oddbill

A re-imagining of a 1940′s comic book hero as part of the Remake/Remodel challenge on Warren Ellis’ Whitechapel Forum

A re-imagining of the 1930′s space adventure comic book character Rex Dexter.

In the picture, from left to right, are Cynde, Rex Dexter, Dr. Harvey and some guy who is Dr. Harvey’s assistant, but is never named.

I did this for Warren Ellis’ Whitechapel forum Remake/Remodel challenge thread.

Although this was meant to be just an exercise, I’ve grown really attached to these character designs, and have been thinking of ways to make them their own thing so I can do something more with them.

Several years ago I created some costumes for a short film a friend made based on characters from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Initially I did some design drawings, but as deadlines loomed I found that I didn’t have enough time, operating as a one man costume shop, to adhere to the discipline of concept design, working drawings, build. I ended up just going with my gut and building pieces straight up, with little or no design work. I worked around the clock for many days. I called in “sick” to work so often I was afraid I’d lose my job. At one point I became so fatigued I lost the ability to distinguish color. I could see that things had different colors, but I couldn’t tell what they were!

Despite (because of?) this madness, the costumes came out pretty good.

Afterward, when the whole project was finished, I thought I’d like to go back to some of the characters and re-design them in drawings the way I might if the film ever got a budget and the costumes could be re-built closer to the heart’s desire.

I never finished this re-design, but some of the drawings are nice.

I thought I’d post a couple of them for you to see.

At some point I’ll go back and assemble all the photos, design drawings and stories from that experience and get them up here, because I think looking at the whole experience laid out online will be fun. I might even finish the re-design project.

Hope you enjoy looking!