INSPIRATION

Just a couple mutie bros max chillin'...

I have a lot to say...again... and so I'm gonna try really hard to explain the inspiration behind this image and hopefully not offend anyone.

I don't necessarily do a lot of superhero art, but one day I was like, "Yeah, I'm gonna draw me some Colossus because he's one of my favorites." So I start with some searches on Deviant to get the juices flowing. "Maybe something inspiring will pop up." I say to myself.

I should let you know, I've only recently been lulled into Deviant Art's world. I dunno why, but I guess I never really gravitated to it before. Never even really browsed it. Maybe I figured I'd seen plenty of Pickachu fanart in "art school" already... But here's the thing: turns out, Deviant is a whole COSMOS of art. The GOOD, the BAD, and every UGLY fetish in between. Even .SWFs are postable on Deviant. And so you say to me, "...yeah no kiddin' ya rube." But here's the thing again: When you're presented with page after page of Colossus art, dozens of hundreds of thumbnails, something has GOT to get your attention somehow. A cool pose? Bright colors? Stellar inks? A great style? What image deserves your precious mouse click and several consecutive seconds of your attention???

Well for me, these did. Don't laugh. My eyes stuck to these from a mister "bitBEE" and I actually saved them down. Sure, ya might say Colossus has seen better days, and I'd be lying if I didn't say initial reaction was "wow...really???" but this is where my search ended. I kept starring. Which is more than I can say for some masterful Alex-Ross-ish render of Colossus in the thumbnail right next to these.

Certainly there are still many things to take into account like age, talent, tools, but it came down to decisions. What I like about art and animation, what engages me, is the decision making process. So every stroke and shape and color choice was something I was vastly more interested in here than with other images. How does this artist see things? How does his brain come to these conclusions? And then I think about my childhood and how much fun it was to draw. How completely decisionLESS drawing was back then. I could hold a number 2 in my fist and draw you a scene of warring robots while thinking about spaghettios.

I'm jealous of that. I'm jealous of what these "Colossi" represent here. I'll NEVER be able to return to those times - to that effortless decision making. ...well, I guess I COULD try mentally, but it might be hard to sustain being a commercial artist.

And this isn't to sound all depressed about "good ol' days" or whatever. I still enjoy drawing and making stuffs. I think as we all grow up (somewhat), we just embrace the decision making process. Certainly it's tough at times, and unfortunately ya just can't go back home.

So that's what motivated me. "Let's have fun making some DECISIONS!" I said to myself. And I started doodling.

For whatever reason, I wasn't content with ONLY Colossus so Wolverine seemed like a natural runner up. I'm not a big comic nerd any more so I had to look up the specifics of their "classic" costumes. In doing so, I came across some images of X-MEN cards!

Dude! Do you remember these!? I had the whole set! They were all drawn by Jim Lee who was a GOD in my eyes at the time. So I immediately knew I wanted to lift the same sorta card motif here.

Here's my rough layout.

And here's the start of my colors. The black inks I did in Flash and brought into PS. And right around this time I remember really liking the black lines and the flat colors. I kinda wanted to end it right there. Though I pushed on with self-color lines and some brush work knowing I could always go back to flats. I'm kinda bummed where Wolvie's head and elbow land on Colossus. Weird sorta tangents and his head is completely inside the arm silo. Eh, one of those things ya don't really think you'll notice once ya start working in the computer, "oh it'll be fine..." but in the end ya sorta do notice and so ya say, "oh well - there's always next year..."

That's about all for this episode. I gotta go thank bitBEE now!

UPDATE!

Over the holiday break I stole back a buncha my childhood drawings from my folks. For your enjoyment, and my embarrassment, I'm posting a couple notebook scribblings from '92. That woulda made me 13. That middle one of Colossus is straight from the Jim Lee cards again.

Oh those poor feet on Colossus. Like someone smashed them with a hammer...