SUM QUOD SUM - wrap up party

I think my absence is best typified by Noo's lymerick on my Facebook wall:

There once was a dude called Badower,
Who once used to blog by the hour,
But he stopped a while back
And now we've lost track,
Which has caused more than one fan to glower...

Thank you to everyone who wrote in with emails wondering if I was ok. Let's just say I've been kidnapped into "girl land" and blogging kinda fell by the wayside.

Alright! Tomorrow my story written by Jim Martin and coloured by Annette Kwok goes up. It's a prequel piece to the next online series they're doing and it was a bunch of fun. I got to draw ANOTHER shower scene (for god's sake... I'm going to get a reputation) and some cast members.

But let's wrap up SQS. I don't have space to post all of Annette's beautiful colour work, but if you'd like to see it in all its glory go HERE. I'm just going to post the pages where I have something to say.

PAGE 1

PANEL 1: Again I was smashing out the backgrounds as hard as I could. I'm so happy with not only the composition of the top panel but also the way Trafalgar square looks here. Annette did a great job of helping the tiny figures pop on the final page.

PANEL 2: The reference photo for panel 2 was funny. I think I played Claude and Abby and Ollie played themselves. On today's episode of Heroes, Claude Rains will be played by Jason Badower (cries of Boo! And hiss!)

PANEL 3: One of my favourite pics of Claude that I did. It's totally solid. Annette did such a great job of making him look wet from the rain.

PANEL 4: I'm very happy with this panel. I think is has nice performance and lighting. And it makes Ollie look like a superhero for carrying Elle.


PAGE 2

PANEL 2: You can finally see the undistorted line art. Annette has real issues obscuring my art, but I insisted. She's one of the most respectful artists I've ever worked with.

PANEL 3: I do like the performance here. I think that Lee's hand around Abby's back foreshadows the dramatic choice they make later.

PANEL 4: It kinda looks like her, but it kinda doesn't. I'm not sure what happened here. As a side note, I generally used reference from Veronica Mars rather than Heroes as I prefer VM's lighting as it's closer to my style.

PANEL 5: I like both these likenesses, and I think Ollie captured Claude perfectly in this entire comic.

PAGE 3

PANEL 1: Was it necessary to draw all these people outside the Globe Theater? Hell no. Did I enjoy it? Not really. But I just felt it needed to be done to add some "budget" to the scene. I felt I drew Claude the best on this page. I was so inspired by Ollie's dialogue. It just perfectly captured Claude. I could "hear" Christopher Eccleston saying every line. His lines really informed my performance and portrayal of the character.

PANEL 2: Annette noted that I drew over 200 people here. While I did a bit of copy, paste and subtle changing, she still coloured them all!

PANEL 3: If you've never been to St Paul's Cathedral in London, you simply HAVE to go. I was awestruck for about 3 hours as I wandered around what is one of the most magificent building I've ever been in. The Whispering Gallery is amazing. I do regret drawing a skirt on Elle here. I don't think she's ever work a skirt. No idea what came over me.

PANEL 4: Rob Beck mentioned to me that he thought the pickle was a distinctive London landmark, so I tried to squeeze it in here. Man, that background took some time. It's a great Claude again, but a mediocre Kristen. She's so hard to draw!

PAGE 4

PANEL 1: I remember Ollie commenting to me that I must have enjoyed myself a fair bit drawing a bikini fight. I said I might have enjoyed it more if one of the girls wasn't his fiance. It made it a bit weird.

PANEL 2: But seriously, I actually try and shy away from the cheesecake. I think there's enough guys out there doing that. Someone should bat for the other side. I like to try and hope that the beautiful women I draw make the scene attractive enough without them poking their asses out or lavishing cleavage everywhere. I'm a little upset with Elle's pose here. It looks a bit awkward. But I drew and redrew it and I just couldn't get it to work. Eventually I just had to move on. As you can see, the Annette Kwok special effects house was in over-drive. She basically did EVERYTHING.

PANEL 3: I love her pose here. When I was working with my model, I asked her to imagine that her hands were covered in oil and that she was checking on a friend who had fallen over.

PANEL 4: Oh man, could you actually imagine falling like this? You'd break both your wrists.

