Ultraman

Ultraman

OK, I decided to take a little break between projects.  

I checked out the entire run of Ultraman from our local library.  It was a show which I only caught a few times as a kid, but I was always intrigued by him.  And, with the new "Godzilla" movie being out, I was feeling a little nostalgic for all those old Japanese shows.  Because of that, I thought it would be fun to knock out a quick painting and post it to the Blog.  Something I should do more often, to be honest.  :-D

I also liked the series run enough that I am sure I will be doing more with Ultraman in the future.  I have a few ideas...  :-)

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils on Stonehenge paper which was glued to 8" x 10" hardboard.

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STEP TWO:  This was the halfway point in the painting.  I decided to use casein to paint the picture, which uses a milk-based binder for the pigment (it has a slight ammonia smell to is, as well, which can be a little off-putting to some).  I decided to play with it after reading James Gurney's Blog.  I like it quite a bit--it behaves like an odd mixture of acrylic and gouache (opaque watercolor) and is waterproof after it sets.

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STEP THREE:  Here is the finished painting.  For some reason, the brush strokes on the top half of the painting really showed through when I took the picture with my camera, but they weren't that strong on the painting itself.  Because of that, I decided to pull it fully into PhotoShop and tweak it a bit more...

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STEP FOUR:  After it was finished, I decided to just fix the background a bit and brush out some of the strong brushstrokes which kept artifacting from my camera.  I also digitally blurred the ray coming from his hand and added an airbrushed glow to the gemstone on his chest.

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Done with casein paint on 8" x 10" Stonehenge paper glued onto Medium Density Fiberboard (with an assist from PhotoShop).

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On the Easel - September 12, 2014 - Dark Knight and Batman

On the Easel

Dark Knight #4 Page Recreation 
& Batman #251 Cover Replica

I realized it has been a while since I posted an "On the Easel".  I always like to see what people are in the middle of working on, so I figured I'd inflict some of that on y'all as well.  Also, it breaks up some of the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux Edition posts.  :-)

And this one's a two-fer, showing two different projects I am working on at the moment...

Click to Embiggen

First, I am currently painting a page recreation of the Batman Vs. Superman finale from "The Dark Knight Returns" #4 for a friend of mine for his birthday/Christmas present.  It is being painted with Casein (sort of like acrylic with a milk-protein based binder) on a 15" x 22" piece of Strathmore illustration board, with the image area being 12" x 16".  The under-painting is about 85% done and I'm hoping to have it finished in the next couple-a-few weeks.

Partially hidden behind the Dark Knight page, is a Cover Replica I'm working on for my pal (and probably Superman's, too), Jim, from Jimmy Jams Comics and Games, here in Winona, MN.  The replica is another Neal Adams cover, this time for "Batman #251".  It is being painted with acrylic on Stonehenge paper, which is mounted on a 20" x 30" piece of hard board.  I just started on that a couple days ago, but as it is something I generally work on during something I laughably call "spare time", it may be a month or more before you see the finished result posted.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Loki (Updated)

Loki (Updated)

UPDATED: A joke so obvious that even **I** thought of it.  :-D

I sent this to Jon for his Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux as an alternate/joke entry for Loki (or, should I say Joki?) and he liked it enough to publish it instead of the previous Loki entry.  It seemed more appropriate for a Trickster, methinks.  :-D

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Here is the original entry for Loki in the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Morgan Le Fey

Morgan Le Fey

Here is the original entry for Morgan Le Fey in 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.

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STEP ONE:  I created a New Document 1,000 x 1,500 pixels in PhotoShop with a toned background and used a large Oil Pastel Brush to sketch in the pose.

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STEP TWO:  Here's the finished black-and-white under drawing.

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STEP THREE:  I erased the gray background and used a MULTIPLY Layer to lay down the flat colors to begin colorizing the picture.  This has the added bonus of establishing the darks and mid-tones for the digital drawing already.

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STEP FOUR:  Over a NEW Layer, I added the highlights and drew the added skulls for the belt and necklace.

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Just for fun, here's an animated .gif of the process.

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Created digitally in PhotoShop.

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