Archive for December, 2010
Rob Stenzinger – 30 Characters
30 Characters 2010… I had a great time, glad I could be a part of this while seeing all of you go through it and make cool stuff all month. Congratulations to all those who participated and to those that were able to finish all 30!
In the latest episode of my art journal podcast, I shared my thoughts on the 2010 30 Characters Challenge…
Podcast – The Art Geek Zoo Polytechnicast
And finally, here’s a slideshow where I share the above images set to music along with some process images (in rapid time-lapse style) to see how some were made:
Looking forward to using these characters in various projects throughout 2011 and checking in with the 30 Characters site to see what evolves throughout the year for the 30 Characters community as well. Thanks for all the inspiration and encouragement!
\m/
-Rob
Art Geek Zoo (my web comic)
@RobStenzinger (twitter)
Tyler James – 30 Characters in 30 Days!
Well, I did it!
It wasn’t easy. An unplanned week-long work trip really threw a monkey wrench in my daily updates (not that I’m complaining…Austrailia = awesome.) But, I was able to suck it up and get ’em done. Once again, I was able to do some planned character work, specifically characters for The Red Ten, which I’m really pumped about. And once again, plenty of zany characters came out of nowhere. Once you get those creative juices flowing, you never know what you’re gonna produce.
I was completely floored by the level of participation and interest in the challenge this year. I’m honored to be joined by so much talent in this little endeavor. Can’t wait to see what’s to come with many of the characters created during this year’s challenge.
‘Til next year!
Tim Mrozek – 30 Character Round Up
Hello all, first I’d like to thank Tyler big time for putting this together. I know I, and I’m sure all of you, have found this project to be immensely fun and helpful. I had a great time pushing myself to do something I didn’t think I could really do. I would also like to thank Dan Govar (saulone) for the work I know he did getting the templates together for us and helping with the layout and all.
So here is my round up of 30 characters divided by the loose categories I created for my characters. I’m now in the process of creating more fully realized characters out of my 4 or 5 favorites and will be putting those together as my new character reel. I have no idea if this site is going to keep going with traffic now that the challenge is over, but I’ll probably post a link to that when I finish it so anyone who is interested can see. So here are mine:
Creatures:
Humans
Masks
Gods and Goddesses
The Final Three
Rolando’s roshow Roundup – All 30 Characters!
Hey guys! Thanks for all the support last month. Here’s a final roundup of my 30characters. Enjoy, and be sure to browse the rest of the site. Everyone who joined in did awesome, awesome work. This has been, bar none, one of the best creative experiences of my life. Words really can’t express how much I appreciate the opportunity I had to be a part of this.
Much love,
Rolando
CAPTAIN KERPLUNK
Lilly Lopez
Tim Grant
Robert Quibral
Steve Griffith
Christopher & Kristine Paley aka The Khrises
Mayor Randolph Nichol
Ephton Valley
Blake Lewis
Captain Kerplunk
THE BOXER
MASKED
A.K.A.
Cubo Janes
Cassandra Drake
Andy Kross
Parker Reynolds
Marla Triphorne
Davey Raines
Anni Weston
Bobby Finn
(Sorry, no other information available at this time.)
Quinn Vega
HEAVEN & HELL
Emmett Clayton
DEATH
The Stork
THE OMEGA KID
Rick, The Omega Kid
Lawrence
Jerry Irvine
Dania Wallace
The World’s Most Evil & Smart Baby
Santa Claus!
Happy Holidays!
Copyright © 2010, Rolando Garcia.
twitter.com/roshow| roshow.tumblr.com
Kaebel JK Hashitani – 30 Characters in 30 Days
I completed the 30 Characters in 30 Days Challenge!
I honestly don’t recall how I found out about the 30Characters challenge in the first place. From a friend, most likely, but that’s just a guess. I do know that two things influenced my decision to take on the challenge. Well, two people, actually. 1) My friend Todd Brabander and I had been talking recently about feeling stagnant artistically, and this challenge seemed tailor-made for us. But when it came time to sign-up, I dragged my feet while Todd jumped right in. Spurred on by his action, I decided it was better to try than not. 2) My girlfriend Merrick has been a sounding board for my artistic issues for months. She’s been supportive before, during, and after taking on the challenge, and that’s made a world of difference.
