" En Guarde you Ruffian! " ("Robin Hood")
Pencil Marks: When Tony and I sat down to figure out which movies each of us wanted to pencil this season, the first one I went for was "Robin Hood". I knew it was being hyped up as the long anticipated "Gladiator" reunion of Russell Crowe and director Ridley Scott, but that was the farthest thing from my mind; especially when the film's trailers made the hero appear as a brooding growling hell raiser. You know, the typical role Russell Crowe likes to portray. Well to me, that's not Robin of Nottingham (or if you go by the original poem, Huntington). No, the bandit of Sherwood Forest was and always will be a free-spirited swashbuckling character who laughs in the face of danger and actually enjoys getting himself in trouble. A hero who will whistle a tune while in the midst of a bloody sword fight. Basically the Robin Hood that was brilliantly embodied by the great Erroll Flynn. That was the Robin Hood I immediately thought of when given the chance to draw this picture because I knew whatever idea I came up with, it'd be a lot of fun.
As it turns out, it was that ball of enthusiasm that limited me.
No matter what I came up with, be it jokes about Kevin Cosner or a homage to Daffy Duck (who I think is a better Robin Hood than Russell Crowe. Oh yeah, I went there!), I kept coming back to images of Erroll Flynn's version in my head. So eventually I accepted the truth and knew the only thing I could do would be taking a scene from that film and implementing Erik into it. And what better moment than Robin's thrilling swordfight with Sir Guy of Gisbourne on the steps of Prince John's castle.
When it came to the villain, I knew right away I wanted to draw Rahistal instead of Sir Guy given his costume is very Renaissance inspired. But it wasn't until after I had finished all the pencils I realized this would be the first time Erik's arch-enemy was going to be appearing in a Summer Blockbuster Gallery pic. After ten years, it was odd neither of us had ever used him before. - Jake
Paint Smudges: Robin of Huntington? Seriously Jake? Where the hell is Huntington? Personally I prefer the tales of Robin Hood of Nottingham - but if you want to tell me one of your tales of "Robin of Huntington" please do so.
All kidding aside Jake handed me almost exactly what I pictured based on his ideas that were tossed around during our annual round table (the table in the back corner of the local Burger King) planning session. It usually doesn't happen this way - the pictures are usually completely different from what I expect - that isn't to say its a bad thing, just surprising.
The inking and coloring for this one went pretty smoothly. Which isn't surprising considering that this is one of the more "plain" pictures we've posted in the Gallery in a while. Not that its a bad thing, but we've both been hoping for some more complicated and challenging pictures for this year (which Jake gave me when he handed me the pictures for the NEXT entry - and yes, that was plural).
The only thing that really caught me up was the stone work that takes up a majority of the picture. I've never been able to properly ink or color proper stone, and as you can see above I still can't. At least the picture turned out nicely - and its good to see that Jake incorporated some of my Rahistal redesign ideas. I really appreciate that.
And even though this is a "Robin Hood" picture we couldn't resist tossing in a joke that actually ties to another of our favorite movies. No hints though, since the joke is rather subtle and easy to overlook. Unfortunately Jake and I will be fighting for a long time over this joke - since I KNOW I put the joke in there myself and he continues to try and take credit. - Tony