Earlier this year I got an email from art director Dawn Murin over at Wizards of the Coast. She was looking for artists to create work for the japanese card game Duel Masters. I had heard of the game before but never really knew much about it. Especially since it was a game played mostly by japanese boys between the ages of 10-14, and the art was completely different from my typical style. But for this project, she was trying something new, and that was to try and incorporate a more "western" realistic art style into the Duel Masters brand. In hopes to make it stand out a bit more from the other Japanese card games. So I said "sure!" and thus began my journey.
For this guy the description was as follows:
He's an alien humanoid that is about 14 feet tall, chubby rather than muscular like he never lost his baby fat, and dimwitted. Instead of hands, he has giant steampunk-esque mechanical ball maces, and he's covered in glowing tribal/alien tattoos.
Now having researched some previous art for Duel Masters, I realized that everything was pretty over the top and crazy. Most things just didn't make sense. I needed to make him pretty big and weird and aggressive, while maintaining my usual painting style.
Here's a few of my thumbnails, as I did a lot...They're pretty much just the the big dude flailing about in different directions since the game is about in-your-face monsters fighting each other:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1-q0wx1QMUy6aEzYfnNgWULCLzi872BBQ3aggySRScqdpz0pbQYHy3oQiSBYcBVBdWrlBl4qHjcTkEQImfBRqR17oX1E2tUzkN1YGXBNUXfF279kvVgIC0L8RALSSer30ecAJEsoB9oZC/s200/145603+Thumbnail+1.jpg) |
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![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxIeNeCyJby9x8bb7L7JcZrh0hsgGnKBn6NjUaFCU50eMYtcFeOjn1Fds_fz5pMHIBjbhvE5jZ_YLtpaWpo_Uqz6E93vPJ_hzViUlqOFy7T2iHkpUyJ_07_i1nRNa0Jd1Ia2bo1NfCStVq/s200/145603+Thumbnail+3a.jpg) |
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![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEST1ymTts2S2a4f59Xh2VTqE7fNDgjVwNJRsJyFzm35ugDukupVjBn0gKe3ll_W86flbvUTZ35957JeuFnM9sb-zY30V7W6TTxVHLk74uZ0Uh09PRkjT2fxBz-B37rK3g4rBfa_1xPRQn/s200/145603+Thumbnail+2.jpg) |
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![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuGwfT4q5QeofizDDCTWLS_4yGEEcI1B4EYszTywb98lIzvnorjM7APDnkRr9ZpUT2RWMNZp4mMORrtGmb6n2ZMljXLuNGO1Euyh4OK6CfS77xxgyL-BH0LtqKe7crwmVFO6Dn9zWsjbBa/s200/145603+Thumbnail+4a.jpg) |
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![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAfaAAmQW5VT4Dvjt_f9-i9JTcvtYJowMk3huUJx7EqDEOy6uF3IjZPqlDE1tH5y4coSUsdr9KIZqbe0O1yIqfHDPdN1uxZx9_P7z4yXgi1mAFn_ZZNDG01DQvZr_VDZIpsPPbNu_dELQV/s200/145603+Thumbnail+5.jpg) |
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![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjqosqBE_u6e5gFJKgoxw4lH6reYv3hmPbbMEYgOvLBDBxcakivq7AUo6igtBRn8g0WgxmNs9IDTNLrhwfl9NajGCgzckSD7Wa2gCMjW88ZyrVL_z8TBnen3FZPrpMdA5WNWitiyuswexkZ/s200/145603+Thumbnail+6.jpg) |
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![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7gKEaXwkgZV2t1tyY9kFCip_J26ngSy5cXJmgO_edd4ToNoi9gn5FbuZHpBxsfcbVmRMgR5OmPPwMpSsL4oChIqnQu2pYBDchiVnQC308ChxrNbVpgRM4fj2zg9u-i6t4EVFnCw11G9W_/s200/145603+Thumbnail+7.jpg) |
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So we decided to go with thumbnail #6, and off I went to take various akward photos of myself and build little ball maces out of sculpey to help with lighting on them. Also, as a last minute addition, the publisher decided that this character is controlled by a summoner. Luckily there was a good empty space on the left where I could sneak him in:
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaRFizj2XqlhAoyKnwPntesFMHbinLivBW4u6Tc_WoZ0scaEQ4o43KzWyOclrSVdhdWQ-pUm398r26vah5hcUr5wfs7Hb-29-XEfT_9WaDeRhkR8dXW5fYe2fgHTqQT3v10eULOSKzs8lz/s400/145603_Duelmasters_Color+Comp_Scott+Murphy+Small.png) |
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I've been doing most of my final drawings in charcoal for a while now, but lately I'm also doing quite a bit in photoshop to help set up the lighting and add some extra details. It saves me time in the long run.
Gladly, the sketch only required a couple tiny changes and It was off to the finish. Being designated as a "fire" card type helped me to determine the red colors for his skin in this one, but a bit of tweaking in my photoshop color study helped me to settle on the blues for the secondary color.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-kPrId_SSsgkUQIEEilc6B0gPzErmXH98MyCT4Xw6Kj59TAjKPg5-p-6rHzHvDNroGH0Q6kUEB27vB80Sab4dKl1v-jdAIMx1wnlntT9Q_-2-C33U2KzCMyjQeA9sxIOk997j-UAR_ko-/s400/Onigunso,+Hammer+of+Anger+Final+Small.png) |
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13"x15.25" Oil on board |
And here's how the final card turned out:
A big thanks to Dawn for this one because I had a lot of fun pushing my own boundaries with this guy.
that looks awesome with the japanese lettering around it. great job big guy
ReplyDeleteThanks buddy! Yea, I have no idea what any of it says, but it certainly looks cool.
ReplyDeleteAwkward photos, please.
ReplyDeleteNice article! I'm glad you enjoyed the assignment. Thanks, Scott! : )
ReplyDelete