SD: MOTU ~Super-Deformed Masters Of The Universe~

By far my most popular Masters project to date has been my anime style "Super-Deformed Masters Of The Universe!!!" The idea was one I had early on in my Masters art mythology and I started working on them in batches of 4, 3, or 2 whenever I had a free drawing moment.
The project was to continue untill I had 10 Heroic & 10 Evil characters represented in the SD Universe. Although ideas for this type of represntation of Masters had been done in the past, I think the key to the success here was the fact that I had done SO MANY characters at once, rather than just 1 or 2. This way a lot of favorites could be represented. I took great care in studying how SD was done using everything from classic to modern anime, and even DS game design work to make sure these guys & girls all were crafted with an authentic SD look. I also made sure to do fan-faveorites as well as more obscure characters to keep it interesting. The 1st idea was to have them all lined up in a good vs evil mode, but that proved to be WAY to long a piece for display, so I piled them up more like a "Pocket Fighter" cover and the 1st final image was displayed on May 2nd 2006!


As positive feedback grew I decided to disassemble my work so everyone could see their faveorites individually as I drew them originally!
SERIES 1:
He-Man, Man-At-Arms, Teela, Stratos, Man-E-Faces:
Tri-Klops, Mer-Man, Evil-Lyn, Beast-Man, Skeletor:
Ram-Man, Mekaneck, Roboto, Snout Spout, Orko:
Stinkor, Clawful, Whiplash, Faker, Trap-Jaw:
Just for fun, I thought I would repaint these SD MOTU characters into some of the other colors MOTU History has given us for them... People seemed to like them, so I kept going!

SERIES 1.5
REPANTS:
Classic Colors He-Man, Serpent Claw Man-At-Arms, Snake Teela, Sky Strike Stratos, & Repaint Man-E-Faces:
Repaint Tri-Klops, Repaint Mer-Man, Classic Colors Evil-Lyn, Repaint Beast-Man, & Repaint (1) Skeletor:
A lot of fans asked when I was making their "faveorite" Master, and since this project was so well recieved, I replied that this was an "ongoing project" for me and I would eventually get to SDing all of the exisiting figures, stactions, & whatever future stactions the 4H can give us! And I plan on KEEPING that promise...
After these initial batches I did 3 more repaint schemes to advertise the upincoming SERIES 2 to give the fans a bit more varients before all "new" SD characters appeared, a fun promotional idea!
SERIES 1.5 continued
Spin-Blade Skeletor, Smash-Blade He-Man:
Faker (Anti-He-Man colors), Repaint Trap-Jaw:
Repaint Ram-Man, Repaint Mekaneck:
Series 2 will be coming up...stay tooned....

CATRA concept

In January 2006, one of the most participated art contests of all time at He-man.Org was the CATRA (from POP) redesign thread. The goal was to update CATRA for the 200X line and see who had the best design which was voted on by fans/forum members. Seeing the calibur of artists that entered this contest, even being a newbie at the time, I could not resist! Redesigning the top SHE-RA villian was a great challenge! The end result was 20 amazing artist entries!!! I enetred the challenge on January 17th & placed in the top 5 with a 3 part voting system on this entry which is highly based on the classic 80's toy (rather than the cartoon) with my own personal touch.


The image proved more popular than I thought!!! I had recieved a request from expert fan-customizer "Hordaks Henchman" to create a figure based on my design! In order give a fellow artist a hand, I designed a "Character design sheet" for Catra featuring her front & back designs & help feature my "true vision" of the character... I made some minor tweeks here & there, and came up with this character sheet featured here:

The final toy has been customized by Hordak's Henchmen, here's a picture!!



The design has been commented on positively many times by fans and will even be featured in the current 2006 remake comic of "Secret Of The Sword!!!"

EVIL-LYN shhhhh...

After drawing a concept head sketch of Evil-Lyn helmetless, and likeing the results of her J-Rock-esque haircut, I decided to go with a fully rendered piece! This artwork went through a lot of sizing and background rendering, all in all I think it turned out pretty hot with a "Dark Hemisphere" beach-like scene. I was complimented on both Lyn & her magic bursting from the ground, and that was great after all the work I put into it. My 2nd 2006 piece (after "New Legacy"dropped) posted on Feb. 13th.

200X EVIL-LYN coming in for the final blow, helmetless & featuring her dagger (never seen in animation but created for the 200X figure.)

NEW LEGACY

In December of 2005, much to my surprise, I was asked to work on the illustrated fanfic that was currently running called MOTU: NEW LEGACY. What was surprising about this was at the time I only had 1 MOTU art posts at the time (Teela +Battlecat)!!! Impressed with this image the w40 asked me to do 3 images. The characters and basic scene where set for me, and then I ran with the art!
The art was placed in the chapter: New Legacy 1.5 - "The Horde: Part Two"...
The "New Legacy" series has finished now & is probably one of the best fan made story continuums to date. A lot of wonderful artists & writers worked on it, and I think it gave me a lot of early recognition on the boards right from the start! I thank the w40 for the opportunity!

