Artist References Figures

Figured I take the time and show some of the figures I use for reference. There is always the constant search for the perfect one but nothing is perfect or has everything that will help you when it comes to posing, lighting and anatomy. But maybe some of these will help you find what will work best for you. 

1/12, 6 inch Marvel Legends

 If you are on a budget, Hasbro Marvel Legends figures end up being great references because of poseability and price. There are at least 4 body types they use for figures that are perfect  for posing. The Bullseye body, the pizza Spiderman body, wolverine body ( though he might be a bit short) and the Retro Spiderman body.

 Unfortunately Hasbro Marvel Legends don't have female figures that pose as well as the male ones. Female figures all use the same body so if you find a female figure that has a uniform color on the whole body you are good. I wish they would update or make a new buck female body.

From left to right.

The Obsidian Silver Surfer 

This figure is great for posing and uses the Bullseye body and doesn't have any stray details and is a nice uniform color. Pretty much a naked male figure body and the gun metal color shows the muscle definition well. The only drawback is he only comes with two extra hands. Another drawback is that he is a bit hard to find because he is a Walgreens exclusive.

Classic Shang-Chi

Another figure that uses the  Bullseye body but he has larger shoulders,  bare feet and pants sculpting. What's great about this figure is the amount of hand accessories it comes with and the bare feet sculpt is very naturalistic and not flat at the bottom like most action figures. You can use the hands on other Marvel Legends figs but the skin color may not match. Shang is kind of difficult to find now cause it is an older figure.

X-Men Charles Xavier

This figure uses the pizza Spiderman body. While  a great body for a Hasbro Marvel Legends figure he is not as poseable as figures that use the Bullseye body. What's great about this one is he is super easy to find, has a nice uniform colored body and If you are not happy with the head you can stick on most  any other male Hasbro Marvel Legends head. The only drawback is not a lot of hand accessories.

Classic Namor The Sub-Mariner (fig mod)

While this figure does not use the Bullseye body or is as poseable it is easy to find on amazon for a very low price. It has great muscle definition and bare feet for ref. The Drawback is that it has sculpted in wrist bands, winged ankles, sculpted scaled underpants and the bottoms of the bare feet are flat.

While I don't suggest this I modded mine. I used one figure’s bare arms and another figure’s  shins so the body is a uniform colored figure. There is only a slight color difference between the parts. I also got a pair of 1/12 clothing to cover up Namor's scaled under pants and used an extra belt I had from another figure.

Classic Kraven (fig  mod)

This figure is built from the leftovers of parts I used to make the Namor figure mod but for the most part is Kraven from the symbiote Spiderman Kraven two pack with some soft goods clothing overlays. The Kraven figure has the same articulation as the Namor figure so the parts are interchangeable. 

Kraven usually has a "psycho screaming" head but I swapped it out for an additional Peter Parker head that came with a cosmic Spiderman figure. You can't  see it but he has the winged ankles from the Namor figure. 

I mostly use this fig for the clothing ref and wrinkles. You can buy all kinds of soft goods for 6 inch figures on Etsy, eBay and from creators on Instagram, But your options can be limited. Un like 12 inch figs there are not a lot of clothing for six inch figs. Though that is slowly changing as more companies make fully clothed 6 inch action figures and soft good figure mods are a lot easier to do than full on painting an sculpting figures.

1/12, 6 inch Figures

From left to right.

S.H.Figuarts- Body Cun DX

A great male figure for reference and  posing, nice uniform color and if you get the DX version you get a plethora of hand accessories, weapons and props. You can also get it in different colors. It even comes with a perspective grid for hard angles. This fig was made for artists. The only drawback is that it can be a little expensive and the body may not match certain builds. perhaps a bit thin and teen like?

1000toys 1/12 Synthetic Human male

The best poseable male figure you can buy.  It can do anything you can imagine and hold any pose, even one legged standing poses. I wish they took this body joint system and made it into a proper artist ref figure. I am looking forward to the female version. Good female posing ref figures can be hard to find. The only drawback is not enough hand options, robotic detailing and the price. It can be very expensive.