PANEL 5: Ollie and I worked on Root and Branch together (see the navigation links on the side). And in one bit there's a bunch of bullets flying at this woman just missing her. I made a bad call and instead of drawing the wall being hit by bullets I drew it all in shadow. To some people it looked like the woman was being protected by a forcefield. I mentioned to people that when I draw a forcefield you will know about it. In his infinite creativity, Ollie managed to give me the opportunity to draw a forcefield. But as you can see from comparing the black and white art to the coloured artwork, it's all the Annette Kwok Magic Show. I did nothing!

PAGE 5

PANEL 1: I'm including the coloured version of this page so you can see the Annette magic at full work. I basically just showed her what space the forcefield should occupy and she did the rest.

PANEL 2: This is one of my favourite pics of Elle. And if you scroll down you can see the awesome forcefield that Annette designed up close. Look at my art, then look at how much more it would hurt with Annette's colours! If you look carefully you can see the wedding ring on Abby. This further deepens Abby and Lee's relationship and helps explain his dramatic choice in panel 4; he has to side with his wife/fiance.



PANEL 3: I remember actually watching and studying Forgetting Sarah Marshall just so I could draw Kristen Bell's body as accurately as I could. Yeah, it's a tough, tough job.

PANEl 4: I love this shot of Abby and Ollie. What I found hilarious was the 5 o'clock shadow that Annette gave Ollie. In reality, he's like me... a bit of a baby face.

PANEL 5: I love everything about this shot. It had to sum up the emotional weight of her loss as well as their intimacy and Abby's hurt. I also love the way Ollie scripted the sequence with Abby protecting Lee. I think it's a great scene.





PAGE 6

PANEL 1: If the panel has Claude in it, chances are I really enjoyed drawing it. He's just so easy and distinctive to draw. I really felt I couldn't do wrong with him after a while.

PANEL 2: I like this pic of Elle here.

PANEL 3: The money shot. I was going to have her looking at us, but somehow I liked the distanced look more. Ollie and I went over and over this sequence. Initially Lyle opens the door in this panel and Elle shocks him in the second panel. Then when we saw the footage, Lyle is lying around the corner from the door. Unless he bounced off a wall or something there's no way he could be lying there if he came from the door. So instead we came up with this sequence. No need to explain how or why, she's just there and he's already unconscious.

PANEL 4: I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to draw a great Lyle. As it is, he turned out pretty well. So we added the family photograph on the left side so there should be no doubt in your mind as to where we are. This is easily one of the best pics I've drawn of Claire and Noah. I will post it separately sometime.

I was a bit disapointed that they released this after the airing of Eris Quod Sum, as I felt these events were a prequel to what happened. If you did read this before seeing the show, then I think you probably got more out of it. When Claire and Sandra come home, you already know what's going on, which (I think) creates more tension. It's like knowing that the serial killer is in the house in a horror film.

Alright, from now on, I'm posting Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays unless I mention otherwise. That's the schedule and I'm sticking to it!

Again, thank you to everyone who wrote in to either kick my ass or just check that I wasn't chopped up in someone's refridgerator somewhere.

INTERVIEW: Part 2 of my interview with House Petrelli can be found HERE.

COMPETITION: I will sorting out who did and didn't get their prizes this week. If you were a winner, keep your eyes on your inbox. If you're not sure if you sent me an email or not (ie. I didn't reply) please send it again!

NEXT: Jim Martin, Annette Kwok and Jason Badower. Don't forget to watch HEROES tonight!

SUM QUOD SUM PART 1 pages 4 & 5

Wow, my 300th post. That's a fair achievement for me. I'm kinda proud of that. Mainly because that's about 300 posts of artwork that I'm proud of. From the first post to the latest post, it's all work that still stands strong. I hope that scrolling through it all you can see and enjoy the journey I'm on. If you like what I'm doing now, wait til you see what I can do in years to come. My one goal is that I never stop improving. As my motto goes, "Always be happy, never be satisfied".

This whole SUM QUOD SUM project has been a real highlight for me sequentially. I've realised that the difference between good comic book art and great comic book art lies in your creative energy, conviction and endurance. Running a marathon is an impressive achievement, and something that most people can do if they put their minds to it. But sprinting it to finish with a time that most people can only dream about is something else. In this case, if I had a personal best time, my effort on Sum Quod Sum just smashed it. I didn't take my foot off the accelerator once, and I'm incredibly proud of that.

