Stan Lee Illustrations
Stan Lee Illustrations
This blog entry consists of my illustrations of the classic Marvel Super heroes I recreated in my own way, In my own interpretation to show my inspiration and tribute to the great man, Stan Lee- who turned to an angel in 2018, I recreated, Iron Man, Thor, Captain America and Hulk, as Hulk and Banner. which I feel went well, this blog entry will show tout my journey and developing stages so you will see individual illustrations of all 4 superhero that isn't complete along with illustrations of them altogether where each superhero is complete basically. As well as drawing the great man Stan Lee himself, which I also felt went well with this piece, which I think was the best idea because creating these illustrations I cant lie took a week in total to create each illustration using illustrator and the lovely stroke brush tool. But it took me through the day and night to complete each illustration so I felt it would be best to keep it simple snd use those iconic heroes and create with them. Personally I would have loved to have combined each hero but it would take ages and I know time isn't my friend as it is, it seemed like a good idea that is unrealistic over timescale so I have gone for the simpler route with my imagery. In this blog I will be showing you my journey how I completed imagery, some experimentation along the way basically. You ask why I pick Stan Lee, I'll tell you now, I really love his work, I have in the past few years become a bit of a fan of the Marvel movies and wanted to create imagery based on that and learn about the history about the Marvel movies and the genius man who created these movies to make the nation and the universe say WOW!
My illustration of Iron Man
This illustration I created on Illustrator, where you'll see I have created this illustration using solemnly using just the stroke tool and experimenting sing different tints of colour on my character, for instance, the red you can see, if you look closely I have used more tints of red, I have used like a bright scarlet red and a more blood red type of blends like in the torso. the way I created Iron man in yes it was a cartoon variation but that is basically because that is how I draw and illustrate imagery. I had to get an image of Iron man from the movies as a base line so I was able to create and interpret this imagery I have created of iron man in my own unique way despite iron man as a cartoon already exist I think I created my own interpretation, using the different tints of colour, using different tones and different techniques, the way I coloured this illustration in you could almost say its like I am scribbling- which really it looks like that's exactly what I did, which I recreated Iron man in my own way using a scribble like method, that was my technique, to create different tines to give my imagery life and power to grab your attention. I wanted to put my own spin on the imagery and I felt by creating this character in this aesthetic is my way of spinning originality to it. One could argue my imagery is basically just a modernised parody... which to some extent it is but even so, my imagery ha s a more modern aesthetic than the classic cartoon Iron man we see in the Marvel comic books, which can almost ruin the purpose to the comics but honestly this really is juts a matter of interpretation and scraping the surface, by finding what makes you tick and create imagery, meaning I found an image of iron man that strikes me to basically create in my interpretation partly for a challenge and put my skills to the test pretty much, by getting to know Adobe Illustrator because the last couple years I have been hiding under the comfort blanket by illustrating using Photoshop, when ultimately I should have tried something new and this for me I felt is what this experience is about, by using a software I have started to get a grip on and well get to know it further and put my skills to the test in my own stylistic way. But why Iron man? because he is the ringleader of the marvel movies and I therefore couldn't feature iron man if my imagery Is supposed to be inspired by a designer, film maker etc and I felt once you see Iron man, the Hulk, Thor and Captain America you straight away know its Marvel, you got to admit if you were to saw my illustrations altogether you can't deny you'd associate that image as marvel or Stan Lee which is basically what I was preaching out on doing. so that's the story behind this Illustration, I would say this illustration would attract the Marvel fans, for children, teens, adults basically an open audience but it is a matter of opinion really... if you ask me.
