Dooney, Michael - Medusa #1!

I've been wanting a Dooney piece for my collection for several years now - my brother-in-law introduced me to Dooney's work, for which I hurl many curses in his general direction ;) Anyway, I would always miss out on Dooney's ebay items, either the bidding would go sky-high or I just wouldn't have the funds available at the time. His 11x14 commissions would get especially pricey for me, or at least the point at which I was sure my wife would smack me upside the head. In early November 2005, Dooney offered another 11x14 commission - I figured what the heck, never hurts to try. I was stunned that I won, and for what I felt was a spectacular price considering how high I was used to seeing those commissions go for. After some deliberation, I decided I simply must take advantage of Dooney's wonderful talent at rendering long, flowing locks of hair - who else would you have him draw but Madame Medusa of The Inhumans? As luck would have it, she's one of his favorite characters! Dooney's standard practice on commissions is to send you two roughs to choose from - rather than standard superhero posing, he elected to go more of a Victoria's Secret kind of route, which I certainly had no argument with, and he sent me the two roughs. Problem was, there really was no "choice", they both looked like they were going to be completely stunning final products. I wound up sending him more money to finish the pair, and oh what a magnificent pair he wound up drawing me... I am just floored by both pieces whenever I look at them. Truly beautiful, beautiful stuff. I do feel sorry for anyone else that I commission a Medusa from, they're up against some really tough competition. I had him do this one in regular black pencil, although you can see his preliminary blue pencil linework. Thanks Mike, I am just in love with both pieces :)