I would have liked some of my Kristen Bell references to be better, but I'm really limited by my tools. Given I have a very realistic style, I can't do a chariacture of her. It has to really look like her for it to work. So that means getting reference. Here's the thing, I then have to go through everything she's done looking for the right expression on the right angle under the right lighting conditions.

I can't take one shot where she's looking the wrong way and flip it. The reason why is that your expressions are lop sided and people subconsciously are aware that you only curly your lip to the left when you're unimpressed, or that you only raise your right eyebrow when you're surprised.

Finding the right expression is essential or the performance doesn't work. I like to think that even if it's not the best likeness of her, you can still read her face.

Lastly, the right lighting conditions really help. You'd be amazed at the number of shots I had to discard because even thought it's a screen cap of her, it just doesn't look like her! Sometimes lighting is the cause of this.

It's a tough and tedious job to get those likenesses right.

PAGE 4

What's fun about this page is that this is where I was hanging out with Nat and Noo on Southbank where the London Eye (panels 1 and 2) and Westminster bridge (panel 3) are. Noo and I even had lunch on Whitehall street (panel 4). I have also spent a fair amount of time waiting for the night bus to get home from Trafalgar Square (panels 4 and 5).

As far as geography goes, I was blown away that Ollie had actually plotted the route that Elle and Claude run. I was so impressed. Most writers don't care about that sort of stuff and would have her run by Big Ben then past Picadilly Circus, through Canary Wharf and then through Camden. That would be some sort of nightmare for marathon runners. As it is, it's a fair run, but a reasonable one. I figure it's why she's able to catch up to him at Trafalgar square. Despite her shorter legs she's fitter than he is. I tried to make sure that we knew where they were running and made sure that the London eye was in as many shots as possible so we knew where they'd been.

PANEL 2: The large guy with the black hair and glasses is Teddy from Zero G. He plays Atom's assistant, and he's such a great background character. I put him in lots of backgrounds because he's so innocuous.

PANEL 3: Some more shout outs to my LA friends. The woman yelling "Hey!" is my friend Kath who modelled for Connie in INTO THE WILD and all of Elle in this story. The guy on the right with the shaved head is my neighbour and one of my best LA friends, Tony. That spire with the pennants is where the London Movieum where my friend Huwj works as their inhouse comic book artist. If you're in London, go say "Hi" and tell him I sent you. He's a great guy and will entertain you for ages.

PANEL 4: Now if you look carefully at Elle on this panel and the next you will see that Annette's done tiny little sparks as the rain hits her, acknowledging her problem with water. I remember Annette and I going back and forward on the colour of Elle's top and eventually agreeing on white. Ollie was happy as long as we didn't run into any problems in the rain. I assured him that my realistic attention to detail would sidestep that issue.When I was doing research for this project I actually put together a file of images of clothing that I thought Elle could wear for each scene. As I had to draw each scene I browsed through her digital wardrobe to find out what she should be wearing.

PANEL 5: I originally drew Elle as a silhouette here (all black) but then realised we had to increase the sparks on her body. So I drew her in after I had drawn everything else. The main contrivance in the script and the art is that there's no one at Trafalgar Square - which I've never seen. I've sat there from 4am to 6am waiting (for a bus that had already been cancelled) and the place never died down.

A final shout out goes to my friend Shannon and Chloe. Chloe's brother recently did a film called SURFING 50 STATES. They asked me if I could mention it on the blog, and I said I'd do one better.

Just in case you're wondering how much detail I'm prepared to draw, you can actually see inside the bus and the odd passenger inside.

PAGE 5

I can't tell you how happy I am with this page. This is the money shot! I spent ages drawing the reflections of water on the ground. I also drew a fair bit of time drawing the background behind Claude so Annette could make him semi transparent. Annette went above and beyond here. Absolutely above and beyond. The shimmer effect on the background behind him is inspired and mirrors the effect you see on the show as he appears. As you can see from my layouts she did all the lightning effects. I swear to god, it's like working with Lucasfilm. Now I know how a director feels when they get their footage back from the effects house.

Annette has made this one of the most cinematic images I've ever drawn. Great movement, great energy and a complicated design that works seamlessly.