The Incredible Hulk Illustration, Banner & Hulk
This illustration is, is of the Incredible Hulk on the left and Bruce Banner slowly transforming to the green beast. I felt because this image is of the same character I thought it make sense I had them on the same page when I am talking about them... anyway, again for this Illustration, I found inspiration by typing onto google images of the Incredible Hulk and bruce banner turning to the hulk as a baseline to help me illustrate the characters and to give me a guideline as to how to draw the imagery and colour it basically. Anyway I will speak about the Hulk image first, as you can see I did the upper body of the Incredible Hulk as I planned to create the lower half too but as I was losing time I found to create the lower half would take me too long against time at the time, anywho when I recreated the hulk as my own interpretational pastiche image I decided to use a varied range of greens to create the composition for the colour in the illustration from tints of lime green, navy green to the dark green and I basically coloured this illustration the same way as I coloured in the iron man as I felt that technique worked well for me with this kind of illustration because I have a more out of the box way of illustrating which course I would say in a way means im not the best drawer in the world but... I have learnt that isn't true, that realistically there is no right or wrong way to create art that is basically the point of art, that when you draw and illustrate it doesn't matter if you draw a cartoon or an amazing realistic. photographic portrait it is still an art form as maybe the ones who draw imagery like a photograph are unable to think outside the box, go wild and draw a cartoon. anyway, my point is I wanted to create my imagery in a more contemporary variation of the Hulk using a cartoon format you could say I was inspired by the cartoon hulk you see in the marvel comics to some extent but I wanted to create imagery in my own interpretation. Any who I then thought about creating the illustration on the right, Bruce Banner, I created, in a cartoon format, in my own. interpretation if you ask me has a very op art kind of retro illustrative aesthetic but in a more contemporary feel to the image, anyway- I created the illustration again by using the stroke tool, where again I have used the same technique for colouring my illustration, using my stylistic choice, using a patchy scribble kind of look which after experimenting with this aesthetic works well, which I was surprised as I thought it may ruin the image, but it doesn't if anything it gives the illustration more depth which by creating these types of illustrations I have come to learn that approach actually works better than using one colour into block colour as it makes the image look bleak and bland whereas colouring my illustrations the way I have to my imagery, in my opinion adds more power and strength to the picture. Again for target audience I would say with this illustration that it is an open audience, it all depends on opinion and what it is that makes people tick, can be anything from the marvel fans, to children, teens, adults and even some OAP's you never know till they see and watch it.
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| Thor Illustration |
This illustration of Thor, I quite like, I can tell it is Thor although having said that, I do feel I like there is room for improvement, despite at this point this illustration is art the developing stage anyway... I feel that now that I look back and really scrutinise it, I may have used the wrong skin tone for Thor's face and... the hair I think looks a bit one coloured, kind of flat and personally I feel I could have improved that. Anyway, this illustration I had created using the same technique and process as the other illustrations, I feel with this illustration's target audience is again very open, I think it'll please Marvel fans especially seeing the four characters together on the same page, alongside, children, teens, adults and yes even OAPs too- the audience is very open I feel- I think the audience for this imagery depends on anyone and everyone, depending on people's paint pallet, meaning it depends on what they like and their dis likes. I can say this illustration gives the marvel comic and pop art kind of aesthetic to my imagery, which I quite like- as it is in a more modernised pastiche variation of Thor.
Captain America Illustration
Now this illustration... I can see it is Captain America despite there is no shield... I can instantly go "Captain America" to be fair, I intended to create this illustration in a much more simplistic aesthetic- though keeping this between you and me... I do wish I improved this image drastically, but in my. mind at the time where I didn't have much animation footage at that point I felt the need to speed up my illustration, though I do wish I had put more detail in this illustration. I can see various areas to improve on, yes again I know this was at developing stages but the star... my god- needs shaping and needs to look more sharp and less like a star fish... the eyes would look better the same size and well I feel I could have created the illustration slightly better, if I am being truthfully honest, I would say this illustration is the weakest link- and I do wish I added his shield in the imagery... you'll see I didn't do that which at the time I didn't feel this was needed but in fact it disappoints me slightly... Thor has his Hammer... anyway if I was to create tis illustration again I would say these were the areas I would like to perfect, giving the time. Anyway, this illustration I used the same technique to colour in and draw my illustration of Captain America as the rest, cartoon- contemporary aesthetic in a comic appearance. although this illustration was the first I created I could say to back up my ways to improve, I could have put more detail in this illustration I could have sharpened features of my image. despite not actually doing this with this image, I took this on and applied my learning to the illustrations for Iron Man the Hulk and Banner and Stan Lee- so if anything this illustration had taught me to invest in my illustration aesthetic... you look at the fine details in Hulk and Iron man... there is so much more life, power and Depth in the image, giving it move character... why? well that is all because I managed to be more creative, to scrape the serface by saying... I will try a new technique, using the scribble and patchy technique... that sounds bad but works better than the way I have coloured this illustration... this illustration is basic and simple and does the job... which is fine but for me I feel this image is slightly lost as in there isn't as much life and depth with this illustration... but onwards and upwards- I took on what I have learnt Although this illustration does have a comic and immplistic approach to it, I like and has the contemporary appearance, I feel it could have been bitterly created.
