Arcanepunk MOTU

Created for He-Man.Org's "Redesign Challenge #105: Teela!"  I based my design on one of the Teela movie concepts from Mattel's SDCC "The Art Of MOTU" art book released in 2009. I always liked the small concept drawing of Teela in "The Future" section. She & her companions concepts invoke a stylistic combo of sci-fi, fantasy, steampunk, cyberpunk, & a hint of Masmune Shirow. lol  That kind of mix of fantasy & sci-fi is often referred to as "Arcanepunk," so that's what I named this version of Teela. I might continue with the ideas presented in that book at a later time & make an "Arcanepunk" art card series based on those unused Movie concepts after I complete my other MOTU projects. I have been waiting for this redesign challenge as it gave me a good reason to finally draw that updated version of Teela based on that book's loose monochromatic art. I hope you like it!

VINTAGE MOTU BATTLE Licensee Art Colored by ME!

Hey friends!
I had a fun idea to color some of the vintage "Battle" art from the "1981 Masters Of The Universe Licensee Book!!" If your a MOTU fan from the 80's, you probably had some of the images from that book on your lunchboxes, stickers, etc. as a kid, (I know I did!) ...I always enjoyed the illustrations (although I have not been able to find out who the artist is, any help is appreciated) & I thought coloring some of that fantastic line art from the book would definitely be a great nostalgic exercise for the 30th!! So enjoy! Line art copyright of Mattel & Colors by Jafaristew!

Vintage Colors:

 Classics Colors:

Masters Of The Universe Whitman Origin Tribute EXTRA

Here is another illustration of my "Origin" take on TEELA!! As I did at least 2 or more drawings of each character in part 1 & 2's designs, & I liked this alternate portrait enough to finalize it! I use this image as my current avatar on He-Man.Org, (1st time I've changed it almost 9 years!! lol), as I like how my old one of Teela looked condensed, but now I use this new piece to promote my newer art style... Enjoy!

This was may original "Card Art" for the "MOTU: Origin" Series, it was meant to be much more explosive & galactic (like the original 1980's vintage MOTU figure backing cards.)  After placing the 5 made characters (of the time) on the background myself, & with some crits from my brother Brian, I ended up scrapping this concept, as it was to busy for the character art... But, since I spent some time developing it, & this blog is all about the stories behind my art, I thought this "behind the scenes look" fit nicely here...

MOTU: HEROIC WARRIORS 2001 Commemorative Art!! (2002-2012)

Hello friends! It's my birthday! To help celebrate let's post some never before seen classic Jafaristew art! While digging through my archives I came across this image that I had created sometime in 2002 based on the "Heroic Warriors," that we're featured in Mattel's 2001 MOTU Commemorative Series of re-made action figures. It's fun to think that I created this illustration so long ago but am still pleased with it! I had obviously planned to do this image as a colored piece (as one of my very 1st computer rendered colors), but the illustration remained uncolored with just inks in an old drawing pad until now! I scanned my art & did some very minor tweeks with the line work here & there to get it more up to my standards, then colored it with my current stye, but thought about what color choices I would have made 10 years ago (as I still remember what I had planned for this piece.) I hope you all like it, as it was a great trip down memory lane for me to see how much more "Anime" influenced I was 10 years ago than I am today, & hopefully long time fans notice the same growth in my art style that I have. So here's the Heroic Warriors...Battle Armor He-Man, Teela, Man-At-Arms, Stratos, Moss-Man, Buzz-Off, & Zodac (to even the ranks)!! Special thanks to my brother Brian for his input & thoughts, my brother Randy & friend Mike for their continued enthusiasm, & he-man.org forum member Predabot for posting that great scan of the MOTU logo years ago!

Masters Of The Universe Whitman Origin Tribute Part 2

Continuing with my Whitman Origin Project I introduce you to the next 3 in the series!   