The last panel was added by me. Ollie needed them both unconscious at the end, and I couldn't figure out how to draw that in one image. So having the extra panel with them both smoking on the ground had to be added. Again Annette does a great job with the subtle electricity on them. What I didn't expect was for the rain to help indicate the panel borders. It was a nice touch.

I hope you enjoyed part 1. Stay tuned for part 2. It's a lot of fun. Ollie has written some of the best dialogue I've read in ages.

Don't forget the COMPETITION! Scroll down. You've got 7 hours left to write up to three entries (one for each category).

If you hit me up on Facebook, please send me a message to say you know me through this blog. I don't like to add people I have no idea how I know.

SUM QUOD SUM page 3

I hadn't been blogging as I'd been entertaining my good friend David Blumenstein. David is an incredible animator and cartoonist. I really recommend you check out the promo for his new animated series THE PRECINCT. I haven't seen such a brilliant, professional and funny piece of animation that good in a very long time. I describe it as an Australian South Park.

David had been to LA before so there was very little on his agenda list. In fact his agenda consisted of one thing: chicken and waffles at Roscoes. We headed out to Hollywood and braved both of these phenomena, which were unfortunately not on the same plate. I should preface this by saying that I eat really healthily. So when the deep friend chicken covered in gravy and mountain of waffles arrived I kinda freaked out and went into some sort of anaphylactic shock. All I saw was the amount of calories and saturated fats I'd have to work off. I know, I'm worse than most of the women you know. But hey, I have to watch my girly figure!

We rounded out the rest of his two day stay with a trip to the Getty, which blew me away. It is such a beautiful building. We caught the last day of the Bernini exhibition and his sculpting skill absolutely floored me. After wandering around the Dali exhibition with Noo, I decided that I only really like seeing art museums with other artists. Sorry, I'm a snob. But I just get so much more out of it like that. And David was no exception.

Not the most beautiful photo I took of the Getty lighting or art-wise, but the one that probably communicates the architecture and scale of it the best.

We found this nice balcony with great lighting as the sun set. I told David it would make a great photo and took one of him. Then vanity came ringing and I asked him to take a photo of me. It would be a better photo if I put some product in my hair and shaved once in a while. I'm such a bum!

Before I took him to the airport we went to Hooters, as he'd never been before. I'd only been once. We indulged in more fried chicken which finally broke David. I'm sure his 14 hour plane trip back to Melbourne wasn't pleasant.

Between entertaining David and finishing Sum Quod Sum I'd been too busy to blog.

Speaking of which, let's get back to it. The shout out page. One of the things I find when I'm drawing is that I can get bored drawing all the people in the backgrounds. To remedy that, I thought I'd draw in as many people that I knew as I could. That way I'm drawing tributes and portraits of friends rather than just randoms (as my English friends would say).

Ollie had written his fiance Abby into the story and had her accompanied by his best friend. I mentioned I'd like to shoot both her and his friend. He remarked that his friend lived in San Diego. Then I suggested that it should be him. I wanted to draw him in as an engagement present to the two of them from me. I went around to their place and we had a fun shoot. Abby and Ollie were great and really got into it. Their lovely dog, Star (like her namesake) insisted on her 15 minutes of fame.

Then came the bus. I was just going to draw some random people when it occured to me that I should draw some friends. Then it occured to me that I should make it more authentic by drawing some English friends. On further thinking about who I should draw I noticed that it was two very special SARMY members birthdays! On the far left with the dredlocks is Noo, and sitting next to her is Nat. Previous readers of my comic might know them as the owners of the Nat and Noo pub in Australia in Root and Branch part 1. I worked from our holiday snap shots and I'm very pleased with how they turned out.

In the far back corner is Rob Beck a great young guy who has been emailing me encouragement quite regularly. I asked him to send me some snaps for reference and drew him in. His rationale of why he's in England is that he's a teleporter who accidentally teleported there and now can't get back.

And that's all for the shout outs for this page. I remember joking to Annette on panel 1 that I was disppointed that she didn't individually colour every single person in the stands. Thank god she laughed. Someone closer to the edge of sanity might have stabbed me. Ollie called me after I had drawn page 1 and mentioned that Sprint needed their new phone in the story. I suggested that it might fit really well here. I think it's the best product placement you will find. It tells us what Elle is looking at in a page of excess detail. I'm very happy with the way it came out.

