News...

Because of the news yesterday - the devastating earthquake in Japan - I decided to suspend calling out for suggestions for FanRequestFriday. It seemed kind of silly to carry on with such trivial pursuits in the wake of the news, but don't worry I will return to it next Friday - unless, of course something else comes along that is equally devastating *ptoot, ptoot, ptoot* (spitting 3 times is an old Jewish tradition of warding off the evil eye or bad luck for those of you not in the tribe).

Speaking of news (pretty tacky segue, eh?) I have some news myself. After finishing my stint as a director on the Avengers: Earth's Mightiest Heroes  - season 2 I've taken the position of Supervising Director on a new series that's a continuation of a fan favorite from many years ago. No, it's not Marvel and X-Men related. The series has been announced, but I'm still hesitant to reveal what it is since those in charge probably want to control any publicity or news coming out about it. It's a show that I've been involved with since it was originally pitched and now they've offered me a chance to see it through post production.

So, with that out of the way, I will now post my choices (for the last 2 weeks) for Fan Request Friday:

This first one has been requested consistently ever since the Coen Brother's excellent True Grit came out into theaters. True Grit was film I enjoyed quite a bit and I almost always enjoy Jeff Bridges acting (though I haven't seen the reboot of Tron yet)

I usually try to avoid drawing actors' likenesses and this week (actually 2 weeks) I ended up doing two drawings with three actors. Anyone who has been with me for awhile probably knows that I was a big fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Joss Whedon's series not the movie, of course) and since I've already drawn Buffy and Angel it seemed fitting that I draw Buffy and Spike - or Spuffy as it was requested. I went a little more animation style on  this one and I think it came out nicer than the drawing I did of Buffy and Angel (Bangel?). I might have to revisit that one sometime in the future and take another crack at it.

This last one is pretty obscure, but it intrigued me - as it has every time I've seen these characters. A bullet shaped helmet?  Really? Anyway, it gave me a chance to go retro so I went with it. Here is Bullet Man and Bullet Girl from the 1940s

To draw a Mockingbird...

This weeks choice for Fan Request Friday was chosen because I used a Cos-player's pose to help out with last week's pic (Danger Girl) so it seemed I sort of owed her one. I hope she likes it though I'm not sure my Mockingbird comes off as well as her Mockingbird.
Up until recently I'd never even heard of this particular character and then a couple of months ago I learned about this Shield agent and then when I came into contact with Jen Richards (aka Mockingnerd) via twitter and FB it seemed to be a character that was forcing herself on me in a way. So I very well might have chosen to draw her regardless of my feeling like I owed Jen one or not.

But I don't want it to appear that I'm playing favorites so I also decided to draw a request that seems to have been mentioned almost every week since I've started this. I'm not sure I've done Angel and Buffy justice, but it's not too far off. Maybe I'll revisit them again later and give it another shot.
I was kind of late to the Buffy/Joss Whedon appreciation society and only started watching Buffy once I started working on XME at the suggestion of the producer, Boyd Kirkland, since that was sort of the model he wanted to base our show on - or at least try to. I started watching after the whole Buffy and Angel storyline had basically played itself out and just revisited those episodes in re-runs and after they were released onto DVD.
In fact the show and the characters made such an impact on me that many of the XME characters were somewhat modeled after several of the actors on Buffy. Jean/Charisma Carpenter, Kitty/Alyson Hannigan and Kurt/ Seth Green.