Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Forge

Forge

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

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And, here's my version for the Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux Blog.  I was a regular reader of "X-Men" way back in the day, when they first introduced Forge.  Holy cow, that was a long, LONG time ago...

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils on a New 900px x 1350px document.

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STEP TWO:  Here are the digital inks, done with a 5px hard brush.

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STEP THREE:  And over a series of layers, I used a combination of grayscale and Multiply layers to colorize the drawing, with final highlights and darks done with a Normal Layer over top.

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This was done digitally in Photoshop.

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Mini-Paint: IG-88

IG-88

Rounding the corner into the home stretch for the Bounty Hunters from "The Empire Strikes Back", here's one of my favorites, the assassin droid IG-88.  Sure, he just stands there the entire time and really doesn't do anything, but I always thought he was cool.

And, thanks to "Robot Chicken", I will never be able to not think about IG-88 daydreaming about doing a slam dunk (if you will forgive the double negative).  It got a delighted smirk out of me when they showed it .

The palette was: Titanium White, Naples Yellow (Red Lt.), Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, Cadmium Red Deep, Cobalt Blue (Hue), and Ivory Black.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils on gray gessoed, 5-1/2" x 8" hardboard.

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STEP TWO:  This is the first pass with acrylic paint using a #10 Flat and #10 Round brush, taking about an hour.

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STEP THREE:  The next 90 minutes were spent working on working on developing the shadows, highlights, and details.  Total time was about 2-1/2 hours.

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This was done the acrylic paint on 5-1/2" x 8" gessoed hardboard.

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Heavy Metal Magazine - Contest Submission

Heavy Metal Magazine

Contest Submission

The Lunar Bell Jar

"Heavy Metal Magazine", along with Threadless (they are mostly known for T-Shirt and art designs), had a contest and the Winner gets to do an actual cover for "Heavy Metal Magazine" and various other cash and prizes.  There is a soft spot in my heart (and head) for "Heavy Metal Magazine".  I have a bunch of random issues I bought in the late 80's and early 90's, and have a fondness for the European Sci-Fi/Fantasy aesthetic.  The animated movie was OK, but the magazine was where it was at. 

Of course, I found out about the contest on Sunday evening, May 8th, 2016, and had until Wednesday, May 11th, 2016 at 23:59:59 (CST) to get it done and submitted.  Hey, no sweat, right?  I mean, sure I wasn't going to be able to start on it until Monday afternoon at the earliest, and was going to be out of town for a few hours on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Plenty of time, right?

I spent a few hours sketching out various ideas that would fit with "Heavy Metal".  I had settled on a semi-surreal image of a person's face just beginning to fall away to reveal some sort of alien horror, with various objet d'art in the background.  One of those objects was the Moon in a bell jar, which is an image I've kept in my head since high school (that's a long, LONG time ago, folks!).

Once I drew the moon under glass, I thought about the backstory involved and I saw an astronaut reaching out to the moon and taking it in hand.  I immediately decided to toss out my original idea (well, it's not like it was all that original) and go with the Lunar Bell Jar idea.  It made for a better story image and amused me... well, I'm first to admit I am easily amused.

I almost gave up several times, figuring I just wouldn't have time to get it done, so I was wasting my time.  But, I kept going and did get it done with plenty of time to spare.  Yeah, I couldn't believe it, myself.

After it was finished and submitted, it looks like you are supposed to promote your design through Facebook/Twitter/Social Media (I don't truck with those things, assuming--correctly for the most part--no one really wants to contact me that badly).  And, since you have to sign-up for their website to vote, I'm not going to push that, either.  

In fact, I wasn't even sure I was going to post my submission because of it, but I am trying to post more pictures to this Blog and I'm not going to bother promoting it--just putting it up for its own sake.  Knowing that I got it done in time and it was possibly stared at for a few seconds by Grant Morrison (one of my favorite comic book writers and the Editor in Cheif of "Heavy Metal Magazine") is good enough for me.  