MAN-AT-ARMS: With MAA I think I did overall the best drawing, it strongly represents the comic design but I felt the question what if you take the Orange armor color out & make him more tradition "Knight colors."  this proved to be a challenge, as the high mouth guard by the artist's design he could have ended up looking a lot like Extendar (the other Knight in MOTU), but with some careful warm & cool contrasting colors & mini-comic meets Classics & mild Star Wars influence, I think I managed to make a strong piece & a fresh take on the Heroic Master Of Weapons!

TEELA: With Teela, she has a very loose styling in the comic & her costuming changes 3 times in a few short pages, from a Skeletor-Disguise, to her more normal ceremonial-style dress, to the Snake Armor, so I wanted to come up with a way to merge all 3 of those costumes for her "standard look"... so I came up with this "Snake Hood" type of Cleric costuming where both her cloth & armor look like a Red Spitting Cobra, (that I believe her original toy armor is based on). The comic over all has a more "Holy" feel to it than a MOTU story normally does (with the Shephard's Son etc.) so I thought this was befitting. It's more of a "Sacred Snake Order of Maidens" type of vibe I think, lol, but I like it too... =-) She was the 3rd drawing in the series, but the one who's look I started developing in thumbnails first, as both her (& Anom) were not as distinct by the artist's pencil drawings.

ANOM:  I think this is the 1st fan-art done of this particularly obscure character!  With that being said it was a challenge because I had nothing but loose pencil drawings to use as reference to him .  I pictured him early on with darker skin & green/blue hair, but more in a "Kraven the Hunter" type colors... As his color process moved on, he developed colors more like a Circus Ringmaster, & the whip is influenced by Blade's in the 1987 MOTU movie.  For his gloves, I knew I did not want to make them either silver or gold, as that is to close to the pre-established Fisto/Jitsu characters, & this guy is kind of like them meets Beast-Man. Meaning I needed to stray as far away from that as I could, so that he could stand on his own.  After some back & forth on him between myself & my brother Brian, he may be the most impressive final product of the bunch!  

 If these ideas prove to be a popular concept, I will continue & do some more character cards based on the Whitman Origin, & include Shalda, Tez, Moon Spinner, the Shepard's Son, & the Demons.  I will also consider "expanding the universe" to include more characters...
Special thanks to my brother Brian for all of the feedback & advice, & to my brother Randy for his enthusiasm!

NEW ADVENTURES OF TEELA Cast ~recolors part 1

MAN-AT-ARMS (New Adventures) Original version ~JODO KAST:

Much like Toy Companies, I like to recolor my product into different versions lol. Here you see the original & 1st color scheme I came up with for my "Master-Of-Arms" character. Loosely based on the classic color 1980's Man At Arms, & more defined in the final coloration by the influence of Hasbro's Star Wars "Jodo Kast" '08 figure.
*This turned out to be the most popular version in a poll on He-Man.Org.

TEELA (New Adventures) ICZER-2 version:


I am an oldskool anime fan, & I can tell you that one of my all-time favorites (as well as the 1st anime video tape I ever bought in the 90's) was the epic sci-fi horror OVA Iczer-One. So when re-designing the New Adventures Of Teela, I automatically thought of the Iczer series' influences on me, & what similarities I could draw from between my design, to fit in with the 80's fantasy theme of NA, as well as the wonderful Barbarella-flavored body suits of the Iczer-1 OVA series. And with a couple alterations I based my 1st recolor on the nemesis character from that anime classic... "Iczer-2."
...As I felt her character color key/design fit best with my creation...

TEELA (New Adventures) 200X MYP version:

This color scheme is based on MOTU Teela's 200X MYP animation colors. It is also very close to her Classic 80's Colors, but I opted for the 200X MYP colors to have her uniform have more variation than white & orange/gold, with things like the teal shoulder pads & green belt. This would be the most representational of what fans would consider a classically themed MOTU Teela.
*This turned out to be BY A LARGE MARGIN the most popular version in a poll on He-Man.Org.

UNLOCKING THE VAULT # 3: MOTU Character Sketches '05 UNCUT!!

