Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Karkas

KARKAS

Here's the original entry from "The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe".

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This was done for a new Blog: Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe: REDUX EDITION, which is dedicated to redrawing each entry of "The Official Handbook to the Marvel Universe".  How could I resist something like that, when it was practically created for me?  ;-)

I used to buy every issue as they came out and I can't tell you how many hours of my (misspent) youth I spent pouring over both the "Handbook of the Marvel Universe", as well as the DC version, "Who's Who".   Both are encyclopedias of comic book characters, included backstories of the characters, detailed their powers, and generally had an entire batch of nerdly goodness I mainlined into my teenage brain.  Good times!

Unfortunately, some of the ones I really wanted (Annihilus, Galactus, Kang, Phoenix, etc.) were already taken (of course), but I was able to grab some more obscure characters I always found oddly compelling and/or visually interesting: High Evolutionary, Celestials, Captain Universe, Aquarian, Nightmare, Moon Dragon, Supreme Intelligence, and Karkas.  So, look forward to some of those in the near future, as well.

I debated what style I wanted to use: Watercolor?  Acrylic?  Pen-and-Ink?  Something more realistic or cartoony?  Well, it is now obvious which way I went with Karkas.  His head is so big in proportion to his body, it is almost impossible NOT to draw him as a sort of big-headed caricature--so I went with it as such.  :-)

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STEP ONE:  I drew Karkas with brush and ink on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock. 

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STEP TWO:  I scanned the drawing into PhotoShop, set the layer above to "Multiply", and colored the drawing.  As I colored it, I sort of liked the retro feel of the coloring/pen-and-ink, and dropped the whole intricate shading I had started and went with the flat colors.

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This was done with pen-and-ink on 8-1/2" x 11" cardstock, colored digitally.

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