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!

Scout Note Pad

Just some fun with photoshop featuring one of my fave scream queens Scout Taylor Compton.  Wanted to make a photo look like a 80's style woodcut print on some toothy paper. lol

Masters Of The Universe Art Cards Part 6!

TORNADO (aka SY-KLONE): Based on 1 of Sy-Klone's early drafts in the P&HF Vol.1 art book as well as his appearance in the mini-comic "Spikor Strikes!" "Tornado" was one of Sy-Klone's early working names. I decided to make Tornado darker because I wanted him to be like a storm. Dark, cold, & gloomy. Also as a cyborg almost to have a painted-metal-type feel. The club is based on the one that Sy-Klone takes from Spikor in the mini-comic "Spikor Strikes!" I wanted him to have a more aggressive weapon in this series rather than his trade mark shield & this seemed to be the right fit! He was originally planned for later in the series but I bumped him up to now!

SOLARA: Thinking outside of the box & into MOTU inspired lines comes SOLARA from the unproduced "Wonder Woman & Th Star Riders" line. This line was meant to compete with Sailor Moon in the 90's, & was even going to use some POP accessories & steeds. It's loose ties to POP & interesting characters led me to include the fiery Solara in my Origins Art Cards collection!  Originally I was going to do "Ice" in this series, but figured with "Frosta" already being a true MOTU character I would change that idea. "Solara" is a little more unique for MOTU as she is a fire girl & there is no true designated heroic fire girl in MOTU. Plus she is Latina, which I though helped to add some diversity to the line. The original character from Mattel was so pink that when I started coloring her it was like...pink overkill & I need to diversify the colors some more, yet still keep it to the original designs intentions. She was also planned for much later the line but I decided to include her now!  She has a fire wand based loosely on Hebrew elemental cultures.

 
PRINCE IZOR: A very obscure character that was uniquely created for the bootleg MOTU Modeltrem line, Prince Izor was also planned for late in this series but I decided to include him now after my friend Ricardo posted some great photos of the original figure!  It is unknown whether this character was good or evil in the Modeltrem line, but some fans like to think of him as evil because the Modeltrem line is so heavily packed with Heroic characters. In this case since his allegiance is unknown I decided to make him on a neutral alliance colored card.  My friend Rory made a comparison of him to Sean Connery (aka Zardoz) which I liked, as I wanted to give him a slightly more rugged yet distinguished appeal & thought it was a great comparison! Like Gorgone, it's great to represent the Brazilian influence on MOTU over the years!

100th POST!! Masters Of The Universe Origin Art Cards Part 5

2013 and another year of Jafaristew!!
Kicking it off with my MOTU Origin Art Card Series... with 2 more entries!!

GORGONE: When I 1st decided to make this into a full series, Gorgone was the 1st character I added outside of the Whitman Origin, as she is a wonderful titan created in the Brazilian comics that I could not resist!She looks like Medusa but is made of rock & is a giant, hence the comparison to the shadow-man figure on the bottom.  She carries a pterodactyl wing as her weapon (colored purple like the creatures in MOTU 200X) which the design was borrowed from the "Stone Age Dinosaurs" line by Chap-Mei. I had her break the frame so she seemed larger than life!

 





AVATAR (aka STRATOS): Mostly Alfredo Alcala influenced, I also included a tribute to the 80's rare blue-beard variant, as well as my own ideas about the character. I made him a bit more Bird-like with the claws & talons.  He is one of Skeletor's minions in this story, following some of the earliest published works about the character! Stratos never came with a weapon back in the day (or even today) although he was often pictured in promotional work for the line carrying the He-Man power sword, so I included a cool sword from one of those 80's generic weapons packs called "Dragons Knights & Daggers" I had as a kid. "Avatar" was noted to be an early name for Stratos along with "Wing-Man."

Masters Of The Universe Origin Art Cards Part 4!

Continuing with my Origin Project I introduce you to the next 3 in the series!  The project started off with the unpublished Whitman Origin characters as the basis, & before I knew it, I expanded the universe "art card idea" to include 50 characters total for the 30th Anniversary of Masters Of The Universe! Next up is the 2nd of the set to include mostly "non-Whitman Origin Comic characters," this time with influence from various sources such as the original minicomics!

TRI-KLOPS: based on his appearance in the Mark Texeira run, most importantly "The Terror Of Tri-Klops!!" This was always my favorite appearance of Tri-Klops as the unbeatable bounty-hunter, I dedicate this one to my brother Randy!

