Handbook of the Marvel Universe: High Evolutionary

High Evolutionary

Here is the original entry for the High Evolutionary to the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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And here is my entry to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux.  

The portrayal of Evolutionary Theory in comics (well, almost all of pop culture, really) is generally painful in its ignorance, but there is still something about the High Evolutionary that appeals to me.  I thought the character had a cool look, and he tinkered with genetics, creating a Dr. Moreau type menagerie of half-human/half-animal hybrids.  And, once again, it was the power of Jack Kirby's design and artwork that really made the High Evolutionary so compelling to me when I first read about him in a back issue or Thor.

Also, I like science a lot and always had an interest in Evolutionary Theory.  Back in the day, I used to spend hours upon hours debating with Creationists on various bulletin boards under the name "John Boy" (you can still probably find some of my posts, I'm sure).  About the only good thing about it was it forced me to learn about Evolutionary Theory more fully and shed my own pop-cultural-based ignorance about it.

Below, how the process (ahem) evolved... for the High Evolutionary submission.

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STEP ONE:  I did a very quick digital sketch in PhotoShop, laying out the pose and the beginning of the lighting for the High Evolutionary.  

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STEP TWO:  Over top of the sketch, I used a chalk brush in PhotoShop to begin modeling the figure in black-and-white, to establish the form and work on getting the lighting correct.

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STEP THREE:  Here's the finished black-and-white drawing.  I changed the position of his right hand a little bit and exaggerated the pose a bit more.  The High Evolutionary also turned out a bit more muscular than I intended, now that I look at it.

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STEP FOUR:  I created a MULTIPLY LAYER and colored over top the black-and-white drawing.

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This was done digitally in PhotoShop.

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