I still haven’t figured out what exactly to do with these characters yet. Everything about them, and the world they live in is still so much framework and not enough substance. I know it’s a fantasy world, where education combined with practical experience is prized, encouraged, and widespread. The bulk of the story centers around three students (Jasper, Kemmek & Landon), and their adventures in and around their school, Thorsveldt Grand Academy (all schools are Grand Academies). I’ll keep working on it until I get something interesting.
Thanks to Tyler James for organizing this challenge, and to Daniel Govar for the templates. I look forward to participating next year. And thanks/well done to Dennis Culver andEthan Slayton, fellow Portlanders and friends who also participated this year.
Amy “Of Many Faces” — 30 Characters in 30 Days
Okay, I couldn’t figure out how to get the thumbnails to automatically be linked to their pages through the “post gallery” button. But luckily, I knew some HTML and just made a table for them. Yes, I know. It’s OCD. IT’S ALL I KNOW. I hope you enjoy my gallery, if you can stand another peek at it. Happy arting, everyone.
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Marc McKenzie – 30 Characters
…Well, not exactly 30, but it’s a good chunk, nonetheless.
I had a great time with this challenge, even if I wasn’t able to make it to #30. I would like to continue on and perhaps put everything together in the future–we’ll see. There were many fantastic artists who had incredible characters on display–I feel pretty humbled by some of them. To everyone, I say, “Great job!” and will definitely take part next year.
Thanks to everyone who gave comments and kind words, and also thanks to Rob McClellan, who sent me the info for the challenge.
(Now, I hope to heaven this post works right…..)
#18 Solange, Earth Mother
The hero known as Skyspy has faced many enemies, but his toughest one was the woman known as Solange. She was once a young woman who sadly fell in with the wrong crowd, and for that, she was assaulted and buried in shallow grave, presumed dead.
Except that she wasn’t dead–and the ground she was buried in was located in an area known as sacred ground to the Native American tribe that once lived there centuries ago. Some…spiritual force brought Solange back from the brink of death and gave her the power to manipulate the earth. Seeking vengeance on those who left her for dead, Solange hunted them down and killed them. Her actions caught the attention of the police and Skyspy. In the battle that followed, Skyspy was able to defeat Solange, but without a great deal of property damage and wounded civilians.
Solange is currently confined in a special holding cell in a max prison, but Skyspy worries that she could break out and cause havoc in the future….
…And that’s it! Will post the “Final Post” in a bit…hope to God I can do it right…
#17 Blade Maid
To the Markalan family, Deb Araki is just “Deb”, their youngest and best maid. She always dotes on young Sammy Markalan, and Sammy thinks she’s the coolest person ever. She’s his babysitter, helps with his homework, and she can cook a mean steak and potatoes.
And she can also kill a man–or two or three, if she has to.
Deb is more than just a maid and babysitter to Sammy–she’s his bodyguard, trained from a young age in the various martial arts, including ninjitsu. It turns out that Deb’s father, Kenzo, was a close friend of Jim Markalan, Sammy’s father. Because of his work as a Government freelancer, Jim’s family is in constant danger. He’d like to make sure his family has a normal life, but even the Secret Service can only do so much.
Kenzo came up with a simple idea–have Deb be young Sammy’s bodyguard, and also, she can stay with the Markalans in the US. Simple.
Because of the bladed weapon she uses, Deb is called the “Blade Maid” in criminal and terrorist circles.
#16 Harlington Straker
Harlington “Hal” Straker is a top Handler for the Church, and he is the Handler and partner of Alisha, the Repentant vampire. He’s 28 years old, and jokes that he “must have a thing for older women” (Alisha, after all, is nearly 400 years old, but looks as if she’s in her early 30s….). Straker is well-trained in the art of killing vampires, but as a Handler, he also must take care of Alisha’s other…desires.
In other words, they’ve been intimate.
He’s Alisha’s third Handler in nearly eighty years, and he’s loyal to her…even though he’s also been trained in how to kill her, should she go rouge. Straker, however, does not think that this will ever happen.
(And yes, his name is taken from the “Harlington/Straker Film Studio” from the classic SF series UFO.)
Zak Newman’s 30 Characters
This has been an awesome project and I’m glad I was able to see it through to the end. I’m glad to have been here the whole way with everyone else making their awesome characters. Hopefully some of these guys will see a life in future projects.
