Mattchew's fanart thread 5.0... *****e, refined!

[Mattchew]

Completed: 8/17/2008

Here's my entry for the Aug 08 'Steampunk' contest...

Reading the theme, my mind went straight to robots and that made me think of Bender from 'Futurama'. Choosing to include Leela clinched it for me as my idea for the theme, and it was a lot of fun. Anyway, here's my entry:

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I tired to throw in a few *****ie futurama references, some really obvious... others, not so much:

1) In the background you can see the planet express ship.

2) The blimp in the background is broadcasting a live feed of 'Everybody Loves Hypnotoad'

3) Fry's chest does say 'Fry' in alien language 1.

4) In Fry's breast pocket is his lucky four-leaf clover.

5) Fry is drinking Slurm.

6) Bender is referenced as Bending Unit 22.

7) Too small to tell, but Serial number by the bar-code on bender is the serial number referenced by Bender in the Flexo episode.

8) Finally... The characters in bender's mouth make up a hexadecimal encoding of the phase 'bite my a$$', an abbreviation of 'bite my shiny metal a$$' a phrase that wouldn't fit, due to size limitations.

Anyway, let me know what you think!

 

[Mattchew]

Completed: 9/12/2008

Finally finished the pic I've been working on for the last wee or so, since there isn't going to be a September contest... Or an August voting thread... Or a July voting thread.

I got a request on another forum to do another Ivy picture, and for a while now I've wanted to do a big group picture of DC Villainesses beating up on DC Heroines.

In addition, I was trying to work more with depth and more complicated poses in this picture, as I often just do straight on shots.

I'd love to hear thoughts.
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[Mattchew]

Completed: 10/22/2008

This picture took a LOOOOONNNNNGGGGG time.

I decided to force myself to do a picture with a lot of figures, clothes, hair, fur, etc. to get some tablet experience...

After thinking about what might fit the bill, I came up with the idea of doing a Wonderland picture.

I was in search of more experience with my tablet, and boy did I get it. At a certain point I kinda gave up for a few months.

Anyway, it is done. DONE! Here's the final...

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I'd love to hear thoughts, if you get the chance

 

[Mattchew]

Completed: 10/30/2008

I have been volunteering hardcore for my candidate of choice, and have been REALLY stress of late.

The result: I decided to do a really fun cartoon-y piece to decompress. I decided to do a pic, of Michelangelo... Who is, indecently, my LEAST favorite turtle, but I'm REALLY fried right now and wasn't up to tackling the more complex characterizations of the others.

Action poses are not traditionally my strong suit, so I appreciate comments on the pose.

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Anyway, hope you like it!

 

[Mattchew]

Completed: 11/6/2008

I was really exhausted after volunteering endlessly for Obama here in Ohio leading up to the recent election, and as such my nerves were a little frayed. As a result, I took the passing of Prop 8, the California gay marriage ban, pretty hard. It's very VERY hard for me to not take news like that personally, and it's really hard sometimes to avoid internalizing what feels a lot like an attack. I think there was a lot to feel great about (from my perspective, of course... I realize that McCain supporters have a point of view too) but the 2008 election was bitter-sweet... mostly sweet.

Anyway, I just wanted to work on a quick picture of something that is PURE FUN... 100% positive...

I've recently become re-obsessed with all things Jim Henson Co. because they have a podcast I read about in Entertainment Weekly and I must say... Not every episode interests me, but in general... Worth your time.

So in looking for a positive subject I decided to go with the Muppets, and when it comes to the Muppets you gotta go with Animal! Anyway, here's the final:

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Hope you like it!

 

[Mattchew]

Completed: 12/14/2008

Here's the final on the design for my 2008 X-Mas Card.

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I could say more, but I just spent the entire weekend cranking this thing out, so I'm gonna shower and watch TV.

I'd love to hear thoughts!

 

[Mattchew]

Just finished cutting out the front and backs of all my cards, 70 pieces in total, and hot-gluing them all together. Here they are, in all their glory:

Tomorrow they go in the mail... thank god.
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[Mattchew]

Completed: 1/3/2009

I am THRILLED to post this final, as it's been a bit dragged out. Life, work, class, and other pieces have all interrupted the progress of this piece, so I'm kinda happy to just have it done.

