Age of Ultron

As planned I saw Avengers: Age of Ultron opening night, and it was good. The story was pretty good and thankfully the best scenes were not in the trailers they put out ahead of time. There was a lot of humor in the movie, which is always welcome. Marvel found a decent way to position it's characters for the future. Hulk is missing, Thor returned to Asgard, and Captain America is left training the next generation while Iron Man takes off to pursue other maters. Over all it was well worth the price of admission. Oh, and Vision was too cool for words!

In other news, I pieced together a new image that I created with my tablet. I attempted a new technique that is much more painterly than other attempts I've made in the past. It is of Susan Storm of the Fantastic Four.

The Fantastic Four - Movie Ideas

Greetings! I've been reading a lot about the new Fantastic Four movie reboot that is in the works and it got me thinking... What would I do if I held the reigns to the Fantastic Franchise? Well, off the top of my head here are some movie ideas I came up with that would be... that's right, Fantastic!

Let me describe my Fantastic Four to begin with. The actors would be young adults, not teenagers, but young enough to grow with the films. Reed and Sue would be scientists that are part of a private space flight organization like SpaceX called the Future Foundation, Ben would be training alongside Johnny as an astronaut hired by the organization. Ben would be the older experienced of the two while Johnny would be the young hotshot pilot that is getting all the attention for his flashy moves in the simulator.

The movie starts with an opening speech about humanity it's trials and tribulations and courage in the face of adversity, but that there are threats in the universe that make even the most fearless races shake with fear. The watcher's duty is to witness these significant events and to never interfere.

The latest space flight that the Future Foundation would be undergoing would be to test one of Reed's experiments. Sue, his assistant, and him would be essential on the trip so the four of them become the crew for this flight. The launch, predictably has issues. A cosmic storm entering the solar system sets off a solar flare which disrupts the electrical systems of the ship. As a result, the ship shields fail to raise and the crew is exposed to the cosmic radiation. They crash towards the earth, Johnny freezes up and Ben with his years of experience manages to get them to the ground. They develop their abilities as they seek each other out from the wreckage.

Years later the Future Foundation is now located on top of the Baxter Building, but has shifted it's focus from space travel to general sciences designed to improve the future of life on this planet. The organization has a big project deadline coming up but Reed has been investigating seismic activity under the city. Sue continues to steer him back to the project that keeps income on the table. Johnny has developed an irrational fear of flight ever since the crash and prefers keeping his feet on the ground. He channels his energies into fixing up and driving fast cars. Ben, having experienced the most dramatic change, doesn't venture out often and has been feeling pent up. News reporters are constantly trying to photograph the Foundation's monster.

While presenting this new project to a board of investors, a massive earthquake shakes the city. Realizing that a lot of peoples lives are in danger, the FF head out to help as many as they can. Ben supports a building under construction from falling over on a smaller building until it could be evacuated. after the quakes continue, Reed realizes it couldn't be a natural phenominon and returns to the Baxter Building to investigating. The epicenter of the event was in central park and so they head out there to investigate.

A massive sinkhole has appeared. and creatures are coming out of it. The FF battle them back and closed off the hole. More holes began to form around the city. The Federal Reserve Bank sank below ground. Traveling deep into one of these sink holes before it closed off, the FF ended up in a massive underground cavern. In this caver was a big city filled with creatures of various sizes. The Bank was at the center of it all along with a small man in green clothes.

The mole man gave a speech about how the surface would be crippled without it's currency, this was the first of many blows against them. The FF battled the Monsters, during which the Mole Man began sinking other buildings in the city, including the Baxter Building. As the FF slowly were pushed back, the Torch finally flies causing the enemy to retreat in fear of the fire and light. Reed retreated into his now submerged building to retrieve the experiment they had been presenting. Using it, the battle turned into their favor leading to the defeat of the Mole Man.

The news dubbed the four the Fantastic Four, utilizing the FF initials of the Freedom Foundation for their new name. The Watcher chimes in regarding the birth of Earths champions was now complete sending humanity down a collision course with the great evil of the universe, but even still they would need a great power to survive the coming threat.