#15 Alisha
Yikes! December’s here, and it’s all over! Well…there are a couple of characters that I was able to finish, so I’ll post them up before the last post. Didn’t make it to 30, but I was very, very happy to participate.
In a world thousands of years removed from a major apocalypse, there are still people alive…and vampires. Alisha is vampire, but she is a Repentant–a vampire who has sworn allegiance to humanity and will fight her own kind to ensure humanity’s survival. Using Blessed weapons provided by the Church (and the protective gear she needs in order to handle them), Alisha fights alongside her Handler, Harlington Straker.
Discussing #30Characters and More on “The Idiot Engine”
The other night, I had a great chat with Ted Seko, host of The Idiot Engine Podcast. Â Ted was interested in picking my brain on how I use the internet…for my business, for staying connected with the comics community, and for building an ongoing relationship with readers and other creators. Â Despite recording in the wee hours of the night (my time), I think it was a fruitful and interesting discussion. Â I talked a lot about the success of The #30Characters Challenge, and offered advice to Ted and anyone else considering organizing something like #30Characters in the future. Shout outs to many challengers contained herein!
I hope you give it a listen. You can play it in the link below (EPISODE 37) or go to the link here.
Jared Lewis – 30 Characters in 30 Days
Well that was fun. 30 Characters in 3o Days. Bummed I didn’t get the opportunity to clean up & color all of them during the actual challenge, mostly because I tend to be slow & detail-oriented. Apartment hunting & prepping to move didn’t help either. But I’m glad I was still able to swing it, & still be generally happy with both the art (mostly) & the variety. At some point when things calm down for me, I’m definitely hoping to go back through & get that cleaning up done, color them, & drop them into a nice big group shot. As of now, only the first week’s worth are posted on my sketchblog, but I hope to eventually update it all there, as I imagine I may not be able to update this current site for that much longer.
Thanks to Tyler James for conducting this madness, & the minty fresh layouts by Daniel Govar. Thanks to the cool people that’d retweet every time I’d shill a new link on Twitter & to all those taking the time to leave feedback. Hope you enjoyed.
K’s 30:30 Ghost Parade
First 30 characters challenge, and I must admit, it WAS a challenge! Just sitting down to conceptualize, ink and scan thirty stories takes a lot of discipline. On the other hand it was a good, guided outlet of sorts; choosing to go with a 100 Ghosts Procession » theme, it was supposed to be simply a loose portraiture of thirty weird things; now I think it’s created its own universe of sorts, which I’ll probably expand on.
Many thanks to Tyler James for making this possible, and everyone else who participated, who, by posting their stuff consistently, encouraged enough. Thanks also to my WriMo nutfriend EK » who let me know about this in the first place. I look forward to do another set next year! 皆ã•ã‚“ãŠç–²ã‚Œã•ã¾ã§ã—ãŸï¼
I created a Tumblr account separate from my main to house these guys: KannnibalSanjuu.tumblr.com »
Todd Brabander – 30 Characters in 30 Days
I did it!
30 Characters in 30 Days. It was a lot more challenging than I’d anticipated, but I’m really happy with what I came up with. I drew these on an iPad in an app called Sketchbook Pro using a Dagi stylus. I wasn’t sure if the iPad was going to work or not, but it would up being a great electronic sketchpad.
Huge thanks to Tyler James for putting this thing together and my buddy Kaebel Hashitani for telling me about it. I will definitely be back next year. Check out my web page (I do a lot more than draw) and follow me on the Twitter!
Kevin Maher-30 Characters in 30 Days
Well since everyone else was doing this I thought I should too! (thanks for the template!) This was my first 30 Characters Challenge and I’m pretty happy with what I’ve created. I actually learned a lot, some quicker photoshop coloring, some shortcuts, and the ability to create characters in an instant. I have been planning on launching my own webcomic, but I was worried about time constraints. This whole challenge taught me that it is completely doable and I have nothing to worry about. Some of these characters will totally be used. It was also interesting to see what characters people found interesting. What creators found interesting was totally different than what my non-artist friends liked. And some things I loved no one else did. Overall I am very happy I did this.
I hope you enjoyed my work. See you in the funny pages!
~Kevin
Amanda Ohsiek – 30 Characters in 30 Days
I…I did it! 30 characters completed in one way or another within the official time constraints, and on my first year! It was definitely worth it. Here’s my collection of shameless furries aliens and fantasy beings and the occasional human! ^^ Enjoy.
