Patreon: Mercury Illos

Ned Lannamann: Collectors West Gun and Knife Show

The gun and knife show was the simplest, I just ran with Kathleen’s idea to do a very ornate firearm: “I thought maybe a handgun would be good ’cause Ned talks about the ills of handguns in the piece? I also added a knife to make it super on point… What do you think about the price tags?”

For the final image, I tried to make the flintlock super elaborate and silly. I thought an antler handle for the bowie knife was a good choice, too:

There was a final change to the layout, which required a minor change to the price tags:

 

Shelby R. King: The Rugged Maniac Run

The AD’s first idea for the “mud race” concept was to illustrate the “mud-covered trampolines” that the race promised.

I thought that the trampoline would work, but I also wanted to present some other options. Here we have two which show the author at the finish line with her “finisher” medal, with two different scales and emotional states:

I was struck by the notion of the author running the race in a gold cocktail dress… It just seemed so funny. I proposed this image: “Kinda video-game-y, Scott Pilgrim-y. Shelby in her gold cocktail dress and silver shoes jumping over the trenches with scared/grossed out face. Active. This is the beginning of the race so she is not so gross yet.”

 

This last one was approved, with one caveat: “Can we add more mud?” No problem!

 

Erik Henriksen: Sherwood Robin Hood Festival

The AD’s idea here was “an open book, with glittering forest popping out. (any of the merry men in there are great too).” I did a few versions of that idea. Here we have a pop up book style, where the trees and such would be rendered as flat planes:

 

A version with a more naturalistic tree, and Robin Hood peeking out: “This version also has his bare butt in it because [the author] mentions Kevin Costner’s infamous nude scene in Prince of Thieves. Maybe too random or stupid, obviously easy to cut from this.”

A version that incorporates “some of the incongruous elements Erik mentions, like Katnis girls, the unicorn he rides, and stormtroopers. This can also be done in the style of the above, with an open book instead of closed.”

Some of the funniest images from the article are of Stormtroopers parading through the festival wearing little Robin Hood hats, so I sent some sketches of that as well, along with an Ewok (the original web version discussed Ewoks frequently!):

The response was to create the open book look, but with a realistic tree and “with more of the characters of the closed book you have here.” For the second round sketch, I changed the angle on the book and I think that made a big difference, and created some fun ways to have the characters interacting with the book as a surface, too, which I only began to explore in the sketch:

For the final I changed some placements and tried to add in more narrative details, like Robin arguing with the Stormtrooper, and Katniss taking a selfie with the unicorn (wouldn’t you?). This reminded me of playing with action figures when I was a kid… What a treat to draw.