Ultraman / Eiji Tsuburaya

Happy (Belated) Birthday to Eiji Tsuburaya

Well, I'm a little late, but since Google did a Doodle for the birthday of one of the main creators of Ultraman last week, I figured I should do another something Ultraman-related, myself.  (Here's a link to the previous Ultraman painting I did.)

I've had something like this kicking around in my head for a while and it seemed the perfect time to finally get it done.  When I was much younger, I always loved watching anything involving robots, monsters, and aliens... Y'know, general B-Movies from the 50's, 60's, and 70's.  It's a subject I will be coming back to again and again on this Blog.  :-)

I won't pretend that I am the biggest super-fan, nor can I say I am a fount of trivia or deep knowledge for Tsuburaya's works, but there is a definite, abiding fondness I have for them and the characters he created/worked on.  They make my inner-child smile.

For those interested, here are the progressions for the picture...

* * *

STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils.  Originally, I was going to do a watercolor/gouache (opaque watercolors) painting.  I penciled everything out on a piece of 12" x 16" cheap illustration board I had laying around and scanned it in to record each step of progression.  I debated if I should seal the pencils with Matte Medium or not, but figured the board was thick enough to take the watercolor/gouache without trouble; after all, I've done LOTS of watercolor paintings on cardstock just fine with no problem--this was much, MUCH thicker than cardstock, so it should work just fine, right?  

Of course, within 10 minutes of starting the painting, the board started to blister badly and peel up.  Sigh...  When will I learn, and why is the answer to that questions always "NEVER!"?

* * *

STEP TWO:  Well, at least I had the pencils scanned in.  So, I just decided to do everything digitally for the picture, instead.  When life gives you lemons, just hope you have enough sugar on hand to take the edge off the bitterness of that disappointment.  In this case, I used a large charcoal brush in Photoshop to do some very general color layouts and rough shapes. 

* * *

STEP THREE:  More of the same, just building up colors and beginning to work on the figures on different Layers.

* * *

STEP FOUR:  Even more of the same as before.

* * *

STEP FIVE:  And finally...  I did want some more destruction around, so did the building as destroyed by the battle.  

It turned out quite a bit different than I had planned, but it isn't as bad as I feared it would become.  There are parts which are still a little "too digital" for my tastes... originally, I was planning it as a watercolor painting, and then doing a little "sweetening" of the picture in Photoshop as needed, rather than a start-to-finish digital painting.  Oh, well.

* * *

Done digitally in Photoshop.

.