Blast from the Past #687: Sketchbook page 32, Donatello in action pose

This drawing on page 32 of the sketchbook was done in photo-blue pencil, and some of the lines were so light I couldn't see them until I tweaked it in Photoshop.

This appears to be an image of Donatello in an action pose, wearing some of his new gear. I kind of wish I'd finished this one... I like the pose. -- PL

Blast from the Past #683: Sketchbook pages 27 (Leonardo back view) and 28 (Donatello back view)

These two sketches on two consecutive pages of the sketchbook, pages 27 and 28, were clearly done with the intent of trying to work out how the "new look" for Leonardo and Donatello would appear from the back. I drew them lightly in photo-blue pencil, which is always tricky to photograph. So to make the lines stand out more, I tweaked them in Photoshop, which is why there is some shadowy speckling in place -- it's an artifact of my inexpert Photoshop manipulation.

Worthy of note in the Leonardo drawing (sketched on May 4, 1994) is the tapered redesign of his shell, as well as the slightly different arrangement for holding the scabbards in place. -- PL

Blast from the Past #673: Sketchbook pages 16 and 17, ideas for Donatello

On pages 16 and 17 of the sketchbook, I was working out some ideas for a new look for Donatello, including some more pockets and pouches for his various bits of tech gear, as well as headgear which presumably  would incorporate some vision-enhancing gizmos.

Sorry about the quality of the page with the blue pencil sketches -- I tried to tweak them in Photoshop as I'd done with other pages previously, but for some reason I couldn't get a clean selection of the blue pencil areas, possibly because the photo was a bit blurry. And I don't know what that yellow-brown arc is in the middle of the page -- it certainly isn't part of the drawing. It almost has the look of the residue that  might be left if part of a rubber band had been squished between the pages and left there for a long time. Who knows? -- PL

Blast from the Past #658: Sketchbook page 1, drawing of Donatello with new costume ideas

I had completely forgotten about this.

Looking around in my incredibly messy room today for a few blank label sheets that I could use to create some return address labels for my wife's new self-publishing venture, Stone Door Press, I noticed an old, well-worn sketchbook tucked away under a pile of stuff.

I pulled it out and was surprised to see that it was from about 1994 and had forty-eight pages (if I am counting correctly) of drawings related to a couple of different proposed TMNT projects Kevin Eastman and I were working on at the time -- specifically a new TMNT comic book series and the fourth live-action TMNT movie.

Neither project came to fruition, but a few of the concepts lived on (sort of) in various iterations of TMNT in the years that followed.

(I think it was around this time that Kevin and I had agreed to reconnect, "get back to basics", and work closely together on a new TMNT comic book… and we went so far as to get come carpenters in to Mirage Studios to move a wall between our two adjacent offices so as to make our offices the same size, and to also install a sliding glass window in the wall. The idea behind this was that we would set up our drawing tables so that we could slide open the window and pass pages back and forth as we worked on penciling, inking and toning them, in a manner similar to the early days of working together on TMNT Volume 1.

It never happened.)

The drawings in this sketchbook range from very loose conceptual doodles in blue or black pencil to completely finished inked works. It's strange for me to look at them now, because although I can tell that I drew them, I had completely forgotten that they existed, in this sketchbook.

So here is page one. It's a drawing in black pencil of Donatello, with a notation by me at the top which reads as follows:

"4/15/94  Don: Maybe he has failing eyesight and has to build himself some kind of cyber-gear to enhance his vision"

I seem to recall that this was an idea which either I alone or in concert with Kevin had come up with for some other project. 

It appears that with this drawing I was playing around with some changes to Don's costume and gear, and I'd given him some kind of device -- a weapon, probably -- which sort of reminds me of the "Gravitic Equalizer" from the Donatello "One Issue Micro Series" Mirage published some years earlier. -- PL

Fanga™

        The world of fandom is multifaceted, and one of the most interesting facets of that world is the creativity of a large number of fans, who express their love for a particular tv show, movie, book or comic book in a variety of ways -- in stories, poems, sculptures, paintings, illustrations, comics, or short films, for example. These can range from pretty crude to extremely sophisticated… but the common thread is the love for the source material, and the characters and concepts therein.

I've seen a number of these things over the years, and it's interesting that with the emergence of relatively inexpensive video and video editing hardware and software, the film and animation end of this fan-generated expression has gotten increasingly more… well, professional.

