Stan Lee Remembered
Stan Lee was one of the main pillars of comic books, alongside Jack Kirby, and helped to create almost all the major characters that built Marvel Comics: Spider-Man, Fantastic Four, Hulk, The Avengers, Iron Man, Black Panther, X-Men, Thor, Daredevil, Ant-Man, Dr. Strange, and more than I could easily list.
His writing was a bombastic, less than subtle, and corny as H-E-Double Hockey sticks. However, it also worked in a weird way. There was an alchemy when he worked with Jack Kirby, Steve Ditko, John Buscema, and other giants of the industry. A synthesis that was missing when they went on to do other works, or their own projects.
He did have a problematic side when it came to claiming the lion's share of credit for creation of characters (after all, every Marvel Comic started with "Stan Lee Presents..."). And, while I am a greater fan of Jack Kirby, Stan Lee's importance was nearly as great. He was avuncular and humorous in interviews, as well as a huckster of sorts, but a huckster for comic books. He was probably one of the only comic book creators people could recognize--the literal face of comics, if you will. Without his ceaseless promotion of comic books, I have to wonder what the state of comic books would be today.
He always had dreams of writing the great American novel, but perhaps he accidentally wrote something even more important. His influence on world culture cannot be under-estimated. He helped to shape a modern mythology, and in one-thousand years I'm sure people will still be quoting "With great power comes great responsibility", not realizing it was born in the pages of a comic book.
Excelsior, Stan!
'Nuff said.
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STEP ONE: I used a chalk brush in Painter 2018 to rough out the portrait of Stan Lee.
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STEP TWO: Here is the finished digital painting. I mostly used the chalk/charcoal brushes, and some airbrush and blending brushes.
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STEP THREE: I thought the painting looked a little "cut-out" and thought I should engage some lost edges. By smearing out the shirt edges with a palette knife brush, it pushed more focus on the face. Which, depending on if you think it was a successful painting, may or may not be a good thing. :-D
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This was done digitally with Painter 2018
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