Goldenbird

Mayann drawn in different artists’ styles. Can you see which is which? It was not so easy to imitate some of them… especially in this heat that we’re having.

It was interesting to look up models for Mayann from the various artists’ work. Hugo Pratt and Rumiko Takahashi have many appealing female characters. Jacques Tardi has, of course, the famously grumpy heroine Adèle Blanc-Sec. Riyoko Ikeda’s style was most difficult to imitate, the proportions are very different from how I usually draw. However, I used to draw more like her in my late teens…

Yoshikazu Yasuhiko’s inks are amazing in reality, my homage does them no justice. But I’ve always felt irritated by the faces of his young heroes and heroines. They always look the same, too! For Mayann, I couldn’t find any appealing female figure in Yasuhiko’s works. His girls tend to be sassy damsels in distress. Mayann looks better when she is ready to fight. Oh, you haven’t seen her fight yet in Goldenbird… Just you wait…

Both Rumiko Takahashi and Yoshikazu Yasuhiko do some amazing colouring in their work. I’m not very good at imitating watercolour in Photoshop. Suggestions of nice (and cheap!) paint programs are warmly welcomed.

Final note: Dear Edgar P. Jacobs. I know, women would just be an unwelcome distraction from Blake & Mortimer’s epic bromance. But even Tintin and Captain Haddock had Castafiore. After browsing through my album collection (with delight, to be sure) I had to use a drawing of Dr Mortimer for Mayann’s expression. It’s funny how she looks like a villainess…