THE AVENGERS MAX - The Iron Man

After the war, left-over Stark Tech was strewn across the battle fields of Western U.S.  Few knew how to make it work,  fewer still were brave enough to try. 

One man did.

 The Iron Man wanders the wasteland between Reno and Las Vegas amassing a rag tag group of engineers and tinkerers, together they scavenge for Stark Technology and are said to be building an army. The Eastern tribes whisper rumors that he is Tony Stark yet others wonder if the suit works at all...

Another mashup via Carlos Villagra...The Avengers MAX! 

Rogue: 90's Xmen Challenge

UPDATE: Phoenix for Diego

Thanks to Netflix I can now watch any episode of X-men the animated series. This combined with Marvel Vs. Capcom 2 should give you a good sense of what I wasted my time watching/playing in my misspent youth. I tried channeling a little of that into this piece, an imaginary X-men game where they simply updated those eyepoping 90's costume designs. Carlos V. did a fantastic, sleazy, Gambit that you should totally check out.


Cheers,

JL

John Carter of Mars

Back in 2007 I was working at American Greetings alongside some extraordinary illustrators and creative thinkers. Back then the Sketch-o-rama blog was a way to vent the creative steam that builds up when your working on say...Care Bears or some such.

We had just heard of the Disney/Pixar John Carter of Mars deal and were psyched at the prospect, so much so that we all did our take on the fearsome Tars Tarkas ( James Groman and Carlos Villagra )

I opted for a longer leaner look for the Thark, less muscle bound than the iconic Frazetta
imagery.

It seemed to make sense that a 15 foot tall alien will be intimidating regardless of how ripped they were and it helped reinforce a sort of tribal theme I felt tied in well nicely with Burroughs description of the Tharks in "A Princess of Mars".

It was so much fun that I did a few MORE drawings to get the designs out of my system.

Variations on a theme. I moved the tusks from inside the mouth to the outside of the mandible and gave him a ridgy spinal protrusion to balance out the larger, engraved tusks.

I remember trying to find an approach that was true to my vision of the character at the time.

And this is the important part: While that vision might change, it's important to infuse as much of your art with your personal spirit and vision. In the end it's all that matters and will make your art stronger and vastly more appealing than anything conjured up to please someone else.

I spotted this image in a sneak peak article on io9:

                                                                 Tall skinny Tharks!!!



And then this screengrab of the very excellent trailer released yesterday:

I was lucky enough to meet Iain McCaig, Concept Artist, Master Storyteller and all around Force of Nature at this years' Illustration Master Class. During his presentation he talked about working the John Carter of Mars movies. THREE times with THREE different directors.

Ultimately he and his uber talented daughter, Mishi, also worked on this Disney Pixar version.

Can't wait to see it and congrats to all those involved in finally bringing this story to life.

Teaser Trailer

What if Samus Aran fought in WW2?

UPDATE: 

As seen on: Kotaku, G4tv, and Irrational Games!

 Once again we opted to do a redesign of some of our favorite characters, I somehow ended up in a world where Samus Aran, from Metroid, fought in WW2 for the allies. 

This was a lot of fun, after I got started it was hard to stop which is a great sign. 

I'll post a quick progression later this week. Make sure to check out Carlos V's. entry and check back for more updates as other friends and colleagues  upload their Nintendo/ WW2 mash ups.

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JL

Trash Planet: Pixar speed paint

In an effort to get a quick blog update in before the holidays, Carlos V. Chad K. and I agreed to do a Pixar related post. The twist: choose a Pixar character and make em into a warrior. I remember reading somewhere that the working title for Wall-E was "Trash Planet" and thought it would be cool to make an 80's B-movie poster of that.

It's Wall- E meets Mad Max!

Happy Turkey Day!


-----jl

Shock and Awe

Updated: Scale reference

This weeks Artorder challenge. Here's the description:

Challenge #1
Concept Name: 'Shock and Awe' weapon
Due Date: April 26, 2009, Noon PST
Concept Description: In my D&D game last week, we had a moment that called for a 'shock and awe' moment. It was my job to run in with my Goliath Warden and set up that "Shock and Awe" moment. I kept wishing I had a weapon that would have helped with that task. Help me out please. Design a weapon that just screams death and destruction, or makes monsters pause before going up against someone wielding it. The only constraints, it has to be a fantasy based martial implement (swords, hammers, axes, etc.) and has to be wieldable by a 8 foot tall, 300 pound juggernaught of destruction. See what the D&D Goliath looks like here.

I've been playing some Soul calibur 4 and I think a little bit of the Soul Edge snuck in there. Hehe...the soul lives on...

I haven't designed a prop in a long while and I have to admit that this was a bit challenge. But i ended up having a blast: the research alone was worth it.

Bromides Continued

DRAGON-BORN:Evolved

This weeks ArtOrder entry, got carried away but it was also alot of fun.

Feedback, as always, is welcome.

Ptera-Gloth!!!!

Pteradactyl + Demon + Undead = Ptera-Gloth!!!

Check out the rest of the submissions on Tuesday at the Artorder blog.

ArtOrder Sketch 2:Bromide

My take on this weeks Artorder challenge.

I imagine the Bromide race as humanoid tribes that use Plants and fungus as a primary material. As they began to expand the use of the plants, a symbiotic relationship began to evolve. Now the Bromides ritualistically remove a limb as sacrifice and symbol and regrow a symbiotic replacement.

The breathing "graft" is also Symbiotic as the Bromide exhales the plant instantly converts the Co2 into oxygen, giving the wearer the ability to enter low Oxygen environments.

Construct

When is an image truly finished? I couldn't help myslef. These were done for the Artorder weekly themed sketch session.

Flying Contraption

Steam Punk Alice and Wonderland: Queen of Hearts

Another quickie done for the sketch a day blog, this time I took some drastic liberties with the character of the Queen of Hearts, this was a fun one. Would love to hear any and all feed back!

Hatter

Some drawings for the Mad Hatter for the Sketch a Day blog. More to come.

Pickman's Model

Inspired by the short story "Pickman's Model" by H.P.Lovecraft.

John Carter of Mars: Tars Tarkas revisited

SO the other night I could not sleep... and without really thinking about it I picked up my sketch book and started drawing. I just let my pencil wander and lo and behold Tars Tarkas began to appear all angry and yelling and carrying on. Once I was done drawing him he settled down and I went back to sleep and slept like a baby... A few days later this bit of news re-appeared on Jim Hill Media, weird huh? I can't wait to see what Pixar/Disney dose with this franchise and if by any odd coincidence they happen to need any additional design work done I AM available for freelance...ahem..well let me know what you guys think...cheers!

Robot-chika

Hey everyone,

Here's an image i did as an excuse to work in Painter again. If you read this blog at all you might have noticed i have a soft spot for all things robotic and female, perhaps it was premature exposure to Sorayama at a young age?

The Vulture

I am a huge film buff, i devour special features and am in awe of the amazing talents that go into making a feature film. I am an especially big fan of concept art, ever since i got my hands on the Return of the Jedi sketchbook as a kid i've been addicted to it. So this weeks theme for sketch-o-rama was to do our take on a classic Spiderman villain for a future installment of the Spiderman film franchise. I jumped all over the Vulture.

I chose to cast James Marsters in this role because he not only has the physical looks to match the character but he also has the charisma needed to play one of Spidey's classic villains. I also re-interpreted the character as a monsterous, tragic figure. In my version, the vulture undergoes a horrifying physical and mental transformation, ala' Seth Brundle in the Fly.

As always, there is more awesomness from my peers over at Sketch-O-Rama.