The Superheroes of Science - Team Shot

A number of years ago I was in the novel position of working at a computer for the first time in my life and occasionally having free time to fill up. I still work at a computer and occasionally have free time to fill up, but it's not such a novelty any more; and there's less of the free time now too. I made various attempts at finding something creative to do that would look to an observer who could not see my screen as if I was working but that would not suffer if I had to concentrate on something I was being paid to do. I couldn't really write anything properly under those conditions, so I came up with the wizard wheeze of doing drawings in MS Paint.

There were a number of problems with this plan. The first is fairly obvious: MS Paint is an abysmal program. But, and I clung to this 'but' for the brief but impassioned period that I felt I might do this - there are those who have worked wonders with it. There is, I should probably add, also 4Chan.

The second problem was that I was working with a mouse; in my off hand. (As an aside, after years of right-handed computer set-ups I actually can't use a left handed workstation arrangement, my hands don't know what they are doing.)

The final, and possibly most serious problem, was - and still is - that I can't draw. Yes, despite getting an A in GCSE art by ripping off Cradle of Filth album covers and being 'inspired' by the artwork in various Vampire: the Dark Ages source books (V:DA will appear in a later post on this blog, oh yes) the fundamental fact remains that I am effectively unskilled.

I already had a good idea of what I wanted to draw: a novelty superhero team based on actual science, sort of. I still have the list of characters and their powers - that's complete - and some of them may get used in later projects, some of which may themselves end up unfinished and so find their way to this blog. I got off to a good start too, as the first character I drew was a giant moth who was really good at maths. That's him in the centre there, all coloured in. Then I tried to draw a human character. You can just see it there: a single, death-mask of a face, screaming from the upper left corner. That was when I realised I would not be finishing this picture.