Old Vs. New: Lane Osborne 2008 vs. 2009

Here's a concept I shamelessly ripped off the Nostalgia Critic, old vs. new. I took this idea because I seem to remake my old pictures quite often and I wanted to study wether or not it was worth it, or was I merely retreading old ground for no real gain as an artist?

Our first contender is the old: September A, 2009


























And out competitor, from just under a year later, August A, 2010


















Let's break this down into key categories and see which picture emerges victorious:

Background:

Now the background on the old version is detailed, if a little crassly drawn, there is visible walls and ceiling. Does it make it a good background? No, but it is there. On the new, however, there is no background, but a blue grey abyss. It is a shame, because ti would have really popped as a remake if the original background had been done, but better. One of the letdowns this piece has to offer, point to the old.

Composition and Details

The detaisl are what can truly sell a picture, so which one has the goods? The original has Lane on a laptop beside him is a wonky table with a few CD's and paper notes scattered around. I think I did a good job of creating a clutter. There is a CD spindle but they look too small.
The new has a more refined space. Lane now uses a desktop in a major departure from the original, and he is now relaxed and showing off the laziness that is his character trait. The desk is now solid and more geometrically accurate. There is less clutter, but it's more believable, there is now little paper and a 1TB harddrive, the CD spindle looks to be better fleshed out. I give that point to the new.

Lighting

The lighting in the old is very basic, there's a dark hallway but the room is bright with minimal shading. The new employs a more detailed lighting scheme, it's now a darkened room and monitor light reflects off Lane and his surroundings, it is more believable lighting for an underground teenage hacker. Point to the new.

Character

Ah yes, character. The most imprtant part, which one nailed it?

Lane is a teenage hacker millionaire slacker, both the original and remake had the right colours. In the original Lane looks uncomfortable, uptight and hard working, in the remake he is slouching and sipping a coke for added effect. Original Lane has a USB drive around his neck, wish I had put that int he remake. Remake Lane lacks the stubble his character is meant to have, which was a major oversight. However, I'm going new on this one, because his slacker personality comes through more, and let's face it, he's better drawn too. It was close on that last one, but point goes to the new.

There you have it. The reason why I remake old pictures. Now I only remake a picture if I believe I can improve upon it in a major and dramatic way. I also never remake a second time. I believe this one stacks up to that ideal.

May B, 2005

May B this isn't the worst picture I have done, May B It only needed a bit of a tweak, May B it's a train wreck, no, it's definitely not that bad.

Not much else to say on it really. I can't remember too much about this character except he was supposed to be an angel. This is where the weird fading and eyes come into it.

I went for a faded colour scheme, I was fond of movies like Sin City at the time. I wanted to capture that sort of effect.

Anke's last picture for MAX was on January of this year.

April B, 2005

Finally, after what seems like eternity, here is season 2 of Confessions.

I missed the deadline on this one for Tranquil, and ended up on the blacklist. Well, that's nothing compared to the year or so on the BL that's coming up soon!

This character is Horral. Usually he has a more elegant robe. I chose to draw Horral for a number of reasons. First, I wanted to get off the blacklist in time for the upcoming round, which was days away, and two I needed a character that I could draw easily, and Horral, with his wrinkles and oldness fit the bill perfectly.

The end result is rather crude, and one of the finer examples of a MAX going horribly wrong. This is a sad excuse off the blacklist, and absolute train wreck.

I reckon those pyramids in the distance look kinda cool, but them alone wont redeem this picture. It's crying out for a remake and the next time I get Tranquil, I just may...

February A, 2005

Submitted for: Dotchan
Character: Nakaruru.


I don't know what to say. Firstly, this submission has to be one of the finest examples of not sticking true to a character, the clothes that I chose to draw her in are not exactly in this characters wardrobe, neither is an example of her showing midriff, but there it is.

About the only thing that is actually IN context here is she is drawn super Saiyan, which Dotchan had done.

Shading is too intense and colours chosen awful. The shading on her skin looks like sunburn while shading on her top looks like sweat patches. Highlighting on the top is too intense and it ends up looking like plastic.


The pants have no discernible detail in them, she is missing any hint of hands (there would still be some visible sign even if she had her arms folded.) and the belt is rushed and unfinished.

The biggest "what was I thinking?" moment is the midriff, which the character doesn't have in ANY of Dot's original work. OK, I couldn't draw Saiyan armour at the time but still...

This picture is being remade truer to the original character's clothing choices.