Anyway- my next point... target audience, I don't want to repeat myself like a broken record player... so in short, the audience for this Illustration would best appeal to all Marvel fans and comic book fans, along with basically any one and everyone- depending on their makeup- depends on what they like and dislike basically.
Development
(The Before and after, the incomplete imagery Verses the Complete Imagery)
You can see the difference the dynamic is bringing my illustrations together as apposed to a individual image of each character above... I can see that in two seconds without a second question that this is the avengers... marvel assemble,,, Stan Lee's classics, created in a comic, pop art like contemporary aesthetic to my imagery which int their four... works well together, it looks more powerful and has any iconic appearance to the picture. I will be using these illustrations in my 10 second animations and I hope if I choose this artist to feature these illustration in the final 30 second animation also... that is to be confirmed in my later blog entries.
Experimentation
Warning... this experiment was a procrastination that turned to a good result! Yes as I say this image... was basically a blind piss about to be blatently honest wit you, in other words, I can say a more glass half full explanation by pissing about as I put it and experimenting did me a favour to some extent, as this was kind of a five minute procrastinate experiment with my imagery after taking my imagery I have created above, on Illustrator into Photoshop as a smart image, to add edits and effects to my imagery I have created which basically means I am mixing and testing my skills where I have added edits where I have experimented with the Hue saturations and the blend modes on Photoshop seeing what would happen with my imagery if I took this experiment further basically, the reason I put this on this entry, you may think sounds daft but it enabled me to preach and starch my skills by merging my skills on Illustrator and Photoshop to create a dynamic image- which as I say is why this minor procrastination worked in my favour- it made my mind run wild basically, that is all I can say about this piece to be honest. It worked well as it enabled me to test myself as to how I can apply what I have learnt using more than one Adobe programme to create imagery.
Further Development!
Now this imagery I will most defiantly say I will be using in my animation... in fact- I shouldn't give you spoilers but this illustration does feature as part of my motion graphic 10 second bumper. So I will therefore be using this image... anyway, I put this illustration on this entry again to take you on a journey, telling you what I did to create this dynamic illustration.
For this illustration I have again put my skills to the ultimate test, as I managed to put my illustrations onto photoshop as a smart image file, which I then I relearnt how to create a pattern to my imagery, which is how I got the Stan Lee imagery in my typography and in the background..., where I have added BLURT... using Helvetica... the font of the year! and then applying the Channel 4 logo to this illustration because of Blurt being on channel 4 and you ask how I had the blue and black effect to my image- I used the Divide blend mode over and put the C4 logo as a separate layer over the top of the marvel heroes and I then applied the Divide blend mode which basically changes the colour of the image to its correlated contrasting colour which is why part of iron man is blue... in other words if you highlight the image with the colour red... it'll highlight the colour its divided by- in the words of our art language, Divide basically changes colour to its opposite colour on the colour wheel, which we call that corresponding colours. Which I actually like this effect because the 4 where there is the blue actually makes me think of the tesserae and the frost giants in the original Marvel Movie.. now call me the biggest geek!! but this therefore adds more dynamic, to the illustration and works in its own right, there is more purpose to why the 4 is coloured in the way it is.
Stan Lee Development stages, from a line drawing to added colour
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| Sunglasses! |
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| Eyes and sun glasses! |
I wanted to create Stan Lee as a tribute to his work he created to make the world jump out of their seats and say wow! I was inspired by his work and wanted to create imagery he created in a 10 second bumper- I hope to feature this in my 10 second bumper and maybe on the 30 second ident. I created Stan Lee for the icing on the cake! he made the characters... he needed to be created as a comic style character too!
Here is some Feedback, from a friend outside uni
I was glad to get a second opinion!
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| More experimentation (you'll see this in the 10 second bumper also.) |
This experiment was basically the same as the developments above where I managed to merge my skills in Illustrator and Photoshop together to create this iconic and strong illustration. where I have experimented with the backdrop and the blend modes, where I found ways to add a pattern to my imagery and to give the name Blurt and again using the channel 4, adding Stan Lee was really the icing on the cake... it had to be done really! he was supposed to stand out to be honest! I like the composition and the consistency of this image... I do feel for Banner, getting most of his face covered by the 4 but I like the fact it has all characters in it and the film and movie maker too! Stan Lee was a true legend that the Marvel Fans and the world won't forget the amazing man! RIP Stan Lee.
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