Wednesday, June 04, 2008

Heart of Ice

[Livio]

It took the Batman Animated series to really get me to appreciate Mr. Freeze, and I think it was a stroke of Bruce Timm/Paul Dini fueled genius to add the tragic story of a lost wife to this villain’s motivation. I always liked the cartoon’s visual of a literal ice man holding a snow globe that reminded him of his lost love. And as we all know, this moving backstory was later portrayed/destroyed horribly in a live action version starring our current governor here in sunny California!

This image actually started as a small, looser acrylic painting I did on canvas board a while back. But I recently found that board, scanned it in and digitally painted over the entire thing. You’ve gotta love Painter IX’s glow effect, which makes painting shiny glass and ice much easier than doing it with traditional paint.

And thanks to Mike Lopez, who posed as a photo reference for Freeze’s facial shadows here. Though if you’ve met Mike in person, you know he’s far more handsome than the craggly, grandpa-ish face I put on the good doctor here. Mike also has hair.

Until next time!

-Livio

5 comments:

J0hnny Mn3m0nic said...

ahh livio, you never cease to amaze me. This is really good man. We may not agree on movies but i definitely agree on Bruce Timm Mr. Freeze being the main reason freeze is such a bad ass. Props again!

John Learned said...

now that is rockin'

Brandon O'Donnell said...

I can't believe you didn't like Schwarzenegger as Mr Freeze. He was awesome.

Oh wait, I meant crap. This picture is cool though. Definitely nice work.

albert said...

Are you still insinuating that Mike Lopez has a heart of ice?

Did he threaten to crush you like a child's dream?

Yano said...

This is beautiful!