I was reminded of this yesterday when someone asked me a question on my "Ask PL" blog post about two recent fanmade short films, "Fight the Foot" and "Casey Jones". They are both intriguing pieces, but of the two, "Casey Jones", a film by Polaris Banks, is far superior and much more satisfying. It has excellent cinematography, the costumes are great, and much of the acting is very good.

        But the thing I liked most about it was the attention to details drawn from the original comics (like the mention of Northampton, Casey's cousin Sid, Casey's mother calling him "Arnold", the fact that Casey throws two bats at the punk running away from him -- just like in the "Raphael One Issue Micro Series" -- and so on). 

       The inclusion of a yellow jumpsuit-clad April O'Neil, reporter from Channel 6 News, and a brief shot of "Krang" I could have done without -- both elements which I think could be edited out of the film without changing it greatly -- but I must confess that seeing them in there made me smile a couple of times.  Seeing those icons from the goofy first TMNT TV series took me out of the gritty, realistic feel established from almost the very first shot (the hockey player colliding with the plexiglass wall and leaving a streak of blood).

The only other real criticism I have of "Casey Jones" is that the lighting during the extended fight scene in the alleyway is often too dark to really be able to see adequately what's happening. But all in all, it is a VERY impressive piece of work, and I think the people behind it could go far.

You can watch the "Casey Jones" film here:

http://caseyjonesthemovie.com/

       ... and "Fight the Foot" can be found on YouTube here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldC6krN7PNM

Another fan work -- this time in the comics realm -- to which I was recently introduced (well, "recently" in this case meaning late last year) is "Donatello; Dark Energy" by Matthew Montelione (writer) and Pedro Lajud (artist), a five-page story featuring my favorite Turtle. It's not quite professional-level work, but the potential is definitely there. 

       It's a quiet story (or, more accurately, part of a story) with a lot of heart, and a somber mood which I found quite appealing. The two creators plan a second installment of "Donatello: Dark Energy", and I look forward to reading that one as well. You can find the first part here:

http://betweenthelines.mutantooze.org/comics/TMNT_DE1.pdf

It's an amazing thing to see how something you had a hand in creating more than a quarter of a century ago could have had enough of an impact on people that they would do stuff like this. -- PL

       P.S. The title of this post -- "FANGA™" -- is just a word I made up to use as "shorthand" identify these types of fan-created works. I was trying to think of something short and punchy, and this word (a variant of "manga", obviously) popped into my head.

Blast from the Past #192: Donatello in a relaxed pose

Here's another one of my old pinup drawings, this one from 1987, of my favorite Turtle in a relaxed pose... just "takin' five" between ninja battles, perhaps. -- PL

Blast from the Past #189: Donatello in fighting stance pinup

This is another of my pinup drawings from 1985.



Donatello is very toothy in this drawing. -- PL

Bookplate

A couple of weeks ago, Dan "The Man" Berger asked me if I'd be interested in doing some art for a "bookplate", which I think he said would be "tipped in" to some of the upcoming collected editions. (Dan, if I'm getting this wrong, please correct me!)

As reference, he gave me a really cool one that Jim Lawson did. Last week, I was sitting at my desk in my Mirage office trying to think of something to draw, when this idea for Donatello with some wacky gadget on his hand popped into my head. So I decided to take a leftover piece of tone paper I had in my office and draw it on that. Here's the inked version...



... and here's the finished version, with tones. -- PL

Documentary Day

The "TMNT fan documentary" crew paid us another visit today. Isaac Elliot Fisher returned, and brought with him two of the producers on the documentary, Mark Hussey and his wife Sarah (both very nice people). They were in Northampton to do some follow-up stuff, including a bit more interviewing and getting some footage of me drawing something. We set up in my office (I'm glad I cleaned it up yesterday!)



It was fun to listen to some of their stories about going all over the place to talk with both Turtle fans and people who have been involved with the TMNT property professionally. I especially liked hearing about their visit with my old pal Ryan Brown in his home in Ohio.

Here's a photo of Isaac and Mark conferring about some technical camera-related issue.



One thing I did to prepare for this visit was to dig out an old sheet of Graphix Duo-Shade paper which had been kicking around my office with an unfinished pencil drawing on it. It was unfinished because it was pretty bad, and I had no compunctions about erasing it so I could use the paper for this drawing demo. I thought it might be fun to do it on the Duo-Shade paper, as that was what Kevin Eastman and I had used for many of the Turtle comics we did together.