This is meant to be a companion to my Elphaba (AKA Wicked Witch) piece.

I am a big fan of the Oz universe, and a very big fan of Gregory McGuire's book "Wicked", that has been adapted into a musical. In the original cast, Kristen Chenoweth played Galinda/Glinda, so I tried to model the look after her.

I was hoping to portray her as an insincere beauty-pageant type, and I wanted the munchkin (Boq) to look highly annoyed... Not sure if I pulled that off, but that was at least the intention.

Anyway, here's the final... finally.

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I'd love to hear thoughts.

 

[Mattchew]

Completed: 1/10/2009

DONE! DONE! DONE!

I am more than slightly relieved to say that I finally finished this piece I started before my x-mas card back in November!

I picked the photo this is based on to work on hands. Also, it had nice shadows and wrinkles and stuff.

Anyway, I'm pretty happy with the outcome...

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I'd love to hear thoughts, if you have a second!

 

[Mattchew]

Completed: 2/13/2009

The artwork for my less-than-conventional V-Day card...
Who doesn't like Zombie Cupid? Right?... right?

and as a card...

Comments welcomed, as always.
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[Mattchew]

Completed: 3/13/2009

A new pencil piece of a girl...

The reference for this is the truly beautiful photograph. The photographer's site is linked here:

http://aaronbrownphotography.com/

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Special thanks to artistech from DeviantArt, who provided me with a really nice high res reference file.

I'd love your thoughts.

 

[Mattchew]

Completed: 3/16/2009

Finished my Buzz Lightyear pic!

This is a fairly quick pic I did in stolen moments... Wanted to do something fun and silly to relax.

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Hope you enjoy. I'd love to hear thoughts.

A few details to point out:

1) The alien head is based on the pizza-planet claw game alien toy from the 1st 'Toy Story'

2) The number on his chest says 'BUZZ' in ascii hex (if that means anything to you)

3) Lastly, there is a marking on his right arm that is based on Starbuck's tattoo from the remake of 'Battlestar Galactica'

 

[Mattchew]

Completed: 3/31/2009

Well, I'm done with my new piece for round 1 of MrH7448's shh fantart battle.

The theme for round 1 is simply "Marvel", so I took the opportunity to use Spideyboy's request of Spider-man and Black Cat.

My idea was to do a Spidey-themed piece where Peter is exhausted trying to keep up with Black Cat who stole his mask...

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Hope you like it! (and if you do, vote for me in the faceoff)

As always, I'd love to hear comments.

 

[Mattchew]

Completed: 4/9/2009

This is the new (and final) version of my emo-robin pic.

There were some concerns raised that I really agreed with that could be fixed without scrapping anything, but rather adding, so I thought what the heck.

Here's the new final...

Again, I may have missed the mark in addressing all of the concerns, but I feel confident that this version is an improvement, on some level.

I'd love to hear thoughts.
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[Mattchew]

Completed: 4/30/2009

I've wanted to do a "Where the Wild Things Are" piece for a long time, as it was the gold standard of children books in my house growing up. It's a fun book, but for me the illustrations are nothing short of brilliant.

It's a play on the scene in the book where Max is proudly leading the parade of Wild Things... in my version Max is less than thrilled...

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Hope you guys like it.

 

[Mattchew]

Completed: 5/7/2009

Well, I'm done with my new piece for round 3 of MrH7448's shh fantart battle.

The theme for round 3 is simply "NOTHING FROM MARVEL OR DC", so I had about 8 glocktillion ideas, but I recently got a request for a 'TMNT' piece, so I thought... I gotta do Raph.

I had the idea of him on a bike, but nothing more. When I went to fill in the background, I thought... ONE RULE: NO SKYLINE! With that, I don't know why but a massive explosion just felt right....

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Hope you like it! (and if you do, vote for me when the round 3 thread is posted!)

As always, I'd love to hear comments...

PS: Here's a ginormous version, if you're interested...

Spoiler

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[Mattchew]

Completed: 8/3/2009

I'm finally done with my modern take on the 'Wizard of Oz' gang.

