Mickey Mantle and Captain America

Here's a commission piece I've just finished. Set in the 1960's when Cap's been thawed out. I know Bucky shouldn't really be there, but that's the cool thing about commissions, you can have what you want happen in them! Sorry about the overly bright photo, I took it in full sunlight...I'll get a better one when the rain stops!

 I wanted it to look like an old image too, not washed out but definitely a historical piece.

 Here's a photo of the unfinished piece, it's actually a better photo as it shows the dark areas under the stadium roof as they actually are!

 I'll keep this post brief, just talk a little about the painting...the original ref was from a small photo I found online of President Kennedy stood chatting with Mickey Mantle at a ceremony (retirement perhaps?) for Mantle at Yankees stadium in the mid to late 60's. I adapted it slightly as it was only an upper body shot, and as I've said, it was a small image, a couple of inches...why didn't I use a different, better pic? Because it had the right stadium ref (and I like a challenge!)

It's an upbeat, happy image, which I think is right, two icons having a chat, a bright day at Yankees stadium. I've drawn Mantle before, with a couple of JSA members...but that was a tonal piece that was coloured digitally...

Here's the coloured one. It was done by Sue Braithwaite...she was teaching me to colour digitally at the time!

And here's the original tonal piece...

I'm a big Mickey Mantle fan, I'll talk more about that in a future post...

First though I need to take another photo of the finished painting at the top of this post!