March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020 - Part 9

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

Well, here's the last submission for March M.O.D.O.K. Madness for 2020.

Alas, poor M.O.D.O.K. is too exhausted to Mindblast anymore for the month and needs a nap.  I know the feeling!

I just wanna take a moment to thank Pedro and Brendan for the opportunity to play along.  It almost fills that spot from a couple previous fun art Blogs I used to play on: Covered (recreating comic book covers) and Repaneled (recreating comic book panels).  

Oh, and here's something mildly amusing: I had about a half-dozen notes and ideas scribbled down for submissions this year, but didn't get to a single one of 'em.  So, I'll probably use them next year.  I look forward to March M.O.D.O.K. Madness next year--and may have to do something to **REALLY** up my game!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils, hastily scrawled, done in Clip Studio Paint on a 1,500px x 1,900px @ 200dpi.

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STEP TWO:  And these are the digital inks, also done in Clip Studio Paint--mostly with a 10pt to 15pt brush.  Mostly.

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STEP THREE:  And, finally, here are the colors.  Nothing else to really report--it was a pretty straight forward drawing this time around.

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Done digitally with Clip Studio Paint.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020 - Part 8

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

Yet another March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog submission.  And, possibly, it's one of the dumbest flashes of inspiration I've had for March M.O.D.O.K. Madness.

The conversation went something like this:

          John's Brain: John!  Hey, John, wake up!  

          John: Hmmama... whuh-hmbmbbb... [Snores]

          John's Brain: WAKE UP!

          John: HuhWha--?  Immuppp... I'm up!

          John's Brain: Y'know those tangerines you bought yesterday?

          John: Yeah...?

          John's Brain: Well, if you cut out the front section, I bet you can make it look like M.O.D.O.K.'s face.  Just Photoshop some eyes and digitally paint the front a bit and you can submit it to March M.O.D.O.K. Madness!

          John: [Long pause]  That's... [Another long pause]  Truly, that's gotta be one of the dumbest things you've ever sent my way, Brain.

          John's Brain: Yeah, I know...

          John: Well, it ain't gonna submit itself!  Let's do it, NOW!  [Leaps out of bed and races to the kitchen.]

So, this submission is a literal tangerine which I cut out to look like M.O.D.O.K., and then imported into Photoshop for a bit of digital chicanery.  The background is a photo I took of the interior of an old computer I had laying around (and should have taken to the Recycle Center a while ago now that I think about it), which was also imported and modified in Photoshop.

The accuracy of that conversation above is both a sad and shocking glimpse into my life...

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STEP ONE:  I picked a random tangerine out of the bag and cut out the face mask area, and carved out the patterns and lights around his face.  For the background, I figured a blank or plain graduated color would be rather boring.  After a lot of thinking (all of 10 minutes), I thought about taking a pic of the motherboard of an old computer I had laying around.

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STEP TWO:  Hey, it's an animated .gif of the process.  In this case, starting with the tangerine on the top layer and the motherboard photo in the bottom, I drew a face on the tangerine.  I added the lighting effects with an airbrush tool.  The motherboard was blurred and color corrected to blue to better set up a complementary color scheme (with orange and blue being on opposite sides of the color wheel).  I also went through with a charcoal brush in Photoshop to emphasize parts of the background to give it a little bit more of a Kirby feel to it.  Speaking of, I finished it off by adding a bit of Kirby Krackle.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished picture which, given the rather sketchy nature of the inspiration, didn't turn out as horrible as it could have.

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Done with digital manipulation in Photoshop.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020 - Part 7

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

Great Googly-Moogly!  How many more of these March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog submission am I gonna do?  The answer is at least one more.  Possibly two.

Oh, no, it looks like M.O.D.O.K. has too much MANGA-nese in his diet!  Ugh, I'll show myself out after that one...  This time I thought I would switch up styles yet again for M.O.D.O.K. and do it up in a Manga-style comic book page.  And, it seemed appropriate, given I used Clip Studio Paint (formerly Manga Studio) to draw this piece.

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STEP ONE:  Here is the initial, scribbled doodle on a scrap piece of cardstock I had on hand that inspired this piece, if one could call it "inspired".  It was just a thought of "Oh, yeah, I should do something Manga-based.  I haven't done M.O.D.O.K. in that style, yet."  From there, I thought I should do it as a Manga comic page, rather than just an illustration aping the style.