In the next movie the Four Heralds of Galactus appear to prepare the world for his arrival. The FF battle first one, then two, then all four heralds to no success. However throughout the battle they gained the sympathy of one Herald, the Silver Surfer. The defeat of the FF at the end of this movie results in the Surfer coming to their aid and taking them to the Watcher. The Watcher, who observed their struggle in the face of hopeless adversity, breaks his vow admitting that he knew of one device that even Galactus fears.

Movie four features the FF and Surfer making a comeback. The Surfer is sent for the Ultimate Nulifier while the FF use a combination of Reed and Sue's brilliance and Johnny and Ben's strength and energy to battle the Horseman into submission. When it finally comes time to face Galactus, they're defeated immediately. Galactus regards them as a curiosity, wondering how any beings could manage to defeat his Heralds. The Surfer shows up and stands besides the FF. He wields the Nulifier and begins battling against his master. Reed and Sue enter Galactus's world devouring equipment and modify it to absorb Galactus's power and feed it to the Nulifier that the Surfer holds. When the machine activates, Galactus is drained and destroyed. Surfer takes the other defeated Heralds and with a final goodbye, leaves the system.

The Watcher gives a final speech about the courage of humans and how it was his job to witness the major events of the universe. Never would he have imagined the death of Galactus.

The Blayney House

This was commissioned by a friend of mine. He and his wife wanted to remember their first home in a unique way.

It is primarily done with watercolor, a little ink over top, followed by more watercolor, acrylic, and gesso for highlights.

The fun and challenging thing about this image was that I had to maintain a balance between photographic accuracy and artistic license so that I could create a memorable image that my friend and his wife could use to remember their first home together.

Ink Bird Series

This is the third in a series of three Ink Birds that I created, and it happens to be my favorite.

The process of making this was a lot of fun. On watercolor paper, I quickly painted the shape of the bird with regular water. Then, before the water was absorbed into the paper, I added just a drop of black ink in a few places and watched the ink spread out across the water drawing to create this image. Every drawing is unique as the way the ink flows is unpredictable.

It's a lot of fun.

Train Illustration

I began this illustration well over a month ago after having come across a pretty cool photograph of a train. I took my time with it as I wanted it to be a very detailed illustration but also because I wanted to experiment with materials as I went along.

The initial illustration was the longest part as I had to transfer the image to an Illustration board, ink it, apply additional detail with markers, then paint over top that work and add the finishing touches with colored pencil. I'm very pleased with the end results. Sadly I've yet to take a photograph that does it justice as a lot of what I love are in the details which tend to get lost in the pictures.

Brittney Lee

http://britsketch.blogspot.com/

I absolutely love Brittney's art. Back in college we had a term for it, 2 1/2D art as it wasn't quite 2D, nor was it 3D. Her figures are full of character, and the environments are so imaginative. It's inspired me to attempt a similar piece of my own, though I haven't yet.

Baltimore Comic-con and Stan Lee

This weekend I met Stan Lee. Twice! First was to get his signature on a comic and a Fantastic Four cover illustration I made, the second time was to get a photograph with him. It was quite a blast. There were tons of other artists there that I was amazed to see including John Romita Sr. and Jr. Frank Cho, The minds behind Gutters and Looking for Group, as well as a ton of others as is the case with every convention.

VianaArts magical ballpoint pen art.

As I'm quite slow at developing new artwork with which to share with all of you, I thought I'd start featuring some of the amazing talent I've encountered across the web. First up is Samuel Silva who manages the Viana Arts page on Deviant Art.

Samuel is a self taught artist from Portugal who went to school studying law. He uses Ballpoint pens to develop stunning images. I am particularly impressed with his ability to render fur and hair in such a photo realistic way. I just want to reach right out and touch it.

Portrait of a Woman

This was an illustration I had made in 2011, in an attempt to challenge myself with drawing in Illustrator. While not nearly as realistic as I was initially aiming, the over all style is pleasant. The hair was very challenging.

Created with Adobe Illustrator CS3

Woman of the Mountain

This illustration was inspired by a photograph of a wedding dress I came across one day while I was sick and home from work. I sat down early in the morning and worked all day long on this, not finishing until pretty late at night. I really enjoy the end results. Plus, I was feeling pretty good the next day.

Created with Adobe Illustrator CS3