Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Nightmare

NIGHTMARE

Here's the original entry from "The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe".

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My next submission to the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: REDUX EDITION is Nightmare.  I went with a vaguely manga-esque appearance for Nightmare this time around.  I tried to think of a few things which would be creepy enough to be the embodiment of someone called "Nightmare", hence all the extra eyes and teeth, and sharp things.  :-)  This time around, I decided to go with a painted submission, rather than with a more pen-and-ink, cartoony style.

For Nightmare, it was very tempting to just do a picture of Neil Gaiman's SANDMAN as a submission.  ;-)  I did a two-page comic strip in the early 90's of Nightmare complaining about how popular that other white-faced manipulator of dreams is, when he's been around for a much longer time.  You know, "What's he got that I ain't got?" complaints.  

 

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STEP ONE:  Here is the light pencil drawing which I scanned in.  For some reason, the scanned image was a little dark. 

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STEP TWO:  Next, I put in an initial wash of color.

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STEP THREE:  Then I started tightening up some of the shapes and putting in some darks.

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STEP FOUR:  I started to go back in and paint the space around the tentacular cape and work on a few more details.  I also fixed the left leg, which was sticking out a little weirdly.

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STEP FIVE:   Here's the finished painting.  Unfortunately, a lot of the paper's texture scanned in for the background, which is  little distracting.  I'll take care of that in PhotoShop.  :-)

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STEP SIX:  In PhotoShop, I blurred the background out a bit, since so much of the paper's texture was showing through.  I added  a starfield I got from the NASA on a new layer and deleted it around Nightmare's body.  For the honeycomb in the background, I took a picture of a wasp's nest I had found a while back; I put them in a new layer and set the layer to OVERLAY.  I then softened the honeycomb pattern with the ERASER brush set to 25% Opacity.  Finally, I used the PhotoShop paint brush to push some whites in the various teeth on Nightmare.  I'll call it DONE!

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 This was done with watercolor/gouache on 6" x 10" Stonehenge paper, which I had glued to some hardboard to prevent warping.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Karkas

KARKAS

Here's the original entry from "The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe".

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This was done for a new Blog: Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: REDUX EDITION, which is dedicated to redrawing each entry of "The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe".  How could I resist something like that, when it was practically created for me?  ;-)

I used to buy every issue as they came out and I can't tell you how many hours of my (misspent) youth I spent pouring over both the "Handbook of the Marvel Universe", as well as the DC version, "Who's Who".   Both are encyclopedias of comic book characters, included backstories of the characters, detailed their powers, and generally had an entire batch of nerdly goodness I mainlined into my teenage brain.  Good times!

Unfortunately, some of the ones I really wanted (Annihilus, Galactus, Kang, Phoenix, etc.) were already taken (of course), but I was able to grab some more obscure characters I always found oddly compelling and/or visually interesting: High Evolutionary, Celestials, Captain Universe, Aquarian, Nightmare, Moon Dragon, Supreme Intelligence, and Karkas.  So, look forward to some of those in the near future, as well.

I debated what style I wanted to use: Watercolor?  Acrylic?  Pen-and-Ink?  Something more realistic or cartoony?  Well, it is now obvious which way I went with Karkas.  His head is so big in proportion to his body, it is almost impossible NOT to draw him as a sort of big-headed caricature--so I went with it as such.  :-)

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STEP ONE:  I drew Karkas with brush and ink on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock. 

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STEP TWO:  I scanned the drawing into PhotoShop, set the layer above to "Multiply", and colored the drawing.  As I colored it, I sort of liked the retro feel of the coloring/pen-and-ink, and dropped the whole intricate shading I had started and went with the flat colors.

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This was done with pen-and-ink on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock, colored digitally.

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Detective Comics #31 - Cover Recreation

DETECTIVE COMICS #31

Here's the original by Bob Kane:

And here's my version:

I did this as a (belated) birthday present for a friend of mine, as he is a fan of Batman.  Come to think of it, I send him some drawing/painting that is Batman-related EVERY birthday... I wonder if he is getting sick of them, yet?  Well, if he is, he can just use 'em for starting his fireplace, or to keep himself warm on those cold, winter nights in Ohio.  :-)

For some reason, the blue in the sky kept shooting a little brighter than the finished painting.  I'm gonna blame my camera for that one.  :-)

Here's the process, for those even mildly interested...

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils.  This time around, I used a sheet of 140# Arches Cold-Press watercolor paper.  Cold Press paper is a little more rough than I normally use, as I prefer a smoother drawing and painting surface.  But, I bought a few sheets to see if I liked it or not.  I generally like Arches, but I think I will generally stick more often with the Hot Press surface.

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 STEP TWO:  I painted over the pencils in a light wash (darkened here so you can actually see 'em) so I could erase the pencils out.  I usually don't like the pencils showing through if I can help it, and they can blend in with the painting and make the colors a little muddy.

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 STEP THREE:  I did a light wash to start laying in some basic color.

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 STEP FOUR:  More painting...  Starting to work on the forms and modeling a bit more, adding some shading. 

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 STEP FIVE:  Even more watercolor painting...

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 STEP SIX:  This is where I was last week "On the Easel".

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 STEP SEVEN:  Here is the finished painting.  First, I added a little more texture to the grassy areas with a fan brush and some light green and dark green gouache.  I also tried--with moderate success--to fix the graduation of color in the sky.  It is still a little streaky, but every time I would try to fix it, it would still look streaky.  Ah, well, one of the problems with watercolor/gouache, sometimes.  I'll just have to call it good, for now.

I pushed some darks/shadows and went back in with some white gouache to the clouds/fog/mist to break up the edges so they didn't seem so "cut out".  I also had finally gotten around to adding the bats in the air; I'm still "iffy" on that part.  I may either remove a few, or add some more.  I also moved the robed guy's right hand a little bit.  It was really weird, before; now it is just a little weird.

I also decided to leave stars out of the picture, as I think it would have been a little too distracting.

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 Watercolor and gouache on 12" x 16" Arches Cold Press (140#) watercolor paper.

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On The Easel - June 8, 2012 - Batman

On the Easel - Detective Comics #31 Cover Recreation

I know, this is a bit of a cheat, but here's something on the easel at the moment!  It is a (belated) birthday present for a friend (Sorry, Dave!).  I have at least one more pass for most of the painting and put some finishing touches here and there, but I am hoping to have it finished next week and will post the process steps then.  

It is a recreation of Detective Comic #31 in watercolor/gouache on 12" x 16" Arches Cold Press (140#).

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