Hellboy

I started doing a series of my own personal comic icons, mostly characters or creators who I really admire for their style and vision. I couldn't pass up Mike Mignola's Hellboy, they both ooze style.

I started with a quick sketch. I wanted to keep the lines clean and fresh, with big shapes. I didn't want to completely ape Mignola's style, just use it as inspiration.

I knew from the start it was going to be a digital piece and sometimes starting a sketch digitally gets too messy for me. I've also been trying to streamline my process. So I just sketched it out, took a quick picture, and redrew the whole thing digitally. 

Since sometimes scanning forces me to try to save the original line work, I wanted a photo so it pushes me to recreate crisp lines.

Here's the finished linework. Mostly cleanup and blocking in the empty shapes. Plus he needed his iconic BPRD patch. 

I tried no to get to crazy with the detail, here's a bit of a close up shot.

And onto the color! The color was a bit of a head scratcher for me, I wanted to find a nice balance between flat colors like the comic, but just enough detail to set off the linework.

And that's about it. Trying to keep the linework and detail minimal was crucial for the color not to become overpowering in the end.

Prints Available as well!

RIGHT HAND OF DOOM (INK) / RIGHT HAND OF DOOM (COLOR)