I'd also brought in some originals from issue #4 of Volume One, so I could demonstrate how we used to carefully cut up the large sheets of Duo-Shade paper to maximize the use of this expensive material. Once I'd done that, I proceeded to pencil, ink and tone this drawing of Donatello, which I gave to Isaac once I'd finished it.



It was fun to do -- I think it was the first time I'd used Duo-Shade in this way in about five years. Isaac and Sarah both took me up on my offer to try the Duo-Shade paper. I drew a quick Turtle head sketch in Sharpie on a small piece of the paper for Sarah. Here she is working on it...



... and here she holds up the finished piece. Unfortunately, I think my camera flash washed out most of the tones she did on it!



Isaac drew his own Turtle head (quite well, I thought), and toned that. Here he is with the result, which he gave to me.



Isaac also brought with him the t-shirt that he has been getting signed by many, if not all, of the people he's interviewed for this project.



All in all, it was a fun couple of hours. I have to say I'm looking forward to seeing the final documentary. -- PL

For more information about the project, visit http://turtledoc.fauxpop.tv/

TMNT sketch for sale

Remember that Donatello sketch I did at this year's NYCC to benefit the Inkwell Awards (I blogged about it a few days ago)?



Mike Dooney just alerted me to the fact that it is currently listed on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=170301998104

Check it out! -- PL

UPDATE 02-21-09: Apparently, this piece went for $189.50. Not bad! -- PL

Blast from the Past #75 repost: Donatello fighting robot, pencils

Donatello’s fighting another robot (android? cyborg?) in this pencil drawing I did for a proposed (but never finished) TMNT portfolio, sometime in the early 1990's, I think. One of these days I’ll get around to inking it! -- PL

Blast from the Past #67 and #68 reposts: 1992 TurtleCon poster art

(For brevity's sake, I decided to put these two BftP's together into one (re)posting.)

Back in 1992 we held the Portsmouth, NH "TurtleCon", the only "official" TMNT convention to date. Held at the Portsmouth, NH Sheraton, it was a lot of fun. This is something I put together as a free handout at the show. It's one of my early Photoshop experiments (I think I was probably using Photoshop 2.5 back then!). I don't know exactly what the heck that gun Don is wielding does, but it sure looks cool.



Before doing the color work in Photoshop, I "cyberinked" the pencil drawing of Donatello.




I'm pretty sure I have some (pre-digital) photos from that Turtlecon somewhere... maybe I can dig some out and scan them for a future blog post. -- PL

Blast from the Past #60 repost: Donatello and Montana Moo

My good pal Ryan Brown (who, sadly, I do not see very much these days... but I do read his blog!) realized a longtime dream of his when, back in the 1990's, his "CowBoys" concept was made into a toy line, animated series, and a whole bunch of merchandise under the name "Wild West Cowboys of Moo Mesa". I drew this piece featuring Donatello and one of Ryan's characters, Montana Moo, as the basis for a congratulatory card for Ryan.



And here's the "cyberinked" and computer-colored version of this drawing which I sent to Ryan. -- PL



(Montana Moo™ and © 2002 R.E. Bee Inc.)

Blast from the Past #132: Donatello riding creature

For the life of me, I can't recall exactly why I drew this piece. But it looks like I had fun with it! -- PL

Blast from the Past #55 repost: Donatello in new costume color study

Believe it or not, Kevin was going to throw this one away! I’m glad I was there back in 1985 to stop him and beg him to give this drawing to me, which he graciously did.



To this day I can’t understand why he didn’t like it -- I think it’s a very cool high-contrast ink drawing with a nifty experimental color effect (not to mention it shows Donatello in an alternate costume design we were thinking about using). -- PL

Blast from the Past #43 repost: Donatello firing Mac-10

This pinup of my favorite turtle doing something uncharacteristic was penciled and inked by me. I think I may have drawn this one after getting a paintball gun which was a cool replica of a Mac-10 submachinegun (I think it was a present from Kevin); it actually fired paintballs from plastic cartridges packed with gunpowder, and would do so on full-auto fire. What a racket it made! -- PL



(My original posting of this artwork on the planetracers.com "Blast from the Past" pages also included this note about various things that were going on with the TMNT back then (I think it was originally posted sometime in 2001) -- I include it here, slightly edited, for its historical interest. -- PL)

"For everyone who has come to the "Blast" pages and seen nothing or next to nothing, I apologize -- as I understand it, our ISP has been making some server changes which have caused some minor technical problems. We're working to get them squared away, and I expect it to all be back to normal soon. Thanks for your patience!

