The consummate villain, Green Goblin! This is another character who I’ve always felt either works incredibly well, or can be overwrought and silly.

For the artwork, I wanted to play up the horror elements of an unhinged, costumed villain. Went with an up close perspective, lots of dramatic lighting and maniacal laughter. As this project stemmed from a daily drawing challenge in October, Green Goblin appears on Halloween, so the pumpkin bomb had to make an appearance.

This one had to go out with a bang, pun intended, so it is a real combination of all the other elements I’d used in different variations throughout the other pieces. I really liked how this turned out, and really enjoyed capping things off with this piece. Dramatic, dimly lit pieces have always been my favourite and I hope that shines through in this one.

Labels: Ditko, Ditkoctober, Green Goblin, Pentel, Photoshop, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko

The man himself, and arguably Ditko’s most recognizable character. I know Spider-man has consistently been one of my favourite characters and has historically had one of the most excellent rogues gallery, with a lot of recognizable villains.

For the artwork, I wanted to pay homage to another classic Spider-man moment, the cover of The Amazing Spider-Man #33, “The Final Chapter!”. I have always gotten a kick out of drenching a piece in details while still maintaining the narrative, which I hope to have accomplished here.

Colouring this piece was a lot of fun but also quite a bit of a challenge. I needed to ensure I didn’t over work everything with so many little details in play, but also wanted to push the depth so the piece made sense. Really tried to limit this to just a shading layer, with variations of flat colours doing most of the heavy lifting on the water elements and in separating the different planes in the background.

Labels: Ditko, Ditkoctober, Pentel, Photoshop, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko

I always got a kick out of this costume as a kid. Revisiting it as an adult and while nostalgic, it is an interesting look to say the least. I just went completely overboard on the electrical current on this one. The electricity based villains have always been relegated to the sidelines, but I have to imagine in the right hands that power could be very dangerous. I wanted to channel some of that here and create the idea that nothing surrounding someone like Electro would be safe.

This colour scheme surprised me, but when it was done I couldn’t argue with the results. I had no intention of leaning into this pale lime green, but in my opinion it worked well to bring the yellow and green of Electro’s costume together. Very basic shading and colour holds here. For a this piece, and a few others, I actually just doubled the colour layer, set the new layer as a multiply layer, and used a mask to bring the highlights forward. Previously I’d always selected highlight colours, or shadow colours, then had to add colour adjustments to bring them together. As I’d worked through these, I started to find ways to get good results quicker.

Labels: Ditko, Ditkoctober, Electro, Pentel, Photoshop, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko

Doctor Octopus has always been a favourite Spider-man villain, and this is hands down my favourite of the group. I had the idea of casting Doctor Octopus as a disenfranchised genius, radicalized online and using his intellect in a misguided attempt to right his perceived wrongs. I was rather proud of how this turned out, even just using simple, stark shading and some claustrophobic framing.

I had to keep the existing shadows in mind when colouring this, so not too many colouring tricks here. Just some choice colour adjustments in the pink glow, some blurred effects on the light sources, and the digital blocks in the background. I pictured him either in his own lair or having broken into some high tech lab, about to become one step closer to world domination.

Labels: Ditko, Ditkoctober, Doctor Octopus, Pentel, Photoshop, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko

This is one of those characters that on paper could be really well done but for most earlier iterations came off as a bit of a caricature. I’m not sure how the character is handled in newer stories but hopefully he’s gotten some good plot lines more recently. I feel there’s lot of potential.

For the art I just wanted to lean into the animalistic, predator sense of this character.

This piece colour wise was pretty straight forward. I took the predator aspect of the character forward by making him see red and amped up his singular focus. Used a bit of texture in the background to amp up the grit, and a colour adjustment for the whole thing to bring it into that red space.

Labels: Ditko, Ditkoctober, Kraven the Hunter, Pentel, Photoshop, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko

This character’s always been a lot of fun, and it’s a true testament to the caliber of character Steve Ditko created that Spider-man’s rogues gallery is not only so strong, but translated so well into other media.