I hope you all had as much fun with this as I did. Not only did I love the excuse to draw more often, but I also loved seeing the nice entries all you folk were coming up with as well. I look forward to seeing many of you next year! ~Amanda
My wrap-up party :)
As it seems all the cool kids are doing this I thought that I would jump on the bandwagon and join in too 🙂
10/30 characters sketched - Jay Faulkner
I REALLY enjoyed my first year of doing this and fully intend to take part next year (yes, Tyler, that is a hint that I demand that you do this again! 🙂 ) and am going to ensure that I spend the next twelve months improving with my sketches in the hope that I can not only up the quality level but maybe get closer to 30 characters drawn, as well as created. Obviously if you want to find out about all 30 of the characters (including the 20 that didn’t make it past just words) you can do so here: http://www.30characters.com/2010/11/30/30-characters-sort-of/
Coming out of this – on top of the fun – I am so very glad to have been able to meet and interact with so many talented and friendly people.  There are some on here that I honestly am in awe of (yes, Mr. Govar, I am looking your way 😉 ) but at least it gives me something to aspire to. I am now going to definitely use quite a few of my characters in upcoming projects (short-stories, mostly, but potentially a novel) and am actually toying with the idea of a fun webcomic.
So, thanks Tyler, for a great, great idea!
If any of you artists feel the urge to submit your work to inspire creative writers then please don’t hesitate to check out www.withpaintedwords.com – I can always use more great art!
Jay
Fes Works – 15/30 Characters
Well, this was my first year, and I hit my goal to get at least 15 characters. I knew going into this that I didn’t have that much time, but I really thought this was a great opportunity to actually get to work on characters that I can use in the comic… some of which will for sure come into play.
Characters were designed as an “extra†for a pool of background or random characters for my main webcomic, P.S.I.: A Pessimistic Sense of Inadequacy.
You can also check out The Webcomic Beacon podcast. December 5th, 2010 will be out 3rd year anniversary show, broadcasting live!
Joe Cook, 30+ characters
Well, there’s my Roster. I already said my fairwell and thanks in my #31 post, I just wanted to do this ’cause headshots look so cool. Thanks again everybody!
Ralph Contreras – 30 Characters
Wow! What a great month! So many awesome new characters from all the participants. I really enjoyed seeing all the creativity every day. Thanks to Tyler for gathering us all together. You Rock dude! So I didn’t quite finish the challenge. I did come up with 30 characters, but I was only able to illustrate 12 of them. If anything I learned I need to work on my time management skills.
Entering the challenge I planned on coming up with fresh ideas every day and not having any preconceived plans to the characters before I put my pencil to the paper. But once I started with the first character I started getting ideas for other characters. Eventually I created a list of 30 characters that were not only connected to each other, but also connected to the universe of my current personal comic projects.
I’ve included my list of the 30 characters with a strike through on the ones I was able to illustrate and post. Although I wasn’t able to get them all done in time for this awesome challenge. I will finish them and post on my personal blog (ComicBookGraphicDesign.com).
30 Characters 2010 – Ralph Contreras
- 1. Foot Soldier of the Cyber Lords (male)
- 2. Zarruk Xeon (male)
- 3. General Grimm (male)
- 4. Surge Shocker (male)
- 5. Penelope Chamber (female)
- 6. Leon Perrie (male)
- 7. Psycho Bringer (male)
- 8. Susan Spektor (female)
- 9. Legerity [Sandra Spektor, sister of Susan Spektor] (female)
- 10. Solarus [John McCarran] (male)
- 11. Brother Jeffrey Hamilton, Founder of the Church of Solarus (male)
- 12.Cyberonic [Jason Tabort] (man)
- 13. Solarus II [Benjamin McCarran, son of original Solarus] (male)
- 14. Jeremiah Stone [Elementals; Earth] (male)
- 15. Susanna Ridley [Elementals); Wind] (female)
- 16. Bo Stone [Elementals; Water] (male)
- 17. Jed Griffen  [Elementals; Fire] (male)
- 18. Victory [uses a modified Foot Soldier energy staff] (female)
- 19. Red Mammoth (male)
- 20. Tiger Shadow (male)
- 21. Crimson Sun [Cameron McCarran, son of original Solarus and brother to Solarus II] (male)
- 22. Cakka’ria, Cyber Lord field leader (female)
- 23. Kevin Spektor [son of Solarus II and Susan Spektor] (male)
- 24. Azaark’con, interstellar bounty hunter (Female)
- 25. The Shadows Man [Alec Samson] (male)
- 26. Mighty Max [Maximilian Murphy] (male)
- 27. Arcanzra Bliz’chat, Acarien Rebel leader (arachnoid alien male)
- 28. Shak’urra Bliz’chat, Acarien Rebel [daughter of Arcanzra Bliz’chat] (arachnoid alien female)
- 29. Hexson Ichubuz, Former Foot Soldier, now free (male)
- 30. Oun Da Zerka the Cyber Lord (male)
Thanks again to Tyler James for gathering us all together, and to Daniel Govar (saulone) for the great .psd templates. As an alumni of last year’s 30 Character Challenge, I was proud to participate again this year. I’m happy to have made new friends with a bunch of great and talented artists. Anyone else that wants to connect with me, follow the links at the end of this post. See you all next year again for the 2012 Challenge! – Shazam!