Now for some good news and bad news. The bad news first -- it looks like the TMNT TV show which we are hoping to get on the air in the next couple of years will NOT be CGI. I am very disappointed, but for whatever reason, the powers that be at the networks which have shown the most interest in a TMNT show don't want a CGI one. I don't really understand their reasoning, but at the present time if there is to be a TMNT show on TV, it will be some style of cel animation.

However, there IS something of a possible silver lining in this cloud, and that is that there may be an opportunity to do some kind of CGI turtle project down the road -- maybe a direct to video thing. I would dearly love to do something in CGI with the turtles.

Next bit of (sort of) bad news -- due solely to my own absentmindedness (i.e not being totally on top of scheduling/planning) and slowness in inking, the first issue of my new TMNT comic book will be in the Diamond Previews catalog for a December 2001 release. On the other hand, the GOOD news is that it is DEFINITELY going to be in Previews, and WILL be published in December.

Now for the good news -- I finished inking TMNT #2! This week I completed the last few pages, erased all the stray pencil lines, and will shortly be starting to tone the pages. Other good news -- Jim Lawson has been pencilling issue #3, and today is up to page 20 (and this issue is going to be 40 pages!). I may have to enlist the help of one or more of my studio pals with inking from here on out, but I'm not 100% sure of that yet.

I've also settled on a title for the new book -- it will be called simply "TMNT" (possibly with "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" as a very small subtitle), and it will be published by Mirage Publishing.

-- Peter Laird"

Blast from the Past #114: Donatello about to throw bo staff

This is another early pinup drawing I did, back in 1984... old-school style. -- PL

Donatello with...? pinup

Here's an interesting oddity I turned up while looking for some stuff in my old studio yesterday. It's a pinup drawing from back in 1986 that I drew and Michael Dooney inked.



I'm pretty sure the female warrior Donatello is trying to give the apple to is an anthropomorphic character from someone's comic book, but for the life of me I can't remember whose book it was or what the character is called. Anyone know? -- PL

Blast from the Past #36 repost: Donatello's new costume

This is one of five pieces which were drawn by me and inked by Kevin (in the late 1990's, I think) as possible new takes on the main characters of the TMNT universe, as part of the development process for the never-filmed fourth live-action TMNT movie. We had put our heads together at the request of the movie studio and came up with some tweaks for the guys -- we were calling it “TMNT: The Next Mutation”. (This was before the live-action TV show.) The general idea was that the mutagen was continuing to change the turtles and Splinter, giving them new abilities -- and new problems.



Don was given the least obvious mutation -- growing telekinetic and telepathic abilities, unfortunately counterpointed by diminishing eyesight (hence the vision-enhancing goggles). We also provided him with an updated “techno” version of his bo staff.

In retrospect, I'm glad this never happened. -- PL

Blast from the Past #111: Donatello with computer

Here's one of many "pinup"-type drawings I did years ago, this one from 1985. It's interesting to look at these early pinups, when I was still drawing the Turtles as they appeared in the first few issues of the comic book.



There are a few interesting details about this one which are worth pointing out. First, this is one of only a few drawings of a Turtle that I've ever done which show him without the signature mask, belt, wristbands, knee pads and elbow pads. (I think it was because of the idea behind this drawing -- Don's at home, working on his computer, "at ease" if you will. It's actually something I wish we had been more cognizant of while doing the comics, the movies and the tv shows -- that the Turtles, realistically, would not ALWAYS wear their gear. Sometimes it gets kind of ridiculous -- when you see them sleeping in it, for example!)

It's funny to look at the computer Don's using -- obviously state-of-the-art at the time, but looking pretty dated now, with its bulky CRT monitor and dual five inch floppy disk drives.

Also, this drawing somewhat obliquely references something that I had given some thought to but never really did anything about, preferring to just let it slide... and that is the fact that, given the size and shape of the Turtles' fingers, it would be very difficult for any of them to type on a standard computer keyboard! I remember that this is why I drew this one with Don holding that pencil -- I was thinking that he could use that to press the keys with so his big green fingers wouldn't mess things up.

I even, at one point, did a few little sketches for "typing caps" -- little plastic doodads which could be slipped over a Turtle's fingertips. These caps would have small, normal finger-sized projections which would allow for more easy typing.

But I don't think anyone ever complained about it, so I let it go. It still does bug me, though... but just a little bit. -- PL