SY-KLONE (unfinished WIP):
based on the 200X figure

I thought I would help celebrate the new highly anticipated MOTU CLASSICS this week, by "unlocking" my MOTU 200X vault again to bring my friends here on the art blog some of my never-before-seen "Masters Of The Universe 200X" art work!!
This art dates back to 2004~2005...
Since these have never before been released from my archives to the fan community, all the dirt & flubs are there that I would normally clean, so you can really see my sketching process. Hopefully you will enjoy this installment as much as the my other 2, as they are all direct character sketches used as practice!

HE-MAN (Shield-Strike):
based on the newly-tooled armor 200X figure

MAN-E-FACES:
based on possibly my favorite figure of the 200X line...

TRI-KLOPS:
based heavily on the symmetrical look of the 200X figure

RATTLOR:
based on the 200X figure

TEELA (unfinished WIP - UNCUT):
based on the 200X figure with some anime influence, this figure is censored on the ORG by myself for non-descript nudity to meet the board standards, but the figure was a wip & never got to the "uniformed" stage so you can see the UNCUT drawing here!!

SKELETOR:
based on the 200X figure

***Be sure to CHECK out the BRAND NEW MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE CLASSICS line launched TODAY by MATTEL & pick up the 1st 2 figures, HE-MAN & BEAST-MAN...follow the link... MATTYCOLLECTOR

New Adventures Of Teela: MOTU Redesign Challenge #85

Created Specifically for He-Man.Org's very special 85th redesign Challenge (The New Adventures Of Teela) here are my entries...

TEELA (New Adventures):



CHARI-VARI (my own creation):



MAN-AT-ARMS (New Adventures) ~Grayskull Green version:


Even though we are only committed to entering 1 entry to be considered for this challenge, I decided on 3 entries so I could really flesh out some ideas I had for what would have been happening on Eternia during the New Adventures phase, loosely based on some of the elements mentioned for the unmade Season 3 story arc of NA from Olesker's thread outlining some events that may have transpired if the 2nd HE-MAN series (in the 90's) would have continued.

This vision of "Teela" is an updated version of her original NA character design elements & I was also influenced by the anime "Karas" in both creation & sheme, plus adding some minor elements from Teela in 200X.

"Chari" is my own fan-character creation, made specifically for this challenge.
I find that Eternia's history repeats itself, King Grayskull had The Oracle, & He-Man had Orko, so if Teela becomes He-Man & MAA becomes Skeletor, then Chari would become Orko. Not a Trollan, but fufilling the obligations of that wacky sidekick-type character. Her design is based around some of the costume elements I saw & loved at this years amazing Cirque Du Soleil: Kooza show with my long-time friend Katrin from Germany. ^_^

The color scheme seen here for Man-At-Arms (Grayskull Green) was made by my brother Brian. I can't thank my 2 brothers Randy & Brian enough for all their imput on what you see here, they really helped tighten up some of my artistic expression.

I hope you all like my entries, as I very much enjoyed the time thinking & creating my vision of a NA Teela & co. for this challenge. As I see it very fitting as a big Teela fan to be my 1000th post on He-ManOrg...

ORIGIN

Hi!
Even though I'm not much for keeping a journal or blog, I did see this as a great way to showcase my art of the past, present & future, all in one place & it wouldn't have to be series specific! So consider it an ART BLOG, and if you enjoy my art then this is a new place to come and see what I am up to! Please let me know what ya think! I hope to show you art from all facets here, starting with my Masters Of The Universe art that you probably know me for, as well as some other faveorites I might be working on...(like art for Dungeons & Dragons or Devilman.)
This will also be the place where I post some updates on my Masters Of The Universe: Renegade ~ Illustrated Stories, as well as other unseen MOTU/artworks!

I don't know how often this site will be updated, but I'll do my best!
I hope you like my gallery!

So...sit back and enjoy how JafariStew is best served...COLD!

NOTE: The above image created by me is of the classic AD&D LJN figure... MERCION! (good cleric female - 8.27.06)...
...one of my faveorites!