I work for a lacrosse company, so naturally I do projects pertaining to the sport; here is the beginning of a series of five images I am working on. I’ll get to the details:

• Lacrosse styled to look like the art from the Grand Theft Auto series.
• Painted in Photoshop, originally drawn with blue pencil on bristol board.
• I may or may not have stolen the palette.
• Paint was done in 4 hours (separating shapes took 45 minutes of that time), drawing was done in a half hour, I believe.
• This is not finished yet, there is probably about an hour left of details

12 Stories of Hercules Sketches

I’ve been working on expanding the Hercules series. These are two of the sketches depicting Herc against the Nemean Lion and as he confronts the Hydra. The story of the Nemean Lion is essential to the other stages of Hercules’ plight; the Lion has skin that is essentially impenetrable which Hercules will need in his future conquests. Due to the Lions invulnerability, this means the kill will need to be intimate, which underscores the sheer brutality of what it is to end another’s life.

The framing of the action is being intentionally skirted to the side to hopefully entice the viewer in a way similar to the scene in Rosemary’s Baby when the mother is on the phone and how the audience leans their head in an effort to see her reactions, although probably not as well executed. I am just looking to provide a tension in the action which is why the relief takes center stage and the kill is off to our right; its almost like a camera panning away and out of focus. (you can hear Gary jules’ Mad World already)

As far as the image goes, the bas relief will be used to tell the story of Hera looking over Hercules, her son. I feel it necessary for every inch of an image to convey the story and the relief serves as a subtle enough catalyst to do that.

For Hercules’ battle with the Hydra (cut off one of the monster’s heads and another springs up), I wanted the monster to appear to come out of nowhere. Since the Hydra is so large, I figured simple patterned camoflauge wouldn’t be deceptive enough; if something of this size were to blend in with its surroundings, it would have to appear to be another object of its size. I decided a tree would be the easiest form the monster could replicate and hope the image conveys that. Imagine walking through a forest and suddenly the forest comes alive… Meh, I thought it was cool.