Captain America - UPDATED
Well, I decided to do a little more work to the post from yesterday. Rather than just have it be exclusive to July 4th, how about just broaden it out to a propagandist-style poster of Captain America punching Nazis? Your wish is my command.
And, while we're at it, how about some of the process and associated boring stuff that goes with it? Second verse, same as the first! Say no more, here they are!
The pose was vaguely based on the original, 1941 Captain America comic book by Joe Simon and Jack Kirby. There were so many other Jack Kirbyesque poses I considered using, but eventually settled on the classic, first one. Perhaps next year I shall go through some others.
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PART ONE: Here are the quick digital pencils, scribbled on a 1,500px by 2,250px canvas at 300dpi. These are cropped, as I originally left room for the poster lettering and such, which just show as blank spaces on the canvas.
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PART TWO: And these are the quick digital inks, just building on the previous pencils. They are more-or-less just intended as placeholders for the figures, since I was planning on painting over everything. I also threw on a neutral-toned background to knock down some of the brightness of the white canvas.
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PART THREE: Here is the quick underpainting. I wasn't concerned with blending the colors at this time, just laying out the general color placement. Here is when the position of Captain America's arm began to bother me, and kept asking myself if I should change it.
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STEP FOUR: This is a big leap to the finished painting. However, I noticed a few anatomical things which I tried to ignore but couldn't any longer in the painting: mostly, the head/neck were too low, the rotation of the art and chest were off, disguised by the sketchy nature of the original drawing. I was hoping I could make 'em fit, just 'cuz I was in a hurry to get it (barely) posted before the end of July 4th. It didn't work, so I had to fix 'em. I'm sure there's a lesson there somewhere which I will refuse to learn. ;-)
I also decided to change the color of the background to be more bluish, 'cuz of the red banners across the top and bottom.
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STEP FIVE: And here's an animated .gif of the process, just to see the changes over time.
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(And, just for fun, while there have been many references to the cover of "Captain America #1" over the years, one of my favorite references to this cover is when Marvel Comics' America Chavez also punched Hitler in the face. It's a story that involves a time machine where she meets Captain America from Issue #1 and... well, it's a long story. But, the page made me smile.)
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Done digitally in Painter 2018 and an assist in Photoshop.
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