Nightcrawler Archives

Every so often I like to dig into my collection of old drawings. The ones I did as a kid. Luckily I’ve kept all my childhood drawings. I’m kind of a pack rat when it comes to things from when I was a kid. When I was 11, I put all my toys in plastic bags and put them in storage boxes. Somewhere at my mom’s house are boxes of He-Man, GoBots, Wheeled Warriors, and Star Wars toys. I really enjoy going back and looking at the artwork I did as a kid. It helps to inspire me and my current artwork to see what I use to like to draw.

Excalibur-Drawing — Excalibur ink drawing by Ralph Contreras

Here is a drawing I did way back in 1989 of Excalibur. The original image comes from the back cover of Excalibur Issue #8. I remember thinking t was the coolest poster/pinup I’d seen. At this time I was just starting to read X-Men comics, and I really like Excalibur. This was the first time I had read anything with Nightcrawler, Shadowcat, and Rachael Summers. I knew I just had to draw it. I didn’t start with a pencil or a sketch. I just jumped into drawing with a regular Bic ballpoint pen.

Here’s the original image from the back cover of Excalibur #8 drawn by Comic Artist Ron Lim. In the late 80s, he was one of my favorite artists. Drawing Excalibur, Silver Surfer, and the Infinity Gauntlet. – Shazam!

This blog post was originally published on my other website Comic Book Graphic Design and has now been migrated here to RSC Arts, Ralph’s Art Blog.

I’ve been participating in a fun collaboration with some great comic artists in The REPLICANTS Project.

What we are doing is creating our own characters based on existing characters. Similar to how Marvel Comics Squadron Supreme was based on DC Comics Justice League, and how the Watchmen characters were based on the Charlton characters. We’ve mashed up half the 70s X-men and half the Justice League into a Heroes and Villains team.

The idea came from Dean Rivet who set up a blog on Posterous. The blog’s name is The REPLICANTS Project. We create the character inspired by that week’s chosen character. We design original costumes, character names, and back story. We then email the post to a Posterous email and PazoOoW it appears on the blog.

I’ll be posting the process I’m using to create my characters; from pencil drawing and inking to the final coloring in upcoming blog posts. Here’s a list of the characters that we are using as inspirations for The REPLICANTS Project.