New artist for BoP? YES PLEASE!

[requiem2adream]

It's no secret that I'm not a fan of the current art team on BoP so I was really happy when I saw there's going to be a new main artist for the title. Starting December, Adrian Syaf takes over art duties and the result seems much more to my taste than Benes and co.



 
From The Source.

Comments

[yaseen101]

?

[jarodrussell]

Go to Google's image search. Type in "paraplegic". Then tell me how many chairs you see that look like the one in those pages.

[yaseen101]

Oh, I see.

[airawyn]

A lot of them do?

Can you tell us what's wrong with the chair? I did notice that these images don't have handles, at least.

[jarodrussell]

1. The armrests, for one thing, don't look anything like you'd find on a lightweight chair (link, link) worth its salt. They look like the $250 chairs hospitals and medical supply rental companies have, they're not something you want to use on a daily basis.

2. Same with the front caster. It's much too big to be a light weight chair.

3. If you look at the second page her casters have magically disappeared.

So, those three things are what's wrong with the chair.

[terrykun]

Babs is rolling in something only half a step up from the hundred or so chairs at the airport I work at. A moderate research fail, but probably what there was the most reference material available for.

[jarodrussell]

...but probably what there was the most reference material available for.

If only there was an interconnected network of computers, so that people...professionals...artists...could search for things. I suppose we can only dream.

And post macros!

[joasakura]

If only there was an interconnected network of computers, so that people...professionals...artists...could search for things. I suppose we can only dream.

That's crazy talk! That's WITCHCRAFT!

Don't you know the system of tubes can't handle that sort of thing!?

[airawyn]

Ah, I see the differences now. Yeah, research fail.

[feyandstrange]

Additionally: crap leg rests, total lack of camber (slanty angle) on the wheels, and the back looks a bit high.

For artists (and others) looking for photorefs, I recommend going to spinlife.com or 1800wheelchair.com and going to look up manual ultralight rigid frame or titanium frame chairs. IMO that's what Babs is likely to be using (and can afford), with a slight but not sport-or-racing camber.

A good standard example:


As for posture, look for pics of someone using such a chair; legs together rather than apart, low center of gravity, plenty of room for upper body motion and torso bending. The lower back of a "proper" chair gives her a lot more room to swing those sticks (which she undoubtedly stores beneath the seat, not in the armrests),and the (even) lower center of gravity plus wheel camber means she's got great balance and won't get tipped over. She may also wear a waist seatbelt for positioning purposes and so she doesn't have to reposition every time she lunges (and might be able to chair-hop as a result); I can't decide on that one - but she undoubtedly uses a fashionable quick-release one that doesn't scream 'seatbelt' like mine does.

But still? This is a hell of a lot better than so many efforts that I'm not gonna complain, precisely. But I am gonna make sure that folks here are aware of how they can do better.

[jarodrussell]

If the wheelchair was the only thing wrong with these pages, I might be with you on the glad its not worse caravan. Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of the "top half of Batgirl" stories that ignore showing how Oracle kicks Oracle-specific ass, and instead put her in situations there she'd be iced if one of those bangers had a gun. (This, again, is where I'm complaining about something that doesn't exist.) As it is, mockery of a bad wheelchair is the only hollow pleasure these pages provide.

Speaking of doing better, though, you know who draws a great chair? Jason Orfalas.



It's not perfect...namely the armrests seem weird...but there's enough right...small caster, single foot rest, legs together, visibly minimal frame...that I can almost see the weird parts being specially designed prototyped concepts Oracle thought up and had specifically machined. To me it captures the essence of a lightweight chair, it's just one that went down a slightly different tech tree than real ones.

[feyandstrange]

Since she was supposed to be undercover in that gig, I'd totally believe she used her spare, less customized chair.

I'm not a fan of solid-frame wheels (harder to fix I'm told) and the armrests and back seem too high. But from what I recall of that issue, the wheelchair art was consistent throughout as well as being pretty darn good.

Also, it'd be nice to see her wearing fingerless gloves. Anybody who types as much as she does might want to pad her hands vs. rims, doncha think? (And would have totally fit into the above artist's obvious Eighties fashion theme, as well as looking great while fighting.)

[cythraul]

What jumps out at me is that neither your example, nor my friend's chair, nor any of the chairs I see at TiSports (whence he got his current chair)... have armrests at all. Or is that just a preference thing? I know when he ordered the current one, he had a list of customization options as long as my arm.

[feyandstrange]

Most active (self-propelling) manual chair users don't want or need arm rests, and arm rests get in the way of pushing a manual chair properly. Someone like Babs wouldn't want arm rests.

When I use my manual chair, I flip the arm rests back out of my way when I'm pushing, and put them down and rest my aching arms when someone else is pushing. People who aren't pushing themselves (or use their feet) may want arm rests for posture and arm comfort.

[alienist]

I think Barbara finding a way to store weapons in arm rests actually makes sense, just for quickest access. (I mean, one of the first times the woman went out she was pushed into traffic.) Though I would like some awareness that no, that's not usually how they work, and a way for her to push them out of her way.

[feyandstrange]

Under the seat is actually very convenient for storage and reachability, at least as convenient as the armrests would be. (Her hands are usually on the wheels, not the arm rests.) I think that having arm rests would be more nuisance than useful. I think I'd store the sticks under or alongside the seat base.

[alienist]

That does make more sense, yeah. I'm just going to pretend she does and the artists depicted the scenes wrong. :p (It's understandable, I bet she moves wicked fast. Maybe they got concussed in the crossfire.)