Thursday, January 30, 2014

Celestials: Scathan the Approver

Celestials: 
Scathan the Approver


Hey, it's my 100th Post, and who better to feature than the Celestial, Scathan the Approver.  Apparently, he is Celestial from an alternate future, first appearing in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" (1994).  Unlike Arishem, he doesn't Judge, per se, but he approves or disapproves of certain, pivotal situations.  Which, to be honest, seems like a minor distinction at best.  :-)


Here is Scathan the Celestial from his appearance in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" (1994).  The image above became a minor meme, used whenever a person would post something which was met with disapproval.  Bless you, Nerds, everywhere!  :-)

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STEP ONE:  I did the pencils with a blue lead .05 Mechanical Pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  The inks were done with a Fine Point, Bleed-Proof Sharpie pen, with a little help from a PITT Brush Pen for some of the heavier blacks.

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STEP THREE:  I scanned it into PhotoShop and colorized it over a MULTIPLY Layer.  Once more, I kept the color scheme very simple to match the previous Celestials entries I did for  the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: REDUX EDITION.  Y'know, just to keep things consistent.

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Hey, Scathan, what do you think of my 100th Post?


Ah, well, a SCATHING review of my Blog from Scathan the Approver.  Better luck next time, I guess...

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This was done with pen-and-ink on 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" cardstock and colored in PhotoShop.

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Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Celestials: Exitar the Exterminator

Celestials:
Exitar the Exterminator



When Arishem the Judge gives the thumbs down to a civilization/world, Exitar shows up to do the deed and destroy (and then remake) the planet.  He stands 20,000 feet tall (the normal Celestials are a mere 2,000 feet tall) and has a star field showing up within the shaded regions of his armor.  That's a pretty cool visual to me.


Here is the original image of Exitar the Exterminator.

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STEP ONE:  Once more, I broke out my blue lead 0.5mm mechanical pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  More inking done with a fine point Sharpie Non-Bleed pen, with an assist from a PITT Brush tip pen to fill in the black areas more quickly.

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STEP THREE:  I scanned the image into PhotoShop and colorized it with a MULTIPLY Layer, keeping the color scheme very simple to match the previous Celestials entries I did for  the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: REDUX EDITION.  I also used a star field image from the NASA Site, adjusting the Color Levels and using the Dodge and Burn tools to darken/lighten areas a little bit, as well.

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This was done with pen-and-ink on 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" cardstock and colored in PhotoShop.

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Monday, January 27, 2014

Celestials: Gamiel the Manipulator

Celestials:
Gamiel the Manipulator


Gamiel the Manipulator first appeared with his "brother", Devron the Experimenter, in Eric Powell's Marvel Monsters: Devil Dinosaur #1.  Sure, the zany adventures of Devron and Gamiel aren't exactly canon, but I still felt they should be included with the rest of the Celestials in this series.


Here is the original version. 

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STEP ONE:  I did the pencils with blue pencil lead on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  Inks were done with a Sharpie Fine-Point Non-Bleed marker.  I traced back over some of the lines to build up some line variation and thickness. 

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STEP THREE:  I scanned the drawing into PhotoShop and colorized it with a MULTIPLY Layer.  Once more, I kept the color scheme very simple to match the previous Celestials entries I did for  the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: REDUX EDITION.  

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This was done with pen-and-ink on 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" cardstock and colored in PhotoShop.

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Saturday, January 25, 2014

Celestials: Devron the Experimenter

Celestials: 
Devron the Experimenter

Well, I've finally started doing more Celestials by popular request (well, as popular as anything gets on my Blog, anyways ;-).  I decided to use the same style as the previous entries which I did for the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: REDUX EDITION.  You can click HERE to see previous entries or click the Celestials Label on the sidebar of the Blog.


Here is the original version.

Devron and his "brother", Gamiel the Manipulator (my next post), were both introduced in a comedic story involving the Hulk and Devil Dinosaur.  I've only seen a few panels from Marvel Monsters: Devil Dinosaur #1 by Eric Powell and it somehow missed being on my radar.  Being a fan of both Eric Powell and Devil Dinosaur, I will absolutely be tracking that issue down the next time I get to my comic book shop. :-)

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STEP ONE:  I did the pencils with with a blue-lead pencil on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock.

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STEP TWO:  The inks were done with an extra-fine pen.  I went back over top and added some line width to get some variation and add a sense of weight to the ink drawing.

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STEP THREE:  I scanned the drawing into PhotoShop and colorized it with a MULTIPLY Layer.  I kept the color scheme very simple to match the previous Celestials entries I did for  the Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: REDUX EDITION.  

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This was done with pen-and-ink on 5-1/2" x 8-1/2" cardstock and colored in PhotoShop.

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Wednesday, January 8, 2014

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians


Sure, this would have been more appropriate a couple weeks back, but better late than never, I suppose.  :-)

Santa Claus Conquers the Martians (1964) was a horrible B-movie I first watched as a youngster, and have revisited again several times since.  The children of Mars are listless and bored, so a band of Martians decide to kidnap Santa and bring him to Mars so he can bring joy to their children, just like he does on Earth.

I was intending to do a B-Movie picture post of the movie, but then I got the idea of having the Martians actually be the aliens from "Mars Attacks!".  The image of a Frank Frazetta/Simon Bisley type Santa, shirtless, fighting Martians struck me as amusing and I just knew I had to do this picture.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the quick pencils for the layout of the painting.  It was done on a 9" x 12" piece of Arches (#140) watercolor paper which was glued onto a piece of hardboard with acrylic medium.

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STEP TWO:  I started doing a black and white painting with Gouache, which is an opaque watercolor.  Usually, if something gets goofed up with gouache, you can paint over top and correct any mistakes without too much trouble.  Well, this time it was giving me trouble for some reason.  So, I just sort of gave up and decided to let PhotoShop fix it, this time.

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STEP THREE:  I began reworking and filling in areas with a handy-dandy Chalk Brush in PhotoShop.  I pretty much just treated it like a continuation of the gouache painting--which it mostly was.

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STEP FOUR:  Here's the finished black-and-white part of the drawing/painting.

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STEP FIVE:  I first used a MULTIPLY Layer to layout the general colors of the picture, and then used some of the normal layers  to include highlights and atmospheric effects.

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This was done with watercolor on 9" x 12" Arches watercolor paper and PhotoShop.  

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