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STEP TWO:  And these are the hastily scribbled digital pencils on a 1,500px x 2,250px @ 600dpi (overkill, I know).  I was looking around for some inspiration by thumbing through some random Manga I have on my shelf and saw a panel with a back lit character and knew how the second panel had to look, aesthetically.  I do sorta like the thick line quality of the bottom panel, almost better than the finished one.  Too bad I wasn't quite able to capture that style as much as I wanted.  Ah, well...

Now it was just a matter of figuring out the first panel and what the story would be.  Well, as you can see, the "story" is just M.O.D.O.K. giving saying his name--a narrative twist no one saw coming!  Sigh...

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STEP THREE:  Here is the finished page.  I used an inordinate number of layers and special rulers to achieve the line effects.  Clip Studio Paint has a fantastic brush engine, as well as perspective rulers.  I also decided to digitally hand-letter the page... which demonstrates my semi-crappy hand writing and why I hate lettering.  But, it seemed to fit the style of the page for some reason.  Also, I left it as black-and-white 'cuz, y'know... Manga.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020 - Part 6

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

Hey, it's another March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog submission!

This time, I was goofing off with a new app (to me), Art Set 4, on the ol' iPad.  It's a light-weight art app, and has a few tricks it does well--I like a few of the ink brushes and the watercolor and oil paint brushes blend in an interesting manner.  But, the interface can use some work and it just doesn't quite have the heft of some other apps I prefer, such as Clip Studio Paint, ArtStudio Pro, or Procreate.

So, this was just a random doodle of sorts.  I didn't even bother giving M.O.D.O.K. arms or legs in this one--just a floating, rocket head.  I'm hoping to get at least a couple more entrees done before the end of the month.  Fingers crossed.

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STEP ONE:  I created a new canvas in Art Set 4 with one of the default, gray backgrounds and decided to use one of the more interesting, textured ink brushes called Koi.  For the white areas, I used their default Oil Brush

A brief aside to any Art App developers out there: I've really become enamored with Clip Studio Paint allowing Transparent as a brush color option.  Rather than using the eraser, it is more interesting to use the same brush to wipe out all colors and lines, instead.  It's a more natural eraser, IMHO.  Particularly when using a heavily textured brush.  

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STEP TWO:  The inked image was colored with a series of Multiply and Normal Layers.  I didn't do any fancy layer or brush effects, as it was sort of intended to be more like a Sumi-brush effect.  Sort of...  So, I kept it simple.

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Done digitally with Art Set 4 on an iPad Pro.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020 - Part 5

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

Well, it's another submission to the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog!

I hope everyone is doing well (which, in these times, has a slightly different urgency than usual).  This submission was actually inspired by Pedro from the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog replying to an e-mail saying he hoped I was "doing well during these strange days".  Sure, it's just a simple acknowledgement of good wishes (and much appreciated, of course), but I flashed to M.O.D.O.K. trying to wash his hands as suggested by the CDC, et. al.  The rest of this submission was built upon that.

Yeah, one may say I have problems with priorities in my thought processes... But, we'll leave that for another day and to someone with a higher pay grade to figure out.  Also, my sense of humor tends to run a bit on the dark side, as well as seemingly irreverent--especially when things are serious.

And, hey, I even decided to put in links for people to get actual information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [https://www.cdc.gov/] and World Health Organization [https://www.who.int/].

Be safe, everyone.

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STEP ONE:  Here is the original idea thumbnail drawing, which was done on the iPad in Procreate as a 2,048px x 2,048px @ 133dpi canvas.  While it started with the idea of M.O.D.O.K. trying to wash his hands, it sort of built up from there.

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STEP TWO:  These are the actual digital pencils, which were done in Clip Studio Paint as a 1,500px x 2,150px @ 600dpi canvas.  I did use parts of the original sketch idea as an overlay for the pencils.

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STEP THREE:  And here are the digital inks and lettering.  

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STEP FOUR:  Finally, over a series of Layers, here is the finished colors.  When it was finished, I reduced the size to 1,000px x 1,433px and called it DONE!  Again, be safe and be well, everyone!