Dotchan still participates in each round of MAX and Nakaruru is still a character that can be drawn for the exchange, although her name has since changed to Nataku.

Januray A, 2005.

Submitted for: Sonia
Character: Cerulean.


I started the new year of 2005 with this picture of Sonia's Cerulean. I only had a black and white picture to reference this character, so it gave me some liberty with colours.

I took it a little too far. Green hair? Blue decoration at the top of his staff and then red,yellow and silver armour and clothing? It all clashes horribly. If I did this submission again as a remake, I'd make the staff decoration glow red. I'd also choose a hair colour that suited the era better. I can't really remember if green hair was specified or I thought it would look cool. My guess is the latter, I remember making up all the colours for this one.


Once again we see the malnourished forearms continue to plague my subs, the hidden hand is typical of this time and hints strongly that I had difficulty drawing them. The hand that is showing look ugly and consists entirely of index fingers. The armour is okay, but looks like it has dulled but shines at the same time.

The staff is wonky and uneven, looks like it was crafted by a drunk sculptor after his latest bender. If I bought a staff like that, I'd demand a refund.

I don't know why the cape has pink stripes, or why it looks stiff and sturdier than the metal armour. The armour is also half- Dragonball type mishmash.

This is a horrible submission! The only part I like about it is the blue light affects the skin tone on his face, 4 and a half years before I would find the technique difficult to apply to one of my new pictures!

Sonia no longer participates in MAX.

December B, 2004

Submitted for: Hawk
Character: Ben

It was Hawk and his artwork that first drew me to MAX, in the most random way. Being a Evangelion fan at the time, I was google image searching for pictures of Shinji to use on forum signatures. I was through about 3 pages of crappy quality, same-as-every-other-Evangelion-fan-site pictures, when I spotted something different, something high quality, something with a bit of depth and originality.

I then saw that this Shinji was different. Fan art, I sighed. I never use fanart in my signatures without the permission of the artist. It was a good picture, too good to let go, so I decided to do just that. I closed the google frame and went hunting through the website. It was then that I learnt that this Shinji was another artists original character, and that you could get your characters drawn for you in an exchange program. I hurried to update my website, got a better understanding of digital colouring through Hawk's tutorial, and joined in on the fun. I never did make that Shinji signature. I was too busy drawing other peoples characters!


I chose to draw Ben because he was awesome. I was originally going to draw Hawk's cartoon alter-ego, but that was too daunting to me at the time.

This time I drew and coloured the character in Flash, and I think it turned out pretty well. I finished the background in Photoshop and it is an homage to the picture that brought me here, with the green and black background and computer text.

It's a step up from the last two, I think, although Ben's hand looks like a spatula, and his hair is gray. I attribute that to the monitor I was using at the time, it had it's brightness/contrast settings on ultra-dark, and then the settings buttons were killed. Grrrr. When I drew this the hair was jet black I tell ya, jet black!


I forgot the tape on his arms, and I had to go back into flash to add those. Looks seamless enough though.

Just for comparisons sake, I might remake this one.


Hawk is the founder of MAX, which was originally hosted on his own website. In 2007 he partnered with Sam and moved MAX over to ComicDish.

November B, 2004

Submitted for: Fenrir
Character Name: Misty

Okay, so this romp through the submissions of my MAX past just keeps getting weirder. When I saw this one again, I seriously contemplated disowning it, blaming it on a hacker who hijacked my computer to submit sub par entries and tarnish my good name. Then again, we learn from our mistakes. We learn from the awful entries and the questionable plastic clothing to become better artists, these are the entries that pave our road to achieve our goals and blah blah blah yeh. I never believed that crap anyway.

Where to begin? Looks like our green haired friend had a fight with the lawnmower, took a handle-less blade to a knife fight where the knives had handles, and stabbed someone. Clothes a plastic and crass. A static background gives new meaning to the term static background. What, is she piercing through a TV to stab her victim in an homage to The Ring?

And that hand? Yeah, its a koala hand. Why? Because.

The fact that their forearms are always malnourished in these pics while the rest of their person is very much nourished leaves a lot to be desired. One can only speculate that the forearms went on a hunger strike.

Bleh. I can't bring myself to write any more about this travesty of art, this waste of computer electricity, this, this.... this thing.


Fenrir changed her name to F.K and has since retired the character of Misty. Pictures like this are the reason why (kidding!)

Thanks to Hawk for the correction.