DC Fan Art Club: February 2023 Spotlight- DC: Mech, Wonder Woman Family and Black Lightning

Hi @DCFanArtClub and welcome to February!

This month, I’d like to start a new trend where our three topics cover the following items.

  1. Something new to DCUI.

  2. One of the classic DC families of characters (Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Lantern, etc).

  3. An older, obscure or lesser known character.

I’ll also try and tie it into a holiday, event or whatever else is going on in the real world as best I can.

First up is DC: Mech! This six issue series has one issue on standard DCUI and all six on DCUI Ultra. It’s an Elseworlds type of tale where all the heroes still have powers, but everyone pilots a giant mech. Think of it as more Shogun Warriors than Voltron (does anyone remember Shogun Warriors??) or, simply put, giant robots vs Darkseid!

I’m not sure we’ve ever had a giant robot week, so let’s give it a try.

For the classic DC family, let’s spotlight Wonder Woman and friends. Any of the Wonder Women (Diana, Yara Flor, Artemis, Nubia, Hippolyta), Wonder Girls (Donna, Cassie) or anyone at all from Wonder Woman’s heroes, villains or supporting characters (Etta Candy!) from any era or universe is eligible.

Inspiration courtesy of Nicola Scott’s pinup from the Wonder Woman 80th Anniversay 100 page Super Spectacular.

Last, but not least, since February is also Black History Month, let’s spotlight a character created all the way back in 1977 – Black Lightning!

He has appeared in several series over the years, been a member of the Outsiders and even had his own CW TV series. Artistically, he’s been rocking the lightning bolts since day one and he’s just gotten more electrifying as the years have gone by.

BL1

I’m a firm believer that drawing lightning bolts = fun!

Try your hand at any or all of the topics above throughout the month of February.
Post your thoughts and work in the thread below and thanks for being a part of the art club here at DC Universe Infinite!

Due Date: February 28, 2023
Discussion, works-in-progress and final submission all in the thread below.

You do not have to be a member of the DC Fan Art Club to submit to this thread, but we’d love to welcome you to the group! Find out more here.

Terms & Conditions: I understand that by participating in the DC Universe Community Forums that I am agreeing to the Fan Art Guidelines , which include not creating new storylines or characters, not soliciting for compensation or payment, and will follow the standards of the Community Guidelines .

9 Likes

Hey, if you are looking for reference on DC: Mech, @Vroom has a thread from over the summer when the issues first came out. The variant covers from Dan Mora have really good reference for the mechs.

Also contains much better comparisons than Shogun Warriors. My lack of anime knowledge really showing here…

4 Likes

Sounds awesome™:+1:. Never really have been the best at robots but haven’t really drawn any in a while so willing to give it shot. The WW family sounds fun. And I agree. Drawing lightning is fun.

1 Like

TY for the shout-out! :superman_hv_4:

Look, as long as you admit that an Evangelion could handily out-do a Gundam, then-

the room is silent

Hmm…Escaflowne fans, I gather? :wink:

2 Likes

Made my mech one. Tried a full body but wasn’t clicking right so went for a close up and like it a lot more. Like the shine and glow of it the most.

7 Likes

Now keep in mind, I have not read DC Mech. However, giant robots…count me in!
My first idea was to have Superman battle Lex in his big green and purple robot suit. However when I went to get reference for Superman I realized the suits were much bigger than the person so this would not work unless Luther was hit with an enlarging ray.
Metallo came next to mind as since he was mostly robotic he could be larger. Of course that Kryptonite in his chest would have to be the size of a meteoroid but that’s ok.

7 Likes

@NYJt3 - I agree that the color and the glow effects are really awesome. Looks like the mech is ready to power up. Also like little (normal sized?) Batman on the shoulder. Gives the whole thing a great sense of scale.

@ImpulseMaxMercury - I like your giant robot battle! Getting reference on these mechs is a bit hard, but you’ve got all the design elements covered! Nice work!

3 Likes

Um, where do the Robotech mechs fall in this comparison?? That’s considered old school now, isn’t it?

3 Likes

These mechs look awesome™:+1:. Like the design of the brainiac one.

1 Like

Thanks​:+1:

I went with the Flash Mech.
I haven’t drawn many giant robots before, but I figured a worm’s eye view would give it that ‘larger than life’ look.

6 Likes

Looks awesome™:+1:. Great with perspective with the work view.

1 Like

Between Gundam and Neon Genesis Evangelion, as Robotech came about in the '80s, while Gundam debuted in Japan in the '70s and Evangelion debuted in the '90s.

Indeed. Robotech has quite the history, especially for how it was adapted into the US. If you’re inclined to learn more about it, check out YouTube for assorted history-of videos.

Also, take notes while watching said videos (and/or reading about Robotech on the 'net in general), because it gets quite complex. :nerd_face:

3 Likes

For the second part of the challenge, I drew a closeup picture of Wonder Woman herself. I want to practice drawing female characters especially faces, as I feel I have improved but am not that great at.

7 Likes



This was my Artemis from last year and my Black Lightning from 2 years ago when I didn’t write the date. I will work on something cool for the mech; maybe tie in an updated Black Lightning and Artemis because, you all know I have to add some extra depth!

6 Likes

So I tied all three concepts together. I was playing with india ink and a white paint pen. The colors are digitial.

9 Likes

@ImpulseMaxMercury - Nice Diana portrait! She has a very intense Amazonian stare happening there.

@Stephen.Gluck.Henderson.67303 - inventive as always. Lots of great details on Artemis.

@Goldk - really awesome work! You’ve got that classic super-hero style that works with a 1970s Black Lightning and a 2022 mech. The effects you used on Diana’s lasso and the lightning – is that a trick with the india ink or is that part digital?

4 Likes

@JKoco17 Thanks. I used a paint pen over the inks and then added a cover overlay digitally for the yellow.

2 Likes

For the Wonder Woman family, I went with the Cheetah. This is based on her 1980s George Perez design.

7 Likes

Here’s a sketch I did of Nubia for the WW Family prompt:

10 Likes