new dawn, new day... new hope?

rocky wakes up and takes in the sunrise before heading back to a long day of walking through the desert.

- nate x

nightfall

is that one word or two? anyway...

rocky, the lone wolf stops to rest for the night. while he sits there waiting for nightfall, he pulls something out and looks at it, longingly.

what is he looking at?

wandering through the desert

here's my lone wolf, rocky, walking on his lonely journey through the desert. this is from the opening scene of the animation.

where's he going?

- nate x

wolftown

temporary name for the village in my lone wolf movie. i thought it would be interesting if they built their town in a circle with the more major buildings outside of it. everything is somewhat natural so it's all shades of brown for their desert town. i also realized that i should add a water source so it was more believable that they would have all settled there. i haven't done much set and background design yet, but i'm trying to figure out buildings and settings.

- nate x

lone wolf turn arounds

the main characters of my current movie project. see this post for more info on the concepts behind them.

my x-mens

i've often thought about how much i would like to work on x-men. i don't know why, but it's always been my favorite marvel franchise. if i was in charge of them, these are the core members i would use and these are the costumes i would go with.

cyclops- he's the best leader. and he can be a cool character if you let him. he has to keep himself totally under control because he's scared of how powerful he is when he's not in control. he usually keeps his costumes pretty basic, so i tried to do that. i also prefer him to have no hood on his costume.

phoenix- my favorite of the x-girls. she was one of the originals, and the original love interest for cyclops. plus she has good powers and the potential for the dark phoenix is interesting. i wanted to incorporate her green but still keep her costume in line with the others.

beast- he's always been my favorite. i don't know why. probably because my favorite color is blue and that's all it used to take as a little kid. i also like that he can't hide his mutation, plus the whole genius in beast's body is cool. he's never really had a decent costume, though. i am totally against cat-face beast. i think that was a bad choice. i much prefer ape-style beast and tried to emphasize the ape in him, giving him massive forearms and shoulders. i also gave him more of a costume than just pants or underwear. he's tricky though, because he has to keep enough exposed so he doesn't lose his flexibility. i like what i came up with... even if you just see it from the back here.

wolverine- it seems no x-team is complete without wolvie these days. i do like him though. i like how he balances out cyclops. while cyke is always in control and wishes he didn't have to be, wolverine is a wildman wishing he could be more civil. plus, wolverine is like, the ultimate tough guy and i love that about him. he's a runt, so he bulked up as much as he could. he's always the first to rush in to a fight even though he's never the most powerful. he's a cool character and i can see why he's become so popular. i based this costume on his astonishing one. i think it's my favorite for him because it still gives us the stupid mask, stripes and yellow that we love, but also makes it more reasonable. i thought the paneling on the sides also fit well with how i wanted to make their costumes. i gave him a belt with the 'x' on it rather than the little circle because he's more of an add on x-man than an original.

so i wrote a lot more than i planned on... oh well

- nate x

About Me

I am an illustrator who likes to draw superheroes, cartoon characters, animals, and skulls. I'm currently working on my first comic series (I can't talk about it yet but it's going to be awesome). I live in Ohio with my beautiful wife and adorable pug. This space is blog branch of my website (https://www.natexopher.com/) where I can talk a little more freely, show off some extra work, and give some peaks behind the scenes. Take a look around. I hope you like what you see.

- Nate Xopher

lone wolf characters

i'm working on a movie this semester about a lone wolf character. i figured, what better way to emphasize him being a lone wolf than having him be a wolf (cartoons are fun like that). i tried some different face shapes and proportions before i finally settled on the one i liked. i don't draw animal characters as much as i should, so it takes me longer to figure out how they fit in my style. once i had the male wolf, rocky, it was easier to come up with the girl wolf (still working on a name). i wanted the movie to take place in a desert so i tried to dress rocky appropriately. a black t-shirt may not be the smartest choice, but i thought it worked well with his utility belt, pants, boots and handkerchief. the girl wolf is more in the village area than the desert, so she can wear more civilian clothing. i thought her scarf was a good complement to rocky's handkerchief.
the bird character (who i'm thinking about naming dexter) is supposed to be a little more earthy. that's why he has green and brown and why he doesn't wear shoes... well he doesn't have shoes for another reason, but you'll see that later.

this is still in production, but i wanted to start introducing it here on my blog so i can bring everyone up to speed for when it's finished. i'm super excited about this project.

- nate x

hydro and ash

i wanted to make some of my own super heroes that could be just as fun as these marvel and dc characters i have been drawing. i also wanted to make a girl super hero because there just aren't that many... especially ones with good super powers. this was also a way for me to test creating effects, like hydro's water body and ash's flames.
i'm not sure how often i'll draw these two, but i like them for now.