I had the idea to do something like this for a long time, and after months of an utter void of motivation to draw, I decided to just jump back in and see if this lingering idea could get me back in the saddle.

I had a blast with it... I added a few references to different 'Oz' titles, and even a few references to Stephen King's 'Dark Tower' Series. (Many more 'Dark Tower' references were planned, but when I decided to include Elphaba late in the game, I dropped a bunch of them)....

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I hope you like it.

Like I said, I haven't completed a piece in months, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on the final!

And if you want to see the gigantor version, check it out below...

Spoiler

For you Stern fans, "That's huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuge."
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[Mattchew]

Completed: 11/10/2009

Finally finally done. This was one of my most involved pieces ever... 36 separate characters.

I've been thinking about doing a dense battle scene with non-comic book characters... I decided to go with the theme of 'brand mascots'. In other words, the classic characters that are created for no other reason than to promote a product.

Included characters:

*Kool-Aid Guy.
*Hamburglar from McDonald's.
*Ronald McDonald from McDonald's.
*Wendy from Wendy's.
*Tony the Tiger from Frosted Flakes.
*Mrs. Butterworth.
*Colonel Sanders from KFC.
*Buzz the Bee from Honey Nut Cheerios.
*Cool Spot from 7-Up.
*Sprout from Green Giant.
*Jolly Giant Giant from Green Giant.
*Stay Puft Marshmallow Man from 'Ghostbusters'.
*Birdie from McDonald's.
*Toucan Sam from Fruit Loops.
*A California Raisin.
*The rabbit from Trix.
*Count Chocula from his own cereal.
*Frankenberry from his own cereal.
*Boo Berry from his own cereal.
*Lucky from Lucky Charms
*A few M&M's.
*The Pillsbury Dough Boy.
*Grimace from McDonald's.
*Bob's Big Boy.
*A Fry Guy from McDonald's.
*Chuck E Cheese from the pizza chain.
*The Noid from Domino's pizza.
*The Hawaiian Punch Guy.
*Mr. Peanut from Planters.
*Captain Crunch from his own cereal.
*Snap, Crackle, and Pop from Rice Krispies.

Without further ado...

This was a HUGELY involved piece, so I'd love to hear your thoughts on the final piece.

... and if you want to see a larger version, you can find it below.

Spoiler

 

[Mattchew]

No rest for the weary... I have a x-mas card to get out before the 25th.

As stated in a previous post, the concept is 'Santa B.C.', featuring santa battling 2 raptors while delivering a present to a caveboy... the potentially heady joke being that Santa is derivative of Christmas, but Santa B.C. predates Christ...

Anyway, I intend Santa's head to be more or less conventional, while his body will be dressed as a caveman.... So here's the pissed off head of Santa... B.C.

More updates soon... I'm gonna try to push on this, cause I need to getting this thing moving ASAP!

 

[Mattchew]

Santa B.C., body shot.... aka body sHOT.

More tomorrow.

 

[Mattchew]

Added 2 raptors, and a little caveboy to my Santa B.C. pic...

The ball in Santa's hand will be replaced by a present for a little caveboy, but I don't know what he'll be gifting just yet....

More to come, soon.

I'd love to hear thoughts!

 

[Mattchew]

Flat color on my 'Santa B.C.' themed christmas card.

More updates coming...

 

[Mattchew]

Another update on my 'Santa B.C.' picture for my 2009 X-Mas card.

In this update, I did some paint work on the first of two velociraptors...

As a side note, I am having a BLAST with this!

I grew up a dino-obsessed kid, so drawing dinosaurs temporarily turns me into a 9 year-old!

Also after my last piece (the insanely dense 'food fight' piece), it is so refreshing to really focus in on detail without feeling like:
'why am I being so anal... i have 30 more characters to work on!'

Anyway, enough of my commentary.

If you have thoughts, I'd love to hear them!

 

[Mattchew]

More paint work on my Santa BC piece.

I may tweak the right raptor a bit more, but you get the idea....

Thoughts?

 

[Mattchew]

Started painting on Santa, for my 'Santa BC' card.

I am having SO much fun with this! I love Santa as a badass!

His head is basically done, although I will mess with the hat a bit more.

I love comments, as always.