Super Suit Up!

Mother Deer-est

Mother's Day card I made for my mom. Mom likes deer.

Jor-El & Lara

This is a concept sketch that I'd like to make into a fully rendered piece.

This is the first of what I might make a series of drawings to tell my own Superman story. The image represents what might be Kal-El's memory of Krypton and his biological parents from the view of the interior of his space pod.

In my version of the story there would never be any direct reference to Krypton--It would all be speculative, with only small flashes or glimpses that would exist only inside Clark's mind.

This image shows a Jor-El and Lara that are very human-like in appearance, though I don't believe they would have looked this way at all in actuality. However, Clark's memory will have been altered greatly by the biases of his adoptive home world. The memory is representative more of a feeling than of an actual event, and perhaps more true in that sense.

Pikachu VS Blastoise

A fairly quick drawing I did of Pikachu fighting Blastoise for my girlfriend's little brother for his 6th birthday. I gave him an 11" x 17" copy of this version. I'd like to go back sometime and work on it some more, however, and see what I can do with it further.

Superman Returns

Brandon Routh as Superman, with some slight personal alterations (i.e. his hair, "S" shield, and minor changes to facial structure). The black & white render is mostly finished. Planning for the finished to be colored.

...Okay! I know I'm posting a lot of Superman! I'm a Superman fan, alright?! ...This one is actually kind of coincidental. I came across the magazine with this pic on the cover, while looking for some other reference material, and just thought it'd be fun to draw...

Superman Giant Key

Appropriately titled, this my rendition of silver-age Superman about to open the door to his arctic abode, the Fortress of Solitude. Still in the preliminary stages, of course.

Solar Power

Hello, All, and welcome to my newest creation! I came up with the idea recently of doing portraits of my favorite superhero characters in scenes where you might likely find them--or, perhaps more accurately, scenes that really depict their personality.

This is a portrait of Superman (of course) that I think really embodies the character. Superman is virtually indestructible, and capable of flying from the Earth to the Sun and back--he is the epitome of resilience. Still, you can see that he feels the mind-bending heat and struggles under the immense, raw power of the Sun, the same Sun that provides him life-giving energy. To me, this is Superman. Superman is unstoppable not because he is unusually gifted, but because he refuses to give up--he refuses to stop going, regardless of how challenging things become. He endures all obstacles because he chooses life. He represents the unlimited potential of human beings; he is determination and will incarnate--which is why he's always been my favorite. Superman, regardless of being an alien from another world, is truly the most human of characters.

I plan to work on the piece further. The original vision I had for the picture is more hyper-realistic. Still, I like the somewhat comic-booky look the piece has now.

Below are the stages of the work in progress:

4. Here, I blurred the original Sun background slightly and added a solid color yellow layer that I put as an "Overlay," to make the Sun look brighter and hotter.

















3. This is the original Sun background. It was really easy to make, using my giant "Cosmos" picture book as reference for the Sun's surface.


















2. For this image, I refined the tonal layer of the drawing and changed the layer to a "Luminosity" layer, making it blend better with the color.


















1. This is the solid color background and preliminary color sketch. The color layer for this and the second image is set as an "Overlay" to blend easily with the background. In the final image, Superman is re-colored.

Red Hulk

Red Hulk in progress. Another pic I started working on a while ago but haven't yet finished. Just added a bit more detail and messed around with layer options in Photoshop.

By Your Powers Combined...

...this is Captain Planet! Well, mostly. I started this pic several months ago and then just stopped working on it. I finally started again, and brought the piece to a more finished state. Another 2 to 3 hours of work on it, and I should have it polished up pretty nicely...

Scene Series 2

The second of my scenery series, Mount Kilimanjaro. I'm working on my speed in Photoshop. The background sky, mountain, & clouds only took me about 10 minutes. The foreground trees and ground detail took quite a bit longer. Overall, about 2 to 3 hours to get to this stage, including a lot of messing around with layer options and such. I could spend a lot longer refining and adding detail...

Minimal Sonic

I've become a bit of a runner, and a little while back I got myself a pair of the Vibram Fivefingers--the trendy new minimal running shoes. Once I came up with this idea, I just had to do it. Sonic joins the minimal craze...The pic is based off of the Vibram Fivefingers magazine ad, shown below.

Scene Series 1

This is the first of a series of scenery paintings I've begun doing in Photoshop.

I referenced this sea turtle image from Newsweek's special "100 Places to Remember Before They Disappear." I like the image for it's overall simplicity, but it took me a bit over an hour to paint because of the detail in the turtle.