Guest Columbo Piece!

This very special Columbo piece is from guest artist Paul McCall!

About the piece from Paul: 

"I watched the occasional Columbo when it was first run (yes, I'm that old, I was in high school then, at least sometime during his run). I liked them but the thing about watching Columbo was all the old movie star guests from the 40s that were favorites of my parent's generation. And watching Peter Falk piss them off!

My piece is a gentle caricature done with Copic markers on Canson sketch pad paper 11" x 14""

You can see more art work from Paul at http://www.PaulMcCall.com

Columbo by Ben Tiede

I'm happy with how Cartoon Columbo turned out! I hope you are too!

Columbo

Columbo

Columbo

This is my stab at Lieutenant Columbo, done in Photoshop on a Wacom tablet. I think it has just a hint of Dick Tracy to it. Hope you likey!

Columbo

art: Mr. Kevin Meinert

My very quick sketch of one of the greatest character actors ever.  Done in pen and marker, with a little white paint

Yes, Lieutenant? ...sigh.

Columbo...

There were two shows I was introduced two by my father at a very young age, The A-Team and Columbo. I remember him as the funny detective that imagined would protect me from the monsters under the bed. I also remember thinking if a monster did come out from under my bed and confront him, he'd ask the bastard "just one more thing" before he would take him away to monster jail.

I used a ballpoint pen on Moleskin paper.

M

Columbo Contemplates His Lost Keys

Gotta admit: I don't know much about this guy other than a few episodes I watched on a little RCA TV with one of those UHF/VHF dials and rabbit ears at my Grandma's. I'd prolly like it, the character is interesting visually, but, you know how these things go....

Brush pen, with some PS toning. I left the scanned sketchbook rings in homage to the whole P.I. thing. It might be cheesy, though....?

Ya know what botha's me, sir?

So it was my turn to choose the subject for this week's sketch challenge. I had an idea for a comic book character that I wanted to do, but then I changed my mind and went with one of my genuine, fictional, heroes; Columbo. 

Not only is the good Lieutenant one of the greatest television characters of all time, he's one of my fondest childhood memories. The first time I saw Columbo I was in, maybe, 6th grade. I was home sick from school and happened to catch an episode that was being re-run on A&E. From there I was hooked and I have seen every episode and made-for-TV movie more than once, if not more than a dozen times. I can't help it. 

Peter Falk's insurmountable portrayal of the character made him a hero to me and one of my favorite characters in any medium, and any genre. 

So when I was thinking about who or what to choose for my sketch challenge subject, the thought of an artistic ode to my hero and his rumpled rain coat, his cheap green cigars, his battered Pugeot, his quirky behavior, and absolute genius made me smile. 

It's certainly a non-traditional choice for this sort of thing and I hope the other guys have as much fun with it as I did. I can't wait to see the results!

About the piece: I did a rough pencil sketch, then used an ink brush for the line work and then colored it with water colors. I used the water colors for two reasons: 1.) I thought it would help cover up my shortcomings as an artist with it's looser nature and 2.) Using water color on the type of paper that I did created a ripply feel that I thought nicely complemented Columbo's rumpled rain coat, and frumpy demeanor.

Thanks for coming to look at it! 

your pal,

zack 

Sketch Challenge: Columbo

Peter Falk played the role of his life as Columbo. The show is formulaic and the legality of Columbo's method is questionable at best, but I love the show. It's a reverse murder show. We see the murder, means, and motive in the first 15 minutes, then we get to watch Lt. Columbo slowly unravel the twisted web of violence. It challenges the comic book storyteller in me. How could you do a Columbo comic in 22 pages, and have Columbo show up on the 3rd page? Murder montage? I'll give it a try sometime, I'm sure.

Some trivia for you, just to get to watch an episode sometime if you haven't (it is streaming on Netflix after all). Peter Falk's performance was unique to him. His good natured politeness and bumbling were what he used to get to his suspects, unnerving them to the point that they'd crack. To get the best out of his guest star murderers, or perhaps just to be a jerk, Falk would ad lib and talk over the guest's performance to get them to actually dislike having scenes with him. So, when you have Leonard Nemoy yelling at Columbo on screen, he probably is actually frustrated with Falk.

More trivia, which explains the dead Batman in the background. Adam West's Batman show went from 1966 to 1968. Columbo one month before Batman's last episode aired. The world's greatest detective passed the torch to the world's most annoying.

(artist Kyle Latino has a blog at www.ktino.com, follow him on twitter @kylelatino)