My Fan Art: Man of Steel

Man of Steel, 2012

acrylic on 140 lbs. watercolor paper

14 x 20"

 

My new painting of Superman! I mixed a little classic Man of Steel, some Doug Mahnke Final Crisis & Lee's New 52, Chris Reeve's spit curl, and color influence from a DC Superfriends toy I have. I loved the coloring on this variant Superman so much that I didn't I didn't even attempt to land the regular/conventional version...

 

 

I know a lot of folks were less than thrilled with DC's recent New 52 reboot, and Jim Lee's redesign of Superman's iconic costume, stripping the Man of Steel of his shorts and running armor lines throughout the figure. It was jarring to see initially, but I eventually came to appreciate it. I was admittedly mildly bored with the story in the New 52 Justice League, but the artwork was really great. I haven't gotten around to reading either of the New 52 Superman titles, but am slightly more interested in reading the New Krypton books first.

 

 

 

 

Speaking of variants, I also loved the New 52 Earth 2 Superman costume- a shame they killed him off in the first issue, LOL! The art was also great in this book, and the story was a little better than the New 52 Justice League.

 

 

 

Supes was painted all in brush with acrylic, no pens, on 14 x 20" watercolor paper. As I've said before, as a kid in school I dreamt of being a comic book artist- I went on to attend school and became a working fine artist. The influence of comics is highly evident in my work today, and though my style developed into a more abstract vernacular, it did retain a dramatic and narrative quality. Those comic artists are just in a league above and beyond me- lightning fast and SUPER-talented! Still, I occasionally enjoy illustrating a favorite hero, and starting this blog a couple years ago reignited that unrealized dream.

 

* See my painting of Superman (as Nightwing) rescuing the city of Kandor from Brainiac! 

More Later- Make It FUN!