I want you to go back and take a moment with the background of panel 4. All those struts let alone the entire city of London stretched out behind them. Yeah, that took a while.

No really, go back and have another look.

Ok, enough of that . You can move on now.

When I shot the reference for panel 4, Ollie couldn't figure out why I wanted to have Abby and him in the shot. I told him that I wanted the reader to think that Elle is following them, then when Claude pops up we then figure out who she's really following.

Speaking of which, you will notice that I changed the way Claude is facing when he appears. I wanted us to be able to see his face and thus recognise him. I was pretty happy with his likeness. But Claude is quite easy to draw.

It was Ryan Gibson Stewart that pointed out the funniest comment with regard to this series. He said to me that I must be pretty buzzed that I got to draw a cross over between Doctor Who and Veronica Mars. =)

One more day for the competition entries people! Scroll down to the COMPETITION entry and write in what you think.

SQS 2 is done, and I can't wait to see what you all think.

One word.... BIKINIS!

SUM QUOD SUM part 1 page 2

Page 2 is teamwork at its best. The key to what makes Ollie Grigsby such a great comic book writer is he figures out the essential points in a story and hits those beats effectively and powerfully. I remember at one stage he apologised for having so many panels on a page, and I replied saying you only have to apologise if you didn't try at all. And Ollie does more than try he nails it every time.

He covers so much ground on this page. Most writers would take at least two pages to do. But he finds the key moments and takes you through them perfectly.

I must say, I thought I'd get in trouble for panel 1. But I tried to skirt the line between what would happen, what's decent and what's a little bit sexy. It's kind of creepy to draw naked pictures of actual people, so I did my best to just tell the story and be honest to the situation. Annette heightened that with the amazing electrical effects all over Elle. I also think that this is one of my best likenesses of Kristen Bell here as well as such a great performance of the character. I hope you're thinking, "Damn that looks like it hurts!" rather than, "Kristen Bell naked!!!"

Ok, now you're probably thinking, "Kristen Bell naked!!!"

I know Ryan Gibson Stewart was happy that his shout out on the towel was in the same panel as a naked Kristen Bell. Coincidence? Consideration or conspiracy?

It was Nathan Koeher who commented on my Facebook page that the extras all looked like main characters, and that was exactly my goal. I drew everybody imagining that they were the main character in the panel. I then used composition and my greyshading technique to draw the eye to where Elle was. This was especially apparent in panel 2. That's a lotta people! The tall skinny guy with the glasses, spikey black hair and facial hair on the left side of the page is Chris Moreno, my art director on Zero G. What's funny is that I drew the Superman tshirt on the right as an afterthought. Annette then coloured the hoodie in the exact colour of one that I own. I thought that was a nice bit of psychic synchronicity.

Some people noted that they weren't particularly happy with my likeness of Daphne on these pages. When I had to draw this, there had only the first two episodes of season 3 aired. Her makeup has changed and her look has evolved. I've also built a better representation of what she looks like in my head. If I had to draw her now she would look a lot better. It's like when I had to draw episode 20, ROAD KILL. There had only been one episode with Zachary Quinto and I hadn't quite figured out what he looked like. My likeness of him these days is much better than it was back then.

That train carriage took forever though. I remember it devouring most of the Richard K Morgan book "Woken Furies" that I was listening to at the time (well worth the read by the way). Annette then did the most perfect job of colouring it. But that is nothing compared to the incredible job she did on the speed effect on the last panel. Is that perfect or is that perfect? You can see the evolution of the effect from the layout to my drawing to the final coloured version. I drew some action lines to indicate the movement. On a separate layer I blocked in which colours should be where. I then sent Annette a bunch of screen caps from the first episode and she worked her magic. I'm sure we will see how other colourists tackle Daphne's power, and I doubt anyone will come close to what Annette did. It is a perfect stylisation of the effect we saw on the show.

When I was down at the set last I was raving to Timm Keppler and Jim Martin about how I hate speedsters. Hate. Them. I don't mind them in a fight, but running across the globe?! WTF?!!

Here's why. Time is relative.

