Quicksilver - Son of M #1

This was my first cover for Marvel. The concept for the cover was by David Hine, the writer of the Son of M series. I used a model for Quicksilver who was younger than he's supposed to be in the comics because adding white hair to anyone in their late 20's makes them look a heck of a lot older. The background is from a photo I took in New York from the back of a car. I was over there to sign a lot of lithos for Dynamic Forces (Now Dynamite Entertainment) and Nick Barrucci was kind enough to let me spend a day visiting DC and Marvel...so anyway, I took a fair few photos that I've used in pieces of art ever since.

The collection of people whizzing past in the background (the idea is to show that Quicksilver has gone from the fastest man about to having the world pass him by, he's lost all purpose and his powers. He's slow!) are friends who just happened to be around at the time. The bike is mine. I kept the painting pretty loose on the Quicksilver figure as he was basically homeless at this point. I took ref shots all over the place. As long as the light source is from basically the same direction then it's ok...

Green Goblin, Spidey and a Bridge - Part 3 - Finished!

Spidey without his webbing just doesn't look right. May have put too much yellow in the highlights, we'll see when I come to do the finished. Cadmium Red, Chrome yellow, Burnt Umber are the colours I used on the red...with a little white too.

.........................................................................Now the last bit.

With the webbing I like to only use black (Mars Black) in the shadow areas. Over the midtones I add some red and over the highlighted areas the webbing is actually an orangey colour. I think it adds depth to the figure, helps to make it look more three dimensional. I ended up having to rework the eyes a bit, add more blue and brown into the darker areas of them. Also, the explosion was too unsaturated. All I did there was add some darker greys to it and it popped into the foreground.

When finished and dry I add a layer of Liquin over the painting, it gets rid of the dull spots that can appear in the dark areas and also protects the painting acting as a quick varnish.

That's it.