Plotmasters Project: Psycho Mantis

The latest episode of The Plotmasters Project went up on the site today. It was an episode Jesse and I recorded LIVE on my Twitch stream for ONLINECON titled: Psycho-Mantis! To the left you can see my finished art for my Plotmasters update of the character. Below in this blogpost I go through the process of creating that piece. 

If you haven't seen the episode, I've posted the video at the bottom of the blogpost, or you can link to it directly on YouTube here: https://youtu.be/FEkO8FXYrDI

Because Jesse's original character had a strong connection to the 90's era Wildstorm artists like Jim Lee, J. Scott Campbell and especially Brett Booth, I originally thought my re-design would be a homage to that style––but as I drew this design, I realized he was too stiff, that I didn't have the chops to draw in that Image style and get the movement and fluidity a character like Psycho-Mantis should have. 

So, I started over. But I did keep the headgear that I added to this design--the idea that Psycho-Mantis uses some tech strapped around his head that allows him to use his powers. This had the added bonus of giving the look of eyes sticking off the side of his head like a preying mantis.

While looking for the right kind of pose via Google Image searches--I found this artwork of a character named Vane from the Granblue Fantasy game. Jesse was certainly also inspired by anime and manga art of the early 90's when he created Psycho Mantis--so referencing this artwork felt like a good way to get the movement and life into the character while also infusing a different influence into the artwork.

I'll admit--I straight up drew over top of the Vane artwork on a light pad to get the pose for Psycho-Mantis.

I did have to do a lot of work to make the pose work with a newly designed costume though--and somewhere in that redrawing, I managed to draw Psycho-Mantis with two right feet. Instead of a typical super hero tights style costume, I wanted this to feel more like martial arts clothing--where the stripes and color changes are actually different pieces of gear. The science tech that he wears on his head made it through from the previous design--but were this time based on the look of a pair of ear buds. 

In Photoshop I combined the drawing of Psycho-Mantis with a drawing of a Japanese temple--where I removed all the paper windows with open cosmic space. I also did a quick flat color job to help me 'see' all the elements and shapes as I worked towards the final art.

With a printout of the above layout, I started inking. The printout was taped to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol and then on a light pad I could ink the piece using the printout below the bristol surface as a guide. I used Copic Multiliner pens (the 0.7 & 0.3 nibs) to ink with.

Where Psycho-Mantis' power is around his hands, I used a lighter touch with the pens to reinforce the lighting effects I'd be adding in later steps.

To ink those powers, I flipped the bristol sheet over and inked them on the backside of the artwork. Using a light pad, I was able to make sure I was keeping the effects inks in registration with the rest of the art.

I've used photoshop here to show what it looked like as I inked the power effects around Psycho-Mantis' hands on the light pad. Once all the inks were finished, I scanned them into Photoshop and combined them (the special effects inks going on a different layer than the rest of the inks).

Then came the coloring first step known as flatting--where I paint in flat colors without worrying about any rendering, lighting or texture. Just establishing what areas are what colors (which I'd mostly established when planning my pencils/layout of the piece).

The other big task at this step was to paint in all the color holds (areas where I want the linework to be a color other than black). I put color holds on his hands where his powers are being used, as well as the entire background.

The last part of the work for my Plotmasters update was to render the final colors and add a logo. I used the Dodge and Burn tools in Photoshop with a textured brush to do most of the rendering. I also used my tablet (something I don't normally do) to add in some color line texture on the main costume as well as a galaxy of stars in the background.

The logo was just a fun exercise in playing with fonts and spacing while also adding in Jesse's signature symbol for Psycho-Mantis, the crazy smily face.

The Plotmasters Project Episode: Psycho-Mantis:

Direct link to YouTube:

https://youtu.be/FEkO8FXYrDI