{"id":10011,"date":"2012-10-08T05:11:23","date_gmt":"2012-10-08T10:11:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=10011"},"modified":"2021-07-07T07:42:58","modified_gmt":"2021-07-07T11:42:58","slug":"the-return-of-cosmic-maaaannnnnn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/10\/08\/the-return-of-cosmic-maaaannnnnn\/","title":{"rendered":"The Return of Cosmic, Maaaannnnnn!!!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>\"\"<\/a>Tina’s birthday was fast approaching, and I didn’t have a rock solid, hysterically funny idea for a card so I decided to revisit a friend from last year’s anniversary card, Cosmic, Maaaannnnnn!<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>I did the sketch above during my commute to and from work on the Market-Frankford El in a hard-bound sketchbook that I was cursing last week.<\/a> A subway train sounds like a terrible place to try to get any decent drawing done, but it’s not that bad. The car shakes and rocks as it goes over the tracks which is all right for roughing out the sketch that I do in either a 0.9mm red or indigo blue mechanical pencil. When the train stops at a station, it gives me the opportunity to refine the lines. It’s not the optimal sketching studio, but I enjoy it, and the ideas seem to flow in the morning. I refine stuff on my way home.<\/p>\n

I couldn’t possibly ink the sketch on the train, so I took it home to my drawing table to do that. I used Pigma markers and the fabulous Pentel Pocket Brush<\/a> which is a tactile joy to use rather than struggle with my Wacom digitizing tablet. The only problem I create for myself is that the mechanical pencil leads I use are tough to erase. I end up doing some clean-up in Photoshop once the inked drawing is scanned.<\/p>\n

I then colored the scan of the inked drawing in Photoshop. This is the basic, flat colored version of Cosmic, Maaaannnnnn<\/strong><\/em> with a temporary background on a separate layer so I could see what I was doing.
\n\"\"<\/a>I’m not going to attempt to do anything close to an exhaustive tutorial on digital coloring. There are a ton of articles, posts and videos on the subject done much better than I could. There’s also a number of different approaches, so look around, and see what fits.<\/p>\n

My counterculture cosmonaut has a solidly colored shirt in the above image, and I fully intended on giving him some tie dye, but I wanted to do something a little different from the anniversary card<\/a>. The basis of my tie dye pattern is an excellent tutorial which you may find HERE!<\/strong><\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I started out with the spectrum, ROYGBIV<\/strong><\/a> stripes, but I figured it would look too much like the previous edition of the character. So I decided to invert the colors.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Not the same, boring, old rainbow, but something a little different. Maybe a little harsh, and it looks like the 1970s threw up,<\/em> but I was going to press ahead with the rest of the steps of the tutorial and see how it went. Some distortion filters; some smudging; some of the liquefy filter, and voila.<\/em> \"\"<\/a>
\nCosmic, Maaaannnnnn<\/strong> has some new threads!<\/em><\/p>\n

