This was originally posted on my now-defunct creative blog.
Ah, Spider-Man. Everyone knows who Spider-Man is. I created this image with the intention of getting it put on canvas, then giving it to my brother for his birthday. It was a lengthy process, and I learned a lot about ArtRage and myself along the way. The initial idea was to have Spidey perched on the Statue of Liberty, but I soon scrapped that idea because I couldn’t make the scale work – I didn’t want the prongs of the statue’s head-piece taking up too much of the image, and I didn’t want Spider-Man to be a small figure – I wanted him to be the definite centre of attention. Once I had decided he’d be on a roof somewhere in New York city, I started working on his pose, with help from this book. I tried a perspective from below at first, with his toes and fingers hanging over the edge of the building, but I couldn’t get it to look right. Then I added the idea of him checking the photographs that he’d set up to be taken. I love this element of his back-story, that he takes pictures of Spider-Man (himself) in action and sells them to The Daily Bugle. I feel it gives the image more of a story. It’s quite tough to get his build right – sure, he’s a skinny kid, but when he’s out fighting crime he has to look suitably powerful. A scrawny, yet muscular figure is needed, almost like you have to narrow his arms, legs and trunk, but pop the muscles out at the same time.
As this was for my brother, I slyly asked him what his favourite Spider-Man suit was – he chose the classic red and blue. Hundreds of artists have drawn Spider-Man over the years, each of them interpreting his classic costume design in their own subtle ways. I opted to keep the spider-webbed wings under his arms – I feel it gives him a more retro look. The eyes are another area where an artist stamps their style on him. Some keep them rigid, some make them move to convey his emotion. Some artists draw them as large, anime style eyes, some make them small, some sharp and angular, some more rounded. After a few studies, I decided they look best large and angular. Other than that, it’s a standard Spider-Man outfit. Red and blue, with the black webbing detail (which I did have problems with initially), and the chest spider. It took me some practise before I could get the long flowing lines of the webbing right – I’m still getting used to using the Bamboo tablet, and sometimes what my mind wants and what my hand does are two different things. The building itself if quite basic, most of it in shadow. This is to keep the focus on Spidey. Early on I felt his bag was too small in relation to him, so I had fun learning how to use ArtRage’s resizing tool. I’m proud of the shadows that the bag cast on the building, of all things.
You may notice that the Moon goes from blue to orange – this is because I felt the blue of the moon was too similar to the blue in his suit, and that a striking yellow and orange moon would really liven things up, as well as provide some nice lighting opportunities. The clouds were pretty fun to create. At one point they just got too big and I felt I had to really scale them back, they were blocking out too much of the mean and moody dark blue sky. Hopefully the vividly coloured stars come through well when it’s on canvas. The subtle red coming up from the silhouettes in the background indicate the dangers awaiting Spidey below. At one point I did splinter the image off into two – one version keeping with the red and blue, another version with the black symbiotic suit. Although I loved the intense purple highlights that the black suit gave off, I didn’t feel I could define his musculature to the same degree as the red and blue version. And I also felt the black suit didn’t work well with the overall dark tone of the image, so I stopped iterating it.
I hope it turns out well when it’s on canvas, and I hope David likes it.
Edit: He loved it! It turned out really well. I just felt so much pride when I first saw it in physical form, and I couldn’t wait for David to unwrap it so I could just look at it again.
This is the moment everything changed.
What do you think? Criticise or praise me, either is good! Want me to make you a canvas some time?
