Ok folks! Slipped to 6th place and only 2 days left (ends on Friday). If you’ve voted, Thank you. If you haven’t (VOTE FOR THE KID ;)   ), register and vote. Get your wife, your kids (13 and older? I dunno if there’s an age limit, as long as they have an email address), your great grandparents (show them how to use that computer), your friends, your friends family… and VOTE!

Thank you.

The Knave of Krypton has interviewed Araknid Kid (along with the other competitors in this month’s competition) check it out here!

http://www.knaveofkrypton.com/intaraknidkid.html

Another fun piece of fanart from Jody! Thanks for your support!

There seem to be a trend with the pinup/toons I’ve posted, it seems my character shares my love for ice cream! After talking about it with my good friend Chad, he mentioned I should get my own Ben & Jerry’s flavor (my favorite brand of ice cream…. FAVORITE! “Wavy Gravy” is my ultimate fav flavor…. but alas it’s been in their “Flavor Graveyard”, I’ve emailed them requesting they bring it back and call it “Wavy Back From The Gravy” ;)  ). Thus “ARAKNATOPIA” was born, Chad named it and I flavored it (Peanut Butter Ice Cream, Chocolate Fudge Swirl and Crisped Rice Spider Shaped Chocolates). So I did what any designer would do, and grabbed a couple minutes to photoshop this (emphasis on a couple minutes…. it could be tweaked ALOT more to look better… just wanted to add that disclaimer):

Ever since I was a kid it’s a dream of mine to have my own Ben & Jerry’s ice cream flavor…. maybe it’ll happen someday. It’s been in the same list that consists of “Being a guest star on the Muppet Show” and a contestant on “American Gladiator”. With NBC’s rebirth of the latter…. I may have my chance yet

This weekend also brought an Araknid Kid pinup from FRANCO!

Franco is one of the founder’s of Blindwolf Studios and half of the creative team behind DC’s New TINY TITANS

If you haven’t already, head down to your local comic shop and order yours today!

Thanks Franco!
(when I have a few moments I’m hoping to add some color to this as well… stay tuned)

I’m not sure if I should call it a custom, but I think all characters deserve a “Chibi’ version (or baby/kid versions? I dunno) These are a couple of images of the Kid and Gorp (pre-western setting) that were posted on the character design site Mojizu (I wasn’t sure how strict the “not to publish, post, distribute, display or otherwise use (or authorize any third party to publish, post, distribute, display or otherwise use) the Submission in any manner or media” part of the Submission agreement was, so I removed ALL instances of anything that had to do with the Araknid Kid everywhere…. Mojizu was kind enough to oblige and remove the characters from their site.)

That’s right! Araknid Kid supporter Jody Wilbur put together his version of the kid in these toons!

Read the rest of this entry »

So I’ve finally made some movements in the Zuda ranks, unfortunately however, that move was downward (7th to 8th), but still 2 weeks to go! Maybe the Kid will grow on people a bit more over time

With that in mind, I’ve put together this mini “poster”, feel free to grab it and “hang” it up where ever you’d like!

(oh yeah, gettin’ some mileage outta the “hanging upside down pic” ;)  )

One of the things I love doing to watch other artist create. Get a glimpse of how the do what they do. Following that thought, I thought I’d post what goes into creating the art for Araknid Kid!

As I mentioned previously, it all starts with a ball point pen:

Which I take into Illustrator to ink. I put my rough on a template layer, and create a new layer for all the lines that will be black:

Then I create a new layer for all the inner lines that will be colored (I do it on seperate layers to make it easier for me later when I color the lines:

Once I’m done with that, I create one more layer to help block in the shadows, (the “why” to this comes later)

Once I save the AI file, I then export it into a PSD, making sure it’s saved in a way that it maintains all the layers. Then it’s time to open Photoshop and start coloring. Once I have my file open, I create a new layer for the “Flats” (this would be under all the layers containing lines), choose my paint bucket, make sure the “All Layers” option is checked, hide my layer containing the “Shadow lines” and start droppin’ the solid colors:

Once the flats are in place, I create a new layer right above that one, name it “Shadows”, set the layer option to “Multiply” and turn on my shadow lines again. The shadow lines allow me to use the paint bucket to quickly block in the larger sections of shadow. Then I use a paintbrush with the opacity set to around 50% and continue the shadowing:

Then it’s time to create a new layer for my highlights. So I create another layer, set the layer option to “Screen”, and use the paintbrush to add the lighter areas of color (I also turn off or delete that “Shadow line” layer):

Now I’m ready to color in the lines. I just select the layer that my inner lines are on, and “lock” it. This allows me to color quickly without having to worry about “staying in the lines”. For this part I mostly use the pencil tool (sometimes when a bunch of lines are touching that will be the same color, I use the paint bucket). Then drop in a background…. and wa-la:

Done.