Donkey Kong Illustration

josh — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:34:44 +0000

So a while back I got asked if I’d like to submit an illustration piece for a Brazilian magazine, a very surprising offer and one I didn’t want to pass over. The brief was simple, create a piece based off a Nintendo game. The usual stuff like Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter came to mind but I wanted to do something beyond the fighting game arena. After much internal debate I settled on game I use to love growing up as the foundations of the artwork – Donkey Kong Country. But instead of just doing an illustration based off the games design I decided to give the character a realistic twist, I wanted to find a balance between the games look and the look of a real life gorilla. I really struggled with this for ages and almost threw it away on more than one occasion, but eventually I pushed through the pain and got to the finish line. I’m not 100% happy with it, but I’m still ok with the final product.

Classic Superheroes – Audrey Hepburn as Supergirl

josh — Mon, 06 May 2013 05:53:11 +0000

So I got a slightly unusual job request a few days back asking for a manip of a young Audrey Hepburn as Supergirl. An intriguing request to say the least. First thing I had to do was find a suitable image, unfortunately all the suitable images of young Audrey were in black and white so I had to colour her which is actually trickier than you think it would be. I then stuck her head on the body base and manipulated it to match Audrey’s slender frame as best I could. Lastly I manipulated the clothing which is a mix of the Man of Steel costume design and the pre-New 52 costume design. Overall she took about 8 hours to do.

Fan Art Exhibit open for business!

josh — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 02:10:26 +0000

That’s right folks, you can now get your very own photo manipulation! Recently I got a couple of paying jobs out of photo manipulating people into their favourite superheroes, my most notable example is Alexis from IGN asking for herself to be made up as the ‘Girl of Steel’, which made me realize I might be able to actually offer my manipulating services to people on a professional level. I seriously never considered trying to make a living out of what I do here because frankly I didn’t think what I do was of any real use to anybody until I discovered people like to see themselves as their favourite heroes, so I kinda discovered a market that I never knew existed. So do you want to see yourself as your favourite character customized in a costume to your liking? Want to give that friend or family member a unique gift they’ll remember? Perhaps a custom movie poster of your favourite film? Is there a concept for a film or TV show you’d like to see done in a photo realistic way to help get across that idea you’re pitching? Hit me up on the email below and I’ll see what we can do!

Sample manipulation work:

Illustration work is also available, I specialize in portrait painting.

So if you think I can be of service to you feel free to drop me a line and we’ll talk!

Lady Avengers Wallpaper

josh — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 01:30:43 +0000

Thought I’d make a wallpaper of the Lady Avengers for peoples desktops. It’s a 16:9 aspect ratio but if anyone needs a version at a different aspect ratio let me know. Enjoy!

If Women Ruled The Earth 2: Lokia

josh — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 11:19:01 +0000

Well this was a pain. Took me 6 attempts to get this right, still not entirely happy with it due to the lack of quality Loki imagery available compared to other cast members of Avengers, so this is the best I could do under those circumstances. I would have preferred to have her in the daytime like the others but there wasn’t the necessary daytime images to use so a night image was the only option. Actress chosen by popular demand is Rooney Mara, I had someone else in mind but quite a few people wanted Rooney so I did a test with her and to my surprise she actually looked better than the actresses I’d chosen, so kudos to all who suggested her, you all saw something I didn’t.

Edit: This was originally going to be the last in this series however lots of people have wanted to see the rest of the Avengers line up. I hadn’t actually planned to do anymore than the 4 main Avengers plus Loki but I’m now thinking about completing the line up (including dude Black Widower which to be honest I have no idea how to do). I’m not 100% committed to finishing the line up as there’s other projects I wish to get done, so I may leave this series as is for the moment and revisit it in a couple weeks and see how I feel about it then.

Well this is kinda awesome – Alison Brie with my Miss America manip

josh — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 20:57:51 +0000

In what has to be one of the biggest holy shit moments of my life here is Alison Brie with my manip of her as Miss America via MTV . Forgive me for not embedding this video directly, MTV makes it very hard to embed their stuff on wordpress. I’ll see if I can download it and post on here later on. The direct link to the video is below.

http://www.mtv.com/videos/movies/875116/alison-brie-looks-good-as-captain-america.jhtml?xrs=playershare_fb

Update: I’ve uploaded the video for all to see because apparently some people on the planet couldn’t view it before. Damn you Viacom. Forgive the quality, the only way to get the video was doing a screen record.

Glad you like it Miss Brie. I must say it prints out pretty well. Haven’t had the chance to do that myself.

Commissioned Piece – Man of Steel style costume

josh — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 10:34:02 +0000

Was tossing up whether to post this here or not given this was an actual paying job, but I figure I may as well. I got a request from a young lady called Alexis to do a profile image of her as a superhero for her new job at IGN (you can follow Alexis on Twitter here). Anyway long story short this was a last minute job that I somehow managed to get done in a single day with few Man of Steel costume images to work with, so I’m not entirely happy with the results, but she loved it so that’s all that matters.

If Women Ruled The Earth 2: Lady Hulk

josh — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 22:34:49 +0000

Yes, yes, I know She-Hulk exists, no need to point that out to me, this isn’t meant to be her, it’s meant to be a female Bruce Banner (Bryce Banner? I dunno). Anyway, this proved to be freakin’ difficult as hell to do. On paper at least Lady Hulk seemed like the easiest character to do however I wasn’t prepared for the lack of good quality images of the Hulk from Avengers, on top of that I had to find a fairly dynamic image to manipulate onto, as a result I’m not entirely happy with how this looks but it’s as good as I could have made it with the images available to me. As for who is the basis for Lady Hulk, well I’ve taken one of the most beautiful women on the planet and hulk-ified her up, that’s right it’s Rachel Weisz, I was struggling for a 40-something actresses to use before someone suggested her to me.

Update: I just realised the original imagine was a tad darker than the other Avengers Girls images so I’ve just brightened it up a fraction.

Edit: Just added a comparison shot of the work in progress transformation of Ms Weisz to Lady Hulk. Hit the link to see this beautiful woman turning into a giant green rage monster.

Here’s the work in progress. This was the initial face layout that I did separately to the main body. I then added the face to the body and fixed up the lighting and colours to suit. Sorry Ms Weisz!

If Women Ruled The Earth 2: Thora

josh — Fri, 28 Dec 2012 13:40:45 +0000

Hehehe. Who else but Amber Heard for Thora? <3

If Women Ruled the Earth 2 : Miss America

josh — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 07:10:28 +0000

Long time no see folks! Sorry for delays, last few months have been hectic and has left me little time for personal projects, I’m hoping that will change for 2013. Anyway, here’s a Christmas present for you all, the continuation of my Female Avengers team following my Iron Maiden design I did a while back. Next up Miss America, portrayed by the lovely Alison Brie. I went without the helmet for two reasons, 1 - I couldn’t find an suitable image to fit the direction of the head, and 2 – I just love Alison. <3

EDIT – Sorry, I noticed a slight error on her arm that I had to fix, all good now. BTW hope to have the next character done in a couple of days – hint she’s blonde.

SECOND EDIT – Next character. Thora