More He-Man

Back from LA and had a fantastic time. Got to visit/meet so many cool people and see great art. A big thank you to all! Perfect 74 degree sunny weather to boot. What more can you ask for? We packed so much into a short period but instead of feeling worn down, I'm both energized and inspired.

Enough babbling, here are the other two He-Man show pieces.

Trapjaw's Revenge - 11" x 14" cel vinyl acrylic on illustration board.

Naughty Neck - 11" x 14" cel vinyl acrylic on illustration board.

Detail


For the Trapjaw / Sorceress piece I did a little lighting study to get the shadows right... simply a shoe box and a couple pieces of cardboard taped down, then lit from the front.

Lately I've been doing all my color studies digitally. Quick and dirty, like this.
Photoshop

The opening at G1988 did not disappoint. Several hundred people came through the gallery, including media and even a few celebs and from what I could tell, a good time was had by all. Jensen and his team did a terrific job.

A few hastily taken shots.

Transfer Process

I've had some people ask about my process of transferring the final image to my painting surface recently, so I'll share. It's pretty straightforward. Btw, this is just the way I do it... there may be other, better ways.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Final image.

Traced and cleaned-up (same step).

Tape traced image to watercolor paper. In this case, 300lb Fabriano cold press watercolor paper. Small piece of Saral graphite transfer paper (use for multiple tracings).

Carefully slide transfer paper under the tracing, while trying not to smudge the surface.

Press fairly hard (without denting your final surface too much).

Transferred image.

I darkened the transferred lines, but I used a fairly light wash, so this step was unnecessary.

Initial wash, some drybrush texture and starting in with the solid shapes. I'm careful to cover over my pencil lines.

More of the same.

Finished painting with tape removed.

Hope this is useful!

Process

Got a request for some photos of my process, so here are some lousy ones. Also to note, I'm going to redo the final piece to make it better. Please enjoy!