X-MAN (aka TRAP-JAW): based on his appearance in the Mark Texeira comic "The Menace Of Trap-Jaw!!" I have always loved this comic & I made sure to power X-Man (one of Trap-Jaw's original names) up with the "Warrior Ring!" 

 DEMON(S): These appear in the unpublished Whitman Origin Comic as Skeletor's main devoted lackey's, & they also make appearances (with a slightly different look) in the Mark Texeira mini-comic version of "The Power Of Point Dread" as Skeletor's army!

Masters Of The Universe Origin Art Cards Part 3!

Continuing with my Origin Project I introduce you to the next 2 in the series!  The project started off with the unpublished Whitman Origin characters as the basis, & before I knew it, I expanded the universe "art card idea" to include 50 characters total for the 30th Anniversary of Masters Of The Universe! Next up is the 1st of the set to include mostly "non-Whitman Origin Comic characters," this time with influence from various sources such as the original card 8-back, & prototypes!

TALLSTAR: She is based on the original 80's prototype figure mixed with my own ideas about the character, I used Nicole Chilelli from SyFy's "Face-Off" as inspiration for the character, & it kind of gives her a circus meets goth vibe... & in this art fanon , she is the last her kind! 

  
ZODAC: One of my favorite MOTU characters, based on his appearance from the 8-backs & "The Power Of Point Dread" record book, where he appeared to have white monster feet...I always loved that coloration as a kid & it was my 1st impression of a character that I very much wanted, the mighty Zodac!

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!

Masters Of The Universe Whitman Origin Tribute Part 1

To help celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Masters of the Universe, I decided to do some character cards, this time inspired by the unfinished Whitman comic from the 1980's, done by Adrian Gonzales. You can see more information as well as the art from this interesting piece of MOTU history here.
http://www.he-man.org/forums/boards/...-origin-comic!

I looked at this comic thread extensively, & then brought in my own ideas of what I thought this Whitman Origin of MOTU would look like if made into a more "adult-collector-style" animated series. The comic itself is a bit darker than most official MOTU stories, but still contains the classic good vs evil, fantasy meets sci-fi that the fans all love. I wanted to pay homage to what I think this comic could represent by making "character cards," hopefully to help bring to life what I think is an interesting take on the origin of Masters. The color choices were made by me, as I re-thought how these classic characters could be colored if presented to me for the 1st time (so rather than just using the pre-established schemes fans all know, I thought about the descriptions of the characters themselves as an influence... example: The original 80's SKELETOR buck is described as a reptile body). Thus why he is more green in color, & his face is more of a bone color than yellow for added realism.  Other accents came from various classic influences (mini-comics) as well as what I thought would look good with my already pre-chosen colors.  HE-MAN is more based on the classic mini-comics & artwork, the Classic figure, as well as a mild "Superman" styled coloration!  Both swords are taken straight from the comic with a more medieval type of coloring.
Hope you like them... as there is more to come!!

F-YEAH SUZY HOTROD!!

I created this image as the first of my "Roller Derby" art series, & who better to start off with than New York Gotham Girl legend & USA Derby all-star "Suzy Hot Rod!!" I had the pleasure of meeting Suzy at the 2012 North East Derby Convention in May & presented her with the artwork (& the original sketch), which she loved & said she would have framed!  She is incredibly athletic & a very nice person! Had my pic taken with her & saw the best Derby of my life in an all-star black & white Derby battle!
My plan is to do a series that may include the categories of "Derby Legends, (My) Hometown Heroes, Hollywood Heroes, & Inspired By (Real Rollergirls)."
The character art itself was based on several images & videos of Suzy, & I gave her a type of Flash animation-style look.  For the background "card art," I wanted it to have a feel that I think evokes both the retrostylings of Roller Derby's roots, & the Modern-Day stylings of current Derby's punk-type aggressive art.  I hope you all like it as much as she did!