Hiro illustrates that best. The effect of him slowing and stopping time is the same effect as Daphne moving at super speed. Time is still working normally for them,. Let's imagine Hiro can't teleport. Even if he stopped time would he still run to Paris from America? Seriously, could you imagine him doing that? Left leg, right leg... repeat. Lots. It just wouldn't happen! He'd get to the end of the block and go, "Screw this!"

But that's what Daphne is doing. Just cos she can do it in the blink of our eye doesn't mean it doesn't take her weeks or months (in her relative time) to get there. It's the only use of a power on HEROES that bugs me.

But I just smile, shake my head and just enjoy the best damn show on television.

Feel free to look me up on Facebook. Just please let me know you heard of me through the blog. I think a friend started a fan club for me there too, and I'd be extremely flattered if you joined. I know it doesn't seem like much to anyone, but these sorts of numbers (like the number of hits on this blog) get people in the industry to take me seriously and give me much better opportunities.

Don't forget the BOOK OF LIES competition. It ends on on the 27th of October. Scroll down or just click the COMPETITION tab for details.

ARMAGEDDON part 4

Easiest to hardest, huh?

1. Hiro Nakamura: definitely the easiest for me. I honestly don't think I've drawn a Hiro sketch that I haven't been happy with. I reckon my worst hero sketch is as good as my best of anyone else.

2. Any fictional character: As long as I know the costume I really enjoy In drawing any fictional character that comes up. I love drawing HEROES stuff, but this fictional characters are such a breath of fresh air for me. They're just so easy. Just in case it's someone I might not know, reference or a back up plan is handy.

3. Claire: I'm only just starting to get a handle on her through sheer numbers. I guess you throw enough crap at the wall some of it has to stick!

4. Surprisingly, I was quite happy with my Niki sketches, not because they particularly look like Aly Larter, because they just again captured something that was quintessentially Niki.

5. Peter: again through sheer weight of numbers. I been studying his face a fair bit while watching season one again. I'm hoping there will be more accuracy in the sketches next time.

These sketches marked the end of my first round. I believe I took a 20 minute lunch break after these. Not a bad innings, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m.

THOR: Drawing the God of Thunder was an absolute blast, another mean old character. I don't think anyone has ever asked me to draw him before. I'd love to take another crack at him.







GENE SIMMONS: this was funny. So this gentleman asked me to draw Gene Simmons. But I had no idea what his make-up like. Again something you've seen hundreds of times but never really taken in. So he tells me he has a reference as a tattoo. Unfortunately, the tattoo is on his upper back! In the middle of the convention this guy takes off his top so I could study Gene Simmons' make up. It was pretty funny. Passerby's got an eyeful of something they didn't quite expect to see.




V: this is my old friend, Pete Marshall, who got me into the Boondocks Saints -one of my favourite movies. I have no idea my queue was so long, and I ow you an apology. During the week Pete told me he would like a sketch of Veronica Mars. During an unusual break I decided to actually whip up a quick picture for him. That's it up the top.

Having waited so long (2.5 hours!), they asked if they could also have a sketch. Of course I obliged. His girlfriend (and please forgive me, I can't remember your name), asked for V. What excellent taste! I really couldn't remember the nose, but anyway, here's my take on the iconic character.

PORTRAIT: This gentleman wanted himself as Peter Petrelli. I drew the likeness and then said to him that he would make a much better Superman. He chuckled and showed me his jacket. , signed by Bruce Timm no less! Superman lives!




PORTRAIT: this entire family waited a very long time. This little guy was really patient. He asked for a portrait of himself. I really enjoyed drawing this portrait. He's got one of those cool, unique looks that's really distinctive.









CLAIRE: Again, playing with that same pose but this time toying with the lighting a little bit.









PORTRAIT: I think this is that young guys mum. The problem was, she kept moving her head. Finally, she settled in an up tilted position, but I was trying to draw her square on. When she eventually moved her head down, she ended up looking wildly different to what I had drawn for. Unfortunately I had spent so long drawing I couldn't erase what I'd done. I think she was less than impressed. My apologies.





PORTRAIT: This is not just a portrait of the family, it is a portrait of patience. They asked me to do a quick sketch of a photo of their daughter. My only problem with drawing photos is they just end up as a drawing of a photo. When someone is standing right in front of me, I get to put my spin on them. It's more fun than being the human photocopier.