Besides, looking at a bunch of the other 500+ submissions, whilst mine is nowhere near the bottom, there are quite a few which I think are much, much better.  Also, I saw a couple submissions involving human-shaped masks sliding away to reveal monsters, and a whole bunch of astronaut-based designs--several of which were fantastic!  So, there you go.  If I somehow win (SPOILERS: I won't), y'all will be somewhere in the top 15 to 20 to know about it.  ;-)

Anyhoo, below are the steps involved in creating the digital painting for those who are interested.  Or even those who aren't interested, they are still there for you to skip over.  :-D

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STEP ONE:  I opened the template they supplied in PhotoShop (2,475px x 3,338px / 300dpi), I roughly sketched out the design using a Chalk Brush.  They provided the Logo among their submission kit and used just a simple outline and turned it white.  It seemed more fitting that way for a space-based picture (see below).

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STEP TWO:  I roughed in some more of the painting.  I decided to do the Moon and Earth on separate layers, as well as the astronaut.  With that much done, I tricked myself into thinking I was almost finished and decided to press forward.  Yeah, I still had LOTS of work to do, yet.  It also took me a long time to get the Moon painted correctly; lots of me going back and forth with various gray scale tones until I got it right.

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STEP THREE:  I finished up the astronaut and worked on the highlights and shadows, as well as the shine on the mirrored helmet.  Overall, I'm mostly pleased with it (the titular Bell Jar is a bit off, IMHO).  It could always be better, of course, but for the time I had to finish it, I'll just take the fact I got it done as a "W" in the "Win" Column.  Take your victories where you can get them, folks.  :-)

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This was done in Photoshop.

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Mini-Paint: Dengar

Dengar

Continuing on with the Bounty Hunters from "The Empire Strikes Back", this time 'round, it's Dengar!

The palette was: Titanium White, Naples Yellow (Red Lt.), Yellow Ochre, Burnt Umber, Cadmium Red Deep, Cobalt Blue (Hue), and Ivory Black.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils on a 5.5" x 8" piece of hardboard, with gray toned gesso and matte medium over top.

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STEP TWO:  This is the first pass of paint with a #10 Flat brush, done in about 30 minutes.

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STEP THREE:  The last hour-and-a-half of the painting was spent working on the highlights and shadows, and going back over to tighten up some details here-and-there without going overboard (which had been known to happen a time or two to me).  :-)

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This was done with Acrylic Paint on 5.5" x 8" gessoed hardboard.

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Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Grandmaster

Grandmaster

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

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And, here's my version...  Hey, it's another posting for the Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux Blog!  It's been a while, but there are a few entries still left to do, so I grabbed a few to finish up.  It feels good to be working those muscles again.  And, I have such a deep, abiding affection for the original "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe" that I had to do more when the opportunity presented itself.  And here we are.

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STEP ONE:  Because I'm a genius, I accidentally painted over the digital pencils I had done.  So, here's the grayscale painting. I did on a 900px x 1350px NEW document.

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STEP TWO:  Over a MULTIPLY Layer, I added the flat colors; then on a NEW Layer above that, I added highlights and shadows.

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This was done digitally in Photoshop.

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May the Fourth Be With You - 2016

May the Fourth Be With You!

I thought I should take a break from painting the Bounty Hunters from "Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back" to do something quick for the Nerd Holiday of "May the Fouth Be With You".  Um, wait, I think there may be something wrong with the logical construction of the previous sentence.  Oh, well, no time to look back, now!

Once again, I decided to do something with the giant, green rabbit introduced in the "Star Wars # 8", published by Marvel Comics in 1977, Jaxxon!  That's right, I am continuing my single-handed quest to make Jaxxon a cool character!  Even though the odds are greatly against me, I shall carry on, regardless--mostly because I don't know the meaning of the word "Quixotic".

Quix·ot·ic - /kwikˈsädik/

adjective: Quixotic - exceedingly idealistic; unrealistic and impractical.

Oh!  Well, I guess that's pretty spot on, then.  Anyhoo, LAST YEAR'S "May the Fouth" entry had Jaxxon standing in for Han Solo; this year's had him standing in for Luke Skywalker.  I'll give you three guesses who will be wearing a metal bikini next year for "May the Fourth Be With You"...

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils on a new document 900px x 1,350px.  When they were finished, I dropped the opacity to 20% and did the inks overtop on a NEW Layer.  Speaking of which...

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STEP TWO:  The digital inks were done mostly with a 5pt hard round brush.  The background was done with a texture brush in grayscale.

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STEP THREE:  Lastly, I added in the color on a new MULTIPLY Layer and the lettering.

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This was done digitally in Photoshop.

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