Let’s be friends: Connect with me on my Blog and other sites!
BONUS! #31 The Android – Net Avatar
Okay, I was pretty sure I was done with this, but I had one more killer ass idea…
Got the inspiration for this after trolling the TV Tropes archives and coming across the lovely article about Humanoid Abominations (Wow, I’m twisted). He’s not technically a new character, but I figured since the firefly and the master AI have incarnations that only appear on the droids’ network, it’s only appropriate our old buddy, the Android, have the same thing going for him.
So if you’re floating around the droid world’s computer network, this is what the Android looks like. Feel free to run in terror when you see him.
Daniel Govar – 30 Characters
This was a crazy busy month. My only real regret was that I didn’t factor in the Virginia Comic Con being such a success for me. (Definitely go to this con next year!) I had thought that weekend I could catch-up a bit, but I think this month, I’ve had a total of about 20 commissions, counting those from the con. That’s on top of the challenge characters. Last night broke me, trying to rush the last few out – and that’s something I never like doing.
I’ve been turned onto a good number of creative talents here that I was unaware of – for that I am extremely grateful. For all the comments and feedback you’ve all given my pieces – thank you all very much. Big ups to Tyler for having the idea and gathering us all together, AND hosting the challenge. My hats off to you, sir. Tyler and I have been chatting about next year, so expect some of the bugs to be worked out – especially with the posting issues we had from time to time. With that – I give you my full 30 Characters all in one neat linked post (there’s a new PSD template on the Participants Info page):
#11-30 – The Whole SheBang, Colored
Here is the group of characters from our D@D session colored, as Matthew Goodmanson mentioned would be coming. This might indeed be merely a stage in this picture, but for now I’m calling it done- 40 or so characters, played by around 8 players, each character with a story, and hopefully a pleased owner.
Here’s some fun- I’d like to encourage the owners of the characters to tell their backgrounds and a bit of their concepts in the comments section- nothing crazy, just a blurb, to give an idea of what the character is about. Matthew and I were originally going to write these ourselves, but this image took alot out of us, and now we don’t want to.
This was a blast, drawing characters and fleshing out new ideas, while giving shape to some characters that merited imagery. Thanks for a great month!
No. 30: Cunt-Tree
Have to be honest.
This character was inspired from a conversation I had with friends in reference to,
“My country ’tis of thee.”
So this is my Cunt Tree.
It grew in the sweet land of Liberty,
where the word “cunt” doesn’t have
a negative connotation.
Where it is but a word
that cannot harm,
but in fact uplifts and promotes growth.
I like it.
Last entry, a successful 30 characters later.
Holy crap, I actually did it.
Thank you SO MUCH to the makers of this site.
This was just the thing I needed to get back to my imagination.
Looking forward to next year.
Thanks everyone, for sharing your amazing art.
You guys rock.
No. 29: Bass Ackwards
Subtitled, “Animal Testing Experiment # 00235711,”
but that title was ignored because it was actually
created indirectly from chemicals dumped in the water.
Talk about awkward.
No. 27: The Inventor’s Daughter
All the technology she could wish for.
And all she wants to do is fly away.
No. 26: G.I. STEVE
Characterization/portrait of an actual friend who really does have that tattoo.
And who is a REAL American hero.
#30Characters Chatter…