator, and whatever other evil creatures Pin Head might throw throw his way.

I will post more about my comics in near-future posts. Stay tuned.

(All comics contain strong language, violence, and adult themes)

More IT Drawings

Here are more random drawings I did of characters from Stephen King's IT. Anybody who has read the book knows that the huge spider is It's true Earth form. The drawing could have been better. She's a little too light in coloration, and even though it's a picture of a grotesque nightmare, the coloring looks a little cutsie and out of place. I do, however, like the way the dead lights effect came out. I was afraid that would be really hard to pull off by hand, but I refuse to ever use photoshop or any computer effects on drawings when it can actually just be done by hand. The light pouring from her mouth and eye sockets and womb are the best part of this picture in my opinion.

The next picture is of something that was never featured in the film adaptation in 1990. The Turtle was the creator of the universe and the opposing force to It. This picture's ok, but it's not exactly what I pictured. First off, The Turtle's too skinny. When reading the book, I imagine it being massive. Also, the coloring has a very bland effect in my drawing. I imagined it being a glowing medley of swirling color. The book describes The Turtle's coloration as being so magnificent that you can see galaxies in it's toe nails. Also, there is a part where the crease line down the center of the shell is pretty crooked, which makes it pretty ugly. These are mistakes I usually don't make in drawings, so I'm kind of bumed about this one. Whatever. Try to enjoy it, still, if you can. More art coming soon.

Random Doodles

I just randomly felt like doodling monster faces the other night, and due to my lack of posts recently, I may as well just post these up. They're quick and pointless but, whatever, enjoy them. I'll put up some more finished artwork soon.

Famous Faces from Yesterday

OK, I'm finally posting new artwork, but it's of old stuff. Go figure. Here are some drawings I did last night of famous characters and stars from the 80's. Sorry for taking so long with this post. Don't know when the next one will be so enjoy these for now. Why don't you test your love of the 80's and see if you can identify all the faces.

Rick the Raptor

Hey. Since progress with my major works is slow (I've got my graphic novel, Stupid, completely darkened, typed, revised, and ready for publication. Now the problem is the publishing part), I'll post a link to a comic strip series I made and posted in late 2008. I started the strips in 2007, then picked them up again in summer of 2008 and began posting one on every weekday in August. The series is not a major work of mine, and the sense of humor is much more tame and typical than that of my other comics. In other words - they make you chuckle at best. I still like Rick the Raptor, though. I don't think a comic strip is supposed to produce the kind of hysterical, rolling-on-the-floor laughing that a solid story consisting of a series of pages should. The idea of a strip is to create a clever punch line using a minimal series of frames. The main factor of my point here is that gut-busting humor is rarely based on punch lines. The funniest humor is made up of funny dialogue and events that may be funny because of ridiculousness, randomness, the shock factor, witiness or rudeness. A comic strip is funny in the sense of a quick yet clever joke is being made that at the end makes you think "Oh, I get it".

Anyway, Rick the Raptor follows the daily antics of Rick and his pals living in a time when dinosaurs ruled the earth and humans were looked at as simple animals. Rick, the unmotivated, lazy, grumpy main character of the series, accompanied by his friends - Clarissa, his sensible yet rowdy neighbor, Dave, his bestfriend and drinking buddy, and Tony, the local bartender, star in 94 comic strips on this official myspage page I created earlier this year. I randomly started posting them in August of 2008. At some point in October, I miscounted and thought that the series would reach episode 99 exactly on Christmas day, so I planned a series of holiday episodes with one final one-framed season-ending frame. When I reached the month of December, however, I recounted and realized it would only be episode 94 on Christmas day. If I had still pushed for episode 99, the season would have ended exactly on New Years, but I had already planned the final episode, thus the final episode of the season remained 94. You can read all of season one at this page, and check out character artwork by clicking the Pics section in the upper left corner of the page. If you have a MySpace account, you can add the page to your friends at the bottom of it. I may make a season 2 some time, but there's no guarentee, for as I have already said, this is not one of my major comics - it's kind of just a side one. If I ever made a season 2, though, I would probably like to see if I could get the strips of both seasons published in a collection book. Anyway, enough babble. Check out the comics for yourself. Sorry again for yet another post of old work.

http://www.myspace.com/ricktheraptor

Caricatures at Applebee's

One night a couple of months ago a friend of mine and I went to Applebee's only with the intention to draw charicatures of all the people we saw (I find their food completely repulsive, honestly). Here are the ones I drew. I will post more of my artwork for my comics and all soon. I usually don't draw people as much, despite the fact that almost every picture I've posted so far has been of a human being. I like drawing more unearthly characters and animals (mostly insects and reptiles and especially dinosaurs).

Although Blogger deleted my AdSense account for some reason (there are no longer ads you can click to make me money, which sucks because I'm not exactly rolling in cash right now). Well, I've been given word that I may very possibly be able to publish my graphic novel, Stupid, in the near future, so if that happens, you need to go out and buy it.

Sorry for all the half-ass posts of older artwork I've been doing. I promise I'll post new artwork soon. I'm also currently working on another graphic novel called Round Rock. I started it in 2008, but haven't really worked on it too much until now. I'm allowing the artstyle and frames in this book to be much more loose and free and I'm really having fun working on it. It also looks great (I think, at least) and I'm quite fond of how it's coming along. It's also pretty funny (Once again, at least I think it is). Well, I'm not going to spill too much about Round Rock yet. I'd rather you all get well acquainted with Stupid and Mr.Funnyman first.