I know what your thinking, "Zwha? Jerry's doing Lara Croft Pin-ups? I thought he was high-class?" Yes, I know you're used to me doing more lofty creations like the classically inspired "Jesse, the dancing Chimp", but when my good friend ZenDragon, web-master of AdventurersPlace.com, asked if I could do a couple of Lara pin-ups as prizes for his Lara Croft Look-Alike contest, I did what any friend would do...

I flaked on him for several months.

But in all seriousnessesosity, I'm happy to have the chance to flex my muscles on a subject that's a bit different from what I've done in the past. So, here I'm posting the pin-ups for the contest, in different stages of completion and you can click the link above to see the final products.

-Jerry!

The first one here is loosely penciled and partially inked. Going for a more light-hearted comic-booky feel on this one. Below Lara you can see what will eventually be a Kirby-esque Statue-monstroid. Y'know, one of those thingies.

TOMB RAIDER

Okay, here's one with a little more ink on the page.

Y'see, Statue-montroid thingie!!!!

Added in a vine for Lara to have recently swung off of (because I know someone out there will ask, "But, Dear Sir (voice of Comic Book Guy from the Simpsons), though I see the lovely Miss Croft is leaping gracefully as she is wont to do, I am at a loss to see from what she is leaping." So there! I put in a freaking VINE!!!

You might be able to make out in the background an Mayan style pyramid. I'll ink that in for the final piece.

Now, Angel of Darkness is a new take on Lara Croft that is the basis for the newest game.

I downloaded some demo movies of the new game to get a feel for what it is about. It looks like this one is going to be more in the vein of the Tom Clancy games, with Black Ops type soldiers chasing after our Miss Croft for a crime she did not commit. More tension and mystery and all that.

So, in this game, it looks to me like she may be wearing more than one outfit, so in this drawing I'm going with the demin outfit I saw in the promos, with tennis shoes. She's leaning up against a wall, on the other side of which a big, gun-toting, overly muscled goon awaits with apprehension.

You'll notice I haven't put in the guns yet. My friend ZenDragon at AdventurersPlace.com is a stickler for weapons, so I want to make sure I have the weapons I think will work.

Okay, I've inked up the figures and added the weapons.

The big gun I got from a Ghost Recon book I was using as reference for some UbiSoft storyboards I was working on. The handgun I got from ZenDragon's weapon section at AdventurersPlace.com.

Of course there's a bit more area to this drawing, but only so much will fit on my scanner. I'll tile up a full image for the final.

Unlike the first Tomb Raider image, I'm going for a lot of surface texture on the figures. Lara wearing all denim and the black ops goon is in the non-existent high-tech leather gear, so texture is warranted. Generally I stay away from heavy hatching, but hey, what's life without a bit of experimentation?

For those interested, here are a few closer shots of the piece, pencilled and inked.