M.O.D.O.K.
(MENTAL ORGANISM DESIGNED ONLY for KILLING)
Greetings! Here's a submission I did for the March MODOK Madness Blog. It is a great blog with many artists doing an interpretation of M.O.D.O.K. which runs for one month out of the year. Y'know, March. And, every year, I would intend to submit to the site and then remember it about 2 weeks after submissions had closed. Sigh... Well, not this year! This year, the MEDIOCRE ORGANISM DESIGNED for KVETCHING remember to do up a submission BEFORE April Fool's Day deadline!
M.O.D.O.K. has always been a favorite of mine. The super-creepy Jack Kirby design of a giant floating head with vestigial arms and legs, along with his super-mutated brain sending out psychic blasts, captured the young John's imagination... What's not to love?
On with the Step-By-Step for those who are interested...
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STEP ONE: I did the original painting with acrylic on gessoed 9" x 12" matboard (I forgot to include the pencils, alas.) I generally work with very thin layers of paint--almost like a series of built up washes. When that was finished, I scanned it into the computer and set about colorizing it.
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STEP TWO: Here are the color flats. I created a MULTIPLY LAYER and did a circular gradient as the background, and then put in solid colors for M.O.D.O.K. Just to save myself some cleanup time, I create SAVED SELECTIONS for each color. Although, the background gradient should probably have gone from bluish outside to reddish inside, rather than the other way around as I did, since the bluish color matched a little too closely to the purple color I was using for M.O.D.O.K.'s arms and legs. Live and learn, I guess.
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STEP THREE: I select each SAVED SELECTION color one-at-a-time, and start adding highlights and shading--sort of like a makeshift mask layer. I kept layering colors and trying to build up some color depth. I used some blue/purple for the shadows on his ginormous face, as it really seems to complement flesh colors nicely, without making it look too muddy. I also colorized the semi-Kirby dots as part of the exhaust. Once I was semi-happy with it, I sent it off and called it good enough!
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This was done with black and white acrylic on 9" x 12" gessoed matboard and digitally colored.
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