[MUSIC PLAYING]
We are working on an individual part
of the multi-character mural piece that I'm doing
for Marvel, which I believe will be physically
seen in their offices.
The assembled combined might of all the paintings I'm doing
will make up one giant composition
of all these individual figures standing together.
And I thought that that kind of thing
would be most impressive if they were life size figures that you
could stand next to and feel like you were
amongst these real characters.
I've been working on this composition the entire year.
And it grew in size from initially
what had been one layout of a certain length of characters
to when I got the full measurement of the wall
they wanted me to fill.
I realized it was now double the size
of the piece I had specked out.
I initially started with a sketch about this size,
just 11 by 17, where I'd worked out
the main figures that I thought might comprise the wall.
I'm expanding it out to include the original X-Men,
all grouping together here-- which I love doing that--
Cap's partner Falcon in his classic appearance.
Throw in a couple of the Inhumans, Hawkeye,
and ending with Punisher.
And even on this side here, as much
as I added these six figures to expand it out this way,
I still figured out another couple of ways
to squeeze in, like, putting in Ghost Rider on his motorbike.
And then Shang-Chi, I'm squeezing him in here.
I also did a marker comp showing how
the shadow placement in the paintings
is gonna be very striking.
And then I did do a color sketch on the copy
so that I could show them fully.
Here's what the final thing will look like.
It was all assembled in one file that they approved.
And then I was off to the races.
So far, I have 35 characters total in the painting.
Each single character is its own painting
so that we can combine them together
in a final layout where they're all
standing next to one another.
But each individual piece can be used in other ways.
They could be corner box art, they
could be posters unto themselves,
or make different pairings.
Every painting I've done individually,
each one is about a day's work.
Some are more complex than others.
Like, say, the standing figures--
especially if somebody has a cape or they're particularly
tall like the Hulk or Thor--
those have a lot more space that they demand physically.
And sometimes just can be the details in a costume
can take a lot more work.
See, the chrome in a character like Colossus or Iron Man
is a lot of work put into rendering that out.
All Super Hero's outfits are essentially skin.
The sad part of the way that people talk about Super Heroes
and largely dismiss them is they'll say,
well, those are Spandex characters.
And it's like, well, for one thing,
Spandex has been around for I think less than 50 years.
It's not about whether or not these
are tights or made of cotton or whatever they're made of.
It's really drawings of the human form in its purest state.
That's the kind of entertainment you're absorbing
when you follow comics is it's sort
of like a pure id of humanity.
So when you see why are things always these tight costumes?
Like, well, because they're not costumes.
It's just stripping the human avatar down to its most
fundamental component.
From the very, very beginning, Marvel was probably the center
point of my comics experience because I
went from drawing things based around fairy tales and story
books, things like Jack and the Beanstalk where things
I was drawing when I was three.
But once I saw Spider-Man at the age four,
my interest turned really sharply in that direction.
And so for the remainder of my life,
I was drawing characters focusing
around Super Hero themes.
But my versions of the characters
are often purely of comic book roots.
And then there's my distillation of that influence and the way
that I represent them.
You know, the thing is that I've made the argument the entirety
of my career that what I was trying to embrace
was the timeless versions of characters.
Because when I got in the business in the late '80s,
in '89, most of the published characters
were going through a transformation of one type
or another, usually meaning that they were
being redesigned, new costumes.
So creating a composition like what I've done here
is my way of making the case for these are the eternal versions
of these characters.
The enjoyment about doing big group shots
is the feeling of hitting a lot of characters
that I love to spend time with that I may never spend
the kind of creative time with.
Like, I told full adventures with these characters
or, you know, multiple pages of storytelling and painting.
So this might be my only statement
on that given character.
So I try and put my all into it.
I'm hoping to accomplish something that
sort of scratches the creative itch
to want to connect with these properties
that I've enjoyed since childhood.