When Jake first mentioned a few years ago the idea someone he knows was challenging him to draw an established character from another comic book, my first thought was "why?". Then I got to thinking on how good such an excersize could do. For one thing it would help the artist branch out into different character styles than he or she is used to. Then again you could just say you are doing it just to see how well you can draw a particular character. So after thinking about it a bit I mentioned to Jake that we should do some sort of monthly "face-off" kind of deal where we would both pick a character and draw. Not to see "whos is best", but to define our differences in styles. For our opening "Face/Off" we choose "Ghost Rider". Sadly, our experiment only lasted two months; but still, it was pretty fun.
I always pictured Ghost Rider as the kind of guy that you'd want to avoid, I mean the guy has got a flaming skull for crying out loud! So I tried to incorporate that sort of feeling into the picture. I don't really know where I was going with the whole "chain and sickle" thing, but I feel that it actually fits the character.
I finished it up in Photoshop, adding neat shading effects and an etheral glow to the chain. In the end I am actually surprised, since I haven't actually drawn this character before. It turned out pretty good if you ask me. -Tony
