Thursday, May 8, 2014

Quantum Lad


How to dress up a nicely built but ordinary art model? Give him some pin-up ornamentation and a "posing pouch" and that will do just fine. I did this piece, along with its companions, for the, uh, "specialty" market. I wasn't trying to compete with my blog buddy Tristan, he's much more imaginative with his figures. This wasn't from a live model, but from one of my many model-photo books. Drawing on colored paper is fun and in a way some of your work is already done for you by the background tone. You don't have to build the whole figure, just add lighter and darker parts. 

I named him "Quantum Lad" as a tribute to the "Legion of Super-Heroes" whose hero names usually include a "lad" or a "lass" or a more prosaic "boy" or "girl," such as "Cosmic Boy" and "Saturn Girl." There actually has been a "Kid Quantum" in the Legion. The Legionnaires usually wear more clothes, though. I have been a "Legion of Super-heroes" fan most of my life, though they are DC and not Marvel. 

"Quantum Lad" asks the question: Why use the name "Quantum?" To appeal to Gay physicists, perhaps. But are there any Gay physicists? I have met one or two. Physics is such a macho business and they pretend that orientation doesn't matter. Anyway, "Quantum Lad" is one of my better figure drawings but he would need a better costume to get into the Legion of Super-Heroes.

Colored pencil and gouache on brown paper, 10" x 7", October 2000.

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