Blast from the Past #703: Sketchbook page 48, another look at the proposed "Fifth Turtle"

This is the last page in the sketchbook, and the drawing on it is very likely my last attempt to come up with a design for the proposed "Fifth Turtle".

I kind of like this drawing, but in all honesty, I'm glad this movie never got made. -- PL

Blast from the Past #702: Sketchbook page 47, some additional ideas for the proposed "Fifth Turtle"

Here, on the penultimate page of the sketchbook, I penciled a few more ideas wherein I tried to find a viable look for the proposed "Fifth Turtle".

I don't think I met with much success here. -- PL

Blast from the Past #701: Sketchbook page 46, even more ideas for the proposed "fifth Turtle"

What the heck am I doing, posting another page of this stuff on Christmas morning? I should be relaxing with a cup of tea, staring at our Christmas tree or something.

Oh, well...

Here on page 46 of the sketchbook, I drew some more concepts for the look of the proposed "fifth Turtle". There's another "Predator"-inspired one, and a couple of "Alien"-inspired heads.

Weird. -- PL

Blast from the Past #700: Sketchbook page 45, more ideas for the proposed "Fifth Turtle"

What "Predator" infuence? :)

Here are a few more doodles from page 45 of the sketchbook wherein I tried to come up with a workable look for the proposed "Fifth Turtle".

Only three more pages to go! -- PL

Blast from the Past #699: Sketchbook page 44, more ideas for "fifth Turtle" design

On page 44 of the sketchbook, I doodled this, trying once again to come up with an interesting look for the proposed "fifth Turtle". Here, he looks a bit too "froggy" in the head and face, I think.

And where did his tail go? -- PL

Blast from the Past #698: Sketchbook page 43, pencil sketch of Spyder?

This one is kind of boring, but in the interest of completeness, I will post it. It looks to me like I was trying once again to work out a viable costume design for the proposed villain "Spyder".

I confess this does not look that viable to me.

You may notice the different orientation of the page here -- apparently, I turned the sketchbook sideways to do this drawing, and I have no idea why. -- PL

Blast from the Past #697: Sketchbook page 43, drawing of Spyder?

This finished drawing on page 42 of the sketchbook is not labeled, but I am reasonably certain that it represents another attempt by me to craft a look for the proposed villain for the never-produced fourth live-action TMNT movie, the incredibly cleverly-named "Spyder" (yes, I am being sarcastic).

I kind of like this drawing... I'm not sure why, exactly. Maybe it is the way I used spot blacks in it. -- PL

Blast from the Past #696: Sketchbook page 41, another sketch of proposed "fifth Turtle:

Here on page 41 of the sketchbook, I tried again to come up with an interesting look for the proposed "fifth Turtle", this time incorporating a utility belt kind of thing, and a new type of weapon -- a chain with two weighted ends. I think there is a traditional martial arts weapon that looks like this, but I cannot recall at the moment what the name of that weapon is. -- PL

Blast from the Past #695: Sketchbook page 40, idea for fifth Turtle

Here on page 40 of the sketchbook is a drawing which depicts another version of the proposed "fifth Turtle", this one musclebound in what seems to me to be done in a somewhat deliberately humorous fashion. -- PL

Blast from the Past #694: Sketchbook page 39, Ideas for fifth Turtle?

On page 39 of the sketchbook, I drew these rough sketches of what I think are some ideas for a slightly different facial look for the proposed "fifth Turtle"... including what appears to be either a tattoo or some kind of face paint in one image.

I also noticed on this page that I drew the "fifth Turtle" with three fingers and a thumb, as opposed to the classic TMNT look of TWO fingers and a thumb. And looking back at the previous page, I see that I did the same thing with this more finished drawing of the "fifth Turtle". I didn't notice that when I posted it yesterday. -- PL

Blast from the Past #693: Sketchbook page 38, design for "Kirby, the 5th Turtle"

Here on page 38 of the sketchbook we have my attempt at a design for the character of "Kirby", who was supposed to be a "fifth Turtle" in the proposed -- but never made -- fourth live-action TMNT movie. This drawing appears to have been inked by me with one or two markers.

It's very odd for me to see Turtles without their kneepads -- they look so, well... naked, with their knees hanging out in the breeze.

I have to also say that this one makes me cringe just a little bit. Some of the details of the period in which this drawing was made are lost to faulty memory, but I do seem to remember a number of heated discussions about the studio's desire to have another Turtle in this fourth live-action movie, and that desire colliding with my feeling (as I have stated a number of times before) that just adding more Turtles is a creatively bankrupt idea. It's easy, it's lazy, and -- generally speaking -- it's stupid.

As I recall, the only way I could agree to go in this direction--  and not puke -- was to imagine that this "fifth Turtle" was NOT just another turtle that happened to be in the bowl with our original four Turtles and then somehow gotten lost (but conveniently mutated and trained and equipped in similar fashion) -- an idea distressingly common and popular among some of the movie and TV and toy people we'd dealt with over the years -- but instead a Turtle from another dimension in some ways parallel to the dimension of our original Turtles.

Truth be told, I never really liked the idea, but I was prepared to accept it if it meant we could do another movie. As it happened, that deal fell apart, and that fourth live-action movie never happened.

I'm kind of glad it never did. -- PL

Blast from the Past #692: Sketchbook page 37, another "Spyder design?