Ultimately, what I wanted to do here is create my space hippie with the ink and colors and no background so I could drop him into and move him around a separate space scene that I had cobbled together from a few tutorials and some of my own experimentation.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some positioning and a little repositioning; some specialized brushes; some layer effects; some lettering; several layers, and Cosmic, Maaaannnnnn<\/strong><\/em> is BACK<\/strong> spanning the spaceways!<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tina’s birthday was fast approaching, and I didn’t have a rock solid, hysterically funny idea for a card so I decided to revisit a friend from last year’s anniversary card, Cosmic, Maaaannnnnn!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[18,7,49,700,16,318],"tags":[58,266,1343,312,912,911,1994,27,3664,1996,1993,32,43,3661,906,5,351,66,1995,697,1997,1998,917,3660],"class_list":["post-10011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drawer-cards","category-illustration","category-it-came-from-the-sketchbook","category-pixels-versus-pigment","category-sketch","category-technique","tag-birthday","tag-card","tag-color","tag-comic","tag-cosmic","tag-cosmos","tag-counterculture","tag-digital-illustration","tag-drawer-cards","tag-galaxy","tag-happy-birthday-tina","tag-hippie","tag-humor","tag-illustration","tag-ink","tag-joe-williams","tag-outer-space","tag-photoshop","tag-stars","tag-technique-2","tag-tie-dye-pattern-in-photoshop","tag-tie-dye-texture-in-photoshop","tag-tie-dye","tag-willceau"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-2Bt","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":10005,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/10\/07\/happy-birthday-tina-the-2012-edition\/","url_meta":{"origin":10011,"position":0},"title":"Happy Birthday, Tina! The 2012 Edition","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"October 7, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This is the 2012 edition of my birthday card to Tina. This is the front or outside of the card. ...and this is the inside of the card which marks the Triumphant Return of Cosmic, Maaaannnnnn! Happy birthday, Tina! \u00a0","rel":"","context":"In "Drawer Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Drawer Cards","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/drawer-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/happy-birthday-tina-2012.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/happy-birthday-tina-2012.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/happy-birthday-tina-2012.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/happy-birthday-tina-2012.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4777,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/10\/20\/cosmic-maaaannnnnn\/","url_meta":{"origin":10011,"position":1},"title":"Cosmic, Maaaannnnnn!","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"October 20, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"A war wages within me between traditionally and digitally inking my cartoons. I go back and forth between my pens and brushes and my Wacom tablet. It depends on the job, my mood or whatever is close at hand. Cosmic, Man was inked traditionally. I must admit that I had\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Drawer Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Drawer Cards","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/drawer-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/tie-dye.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/tie-dye.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/tie-dye.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10162,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2012\/10\/19\/sweet-sixteen\/","url_meta":{"origin":10011,"position":2},"title":"Sweet Sixteen","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"October 19, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"16 years ago, Tina and I tied the knot all nice and legal. As is our custom, we exchange cards that we make ourselves. This is mine to her. Once again, I didn't have a rock-solid idea of what I was going to do. I let my pencil do the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Drawer Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Drawer Cards","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/drawer-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/sixteen-jw.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/sixteen-jw.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/sixteen-jw.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/sixteen-jw.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":41681,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2023\/10\/07\/cosmic-maaaaaannnnn-sticks-around-for-another-birthday\/","url_meta":{"origin":10011,"position":3},"title":"Cosmic Maaaaaannnnn Sticks Around for Another Birthday","author":"Joe","date":"October 7, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"As I have written before, it's Tina's and my tradition to exchange birthday, anniversary and holiday cards we have illustrated ourselves. It's more personal and making your own cards is a lot cheaper than a Hallmark card from one of the drugstore chains. Have you priced them recently?! Ouch! We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Drawer Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Drawer Cards","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/drawer-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Cosmic-Man-detail-2023.jpg?fit=640%2C519&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Cosmic-Man-detail-2023.jpg?fit=640%2C519&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Cosmic-Man-detail-2023.jpg?fit=640%2C519&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":3729,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2011\/08\/24\/loose-women-and-pop-out-cakes\/","url_meta":{"origin":10011,"position":4},"title":"Loose Women and Pop Out Cakes","author":"Tina Garceau","date":"August 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Keeping with our cake theme that Mrs. Crankipants started with yesterday's rant about baked goods, here's a pop-up birthday card I cooked up for a friend recently. Once again it is a combination of vintage images, colors and patterns put together in a digital collage using a combination of Adobe\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Crafts"","block_context":{"text":"Crafts","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/crafts-2\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Pop-upgirl-.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Pop-upgirl-.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/Pop-upgirl-.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":727,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2009\/11\/24\/shrimp-cocktail\/","url_meta":{"origin":10011,"position":5},"title":"Shrimp Cocktail","author":"Joe_Williams","date":"November 24, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Another birthday card from Tina. Tina tunes in on my obsessions at the time for ideas for her birthday cards. That year I comically demanded shrimp cocktail for my birthday dinner because \"that's what rich people eat!\" She took that ball and ran with it, and this card was created.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Drawer Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Drawer Cards","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/drawer-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Shrimp_cocktail","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/Shrimp_cocktail.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}