Custom SG Longarm & fun with Photoshop

My brother randy & I had the pleasure of attending Botcon 2012 in Dallas Texas this year & one of the more limited events we were able to attend was the customizing class.  After a completely grueling day of putting in screws, pushing pins, & breaking model trees we were able to complete a Classics mold Shattered Glass Longarm/(alt head ~Shockwave) figure.  I never knew how tedious & intense making a Transformer could be, but here you have my final transformable result after Randy's blood, my sweat, & a room full of tears. lol

And as a bonus, some fun in photoshop for a postcard for a friend @ work...lol

VD Centerpiece Photo Manips

These were 2 of 4 photo manipulations I did for the Creation Entertainment Vampire Diaries Convention in April 2012.  The 2 photos here feature Nina Dobrev in her "twins thru time" roles as Katherine & Elaina.  It was a joint project with some friends for presentation for a dinner contest @ the Convention which all together featured bleeding candles, these photos, & more to give the peiece an oldskool gothic vampy look.
Special thanks to Tamara, Kim, & Arlene.

SCOTT PILGRIM: GIRLFIGHT!! (T-Shirt Design Contest)

Thanks to Shout!Factory I discovered welovefine, a great online t-shirt shop that has regular contests featuring pop culture & all things loved by geeks, the young at heart, or artsy types!
I went their to check out their "JEM" contest, but saw that they were also hosting a contest for one of my favorite movies of all-time, "SCOTT PILGRIM!!" I have been meaning to do Scott Pilgrim art since I saw the incredible film in 2010 & this was the perfect opportunity to make that happen, so I jumped at the chance to enter the contest. My piece features Scott's 2 loves, Ramona Flowers & Knives Chau in a 2-D battle vs title screen. I think it will appeal to both men & women & I hope you drop me a comment & give a rating to everyone at the following link:
https://www.welovefine.com/vote.php?id_contest=10&m=gallery



Thanks!!

ALICE: UNDERGROUND

Having been recently inspired by all things "Alice", I decided to take a trip down a familiar path to Wonderland. A childhood favorite, I decided to research Alice Liddell & draw influences from the past & present to create my own version of Alice & her Wonderland. Everything from the original story book illustrations, photos of Alice Liddell, modern interpretations (Tim Burton's works & films like "Coraline," & "Labyrinth"), goth/neoclassical music, & of course American McGee's "Alice" video game series (Madness Returns) served as a template for this project. I also imagine Alice in a darker version of Wonderland where she must fight to survive the beauty & atrocities of the Underground, where one's own imagination serves as the power behind it rather than being lost to our modern conveniences as a way to escape the real world. Her dress is made up of tattered pieces from resewing it from constant shrinking & growing, her Vorpal Sword has seen many battles & she is bit beshoveled, unwound, & mad from the whole affair thus far. Her colors are based on the original inspirations for the story (some of the earliest works, rather than the latter & Disney standards), & the dress is more form fitting like a waitress outfit (with a Cheshire Cat face incorporated into the design) & modernized to keep with my own stylistic choices. If popular this may serve as the first in a new small visual series of art cards titled "Alice: Underground."

2012... new year...new ART!!

Here's my brand new Sparta avy!! Made off of the GIJoe Comic Con 2011 exclusive Mission Brazil 2 set! In 2012-2014 I'm hoping to unleash a boatload of new art for you all to enjoy! Plans include a  ROLLERGIRLS, an 80's RETRO ROBOT series (Esso Robot Racers, Commandrons, & Convertible Robots), MOTU (30th Anniversary+), GI Joe, & maybe even my in development "Grindhouse Favorites" various series, & long time Devilman series... it's gonna be a GREAT!!

ROLLER DERBY photography!!!

Those of you who know me best know about my addiction to Roller Derby over the past year, & being a visual person I try to take as many photos at the girl's bouts in Providence as a I possible can. It's no easy task as it's SO Action Packed!! But here is a couple samples... I'm so hardcore. lol

Ginger Bread Person

Had a project at work to do to create a team member as a Gingerbread person, I did that, but also wanted to create my own, so I made a Roller Derby gingerbread girl name "Ginger Snaps!!"

Portrait sketches

2 portrait sketches! The first one s of my good friend & fellow artist Tamara during a session we did in Fall 2011, the 2nd is from that 80's teenage chick from "WeLikIt" ice cream. =-)

Beast Raiders original sketch...

Original sketch for my Beast Raiders "BladeKiller" bio. I found the pose reminded me to much of 200X Skeletor, so I changed it for the final posted previously... It's a nice chance to see my line work & sketching ideas/process.

J-ROCK CD COVERS!!

