Behind the Scenes: Johnny Bravo: Superhero!

BEHIND THE SCENES is where we take a look at the early steps taken to create the finished artwork featured on PixelReason. I will always try to include some insights as to why I made certain creative decisions during the process leading to completion and also share some of the techniques I used to create the piece featured. 

 

Welcome  back to another installment of Behind the Scenes! This time we show you the making of Johnny Bravo: Superhero! Hope you enjoy!

This request was for Johnny Bravo as a superhero. So I wanted this piece to reflect Johnny Bravo's perception of himself as compared to what was actual happening. At the same time, I wanted to give this piece little bits of "epicness" either through the coloring and/or the far background.

My initial idea was to put Johnny on top of a restaurant table striking a classic Johnny Bravo pose (which also happens to be a superhero like pose as well). He would be thinking he's the greatest thing on Earth while in reality he's just making a mess at a restaurant. 

 

Then I began adding the paint-like colors to take care of the dramatic mood. I would add swirling clouds in the background and hint to some heat or fire coming from off camera (you can see the secondary red light sources I began adding to the edges of the wall).

Around that point, I decided that it wasn't giving me the feeling of greatness that Johnny Bravo sees himself having. It also looked too much like a scene you could just see straight from the cartoon. 

So I asked myself: What does Johnny Bravo equate to greatness? Answer: Lots of girls. So I completely reworked the drawing to show lots of popular comic book women/girls adoring J.B. I also wanted to open up the background to give it a larger feeling (to make it look more epic). So I took the scene completely outdoors.

This was the ratio/size I worked in since the request was for a piece that could be used as an avatar (which are almost always 1:1 squares). This would ensure that the piece could look good within this square frame. I would later extend the background so that it could also be used as a computer wallpaper if so desired. 

Notice a difference between the image above and the image below? I originally thought about making Spidergirl into a Venom version. But the color scheme didn't play well with the other girls, so I changed her back to her classic Spiderman colors.

So after finishing the main colors, I added the finishing touches: small amount of shading (not too much because we still wanted this to feel like we're in Johnny Bravo's world), eye colors, Invisible Woman being...invisible, rays of sunlight and a few highlights to the ground/mountain they're all standing/laying on.

Which brings us to the finished image:

Hope you guys enjoyed this Behind the Scenes. There's plenty more to come!