Prime Candidate

IF (Illustration Friday) 5/23/14 the topic was Universe. Lofty goals seems to be the theme of many of these illustrations I attempt for the IF topics, but if I'm not challenging myself, then I am not growing  as an artist, right?  So for yet another space/cosmos themed topic, I decided to utilize a subject matter from my past that influenced me growing up.  Video games have long been a source of inspiration for me, and filled many hours of my youth.  I've never really been an avid fan of space themed games, as fantasy always held my heart, but one franchise in particular managed to capture my imagination more than any other in this genre, Metroid.  Metroid revolutionized gaming for me, and many other boys my age, because it starred a female lead in a majorally male dominated culture, and past time.  I had this particular idea floating around for some time, but had yet to execute it properly outside of a sketchbook, and I wanted to at some point pay homage to the heroine Samus Aran properly.  The first incarnation of this illustration was Samus, standing on her ship, and had much more of the background pictured as well as the craft itself.  After several hours of working on the piece I decided it too broad and the main subject matter was getting lost, so I cropped it....twice...and I am much happier with the final incarnation.  I also wanted to try stylistically, something different.  I wanted to capture Samus in a comic-book style of art.  While it's mostly successful, I think I would like to attempt the style again, but perhaps approach it a bit differently (or more precisely), and in the earlier stages of the illustration.  The piece is entirely digital, done in Painter.