Another compare & contrast, this time with something all-new vs a 2016 original…
Both pieces were done for my friend, Nigel. It was his request & his concept… and I believe this “mythical kiss” might have actually been done for-real in an Archie comic in recent years. Not sure—I pay almost no attention to this stuff!
Anyhow, the composition I came up with in 2016 was A-OK—quite strong—but, my goodness, the execution & rendering was, IMO, absolutely appalling!! Even at the time I felt it was missing the mark, but my problems with it have grown exponentially with the passage of time.
So I deciced to redo it. Nigel deserved better.
Here’s the all-new 2021 version…
And here’s the “good layout but terrible execution” 2016 original…
(This is so bad, I was kinda embarrassed to post it. But the new one redeems me, I think.)
NOTES: On the 2016 version, I rather obnoxiously did little more than quickly glance at images of the characters, hence they bear only a vague resemblance to them. For the 2021 version, I looked up Dan DeCarlo Archie drawings on Google and tried to give it more of that feel (without copying).
On the new piece, I decided to employ a couple of techniques I’ve been playing with of late, namely doing the inks solely with a brush pen (a Sakura Pigma, if you’re curious), and adding some “colour accents”… although I’ve toyed with getting a proper set of colour art markers, I’ve yet to make the investment; all I have are some cheap Boldmere colour brush pens, from The Works. These things don’t offer a large colour range, nor are they agreeable to solid coverage or blending, so I basically use them for highlights or accents rather than full-colour.
I actually think working with them is an interesting challenge and the results can be striking… this piece is a good example that I think works very well. It’s kind of a Wizard of Oz vibe, with the dream being the vivid, colourful aspect, which I emphasised by using pencil tones on the B&W half.
Also, I quite happily allowed (even encouraged) some of the brush pen’s inking strokes to come out a little dry—it was a well-used brush in action—rather than worrying about neatness. I like how it looks.
Thoughts? Share them!
Chrissie,
I think the new version is excellent. I particularly like how Archie was rendered.
Chrissie,
Very pleased with this. I especially like the contrast of the black and white versus the colours and I like the style of the Archie figure – classic rather than ‘modern’. I think Betty and Veronica are a couple in the Archie vs. Predator series (of all places)
Nigel
The old one didn’t need redeeming at all. However, I think the new one is a great improvement and a cheeky take on squeaky clean characters that gave me a naughty chuckle.
I seriously feel the original is terrible in terms of drawing etc. Very infantile in a way.