Art-wise this was another one that I think was tricky to translate to the size restrictions I placed on myself. Scorpion is obviously a lot of tail, and I tried to play that up a bit here. He’s also having a very bad day.

Scorpion has a pretty strong colour palette so I didn’t mess with it too much. I tried to stay in similar hues to let the injuries pop a bit. Again, just some use of texture and colour holds to add some depth. I was able to be a bit more liberal on the texture to add the grit to this one in tune with the very bad day Scorpion was having.

Labels: Ditko, Ditkoctober, Pentel, Photoshop, Scorpion, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko

As a kid I loved the character of Mysterio. He seemed impossible to defeat and led to some clever stories where punching your way out of the problem was not the answer.

For the artwork, I just wanted to play on the (wait for it)... mystery of the character by showing him appearing (or is he disappearing?!?) in smoke.

I struggled with this one a bit. Mysterio has a very distinct colour palette so I focused on not pushing the purples or greens too far out there and making the picture look too garish. Some varied smoke colours and textures here and there and we’ll call it a wrap!

Labels: Ditko, Ditkoctober, Mysterio, Pentel, Photoshop, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko

I knew Vulture from the comics and animated Spider-man shows, but it was actually a Rob Liefeld cover of New Mutants that sticks out in my mind when I think of this character. I don’t even remember the context of the issue, the plot-line would soon be all about Cable, but I distinctly remember that cover, Rusty handing on to just Vulture’s leg and just knew I had to have it. This was pretty straight forward art wise. Just played with some stark blacks and a simple background.

I felt like the inks were pretty strong on this one so I didn’t mess with it too much. Very tasteful flats for shadows, some clouds dotted in the background and some basic colour holds on the webbing.

Labels: Ditko, Ditkoctober, Pentel, Photoshop, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko, The Vulture

This has always been one of my favourite Spider-man villains. A very Jekyll & Hyde story stemming from Curtis Connor’s good intentions, coupled with the raw, primeval power of the persona of the Lizard leads to a great dynamic that adds depth to a villain on paper that could just be a two dimensional bad guy for Spider-man to knock around. No real tricks on the drawing itself. I just wanted to draw Lizard in a stalking, threatening way; ready to pounce when something comes into view.

This is a fun little trick I’ve used in the past (and in a few pieces in this project) where I apply an opaque gradient on a soft light layer. It normalizes the colours in the gradient a bit, and can be used to create a light source, or in this case, a foreboding red overtone suggesting something bad is about to go down.

Labels: Ditko, Ditkoctober, Pentel, Photoshop, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko, The Lizard

Here’s this guy again. I just do not get J. Jonah Jameson as a character, I’m sorry. Coupled with the fact that the original design for the Spider-Slayer armour is just the oddest looking thing to me and I had to go back to the drawing board on this a few times.

Ultimately, I decided to use the mechanical arms to create an interesting, semi-symmetrical pattern. By the end I actually really like how this turned out. As long as I don’ t think too hard on the fact that it’s J. Jonah Jameson in a very odd looking robotic suit.

I opted for a little throwback to the original colours for the regular J. Jonah Jameson piece. Some basic shading and some texture (which I always label the layer for as “Dirt” for some reason) and this was mostly done. I like the dramatic lighting on this and thought the pattern worked well with the deeper red.

Labels: Ditko, Ditkoctober, J. Jonah Jameson, Pentel, Photoshop, Spider Slayer, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko

I’ve always had a fondness for this character, I think dating back to an absolute killer run Erik Larsen & David Michelinie did in the 90’s on Amazing Spider-man around the Sinister Six. When handled well, he’s a redeeming sort of anti-hero versus just a two dimensional bad guy like some of the other Spider-man villains.

I focused on just the potential for change in the character and how messy someone made of sand would actually be. You’re not walking away from this fight untouched.

By this point in the colouring process I’d started to settle into what was working, what wasn’t and how to carry on the process for the remainder of the work. I recognized that for some of these, overworking a background or even overly detailed shading didn’t make much sense, and the resultant pictures were more of a pop art feel.

