Zaboo & Codex - Color

As promised, here's the final version of the pinup that appeared in last week's "The Guild: Bladezz" one-shot. You can still head out to your LCS to check it out - along with, of course, the actual comic. ;)

As mentioned in my last entry on thisI had the idea of Zaboo thinking about the idealized game him along with the idealized Codex, I tried to do my typical comic book likeness of actor Sandeep Parikh. However, for the idealized versions, I went with a much looser, cartoony take on both Sandeep and Felicia Day. I spent much less time trying to nail an dead-on accurate likeness on Felicia than when I did the "Red" piece (see here), and I think Codex looks pretty sharp for it - and still has a touch of Felicia in her face.

For the Frank Frazetta fans out there, the layout of the piece is loosely based on the "Fire & Ice" painting/movie poster. I give Frazetta an "after Frazetta" credit on the final piece, as is expected and deserved, so worry not, those who think I'm trying to Granito (well, I actually drew 100% of this).

This pinup also marked the last time I did a drawing 100% in Photoshop CS2. From the next day on, I all my digital inking and digital drawings were done in Manga Studio EX 4.

And since the posting of the black and white piece, I got a fun and funny compliment from Sandeep Parikh, the actor who plays Zaboo. In reply on Twitter, he said "Thanks for drawing my face!"

I thanked him for having a face, as without a face, his likeness would be harder to capture -- or maybe much easier. I dunno.