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Ok, so a couple of posts back I showed a sketch that I was working on of Jean Grey, aka, Phoenix.  Well,  I played around with it some more and since I’m my own editor on this I told myself to have some more fun with it.  I said self, wouldn’t it be more fun (and hot) to paint good ol’ Jean from her Hellfire club days.  To try and capture that time when she and Scott were young and in love.  Before Jean had to exit stage left and Emma Frost stole her man.  Plus, the outfit was a lot hotter.  Sue me.

Here is the initial sketch of the revisited image.  I got some reference this time as it’s time for me to take myself seriously and not just let myself try to pull the artwork out of my butt fully formed.  I’ve fallen into that pit to many times in the past.  The image just comes out covered in..well, let’s just say the aroma is a tad more unpleasant than the cobalt dryer I use in my painting medium.  Then again I’m sure there are those that would disagree.  That cobalt stuff is deadly.

I just got the sign off on a few freelance assignment so it may be a week or so before I get back on this one.  I know you can’t hardly wait but I can only work on one project at the time.  Just check back every day and tell all your friends to come to.  The ego of a freelance artist can always use a boost.

Oh yeah, the website is going through some growing pains.  Overlook the mess.

I love the Wolverine character.  The overexposure in comics and film, not so much, although I am greatly looking forward to the movie.  To that end I did this Wolverine digital painting.  I’ve been facinated recently with such artist like Gregory Manchess and even more recently Veronique Meignaud and how they apply color and shapes to form their images.  To my eyes it looks like very little general blending is going on and as it’s taken me what seems like a million years to break the habit of trying to blend everything, this really appeals to me.  I love the graphic look it gives and the energy you can get from it while at the same time keeping a high level of realism which is what I’ve always strived for in my work.

I’ve also discoved a few tricks along the way on this one too that I’ll add to the top of my digital toobox list.  The best is using the smudge too at 100%, very selectively, to reproduce the look of blended oil paint.  Another thing that’s worked well for me is using color dynamics in the my brush settings to add more variety and randomness to my colors and strokes.  Makes the painting feel more tradiational, which I want, and less, well, digital.

Black Widow.  She’s all the rage these days.