A picture of the 2008-2010 series of J-Rock CD concert comps I designed for the 2011 J-Rock Party... Yousei Teikoku, Versailles/Dir En Grey, Jam Project/Rentrer En Soi, Vamps CD/DVD & X-Japan Covers/Best!!

BEAST RAIDER height guide

I simple height guide of my Beast Raiders profiles for reference. I use these to help flesh out the characters sizes in their universe for myself & fans. I hope to return to this project some day in the future as I have more characters, new bios. & new backgrounds I wish to express with the range. =-)

BEAST RAIDER volume 2!!

Continuing with more BEAT RAIDERS animation style art!!


The character "MYST" is loosely based (with an original name as the actual figure has none) on a figure from the"BEAST RAIDERS" repaint line "WITCHCRAFT KNIGHT." And I mean loosely based, as the figure that this design is created from appears to be budgeted with a lack of paint, so much so that she seems to not even be wearing anything below her waist!! lol ...so some artistic liberty was taken on this one. lol



In the 1st installment both "THUNDERTHOR" & "BLADEKILLER" were originally for the BEAST RAIDERS line, while TRI-TREMIS here first appeared in WIZARD'S RULE range & was later repackaged for "BEAST RAIDERS." He reminds me a bit of King Hiss from MOTU.

BEAST RAIDER volume 1!!

Hey gang!!
As a new project I decided to create art for the MOTU inspired/knock-off toy line BEAST RAIDER!!
"Savage Warrior-Beast Raider (Warriors Of The Savage)" was a range done by Chap Mei around 2003 & found in discount stores nation wide, hoping to capitalize on the popularity of fantasy lines like MOTU & Jurassic Park at the time. The line featured newly sculpted dinosaurs as steeds with 2 new MOTU inspired leads THUNDERTHOR (could be loosely based on Snake Armor HE-MAN) & BLADEKILLER (a blatant SKELETOR homage) as well as a combination of other figures from previous Chap Mei lines (like WIZARD'S RULE & SOLDIER FORCE) that would fit within the theme of this current line. The range was successful enough to be carried for several years & even was renamed (MYSTERY MEN) & recolored with added figures (WITCHCRAFT KNIGHT) in other countries. Personally I always found the line to be an interesting one with some good quality toys & ideas, as well as a good scale at a very affordable price. It was popular with some MOTU collectors at the time, & still has a following today with some of the items remaining quite collectible among Chap Mei/Fantasy/Dinosaur enthusiasts.
I have never seen any fan-art or fiction done for this line, so the stories in the bios are completely my own, based on how I would handle an animated series based on the property.
I envision it as a darker world than MOTU, with more adult themes.
If this project is a hit with my Fans, I'll continue to add more characters based on the BEAST RAIDERS figures as well as the other already associated lines.
*Special thanks to my brother Brain for his artistic input on the process & my brother Randy for the positive feedback.
Thanks & I hope you enjoy the art & story.

Custom CD Covers 2011

Some more fun with supplied art & graphic design. From around the web (& bought from Amazon) & into my custom series!

THAT FIGURES!!

My art is being featured today on the awesome action figure blog "THAT FIGURES"!!

Check it OUT!!

http://that-figures.blogspot.com/2011/04/fan-article-gi-joes-agent-helix-by.html

DIAL-TONE AVY!!

I like to update my GI Joe HissTank website Avy every few months, & I'm starting off the 2011 year with the controversial Reso/ROC charater "Dial Tone!!" Portrayed as the original DT's sister (Jack & Jill), she's crept into most modern GI Joe media... & even though she's not "new-new" as with most of my Joe avy's in toy form, I felt she was worth her due in my avy catalog as I liked this new female character for Joe a lot & used the figure (rather than the comic or animation models) for reference. Based on a friend (Tabitha), with & without glasses, & several digital camo apps, I went with a homemade camo app as I thought it looked the best & most like the figure. I also screen-lined her so it looks like she's doing her job as a tech & is on your viewing screen. I had a lot of fun with this one!

SCOTT PILGRIM VS THE WORLD Custom CD Cover

Easily one of my top 2 top favorite movies for 2010 (the other being "Kick-Ass") was the delightful Scott Pilgrim film... Seamlessly blending real life with comics & video games, it truly is a uniquely wonderful film all it's own. Part of the enjoyment comes from the buzz soundtrack, so here (with Amazon's digital help) I put together a nice little custom CD cover for a 3-cd set (legally) containing the OST, Score, & Video Game music ...nice!