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020 - Part 4

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

It's yet another submission to the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog!  This time it's a change from the previous wood block cut and on to something more in line with what I usually do--for better or worse.  I'm hoping to get another two to four M.O.D.O.K. pics done before the end of the month.  So, we'll see...

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STEP ONE:  Here is the black-and-white under painting on the iPad using the ArtStudio Pro app.  The canvas was 1,500px x 2,000px at 300dpi.  Unfortunately, I just started and kept going and didn't bother with Work in Progress at the time (ie. I didn't think ahead enough to take screenshots and such).  

This was actually drawn with M.O.D.O.K. facing the opposite direction, but when I flipped it to see if any mistakes were glaringly obvious, I realized I too often have characters facing right-to-left, so just left it flipped horizontally and continued to work on it that way.

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STEP TWO:  And this is the basic color with the Overlay layer done over top the black-and-white under painting.  Some of the Layer Effects were either too dark or too colorful for the mood I was vaguely trying to establish.

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STEP THREE:  Over top on a Normal Layer, I added a few highlights and other colors, as well as the lighting effect with a digital airbrush.  I exported it as a .jpg at 1,000px by 1,333px and called it good 'nuff.

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Done digitally in ArtStudio Pro on the iPad.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020 - Part 3

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

Hey, it's another submission to the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog!  Every once in a while, I like to do different art styles for M.O.D.O.K., just to keep things interesting.  This time, it's something a bit more primitive in style--a sort of digital wood cut print.

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PART ONE:  In Procreate, I created a new document 2,048px x 2,732 at 132dpi, and used the "Inka" Inking Brush, which has a bit of a rough, dry line.  Using just the black and the white lines, I went with a more rough hewn style--looking to emulate a sort of wood block print aesthetic.  When I was finished, I imported it into Photoshop and changed the size to 1,200px x 1,601px at 200dpi.  I didn't bother with any digital pencils, or use the symmetry tools, just to keep it looking more primitive. 

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PART TWO:  The colors were done over top with a Multiply Layer, also with the "Inka" Inking Brush.  I didn't bother doing any fancy airbrush or lighting effects, as the style would have clashed with the heavy line look, methinks.

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Done digitally in Procreate on an iPad Pro.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020 - Part 2

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

It's time for another bit of spam... er, submission to the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog!  This time (pun mostly unintentional), it's a dumb calendar joke.  "March Fourth" is the one day of the year that is a command.  And, what better way to celebrate March 4th than to have our favorite Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing leading a charge to... (pause for dramatic effect) TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

Onward to the next submission!

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PART ONE:  These are the digital pencils to give a rough layout on a 1750px x 1300px canvas in Clip Studio Paint.

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PART TWO:  The digital inks were done mostly using a 7pt to 10pt brush in Clip Studio Paint.  For the army of A.I.M. (Advanced Idea Mechanics) fighters, I copied and pasted them, and dropped the opacity of the layer down to 80% to push them into the background a little more.

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PART THREE:  And here are the colors, done in a series of layers.  

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020 - Part 1

March M.O.D.O.K. Madness 2020

(Mental Organism Designed Only for Killing)

It's time again for March M.O.D.O.K. Madness for 2020--A celebration of everyone's favorite hyper-cephalic Marvel villain designed only for killing!

This time, even with an extra Leap Day in February, I got off to a bit of a late start for some reason.  Usually, I have a submission to the March M.O.D.O.K. Madness Blog chambered and ready to go shortly after midnight leading into March 1st.  This time, March just sorta sneaked up on me when I wasn't looking.

Anyhoo, here is the first of what I hope to be about a half-dozen submissions for the month of March.  Keep on Mindblasting!

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PART ONE:  Here are the digital pencils--quickly scribbled with the assistance of the symmetry tool to give a rough layout on a 1,500px x 2,250px canvas in Clip Studio Paint.

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PART TWO:  The digital inks were done mostly using the Symmetry Tool and a 7pt to 10pt brush in Clip Studio Paint.  I also used the Line and Curve tools for the bell jar.

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PART THREE:  And here are the colors, done in a series of overlapping layers.  Nothing fancy, just getting those colors down and a layer for the glass bell jar over top.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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