S.H.Figuarts- Body Chan DX

Like I said, good female posing figures can be hard to find. But Body Chan DX is the best I have found so far for reference and  posing, Like Body Cun  it has a nice uniform color and if you get the DX version you get a plethora of hand accessories, weapons and props. You can also get it in different colors. It even comes with a perspective grid. This fig was made for artists. Like the male the only drawback is that it can be a little expensive and the body may not match certain builds. Maybe a bit  too thin or  teen like?

1/6th , 12inch Figures

Larger and more expensive than 1/12, 6 inch  figures.  The positive side in 1/6th  is you can find more options and the other is you can easily find clothing to fit the figure bodies you buy unlike 6 inch where it can be a little hard to find clothing.  Since these bodies are meant to be modular you can easily find additional hands,  feet, heads and other weapons and accessories. They are also highly poseable.

From left to right.

1/6th Scale TB League  seamless Figure body “Mister big”  

A great anatomy and lighting ref. This figure is highly poseable and features a silicone seamless skin on metal endoskeleton " (like a Terminator lol ) funny that I say Terminator because this body is based on Arnold Schwarzenegger's when he was a bodybuilder. The TB League male figure body  comes in a lot of different body types from thin, Bruce Lee body, medium build, muscular to body builder.  It also comes in different skin tones. There is also a 6 inch version.

One thing to be aware of is this figure comes with um….. how should I say this? …. anatomical male parts lol if you want your figure to be that way lol

One drawback is  the 1/6 version does not come with a head sculpt so you will have to buy that separately.

Also There is a limit to posing. While being able to take almost any pose the skin also limits it and can rip if pushed to its limits. also you have to be wary of where the skeleton is in the skin so as to not stress the joints. 

This figure as far as 1/6th scale bodies go is not crazy expensive, comes with additional hands but it can get expensive trying to find clothing and accessories.  Also the “Mr Big '' figure  is  larger than common  male 1/6th bodies so it won't fit most clothing meant for more common male 1/6th figures. I use mine for anatomy and lighting ref. I slapped on a Henry Cavill head sculpt I had so it is not just a headless figure.

1000toys 1/6th Synthetic Human male

The 1/12 Synthetic Human’s older brother. Features all the same articulation and the  best poseable male figure you can buy. It can do anything you can imagine and hold any pose, even one legged standing poses. The drawbacks  are the figure is not compatible with common 1/6th scale accessories so you can’t buy new hands or a head sculpt. Also being a thin skeleton like body it doesn't wear clothing well. And the same draw backed as the little brother robotic detailing and the price. It can be very expensive.

1/6th Scale TB League plus size Female Figure body 

A great anatomy and lighting ref. This figure is highly poseable and features a silicone seamless skin on metal endoskeleton " The TBLeague female figure body  comes in a lot of different body types though they don’t have a muscular body.  It also comes in different skin tones. There is also a 6 inch version.

Be aware that this figure is anatomically correct so if you don’t want a naked lady hanging in all her glory on your art desk they do provide a bikini bathing suit. I forgot the male one comes with one as well.

The female figure body’s Deluxe version comes with a head sculpt though they can look a bit creepy doll-ish but you can buy a new head for the body if you are not happy with it.  While rooted hair is Interesting on a figure it can be easy to give your figure a bad hair day lol again you can replace the head. 

Like the male figure There is a limit to posing. While being able to take almost any pose the skin also limits it and can rip if pushed to its limits. also you have to be wary of where the skeleton is in the skin so as to not stress the joints. 

This figure as far as 1/6th scale bodies go is not crazy expensive and it is a nice added bonus the figure comes with additional hands, feet, a head sculpt and stand. Like the male figure it can get expensive trying to find clothing and accessories.  Also being my figure is plus size larger than most female figures, clothing meant for more common female figure bodies will not fit. I use mine for posing and  lighting but I didn’t want a naked figure hanging out on my art desk and I didn’t want to fuss with taking off her bathing suit if I needed  female body ref so I got her some overalls  easy peasy.

So yeah a bit long winded but I hope this all helps you if you are looking for posing figures for art ref. 

