March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2015 (Part 2)

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2015 (Part 2)

With apologies to Shepard Fairey this time, here's another submission to March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2015.  Whew!  Just made it in under the wire before M.M.M. closes for another year... :-D

UPDATE: Speaking of Shepard Fairey, I was contacted by Louise from the Artsy website.  Here is a LINK to more Shepard Fairey and Shepard Fairey-inspired art for those of you who are interested.  Enjoy that and the other art-related links on their site!  :-)

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This was done digitally in PhotoShop.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2015

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2015

With apologies to Geoff Darrow and his awesome cover to Hard Boiled #3, here is my submission to March M.O.D.O.K. Madness for 2015.

Fingers crossed, I may try to get another submission in before the end of the month if I have the time.  We'll see how that goes.  :-S

For those interested, here's the process...

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STEP ONE:  Here is a quick sketch done in Photoshop in black-and-white showing the basic layout.  I was vaguely inspired by Geoff Darrow's cover to Hard Boiled #3 (and by "vaguely inspired", I mean I blatantly ripped it off).

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STEP TWO:  I then did some rough layout in black and white to figure out the tonal values, final composition, and begin fixing some of the errors in the initial quick sketch.  Also, "Turn that frown upside down, M.O.D.O.K.!"

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STEP THREE:  Here I used a MULTIPLY Layer to lay down the basic color scheme, and then created various new layers to paint on top of that for the finished color work.  This was pretty much the finished picture, but...

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STEP FOUR:  Then I decided that it worked better if I trimmed the top and bottom.  It seemed to make it a bit more cinematic and was a better composition.  I also blurred the person's head so it wasn't quite as gory and also seemed to add some depth of field to the finished picture, as well.  Hmmm, I'm not sure why I keep giving M.O.D.O.K. a haircut like Moe Howard from "The Three Stooges"... 

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This was done digitally in Photoshop.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Phoenix II (Rachel Summers)

Phoenix II - Rachel Summers

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

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

I read X-Men back when I was an early teen and really liked the aesthetic look of the Rachel Summers version of Phoenix in issue #199 (yes, kids, I'm really that old).  So, when it became available for the OHotMU:Redux, I had to grab it!

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STEP ONE:  OK, I decided to go through and do some really quick thumbnails to find a good pose (each one was just a couple-a-few minutes).  I decided to go with "E".  In some ways, I almost like the thumbnail pose better than the finished picture... Oh, well.

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STEP TWO:  I blew up the thumbnail and got to work digitally inking over the top.  I then did some flat grayscale and then flat color over top of that.  I then used that as a base to start building up more highlights and some shadows, as well. 

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STEP THREE:  I then added New Layers and kept building colors on top of each section, which I broke down into Red, Yellow, Skin Tones/Hair.  Once finished, I erased the white and added something vaguely Phoenix-shaped energies as the background. 

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For those of you who are interested, here is an animated .gif of each step.

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This was done digitally in Photoshop

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