The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. My assignment is to redesign him as a superhero. As a comics and animation fan, superheroes are one of my major interests, so I had a lot of inspiration to work off of relative to superheros but also other sources outside of this genre.
Historical perspective:
“In February 1925, with the Jazz Age in full swing, a new weekly magazine called The New Yorker made its debut. For the first cover, the founding editor, Harold Ross, and the artist Rea Irvin chose an image that would encapsulate what the magazine was not: neither stuffy nor starchy, and holding nothing too precious or sacred. The slyest readers picked up on this intent from Irvin’s illustration, which took the ironic form of a top-hatted, high-collared dandy, squinting at the world through a monocle. His name? Eustace Tilley.
Through the years, Tilley reappeared on the cover of the Anniversary issue, sometimes in his original form, but eventually reimagined by prominent graphic artist. The great underground comic artist R. Crumb depicted Tilley as a scowling punk. The photographer William Wegman reimagined Tilley as one of his trademark Weimaraner dogs.”
Brainstorming and Sketches
I brought in a lot of inspiration from my interests for the character’s appearance and abilities. I wanted the abilities to be connected to Eustace Tilley’s history and origin as a trademark of The New Yorker. The New Yorker is a magazine of creative literature, which got me to first start thinking of the “The King” episode of 2003 TMNT. I then started finding powers connected to writing that I wanted to use: writing manifestation and narration power. I imagined that these powers came from a magical pen that could change size and the largest size he could use to fly on.
Pencil Sketches
I realized his powers made him too powerful, mainly the narration power's ability to manipulate reality. So re-imagined the character as Eustuce's grandson, Eugene, who inherits the pen from him. He's an eager athletic character but lacks literacy. The narration power is limited to the use of a special book that is kept safe by the grandfather.
Inked Poses
I took out the extra pose because I was having difficulty with figuring out how I wanted the pen to fly with the nib pointing in front or behind. When it was in front made a good place to place his foot but in behind could propel ink to make him fly. Instead I added a pencil sketch of Eugene's casual look that I wanted to contrast from his dapper costume by having him dress more modern and sporty.
Digital Enhancements Progress
I started with applying a purple/blue color overlay to the poses. I started with throwing some colors onto the center pose.
Digitally Enhanced
I finished the color bases and found the color scheme that worked. I gave him a tan to reflect off of his athletic life. I also turned the pen nib into his emblem which I put onto the book and turned into a pattern for his vest.
Fix-ups
I decreased the shadow between the eyes of the casual face close-up and made his leg in the left pose thinner.