So here’s a funny story. When I wrote the current strip, I just told Max to draw a succession of sexy and silly outfits for Sarah to be trying on and I would write jokes for whatever he picked later. That’s actually pretty common for Hellcats. We sort of collaborate. I write a basic plot, and then often I’ll base some of the jokes off of whatever occurs to me with Max’s art.
When Max sent me inked artwork, I was surprised to find out that he’d actually drawn her in a Wonder Woman outfit. The funny thing here is that if you’ve been paying attention to your comic book news, DC Comics actually decided to change Wonder Woman’s outfit this week.
I actually almost made a joke in the strip about Sarah choosing the outfit because Diana Prince wasn’t using it anymore, but I opted out and went the way you see in the strip above. But I kept thinking about it.
Then while perusing Twitter this morning I saw that the website Area 51 comics was running a “redesign Wonder Woman” contest. The idea being that since DC was redesigning her outfit this month, it might be fun to see what other artists might do give the chance to do so as well. I thought it might be fun to give it a whirl. And I figured, while I’m at it, why not throw in a bonus Wonder Girl as well. (Cassie is one of my favorite comic book characters.)
I wasn’t really thinking about what I was getting myself into. I used to paint and draw a lot. That’s even initially what I went to college for (I eventually switched my major to creative writing with an art minor). But, I’ve more or less gotten out of practice the last few years. I’ve spent way more time writing than drawing. But as I said a couple weeks ago, I had so much fun picking up the pen again (and by pen, I mean Wacom Sketch Tablet) that I resolved to do it more often. Since I drew that Hellcat Cosmos by hand in Manga Studio I figured this time I’d give it a go painting the entire thing in Photoshop. I didn’t really realize that I’d gotten so out of practice that it’d take me all day.
No matter, I was resolved to do this dammit! It’s not quite as good as I wanted, my pen control has definitely suffered due to atrophy, but I am relatively pleased with it. Especially since I did it freehand on the computer rather than drawing it on paper and only coloring on the computer (the way we normally do the comics). While not as technically proficient as I want, that’s something I can work on. I’m certainly happy with it stylewise. If I get more time to practice with it and get to where I want to be, both speed and qualitywise, I’d love to maybe do a special edition comic this way.
Some day maybe.
Anyway, for now, please enjoy some rare (well rare around here) non-Hellcats artwork. Let me know what you think. Oh, and much like the comics, you can see a larget version by clicking on the image.
-Mav
∑8x)
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