LEGACY #3
This 1st image (in presntation only-order of creation is reversed) is by far the most popular and the original art, & has been requested for sale. One of my most USA comic inspired & heaviest inked pieces, GRIZZLOR vs. BUZZ-OFF remians a fan-faveorite today. The gigantic HORDE Huntsman GRIZZLOR leads a HORDE army to the hive of Andreenos and and wrecks the place! BUZZ-OFF one of the Heroic Masters & 2nd only to the the Andreenos Queen fends for his life as GRIZZLOR snatches his mighty axe (for his weapons collection) and prepares to push him through one of the connecting hyve's formations! This piece was worked on before the GRIZZLOR staction was released, but COLORED when I recieved the staction for X-mas! BUZZ-OFF is worked on directly from the figure and features his helmet that was never shown in the animated series. Thanks to my brother "Stonedar/Brian" for all his advice with these pieces, especially #2 & #3!



LEGACY#2
The next piece features Battle Sound (silver) HE-MAN locked up in the HORDE prisons by his twin sister ADORA when she was force captain of the HORDE. Battle Sound (silver) HE-MAN is taken from the toy, & ADORA is a updated design by "Sha" in my own personal style. I wanted the chains appear strong enough to hold He-Man and the walls to appear "alive" like he was locked in the belly of a monster! Adora has been complimented on being beautiful by fans...

LEGACY #1
The final piece is a battle between TEELA & MANTENNA, FISTO & LEECH. Fighting in Sub-ternia, TEELA & FISTO'S deigns are from the 200X figures, MANTEENA from promo pics of the Staction, and LEECH was done from the 200X animated series images only! The piece was to invoke desperation between the Masters versus the new villians and has a underlying feature of father & daughter (unknown to the Masters themselves) battleing alongside each other!...

DEVILMAN 2002

Brief History: Those of you who know me well are familiar with what a HUGE Devilman fan I am. In my opinion, Devilman is one of the BEST series ever in Japan and manga-ka Go Nagai's finest work. Although early Devilman TV (1972) strayed from the original manga, the OVA's of the late 80's and the OVA AMON (2000) where much more faithful to the original, it is upon reading the complex of the manga & newer anime features of tales of the demons from prehistoric times being frozen and dorment until Satan unleashed them in the present and only a person of a true heart combined with a demon could stop them, as well as new quality figures being produced... did my interest 1st grow. But in actuality it is more than just a story of the apocolypse of earth happening with a demon war, but also a tale of friendship, betrayal, & love. Those closest to me know that I have a VAST collection of Devilman manga, figures, & collectibles, everything from gashapon to bottlecaps to chess pieces, but one of my faveorites amongst these is the GIANT line made by FEWTURE toys at the turn of the century designed by Yasushi Nirasawa & sculpted by Toshimitsu Usui. An incredible line rich in detail of all variable colors, shapes, & sizes from demons to humans..(the Fewture line is also a favorite of the 4H.) Highly poseable and the most dynamic figure line to date, I have collected all of the individual figures and have used them as template for my Devilman art. I did a lot of "D-man" art in 2002-03 and will be doing more in the near fewture (future ^_^) but here are some of my 1st colored works in photoshop (ever) and the ones that have been featured on the fantastic Devilman sight "Plastic Devilman" for the past couple years.
http://plasticxo.neuf.fr/Plastic_Devilman/news.htm

My first piece was done on LARGE bristolboard (the biggest of the 4 pieces) and featured "WINGED DEVILMAN" & "MIKI." Background was Japanese city photoshop fun! Both characters are based on the Fewture figures. As with most of my art, I usually use figures for reference. This was originally created as part of a Devilman party... I gave out autographed color prints of this piece which I have seen framed in friends houses since!




Next up, a "Got Milk" tribute called "Got MIKI"... This picture is based on 2 designs. The characters look is from the wonderful Marmit (my favorite...^_^) MIKI figure & the item she's holding from the Fewture figure's (accessory) book entitled "Devilman Chronicles."
This is a fan-faveorite among my Devilman works & is inspired by one of my faveorite artists Masakazu Katsura... Miki is a tragic character...


Image three was pretty much by fan request but I love MICO too so it was easy to convince me! This piece was inspired by Noboteru Yuuki's work (my all-time favorite character designer) and I was lucky enough to meet him & tell him just that at OTAKON 2006! What a guy!
The piece features Fewture style MICO with her symbiotic Tollg in a fetal position, on the pavement, with some "devilish" graffiti...


My final entry for this segment features one of the varient colors of ZANN ("Rusty Copper version") the demon general from the Fewture line. This is a more classical anime inspired "commanding power pose" and also features some fun with photoshop terrian imaging!


Original excerpt from the Platic Devilman website:
"I have been drawing Devilman for about as long as I have been collecting the figures, being an artist it's only natural to express your appreciation for the story through your own interpretation with art. My inspiration is mainly from the figures, but I do take elements I like from the existing artwork that has been done (anime & manga), and particularly like Yu Kinutani's Amon manga work & Yasushi Nirasawa's Fewture works. My collection is called Devilman Chronicles (named after Fewture Miki's book) and is based on the existing toylines as well as the anime, manga & my own take on the characters. ^_^ This work is completely illustrated by me, and will show digitally colored and other visual medias to express my Devilman creations.