Category Archives: Cool Characters

Thanks to extraordinarily quick response times from Kaldath and great reference photos, I am happy to present the winning prize for the Patriot Hero contest:

Many thanks to everyone who entered, and to Kaldath for a fun and interesting character concept to design around. He has the HeroMachine versions of Salara and Kaldath available online, if you want to see what they looked like coming out of the program.

Congratulations again to Kaldath, and I hope you all enjoy seeing his concepts in color. Don't forget, your chance to win your very own black and white custom illustration is going on now thanks to the weekly HeroMachine Caption Contest, so head on over and try your luck!

And as a bonus, here's a close-up of Salara:

Loki and I have finished his prize for winning Caption Contest 28. Here's the HM version he sent:

And here's the custom version I did:

Thanks to Loki for a cool design!

DJ and I have finished his prize for winning Caption Contest 27, a Native American character he calls "Birdhawk":

You've got one more day to enter Caption Contest 29 and win your very own custom black and white illustration of whatever you like, so get busy!

Evil Midnight Lurker and I have completed his prize for winning Caption Contest 26. Based entirely on his own imagination and in no way modeled on any current cartoon character owned by a major prone-to-litigation company, here's The Mighty Fishduck!

Thanks again to EML and Mighty God King for helping out with that contest. If you want to win your very own custom black and white illustration of whatever you like, head over to Caption Contest 29: Shiver Me Nips going on right now!

The prize for Caption Contest 25 is done, and we're happy to bring you SpiriTech0! The description Jose sent was:

His codename is Spiritech-Zero. He is an armored psychic warrior. A psychosis prevents him from remote-viewing, so he's a hands-on kinda guy. He wears modern military fatigues, helmet, and equipment belt with holstered pistol. His armor consists of spiked gloves and shoulder pads. A striped mask, knee-protecting boots, simple breastplate, and techno-wings for shields complete the armor. He wields a polearm with a crystal at the end through which he focuses his energy. He's a paranormal mix of military tech and mystical knowledge.

And after much tweaking, we arrived at the following illustration:

(Click for a larger version)

Want to win your very own custom black and white illustration of whatever you like (within reason)? Put on that Funny Cap and head over to Caption Contest 28, going on now!

Jonny and I have finished his illustration prize for winning Caption Contest 24, and it's his own creation called "The Marshall". Here was Jonny's description:

I call him the Marshall. Picture super agents meet old west cowboys. Fedora,buckskin jacket,biker boots, and underneath it all is high tech bodyarmor. The Marshall always has a smile on his face no matter the circumstance. Lamb chop sideburns,and Rayban style shades are his hallmark. Standard issue sidearm in a thigh holster ,and if he is expecting trouble a submachine gun completes the kit. The Marshall is a combo of Nick Fury,John Wayne,and James Bond.

I added a toothpick, but it seemed to fit. And while that might be more of a snarl/grimace than a smile, I think it turned out really well:

Don't miss your chance to win your own custom illustration in Caption Contest 25, going on now!

Danny and I have finished his prize for winning Caption Contest 23, "The Battling Patriot":

Many thanks to Danny for the great direction and concept, I'm very happy with the way this one turned out.

If you want to win your very own custom black and white illustration, head on over to "Caption Contest 25:Clown Town", going on now!

DJ and I have finished the prize for winning Caption Contest 22! It's a drawing of DJ and niece Sarah:

Don't forget, your chance to win your own custom illustration of whatever you like is going on now with Caption Contest 23: Maximum Haberdashery!

Socrates and I have finalized his prize for winning Caption Contest 21. Here's the great description Socrates sent me:

As for my prize, I'd like for you to do a picture of my longtime roleplaying character Captain Thorn. He's sort of a World War One/Victorian era British adventurer, refined yet savage at the same time. I made a picture of him using heromachine which is fairly accurate which can be found at http://freewebs.com/captainthorn/captainthorn.jpg (the pants aren't really right though)... his hair is steel gray but whitening at the temples due to age, cropped short, his skin dark and sunbronzed and weathered with age, never without a five o'clock shadow and a cigar in his mouth. His clothing is basically safari gear, adventure type garb with a cowboy-style gunbelt and holster. He's roughly forty-five or so http://tristram.wikispaces.com/space/showimage/facemaker.jpg is a pretty good depiction of what he looks like. always has a sort of shiteating grin on his face.. sort of a cross between Indy, Doc Savage, and James Bond with a little Crocodile Dundee thrown in there. A shot of him firing a Webley pistol would be just great

I actually ended up doing two different versions of the illustration because I couldn't decide which I preferred. I did this one first, which I liked:

(click for a larger version)

But then I decided that I really wanted him to be fighting a big cybernetic gorilla. So that's what I did:

(click for a larger version)

Remember kids, and this is an important tip for any of you parents out there too, everything's better when there's a cyborg ape involved. You can write that down.

If you want to win your very own custom illustration of whatever you like, put on your thinking cap and head over to Caption Contest 23, going on now!

Rob Rogers and I have finalized his winning prize for Caption Contest 20. He chose one of the main characters from his excellent novel, "Devil's Cape" (on sale now, go get your copy if you haven't already, it rocks!), named "Doctor Camelot":

This was a fun one to do, I don't usually have an entire novel of source material from which to draw. Rob gives great direction and feedback, too, which also makes things both easier and more fun. Hope everyone likes it!

And don't forget, you too could win your very own custom black and white illustration if your entry is selected in Caption Contest 22!