BAD DOG: Gift Art

Yeah, it's been a wile since I posted something here. This time I have a piece of gift art I did for Joe Kelly.
I met Joe a couple times when the staff of TMNT would have get togethers. Anyway wile at the NYCC I ran in to him at his table I the artists ally. He recognized me from the couple times we met. I always liked Jo's work, ever since his run on Dead Pool and I love I Kill Giants. So I figured I'd pick up his new Book bad dog. To my surprise he gave it to me and personalized it. It was a really fun read, so I figured in my spare time I draw him up a Thank you image.

Here is the first sketch I did in my sketch book . It's really tiny about 4 by 8. It was drawn with a 0.3 led. I actually planned to ink it but I decided because its pretty tight I'd just clean it up.Here is the Final sketch I cleaned up in Corel Painter.

I flat colored it in Photoshop and did the final color in Sai. Anyway hope you guys like it. And make sure to Check out Bad Dog from Image Comics.

BAD DOG © Joe Kelly & Diego Greco

Chaotic:The Epic of Nebres

Looking at the Nebres card you wouldn’t think it was a massive undertaking, You wouldn't think it took a week of planning and over a month to complete. So many people worked on this one card 4 Kids Wasn't able to list any of the artists on the actual card. The only credit this card has is “ By ED’s Friends”.
Now you think to you're self why would so much effort be put in to one card. Lets go back to September 2007. At the time TMNT Back to the Sewers was in the beginnings of development And Most of the art staff was working on Chaotic cards. Wile on the job Our good friend and colleague Edwin Nebres Had a stroke. It was a huge shock to the whole team. You would never think that something like that would happen, especially to some one you know. The following week Jason Narvaez and Sam Murakami Called a meeting to come up with a Chaotic card Idea to do in honor of our friend. The plan was to present the final card to him when he was feeling more up to having visitors at the hospital.
The idea for the card was a big brawl that would include a drawing by each one of the art staff. I came up with the idea of it being set in the Underworld Colosseum. Sam and Jason came up with the idea of Nebres being an Overworlder, his character was made a boar creature based on the year he was born, Which was the year of the boar in the Chinese Zodiac. In fact all of the creatures seen in the Nebres card were supposed to be Chinese Zodiac animals. Each based on the years of the artists who drew them. but nobody really stuck to that. Probably the only creature that stuck to the original idea was the one I designed.

Here we have some concept drawings I did. unfortunately I don't have any of the other staff's concepts.

This one is me fleshing out the Nebres character design. I had the idea of combining a lot of the things Ed liked. the version I created had a lot more Asian influences. he also had some aspects from Ed's World of Warcraft character, that he used to draw every so often. I also had an idea that he had 4 swards one for each mugic element, they were supposed to be forged from mugic crystals. So his fiscal attacks were elemental attacks. this idea was shot down cause it might break the card game. you will see in the final design Khary Randolph kept some aspects of the design I did.

Here is my first stab doing a design for the card. the note on this design was it looks "to poesy" it needed more action.

Here is my second try. The note for this was it didn't show the front of the character.

Here is a close to finished sketch done by Khary. He actual incorporated some ideas from my sketches.

here are the lists of artists along with the pieces they did. In order of how they appear on the card. One of the Ideas was that all the characters on this card would eventually become characters in the Chaotic game.

Otis Brayboy

Keith Conroy

Jimmy Tran

Khary Randolph
Here is the final sketch.
Andy Bradshaw

Jason Narvaez

Chris Beaumont
Iparu
Iparau was a character created By Chris For the Chaotic TV show prior to the this card.

Emilio Lopez
Targubaj
Eventuality He became a card.

Adrian Barrios

Roy Burdine

I put together the final composite of the Characters drawn by everyone. I also inked a couple of the images so that they match the the others. Kahry finalized the line art, placement and extended some of the characters.

When all the line work was ready I started painting. I first started with Nebres and the two foreground arms. Then I painted the background. After that I moved on to the background characters. I actually wound up fully painting each character. The final color for this piece took me over a week to do. I needed too stay on schedule with Color development on Back to the Sewers, so I pretty much worked on it were ever I could. stayed late, brought it home what ever it took. Once I completed the card it was put on to the final card lay out with flavor text by Sam Murakami.

