26 – Cutter by Beausephus + Son

CHARACTER NAME:  Cutter

DATE OF CREATION:  Summer 2011

CONCEPT:  “Cutter is a super hero with swords that he is super fast with.  He can cut and throw his swords, and sometimes has tricks in his swords like forcefields or a sword that can shoot stuff out of it.”

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So when the mood strikes my son (and that is quite often) and he wants to make up “superguys”, “superdudes”, “supermans”… I pull out a bunch of templates I made for him and he picks out everything from the style of boots to the color scheme of the various costume options presented before him.  I then draw quick sketch, and he edits, adds, etc…  I then draw up the character and he hangs them in his room…if they meet his ultimate judgement.  Then I make him come up with a story for each character.

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For a while my kid would put Wolverine style maks on every character he came up with…and there were only so many re-imagined versions of that Hawkeye/Wolverine winged mask that I could come up with.  CUTTER is the sword-guy on my son’s super team… well, the good sword guy, there’s a suspect member of the team called NIGHT NINJA…   CUTTER is essentially responsible for keeping NIGHT NINJA in check…many sword fights that end in draws and mutual respect all around.

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This post contains two versions of the character.  The first is in my usual “style” which is just an amalgamation of all of my influences that developed as doodle during High School and College with no real honed practice or attempt at skill…nothing is really different  or has dramatically changed over the past decade since then.  There’s aspects of this style that I like, but I am really unsatisfied with the hesitancy of my lines.  Lots of small , rounded details, overly rendered in my too big for small detailed style…lots of unnecessary layer work…  It looks okay, but it is hesitant.

The second version is an attempt to capture the simple line work in the vein of Kirby, Darwyn Cooke, Mike Oeming, and Mignola.  I was aiming for flatter, and cleaner with an attention to the simplicity of the lines and the throwback style costume rendering.  I’ve been really captivated for the last few months with Kirby’s ornamentation and the way he drew “tech” and equipment.  A Kirby sword looks like a Kirby sword.  The odd details of his machinery and almost Incan intricacy of his armor designs (Thor, New Gods, Eternals) are really speaking to me and for the first time in a lon time I am actively working on improving and shifting my aesthetic to what speaks to me now, rather than the habits I developed aping the style of 1990s.

Thanks for checking out my drawings and reading my ramblings…

-Beausephus

Category: 2011, Superhero