Suicide Squad: King Shark

Suicide Squad: King Shark

Hey, for fun here's a painting of King Shark, from James Gunn's "The Suicide Squad".  I'm a fan of James Gunn's work, generally, and I did like his take on "The Suicide Squad".  It was an improvement--but a lot of that may have been less interference by the studio...  The first one was just OK; the sequel/reboot by Gunn is chaotic, super-nerdy, and bloody as H-E-Double Hockey Sticks.  I know it's boring to say "You'll be surprised by who lives and who dies", but, while there are some obvious ones who live, there are some surprises as to who dies in the film.  (Then again, it's comics/movies, so some of them will probably be back.)

Most of this movie was catnip to an Uber-Nerd such as myself.  Whoever thought I'd live to see the day when Starro the Conqueror was in a movie?  Or a thinly-veiled rewording of the rejected applicant to the Legion of Super-Heroes, Arm-Fall-Off-Boy, named The Detachable Kid, played by Nathan Fillion?  Sign me up!  Polka Dot Man and King Shark?  You betcha!  All nerdy things I used to pore over as a kid... and teenager... and, um, "adult"--they are all manifesting themselves into Pop Culture!

Because I am a little slow, I assumed "The Suicide Squad" was PG-13.  I thought to myself "Huh, that's a lot of F-bombs for a PG-13 movie (PG-13 usually gets only one, maybe two)..."  Then someone's face was blown off and I realized the error of my ways.  It's not for the squeamish and definitely earns its R-rating.

While I do have a few nitpicks, overall I will give it a solid A- to B+.  Fun, violent (shockingly so at times), nerdy as heck, with a dark humor under it all--and, surprisingly, some touching bits of emotional resonance for something so explodey in nature. 

Also, I will give James Gunn credit, the soundtrack for "The Suicide Squad" slaps.  Like Tarantino, he can pick out a good collection of songs for a soundtrack (yeah, some were a little on-the-nose, but I thought they generally worked.  I may have to pick up the soundtrack).

P.S.: I must have imitated Sylvester Stallone''s reading of "HAND!" out loud about a kajillion times while painting King Shark.  It's the simple pleasures of life.

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STEP ONE:  I lightly gessoed a 6" x 9" piece of toned cardstock, then used a crimson colored pencil to sketch out King Shark.

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STEP TWO:  This is the first pace with acrylic paints--mostly just to establish some general colors, as well  give the overlaying paints something to stick to.

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STEP THREE:  Here is the final acrylic painting.  I imported it into ArtStudio Pro to do a little digital clean up (ie. mostly fix the shape of, and draw a line around, the word balloon; even out some of the background color; little fixes here-and-there.)

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STEP FOUR:  And here's the finished painting--traditional with some digital touchups.  Alas, my scanner isn't all that high-end, just an off-the-shelf model, so flat, black areas scan poorly for some reason.  Also, I wanted to keep some of the texture of the word balloon.  TEXTure... Word balloon... there's a joke there somewhere...

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Done with Acrylic Paint on 6" x 9" gessoed cardstock and digital touch-ups in ArtStudio Pro.

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