Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Saving Private Rogers

[Livio]

I just did this piece for fun as Captain America is not a character I've attempted very often. It's a bizarre coincidence that the one time I try drawing him is during a week where there is all sorts of big Cap news in comics.

In terms of the color version, I wanted to very much keep the desaturated palette used ( and probably overused to some extent) in a lot of recent war movies. My challenge was in trying to make sure Cap's signature reds and blues didn't contrast too sharply from the world around him.

With the initial drawing, I wanted to give it a bit of a feel like those old World War II photos that have very stark black shadows in the foreground contrasted by very smokey/white backgrounds.

Studiomate JJ Kirby was invaluable in helping me with Cap's pose and shield. Thanks, J!

See you next time!

-Livio

18 comments:

Unknown said...

That Cap is absolutely fantastic. I love the snow and the WWII setting. Spectacular, sir. Any chance we could get a higher res version of it?

Charles Valsechi said...

One of the best pieces I have seen you do. Awesome!

Livio said...

Hey T Scott,
Thanks! Drop me a line at LivioRamondelliArt@yahoo.com and I can send you a high-res version.

Livio said...

And thanks, Charles! I appreciate it!

Catie said...

Oh, that's *beautiful*. And I assumed it was on purpose with Cappy coming back this week, hee hee.

mic? said...

That's Captastic, Livio! ;D

You tackled the challenge well! It does feel vintage w/ a modern twist.

Peace.

Livio said...

Thanks, Catie!:)

And thankyou, Meek! Much appreciated.

Gabe_Eltaeb said...

cool dude!

Livio said...

Thanks, Gabe! See you at work tomorrow:)

Sedat Oezgen said...

Hey Livio,
this piece is really amazing, and I can really Imagine how much work went into that.
Ive finished my first full rendered greytones pic yesterday and was a real pain in the butt.
However this is a amazing piece:-)

Please keep on posting stuff like that.
Regards,
Sedat

Livio said...

Hi Sedat,
Glad you liked it! I definitely want to keep doing more paintings like this. And, I'd love to see your greytones pic if you'd like to send it my way. E-Mail me at LivioRamondelliArt@yahoo.com.

Thanks again!

Shawn Colloton said...

I always enjoy your work. Plus, I've already added this as my desktop background.

Livio said...

Cool, Shawn! Thankyou for that!

Livio said...

Well thankyou, Hypo!:)

Richard Oh said...

Dude this is awesome.

Livio said...

Thanks, Rich! Hope to see you at Comiccon soon!

Space Station Orbiter: Cloud 99 said...

It's rare that I say things like this, but in this instance I really feel the cool winter inspired colors enhances the illustration. Very nice.

Livio said...

Thanks, Space. Glad you liked the color choices!