Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Aliens - Courga

Courga

Here is the original entry for the Alien Race: Courga to 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:  Here are the quickly scribbled digital pencils on a New 900px x 1,350px document.

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STEP TWO:  Sigh, because I wasn't paying attention while working on this, I accidentally merged down the color flat layer, so I just have the finished picture.  So, I guess "Step One" is scribble something vaguely in the shape you want to draw, and "Step Two" is to color it.  Um, yeah...

As for this drawing of the Courga alien species, as I uploaded this, I am beginning to wonder if it looks a little bit like he was wearing old-guy pants pulled halfway up to his armpits.  Ugh.

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This was done digitally with Photoshop.

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Cover Replica: Batman #251

Batman #251

Here's the original cover of Batman #251 by Neal Adams.

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Aaaaaaannnnddddd, at the risk of having to do another "Mea Culpa" (this time for Neal Adams rather than Brian Bolland), here's the cover replica I did for my pal (and Superman's), Jim, from Jimmy Jams Comics and Games here in Winona, MN.  

Ugh, these things are ginormous and take FOREVER to do!  Unfortunately, they are so large, the color is sort of off a bit and the lighting is a bit strange.  Oh, well.

The process is basically the same as my previous cover replicas...

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STEP ONE:  I cut a 20" x 30" piece of hardboard, and then glued a 22" x 30" sheet of Stonehenge (#140) paper using acrylic medium, and trimmed the excess paper after it dried.  I then used a mixture of gesso and acrylic medium to paint over top of the Stonehenge paper to prep it for painting.  When that was done, I drew a 1" x 1" grid and set to pencilling the cover image.

Once the pencils were done, I began to paint the large areas with acrylic paint.  The straight lines were done with a Sharpie marker and a ruler.  The other line work was done with a mixture of acrylic black paint and waterproof India ink and painted on with a round brush.

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STEP TWO:  Here it with most of the color laid in and the lettering about half-done in spots (less so in others).  Gee, I haven't mentioned that I hate lettering for quite a while!  Mostly 'cuz I'm not all that great at it and it is a painfully slow process for me.  Yeah, yeah, I'll get better with practice.  :-S

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STEP THREE:  Here's the finished picture.  To blend in some of the light-purple effects on the gloves and the Joker's suit, I used a drybrush method with the acrylic paint.  To drybrush, you use a little bit of paint on a larger, round, hog bristle brush, wipe most of it off on a separate piece of paper, then lightly brush the remaining bit of paint across the picture, which gives it more of a soft, almost airbrush effect.  When it was done, I sprayed some Krylon UV-Resistant Archival spray as a varnish.

There are a few wonky areas that bother me, but I was generally pleased with the finished painting.  Mostly, however, I was glad it was done and I can move on to some other stuff, now.  :-)

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This was done with acrylic paint on 20" x 30" gessoed Stonehenge paper glued to hardboard.

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