Hey all... over the past few months my fellow artists have been kicking out some really inspiring images based on themes selected by our staff. Our newest addition is “Saturday Morning Cartoons”. I selected Skeletor from The Masters of the Universe. I have an affinity for the Fantasy genre so this seemed like a natural fit.

I have fond memories of watching the series with my brother while growing up. Even fonder memories of collecting all kind of Masters of the Universe action figures. They would stay in tact for about a week before they’d meet their demise via our BB guns and M-80’s. Ahhh good times!

My memories of Skeletor are of this cheesy powder blue muscled out dude with a skull head wrapped in a purple cloak. I always thought it was kind of silly that this guy was all buff yet had a skull head. But it never mattered because this character oozed a cool kind of evil (not Darth Vader level cool… but close). If anyone can pull off cheesy it’s a charcater with the tagline “Evil Lord of Destruction.” While gathering reference of Skeletor I stumbled upon A LOT of very inspiring illustrations and action figures that artists have created over the years. If my finished piece is even half as inspiring as most of the work I’ve seen I’d be one happy guy.

I decided to execute my version of Skeletor as a line art spot illustration. The type of illustration that can be found in many older D&D Monster Manuals, Fantasy novels (The Dragonlance Chronicles come to mind), etc. While growing up, and all through art school, my goal was to create spot illustrations for Fantasy publications. I finally received my chance while working at my first video game development house, DreamForge Intertainment. I had the opportunity to create the spot illustrations for the entire Anvil of Dawn (PC game ’95) clue book. To this day creating the illustrations for this book is the achievement I am most proud of.

Although I have a strong appreciation for line art it doesn’t have quite the visual eyecatching “WOW!” impact as something in color (which is part of its functionality actually) … so I decided to roll up my sleeves, crop my illustration, and put some color to it. Color theory and lighting has always been a welcome challenge that takes a great deal of practice, talent, color and material understanding to master. I have a long way to go until I feel as if I have it mastered but as with anything that is worth getting great at… it takes time and practice.

Hope you enjoy my 1st addition to the Art Staff’s Theme blog!

Gene