For this one, I just went with some very basic shading, some ‘material’ aspects in the sandy parts of Sandman (specks etc.) and a basic colour background that I added some effects to in order to make it appear sandblasted.

Labels: Ditko, Ditkoctober, Pentel, Photoshop, Sandman, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko

I really struggled with this one. Aunt May is iconic, arguably the most recognizable Spider-man character next to Spider-man himself. She’s been represented in every iteration of the character, across the various books, shows and movies. I drew on some influences from some of the animated shows rather than the comics or movies, simply because I’ve been drawn to the style of animation more so than anything else when it comes to art. I played on the classic plot point of Peter trying not to get caught being Spider-man.

Don’t ask me why I went with pea green for a colour scheme, but I think it worked. I regretted the giant question mark a bit after drawing it, and while I could have redrawn it (or taken it out) I decided to just embrace it. I brought it out more in the colours to highlight some of the cartoon aspects of this drawing. I really liked the backlighting coming from the window on this. It’s a little trick I picked up years ago, and try to use it sparingly so it’s not a gimmick.

Labels: Aunt May, Ditko, Ditkoctober, Pentel, Photoshop, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko

I have to be honest this is a character that I’ve never understood and always seemed a little silly to me. He sort of sits outside of the reality of the world he exists in; he sees a villain in Spider-man when no one else in that universe does. Sure he’s got his rogues gallery, but the villains in Spidey’s life are there because they’re afraid he’ll thwart them. J. Jonah Jameson thinks the man saving the city each day is the bad guy. It’s all a bit odd.

One goal I landed on pretty early in this process was keeping things light and not overwrought. Some basic shadows, perhaps some elements like splatter or a gradient but nothing too over the top. I think those principles came through pretty well on this one. It’s meant to convey the rage Jonah feels at the thought of Spider-man; that he’s really caught in that web of hate.

Labels: Ditkoctober, J. Jonah Jameson, Pentel, Photoshop, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko

Here they are, the final batch! I actually finished these early but got occupied with work and with colouring each and every one of these entries. That's right, I have 31 new colour illustrations to post!

I'm proud of having accomplished that, this is the first monthly drawing challenge I not only finished during the month, but early!

Labels: Ditko, Ditkoctober, Doctor Octopus, Electro, Eternity, Green Goblin, Spider-Man, Squirrel Girl, Steve Ditko, The Question

This is the first monthly challenge I've actually finished all of not only on time, but 7 days early!

Here's another batch! These include some of my favourites...

#17 Sppedball
#18 Mysterio
#19 Baron Mordo
#20 Hawk & Dove
#21 Scorpion
#22 Kraven the Hunter
#23 Shade (the Changing Woman)
#24 The Leader

Labels: Baron Mordo, Ditko, Ditkoctober, Doctor Strange, Hawk & Dove, Hulk, Kraven the Hunter, Mysterio, Scorpion, Shade, Speedball, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko, The Leader

This is the second round of drawing challenge entries based on characters created by Steve Ditko. I tried to push myself with each one, and while not all of them are my favourite I am quite proud of what I was able to achieve.

In order they are:
#9 Blue Beetle
#10 J. Jonah Jameson (Robot) a.k.a. Spider Slayer
#11 Ancient One
#12 The Lizard
#13 The Creeper
#14 Nightshade
#15 The Vulture
#16 Mr. A

Labels: Ancient One, Batman, Blue Beetle, Creeper, J. Jonah Jameson, Mr. A, Nightshade, pen and ink, Pentel, Sandman, Spider Slayer, Spider-Man, Steve Ditko, The Lizard, The Vulture

...does whatever a spider can! Not my usual thing, but a fun departure. Broke out some of the stronger crayons in the color palette as well for this one. Just trying new things all around. This was for Drawer Geeks.

Labels: comics, Drawer Geeks, pen and ink, Photoshop, Spider-Man