"As the 3 Time reigning champion of the Perim Battle Royal, Nebres is one of the Few OverWorlders Who has earned the respect of all tribes even the UnderWorlders"

The ultimate tribute to an all around awesome dude. I'm pleased to say Ed really enjoyed all of our hard work and is doing well with his recovery. We all look forward to his return.

Check out Full Final Image.


Chaotic © 4 Kids Entertainment and TC Digital

Gears of War Cubee

Happy Re Re Emergence day!! In honor of the recent release of gears of war 2, I made a Cubee Craft version of Marcus Fenix. The design is an adjusted version of the design I did for the Gears of War Munny I created a wile back for my cousin.

For this version I actually got to do the Lancer.

Well anyway Make sure to head to Cubeecraft To download the paper craft template and get out your scissors

l hope you guys enjoy.

The material presented here is my original creation, is not official and is not endorsed by Epic Games, Inc. Gears of War, Marcus Fenix and the Crimson Omen are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Epic Games, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Ninja Tribunal

Here is the season 5 Ninja tribunal DVD cover. I figured I'd show you a little of the process that went in to this Piece. When I was asked to do this cover I wanted to make it different than the others seasons on DVD . I had been painting Chaotic cards and I wanted to try something similar. I wanted to keep the hard animation like shadows but still have it look painterly. To sell them on the idea I repainted the tattooed Leo model from season five and Did two thumbnails.
The for this cover I wanted to keep the mystery of what the season was about, Not giving away to much. I figured the visual of four shredders looming over the turtles would make people who hadn't seen the episodes yet be like oh man there fighting Four shreddersthats going to be crazy . I actually second guessed my self when I did my first two thumbnails. I figured they wouldn't go for the four shredder idea. So this is what I came up with. It's the four Shishos out of their Shredder armor. I also included splinter in this cover. I felt he should be on the cover as well. The other thumbnail I came up with had the same composition but instead the Demon Shredder was looming over the turtles. I'm actually glad they didn't select them.
The comment I got for this version is they felt it was a little to similar to the other DVDs. In a meeting after they rejected the first two ideas, I told them my first idea and they seemed to like it . I also worked an idea of the Shredder looming behind the DVDs. This is my Thumbnail after the meeting. They really liked this one but they weren't happy with the placement of Mikey's left leg.
Here are some extra elements I created to populate the DVD. Just some cool action poses for Splinter and The Ancient one. I wanted these old guys to look awesome, asspecially Ancient one.

This is my final sketch. all the characters and elements are separated on to their own pieces of bristol paper. I figured if some element's didn't work for the 4 kids Graphics Department they could adjust it if need be. They could also uses the separated elements to populate the DVDs as well as the menus. I Inked all the images by hand with a brush. When I colored them I redesign all the colors of all the characters I used. I also repainted the tribunal hall to match the painterly style i was using for the turtles.
So there you have it the final cover as it will appear on the DVD cover. There are some elements that were adjusted By the 4 Kids Graphics Department but it still essentially what I intended. All in all I made 12 separate illustrations for this project, all four turtles the four Shisho Shredders, Demon Shredder, Splinter, Ancient one and the Student Amulet. This project was a massive undertaking but well worth the effort. My younger self would be proud.
If you want to find out more of what goes into making the show. I suggest you take a look at the Official TMNT the Animated Series blog Inside The Shells. There you will find a lot of the great production art for the lost season as well as wallpaper of the images I haven't shown here. Its updated every Thursday so check it out.

If your interested here's where you can Pre- Order the DVD http://www.amazon.com/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-Tribunal/dp/B0014567V6

TMNT © Mirage Studios, 4 Kids Entertainment and Playmates

Ilustration: Innocents

This has been in the making for a long time. I actually did the first sketch in Open Caves in 06. I liked the Idea so much I did an alternate version with a more fleshed out character. If you look at the progress sketch you'll see the problem when you work on a small screen and are not able to see the full drawing. I since got a better screen since then, But For the final pass I dint want to do it all digital. I sketched and inked it with real media. The final line art is on a 11 by 14 piece of bristol.For the color I painted it in Painter an did some touch ups in Photoshop.

