fanart, Junkie!Roy

[ratcreature]

Fandom: DCU (Green Arrow)
Characters/Pairings: Roy Harper (back when he was Speedy)
Media used: Wacom tablet in GIMP
Rating/warnings: PG, I guess, for drug use
Notes/comments: This took me a really long time, and I don't just mean that I first had the idea for this in 2006. I have no idea what I am doing wrong that digital coloring takes me so long, isn't it supposed to be efficient? I suppose it's one of the pitfalls of being self-taught. Anyway, it's Roy during the famous heroin addict story line. As always, feedback is very welcome.
Preview:



And two details showing parts of the image in the original size/resolution. (I drew it at 3100x2540px.)

Comments

[swordandfaith.livejournal.com]

Oh. Oh, wow. You did a really wonderful job of making him look pathetic/pained/hopeless. A lot of times I notice that when people draw things about this kind of subject matter they tend to make it. . . well, glamourous, I guess, and not ugly like it should be (NOT THAT I'M CALLING YOUR WORK UGLY. MERELY THE SUBJECT MATTER IS A PRETTY UGLY/GRIM TOPIC).

It's very well drawn too, and I like the setting/angle you drew this at. So this is really good from both a technical and emotional point.

So, yeah. Good stuff, good stuff.

[ratcreature]

Yay, I'm glad that the despair and hopelessness comes across, because I wanted to show Roy as he hit rock bottom.

And I know what you mean with the atmosphere of depicting drug use. I think it is because drugs also have an air of glamor, glorified decadence, and creative mind altering effects alongside with the squalor, sickness and crime elements, also the rejection of bourgeois mainstream values is implied, which can be positive or negative depending on your perspective. It's the same, whether you have some 19th century artist going on about absinthe, or some 1960s hippie about pot or LSD.