- nate x

fake pirate

i had to illustrate the word "fake" for class. i thought it would be funny to have a pirate with fake versions of fake limbs. i tried to go for a much rougher style with minimal coloring. i like the way it came out, but i'm not sure how often i'll use this type of finish

- nate x

punisher

umm... fourth in my marvel series. i drew him at the same time as ghost rider and just now got around to coloring him. i tried something different with the colors and i'm not sure how i feel about it, but it's growing on me

- nate x

ghost rider

the third in a line of marvel designs. this one is a character i'm not sure i've ever drawn before. truth is, i dont' know much about him. i saw his movie, even though i hate nicholas cage, and still don't really know much about him.. except that his movie was lame. anyway, i like his cheesy design of a biker dude with a flaming skull who carries a chain, so i thought he'd be fun to draw. he was.

- nate x

upside down

spider-man is always fun to draw...even upside down. this is the second in my on-going marvel character pieces. fantastic four was first. i think it's a big improvement over the last spidey piece i did, which is always good. i'm always trying to improve and make more professional work

- nate x

fantastic four

i've been working on some marvel character interpretations. i've also been working on trying to improve my linework and coloring. i really like how this came out.

more marvels to come

- nate x

the dark knight

i don't draw batman very often, but i did draw him way back in august. i always liked the way this drawing came out so i finally decided to give it colors a little while ago... or gray scale...

i'm more marvel than dc, but i do like batman and all of his villains

- nate x

wolverine in 3d

i wanted to try my hand at 3D modeling. for some reason, i thought wolverine would be a good character to start with. he was my first try at modeling from my sketches. i used the ink n paint material but have since used another process to get similar, but better, results. i've also included the animation test i did with him just using bip files.

- nate x

to let something go

this is what i spent all summer working on. they're four 7x3.5 foot panels painted in latex paint. that's the biggest i've ever worked.

i'll let my artist statement explain it...
"I meant this series to show a whimsical narrative that will engage the viewer's sense of wonder and imagination. The setting, characters, conflict, and plot are all provided, though only as suggestions. My illustrations are meant to engage the viewer in a way that allows them to interpret the story however they may choose."

this is on permanent display in one of the residential buildings on campus

- nate x

chewbacca

this is a rougher sketch of one of my favorite characters, chewbacca. i don't know why, but he was always my favorite star wars character.

i also was a little bit of a rush for this, but thought the rougher linework looked good for this.

- nate x

cocoa drops

this was for a project in class. well, that's how it started. we had to take a product and redo the character and packaging for it. i found some dollar store cerael, called cocoa drops and this is who i came up with. he's a breakfast gladiator.

- nate x

film noir

every once in a while i try to do more than just a character drawing and try to do either a scene or a montage. i'm still working on my montages, but i like how this composition came out. i liked all the characters i came up with for 'missing' and the following 10 issue comic i did about ace and a missing necklace. i'd like to work with all of them again in the future.

- nate x

'missing'

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_Wt419_24w

i figured i should go ahead and post the film itself before i forgot.

- nate x

the cast of 'missing'

this was a great film project i worked on about a year ago. it went through a lot of transformations along the way. it went from stop motion, to flash animation, to a film told through still comic book style frames. it was a group project, though not always a group effort. still, i gained a lot of experience and had the chance to design some great characters.

'missing' is a film noir detective story about a man who goes... well... missing... i'll have to upload the video some time.

from left to right: ace, scarlet, snake eyes, hammerhead, lyons

the mushroom kingdom

i think this is probably about as far back as i'll go with my work ... unless i find something really cool i just have to show you.

this came from a joke i made a while back. the idea was to make the mushroom kingdom just a crappy apartment building rather than a magical land. bowser would be the landlord and the other characters would just be living there. mario and luigi are still plumbers and yoshi is their pet iguana. toad is a kid who lives down the hall and peach is the girl living right across from them.
basically it was just a fun way to ruin your favorite characters... in a fun way...
bowser would still be the bad guy because he'd always want their rent and everybody would go out and have go kart races and stuff... yeah... you get the idea

plus, in doing the research for this i realized wario is like the coolest guy ever.
seriously. just look at him.

- nate x

back a little farther

...to prehistoric times! well actually i made this somewhere around a year and a half ago. it was my first assignment in illustration 1 and my first time using gouache. i like how it came out, but i don't think it's a process i'll be using too often. in fact, i haven't used it since.

um... yeah. he's a t-rex assassin. that came from a conversation with my roommate at the time.

- nate x

about a girl

hello-

since this is my first entry here, i feel i should start with a strong piece. this is also about as far back in my work as i'd like to go. i finished this illustration right around one year ago. my style changed a lot around then and has been adjusting and expanding since then. still, i love this drawing. a lot of my work is more character based, but every now and then i try to make something with a story in it. this one features two of my own characters and a story most of us can relate to.

drawn in pencil, scanned, colored in photoshop

- nate x