[Amaakir]

Illustrated 22 - M. Frankenstein, Detective

Due Date: September 12th, 2012, 12:00 PM PST

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"You seek for knowledge and wisdom, as I once did; and I ardently hope that the gratification of your wishes may not be a serpent to sting you, as mine has been."

Objectives

Welcome to Illustrated 22!

Hello, Challengers! It's been quite a while, please accept our apologies for taking so long in coming up with a new challenge.
Anyway, let's get down to business!

You've been recently come in touch with a famous comic book publisher, they're about to launch this new comic titled "M. Frankenstein, Detective" and, as it suggests, is a new take on the classic "Frankenstein" by Mary Shelley.
The comic book will take place on a futuristic, maybe post-apocalyptic, New York city. The overall mood of the comic will be similar to that of old detective films, with a noire and dark kind of feeling.
M. Frankenstein, the main character, will be portrayed as a detective and investigator, and since the comic is just being launched there's not much more info for you except the following paragraph:

"The thing awakens in a dark, damp alley. Dreams of lighting and thunder still linger through his vision, although now it's not certain if they were truly dreams or memories from the beginning.
His limbs feel stiff and weak, all it can manages for now is a failed attempt to get on his feet, falling into a murky water filled hole on the ground. It remains there for a moment, taking it's time for it's limb to awaken, opening and closing it's fist until the tingling stops. Then it notices something tattooed on it's wrist, "Frankenstein & Tesla Industries".
It tries to get up again, managing to stay on it's feet for a while before taking it's first step, then another.
-It's alright now.- It thinks to itself. -I can walk now.-
Rising it's head toward the dark sky and the towering steel buildings ahead, their lights hiding the stars from sight, the thing has but one mission. To know what or who he is and who is his creator.
And so the thing, or perhaps a man, he cannot fully decide which yet; takes his first steps into the great city, it's distant sounds or sirens and gunfire not so much of a welcome."

That's the brief so far, you're free to do whatever you want, just keep in mind that this is for a comic book cover and that it must portray what info you've been given from the past few paragraphs.

Here are a couple reference images and some links of interest:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein










Have fun, guys, and welcome to round 22!

[Nestoronfire]

This is a kick ass idea! Count me in.

[Nestoronfire]

Here are a few sketches i did today. Propably gonna stick with the top one and start playing around with colors.

[Skulless]

I'm loving this topic!!!

Here I got inspired by the excerpt so I tried to give him an awkward childlike walk. Since it is the first issue of the comic, I wanted to make him the sole center of attention. Had some trouble suggesting post-apocalyptic New York, so I decided to compose the cover as 2 integrated panels: an establishing shot of the city, and a close shot of him.

[Nestoronfire]

Did a rough color sketch.

[Niconoff]

Hi all! My draft.

[Derek]

@Niconoff: Love that expression.

[SeanHuskey]

Haha I'm lovin the idea! I think I'll give it a shot if I can find the time.

[MarkMolchan]

first timer on cghub...great challenge idea!

[Skulless]

@MarkMolchan: Wow sick!!!

Made some progress refining the line art.

[Mr_Sauerkraut]

Exciting challenge! I like all the posts so far!
Well this is my concept. I chose a simple yet expressive composition for my idea. To work on these kind of characters is a lot of fun! I tried to paint a mixture of Shelley's Frankenstein, Herman Munster and of course Boris Karloff with a bit of my own interpretation. The high-resolution images can be found in the attachement.

Good luck to everyone!
Regards

PS: The font I use is called Coalition. You can find it at dafont.com. Copyright goes to Dafont / TracerTong.

[NickNitro]

I hate to be that guy but isn't Frankenstein the doctor, not the monster? Maybe someone can go that route.

[Nestoronfire]

Originally Posted by NickNitro

I hate to be that guy but isn't Frankenstein the doctor, not the monster? Maybe someone can go that route.

In this case i think the scene description limits the illustration to the creature. Somebody could add though some doctor/business looking guy, in the shadows, hinting he is the head of Frankenstein & Tesla Industries or something.

There is tons of ways this could go, too bad we will never get to read the comic book

[Amaakir]

Originally Posted by Nestoronfire

In this case i think the scene description limits the illustration to the creature. Somebody could add though some doctor/business looking guy, in the shadows, hinting he is the head of Frankenstein & Tesla Industries or something.

There is tons of ways this could go, too bad we will never get to read the comic book

Precisely, I think that, if the comic book would go further, the monster would eventually refer to himself as Frankenstein because of the tattoo in it's wrist, there could really be several reasons why the monster would end up being called M. Frankenstein.
But as Nestor said, it's too bad we won't be able to make it to that point

[NickNitro]

Fair enough guys I like this challenge! I am not that great at 2d work so for now I will just sit back and look at all of the great ideas.