Brainiac 5 Sketch Card by Phil Moy

I was hoping I'd get the chance to grab one more card from Phil before the end of the year, and of course I had to go with my favourite Legionnaire! Phil offers two options for his cards, a bust shot and a full torso shot, and I remain consistently amazed at how much art he's able to fit into such a small space with the torso option, and how frequently he works in additional context for the scene with his backgrounds and poses. I was absolutely not expecting a full action shot of Brainy using his forcefield belt, but that's Phil for you!

Some funny backstory for why Phil went with this pose and scenario: he was looking up reference for Brainy online, and started sketching him holding his omnicom (a handheld computer). But then he came across one of the Brainy cards his brother Jeff did for me, which also has Brainy looking at his omnicom, and decided he had to do something different. I'm sure not complaining, because I think this is one of my new favourites! I just love the pose, along with the fairly unique "camera" placement that has the viewer looking up at Brainy instead of just directly straight on ahead. His disdainful expression is on point, too.

I think I can go ahead and call this the most colourful sketch card in my collection, too, in terms of the amount of different colours used. I love the way Phil did the blue glow of the forcefield, the bronzy shine of the belt buckle, the blue-tinged shadows on Brainy's suit, and especially the colouring job on the laser beam, which is just brilliant.