Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Aliens - Galadorians

Galadorians

Here is the original entry for the Alien Race: Galadorians to the "Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe".

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And here is my entry to the Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe: Redux.  

For those in the know, the entry for Aliens: Galadorians in the OHotMU is another opportunity for me to draw ROM: Spaceknight.  :-)

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STEP ONE:  For this series of Aliens in the OHotMU entry, I decided to do them entirely digitally.  I created a New Document 1000 pixels x 1500 pixels with a toned background.  I used a large Oil Pastel Brush to sketch in the pose.

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STEP TWO:  Here is the finished black-and-white under drawing.

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STEP THREE:  I erased around the figure, to remove the gray background.  Finally, I created a MULTIPLY Layer and began to colorize the figure, and did some final highlights on a New Layer.

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Created digitally in PhotoShop.

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ROM: Spaceknight #1: Page Recreation

ROM: Spaceknight #1, Page 1

Here is the original 

And here is my recreation of the page:

I have very fond memories of ROM: Spaceknight--a comic from my misspent youth in the early 1980's, so I wanted to do another ROM painting.  The "Arrival" scene was always one of my favorites.

For those who are interested, here is the usual process...

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Step One:  First, I primed a 15" x 20" piece of #215 Crescent Board with a mixture of size (glue) and gesso.  Then, I measured off the 12" x 16" painting area, doing the panel lines in Sharpie.  For the series of three panels at top, I extended the panel lines outside the painting area, as I was pretty sure the panel lines would be painted over (I was right, and the panel edges were, indeed, painted over.)  :-)

I then used a blue-lead pencil to draw out the page. I used to do a lot of drawings with blue-line for pen-and-ink work and always liked it.  I recently found one of my blue pencils and decided to use it.

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Step Two:  I begin by laying down some color with acrylic paints...

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Step Three:  More painting...

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Step Four:  I taped off the panel series at the top of the screen.  I painted the edges with some clear acrylic medium to keep the edge as sharp as possible and to prevent paint from bleeding under it.  For the space nebula effect, I used a spray bottle of water and white paint and built up several layers of wet-on-wet paint.  When it was dried, I went over top of it with some watered down blue paint to color it.  Lastly, I took some black paint and reworked some of the edges.

Also, I wasn't paying attention and somehow got it in my head that the second panel was showing ROM entering the Earth's atmosphere, but after I read the caption again, I realized it should be much closer to the ground.  Of course, I didn't realize this until I was finished painting the panel with Earth from space (including clouds and everything) and had to redo the whole thing.  Sigh...

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Step Five:  Finished painting!  I repainted the second panel, finished up some of the fire effects (well, some of them could be better, IMHO), and pushed some of the shadows and highlights.

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Step Six:  I added lettering in PhotoShop and called it DONE!  I also sent a copy of the last panel on to Anthony with the Re-Paneled Blog.

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This was painted with Acrylic on 12" x 16" sized and gessoed #215 Crescent Board

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On the Easel - March 8, 2012 - Rom: Spaceknight

On the Easel - Rom: Spaceknight Page Recreation

Greetings!  I just got back from a bit of an extended vacation, so I'm still trying to catch up on all sorts of other, random stuff.  So, this posting is a bit of a cheat, but here's what's on the easel at the moment: a page recreation of Rom: Spaceknight #1, page 1. 

I may make this a semi-regular feature, if there is any interest.  First, it is pretty easy to just take a picture of a work-in-progress and post it, so it can allow me to post more often (albeit, it is somewhat inflated and a bit of a cheat, as mentioned above), but I am also curious what other people are working on.  I'm thinking particularly of Ashley Wood, who often posts picture of what he has on his easel at the moment. 

I'm hoping to have it finished next week and have the process posted.  So, we'll see how that goes... :-)

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Rom: Spaceknight (Repaneled, sort of...)

I was thinking about using this for another submission to Repaneled, but figured I have enough upcoming submissions coming down the pipe to make Anthony sick enough of me as it is.  :-)   Also, I have about 4-5 different paintings I'm working on at the moment and wanted to have something to post this week.  

Here is the original:

I did this painting about a year ago, loosely based on the panel above, which I always thought was a really cool introduction to a character: a meteor crashes on Earth and out walks Rom amidst flames and fused rocks.

I like the visual of Rom and, when I read it as a kid, the comic book was a sort of exercise in paranoia: Shape-shifting aliens, Dire Wraiths, would kill people and take their place... Great shades of the Pod People from "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"!  Rom would show up and banish them to Limbo with his Neutralizer, horrifying humans who had no idea their loved ones were dead and replaced by monsters.  And many probably still didn't know/believe even after Rom left.  A great book when I was a kid!

Hmmm, now that I look at the painting again after a long time of it just sitting around gathering dust, Rom's midsection looks a little off to me.  And maybe I should have put more flames around Rom, as well.  Oh, well... I suppose it is better to let it go and say "Good enough", or else it will stay on the easel forever being over-worked for all eternity.

This was done with Acrylic on 11" x 14" gessoed 1/8" hardboard.

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