Premonition

IF (Illustration Friday) 1/9/15, the topic was Nefarious.  Coming up with an idea for this topic was a bit of a struggle for me.  I was toying with working on something from an older concept that was never realized, but it just didn't seem right for this particular topic.  I ended choosing another Marvel character to illustrate, and went through several different layout formats before finalizing it.  I wanted to capture the essence of one of my favorite X-men characters Jean Grey, and what many will recognize as her pivotal story arc (both on film and in the comic series).  For this illustration I wanted to reference who she was, is, and what she would eventually become.  I also wanted the illustration to be somewhat surreal, and was able to utilize one of Jean's older costume pieces (her mask as Marvel Girl before her identity became public), to frame the work, and to accentuate her eyes that capture her 'vision' of the Phoenix.  This work was also heavily inspired by the extremely talented Mikey Mayhew imagining of Jean. The piece is entirely digital done in Painter.

Jaded

IF (Illustration Friday) 1/2/15, the topic was Invention.  The idea for this one came quickly, but it was the overall layout I had trouble with capturing.  After several sketches, and some time researching which led me to several tangents, I came up with the final product.  I decided to depict the transformation of fictitious physicist Dr. Bruce Banner into the infamous Hulk.  Originally I wanted to illustrated the Hulk's face using background elements and an explosion, but that became too difficult, eventually I came upon an image of a mushroom cloud that looked like there was a face in, and that became my inspiration.  The piece is entirely digital done in Painter, with some manipulations done in Photoshop.