I'm pretty sure this drawing, which follows the last one, is also another try by me at coming up with a design for the villain named "Spyder" in the proposed fourth live-action TMNT film. -- PL

Blast from the Past #691: Sketchbook page 36, design for "Spyder"?

I did not make any notes on this thirty-sixth page of the sketchbook to indicate what or who the subject of this drawing is supposed to be, but I am pretty sure this was my attempt to create a visual for the character of "Spyder", who -- if memory serves -- was to be the main villain in the proposed fourth live-action movie. -- PL

Blast from the Past #690: Sketchbook page 35, design for dimensional doorway machine

Here, on page 35 of the sketchbook, I "got my Kirby on" (as Ken Mitchroney used to say) and on November 8, 1994 drew what I described in the handwritten note on this page as a "Possible design for the machine which creates the dimensional doorway (for movie #4)".

I don't remember all of the details of the story or stories for the proposed fourth live-action movie we discussed back then, but I do seem to recall that this was one way we were considering introducing a new Turtle character. -- PL

Blast from the Past #689: Sketchbook page 34, notes on ideas for proposed TMNT comic

On page 34 of the sketchbook, I had jotted down some notes on ideas for the TMNT comic that Kevin and I planned to do together. It's interesting to me how some of these ended up (in one form or another) in my TMNT Volume 4 series. 

I've typed out the notes below so as to make them easier to read. -- PL 

10/20/94

-- virus brought by aliens to Earth -- or that aliens take from Earth back to the stars? some kind of mutant AIDS virus

-- maybe AIDS was originally an alien disease

-- would aliens want to settle on Earth? Maybe do home-swap with some humans

-- Fugitoid comes back with TCRI's -- he's their spokesperson/being?

Something happens during these three (?) issues that results in his body being destroyed

Our Earth First And Last (OEFAL): radical reactionary group opposed to aliens and the idea that Earth is not supreme

-- when we first see the guys in this series, they already have their new costumes (except that Don has no visor and Raph doesn't have the "skull" chest plate 

this looks this way when he morphs

-- should we set this story 3 years in the future?

--  April has taken on the mantle of Nobody (the original has died?), and is married to Casey Jones, and is one month pregnant (though she has told no one yet).

Where are the transmats going to be located? What will they be like?

Maybe the Utroms bring one ship, land it, build one transmat, and use that one to beam in all the stuff needed to build the other ones.

-- have the city be five times as paranoid as usual when the aliens announce their presence -- people with guns and telescopes on rooftops watching for aliens

Blast from the Past #688: Sketchbook page 33, non-TMNT-related creature

This drawing on page 33 of the sktetchbook has nothing to do with Turtles -- I suspect I started it during a meeting when I was bored or tired of drawing Turtle stuff. 

I don't know if I had a purpose in mind for this critter, but I think I like the way it looks. -- PL

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 #686: Sketchbook page 31, another drawing of Splinter in new mutation form

On page 31 of the sketchbook, I did another loose drawing of Splinter in his were-rat new mutation mode, this time from a slightly different angle to try to work out how he would look from the side and back. Again, this photo-blue pencil drawing had to be tweaked in Photoshop to show up better.

Some of you might be wondering why I used this hard-to-reproduce photo-blue pencil on so many of these sketches. Well, my main reason was that unlike traditional black or grey pencil leads (really, graphite), the photo-blue pencils tend to smudge a lot less easily. Also, because -- by their very nature -- the lines drawn with a photo-blue pencil typically don't show up when a drawing is photographed for reproduction, you can be a lot looser and messier with your sketching and not have to worry so much about the stray lines being reproduced after you've inked a piece. -- PL

Blast from the Past #685: Sketchbook page 30, Splinter in new mutation form

Here on page 30 of the sketchbook, I drew Splinter in a pose showing off some of the aspects of his new "were-rat" mutation. I kind of like this pose.

As with some of the sketches on previous pages, this one was drawn in photo-blue pencil and needed some Photoshop tweaking to show up more clearly, so please excuse the occasional odd artifact of that process. -- PL

Blast from the Past #684: Sketchbook page 29, female Nobody

Likely pursuant to the note I wrote on page 14 of this sketchbook, here on page 29 is this loose, unfinished sketch of a female version of "Nobody", the costumed crime fighter first introduced in the pages of the first volume of the "Tales of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles" comics way back when.

I had started inking this one, again with a brush, but apparently got bored with it or got called away with other, more urgent duties. -- 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 #682: Sketchbook page 26, close-up of Raphael in new mutation mode

Here on page 26 of the sketchbook is a study of Raphael in his new mutation mode, with claws extended. This one was inked with a brush. -- PL

Blast from the Past #681: Sketchbook page 25, new-look Foot ninja

Here on page 25 of the sketchbook is another drawing of the "new look" Foot ninja in various actions poses, displaying traditional and non-traditional weapons. 

This piece was not inked with a brush, but with some kind of markers. -- PL

Blast from the Past #680: Sketchbook page 24, Raphael fighting Foot ninja

From page 24 of the sketchbook, here's a more elaborate drawing, fully inked with a brush, depicting Raphael -- in new mutation mode -- engaging some new-look Foot ninja in a bloody battle. 

I like this one. -- PL

P.S. I just noticed an interesting detail -- the skull-like sculpting of Raph's plastron.