PORTRAIT: This couple was so nice and patient. Given that they had waited the longest I tried to spend a little bit more time on their sketches. I really enjoyed the portrait of her. She had very easy and open features to draw. Getting to know people, while I draw them helps. And these two were very cool.








HIRO: And a Hiro to finish up the set. I really like this one as it has a lot of character. I think Hiro is doing his little time stopping concentration thing.




Anyway about now, I ran off for my 20 minute lunch. My lips were dry and cracked from lack of water, and I realised I was kind of seeing stars. And there was a huge yawning maw were my stomach should be.

I refuelled and then got straight back into it. You can already see people in this photo waiting for me to get back!

BLACKOUT page 4

Here's The Jas (Yes, I've decided to speak about myself in the third person.) doing what he does best. Solid conversations with interesting people. The Jas really enjoyed drawing this conversation between Mohinder and the Teenage Patient.

The Jas has also included here his tones (See below). This is the digital painting that The Jas does before he goes in with colours. The Jas doesn't know if you can see all the brush strokes and stuff, but they're there. While some have commented that The Jas' finished artwork has a photographic quality, The Jas actually works quite hard to bring a painted, hyper-real quality to the work. Simply making it look like a photo is bloody boring.

If you want a photo, go check out the tv show.

I- er, I mean The Jas, uh... The Jas means The Jas believes there was some confusion on the boards after the patient manifested their ability.

Oh frak this.

Back to the first person. How the hell do wrestlers do this? I can't believe I've been out-grammared by every pro-wrestler on the planet.

Now the only rumour that I know is that Kristen Bell is going to be doing an arc on HEROES. I'm pretty happy about this as I'm a huge fan of Veronica Mars. I maintain that the first season is the strongest first season of almost any tv show.

I have no idea if there's any truth to the rumour about Kristen Bell's power, but apparently there's some similarity. Me? Couldn't care what her power is. Couldn't care if she has a power or doesn't. And I'd prefer if no one in the comments confirms or denies Kristin's powers or lack of powers, role, name or anything else about her. That's spoilery and I will delete your post!

But let's mine this rumour like a canary holding pickax wielding mad person.

What I'm really excited about is the possibility that I might have drawn the new season two character to be played by Kristen Bell. Apparently one rumour is that Kristen Bell's character's power is similar to that of the patient. Therefore, some people have been stating that they think this patient could be Kristen Bell. Let me see if this is indeed the first appearance of NEW SEASON TWO HEROES CHARACTER:

KRISTEN BELL:

TEENAGE PATIENT:

Wait! I see it! They're both sitting on a bed! That's it! I'm such an idiot. How can you not see the almost photographic resemblance. It's like I traced this EXACT photo. I mean the similarities between this weedy, sick guy I drew and this gorgeous, healthy woman are just uncanny. And if you don't believe me, check out exhibit B:


KRISTEN BELL:

TEENAGE PATIENT:

See?! They've both got blue eyes! How can you not see the resemblance?! It's not often I draw a likeness this absolutely freakily accurate. But I hear dissent from up the back of the crowd. Well feast your eyes on exhibit c:

KRISTEN BELL:

TEENAGE PATIENT:

Ah ha! Yes! Now you see! They're both looking sideways. Because if they're both looking sideways then they MUST be the same person. I know I don't look sideways.. EVER. Which means that I'm neither a teenage male patient nor Kristen Bell. By process of elimination we have deduced the answer! Ho, ho, ho! Case dismissed! But as my crushing finale of irrefutable evidence I present the coup de grace:

KRISTEN BELL:

TEENAGE PATIENT:
They both don't look happy do they? They MUST be the same person. They don't even need to do any makeup on Kristen to make her look like this guy. She could just roll out of her bed and onto set and voila! She's ready to go.

Seriously, people. Is my art that bad? How the HELL could you possibly confuse this guy I drew with Kristen Bell?! I know you're all looking for foreshadowing and easter eggs, but there's a difference between drawing conclusions and wild, irrational speculations.

In the future, if you think you might be onto something - just ask. I'm more than happy to deny, and if I'm silent - then perhaps that's a confirmation?

The Jas should also apologise as this has also been a shameless scam to post pictures of Kristen Bell. =)

If you smeee-eeeell what The Jas. Is. Cooking.