Hulk by Angel Medina & Bob Almond: Blueline Commission

Client Danny Kiihnl returns to send his 2nd commission file to me for what will be my 17th Hulk, this time as a sketch by old pal and partner Angel Medina (#17). One thing I love about Angel besides his detail work is the presence of POWER in his images, something he was influenced by Sal Buscema about in his poses and compositions. So for this landing from his epic leaps he rendered just his fall and stomp. In this case, the loose drawing was on A4 size paper and Danny asked if I could blow it up to fit on my 11"x17" Kubert 2-ply Strathmore board as a blueline which I did. But the new proportions left more empty space above the stomping-mad Hulk. So to give the client his money's worth I added speed lines and a pathway of his bounding leaps and some trailing military jets to boot! Danny & I were happy with the results but only now as I post this, I wonder if I even needed any of that. The original pencils were impressive but a bit claustrophobic. But after the blowing up and resizing, giving it breathing room, I now think leaving it as is might have better implied that he'd obviously fallen from above and carries that same power whereas what I added seems to almost take away from that, diverting one's attention to other points in the inked illustration. Sometimes simplest is best. Subjective, of course.

Besides my usual marker inventory I used a Copic wide marker, Pentel correction pen and some white paint spatter to enhance the ground debris & stomp. This was completed December 17, 2022.