TMNT: FF Season 2 DVD Dark Turtle Extras

Here are some extra Characters Done to populate the TMNT FF Season 2 DVD back cover menus and disks. The line are was done by Adrian Barrios Colors by Me. Here's Little known Fact about the dark turtles. Peter Laird was responsible for the final skin color for the dark turtles. Originally they were meant to be the same colors as the Turtles they were cloned from. If you want to check out the Front of the DVD cover check here http://nexxorcist.deviantart.com/art/TMNT-FF-Season-2-DVD-Cover-75813142

Here is the final




TMNT © Mirage Studios, 4 Kids Entertainment and Playmates

Illustration: Starewell

This price has been a long time coming. I created it so I could get some practice using painter. I took a lot of progress Pictures so I figure I'd eventually Put together a video using them.

Let's Get Chaotic

Well Guys Chaotic is finally out in stores so I figured I'd upload some cards I worked as well as Some shots of the Chaotic ceOsk at Toys R Us in Manhattan. We did a lot of work on this card game and I hope every on at lest checks out the Awesome art work we all produced did For this.

A wide shot Of the Chaotic ceOsk.








For the artwork for standy was a 3 person colloberation. Adrian Barrios Did the original line work for Chaor , Khary Randolph did Maxxor and I digitally painted them.



Here is Iron Pillar which is on the cover of Underworld the starter deck hand book And my personal favorite The Doors To The Deep Mines. The original Line work was done by Keith Conroy

Next we have the Cordac Falls and Plunge Pool Line work also by Keith Conroy


Finally we have Flash Warp. This one was fully illustrated by me.

Chaotic © 4 Kids Entertainment and TC Digital

Metal Gear Solid 4 Nouveau

I has been a wile since I Posted some art here. This is Old Solid Snake lighting a cigarette with a heated gun barrel. I'm not sure if you can really do that but I though it would be fun. This Piece stated out as a sketch I did between coloring jobs at work. I usually have it open in the background in Alis sketch pro when just in case I get a idea.
This week I decided I wanted to finish it so I can get more practice using painter.The first thing I did was get a bunch of reference for all the details on Old snakes outfit. If you at the sketch it doesn't march up. That's cause I drew the outfit from memory.
Finding good reference of snakes outfit was really hard because Kojima productions the creators of MGS4 don't tend to put out much production art. So I had to make do with screen shots.
Believe there are a couple different versions of the 3d model of Solid Snake for MGS4. Take a look at the first trailer's an then take a look at the footage from most resent trailer and demo. My snake is kind of an amalgam of all the different versions.
I really didn't have much of an idea to begin with. I just wanted to do a really detail digital painting of Snake. when I was about half way finished with painting, I stated thinking about backgrounds thats when I got the idea to do something like an art Nouveau painting. I Recently been really in to Nouveau art. I just bought two really great books with some nice reproductions of famous posters from France. If you don't know what art Nouveau you should check it out when you get the chance. Anyway there you have it Metal Gear Solid 4 Nouveau. I posted a hi res version so you can check out all the details.
The wallpaper version MGS4-Wallpaper

Solid Snake © Konomi, Inc.

Luchadores Five

Look at this My first Post anyway this is a piece of fan art I did of Red Demon. He's a member of Luchadores Five. Luchadores Five is part of a Comic anthology Called Lucha Lebre. The comic has been out in Europe for a wile now and it's finally coming out in the States.
The way I found out about the comic is through Vinyl Pulse. They released some awesome Toys a wile back based on Designs Muttpop The artist of the comic.
From the Descriptions and preview pages of the comic an It looks like it will be a fun time.
Luchadores Fighting werewolves, Greaser Gill men, tiki warriors, Latino midget Elvis impersonators and a French gang. Come on what's not to like. I can't wait till September 5 for the released of the first book. The book will be available through Image Comics. So check it out.

CBR did an interview with one of the creators Jerry Frissen
http://www.comicbookresources.com/news/newsitem.cgi?id=11228


For more info about the comic and toys check out
http://www.muttpop.com/


Luchadores 5 © Jerry Frissen & Muttpop Bill