The Villains of LORDS OF THE COSMOS in their third pinup- the pencils were wrapped on this last night, so it’s exciting to share since Decaptor was discussed with Jason Palmatier and Dennis Fallon in early 2014.

“Lord Aegeus and Queen Prizm leading the Wasp Soldier Vespulan, Cybernetic Elk Soldier Ant-Lor and their loyal Sargent at Arms the Savage Felinex! as they prepare to fight the evil UMEX and his legions of biologically and mechanically enhanced henchmen on the planet Aiden!”

LORDS OF THE COSMOS… ASSEMBLE!!!

So the flip side of the villains from the first LORDS OF THE COSMOS pinup here now we see the heroes assembling!

It the other side of a coin, reversed direction, but a similar layout/composition to the first pinup of Umex and company.  The hero’s logo worked out well and the demeanor and posture of these characters stand in stark contrast to the villains- this was a really fun piece that drew on my love for Greek Mythology- enjoy, I look forward to inking this in the next few days!  Thanks to my friends Stormy and Anna for giving me some great reference for Queen Prizm!

Below is my initial thumbnail and a design for Queen Prizm that gave me the initial idea for her pose and costume.

** Edited with new pencils after edits on the cat’s head- really needs some actual cat reference after I made the head for Hexalor 7 so realistic, see that artwork here for what I made after this on the evil cat character that made me go back and change this cat character .. and switched the main helmeted hero’s head to a profile- there were some fundamental errors on getting that helmet done correctly on an angle, and the female being a pure profile threw me off.  When I did the pure character study on Aegeus (see above from 11/26/2014) I really had to go back and get this one correct.  Since that newer art had his head on a slight angle, I could go and do this as a side profile and not duplicate myself- so below are the final pencils (top) and the one proceeding it below – internal monologue over!**

Pencils before final edits

The Villains of LORDS OF THE COSMOS in their first pinup- the pencils were wrapped on this last night, so it’s exciting to share this finally since the layout for this project has been in my head for the last five months or so waiting to get out.

“THE DISCIPLES OF UMEX”

The artwork features the Evil Leader UMEX- part machine and part biological weapon he leads his henchmen to their goal of world wide anarchy and destruction….. The Flesh Eating Acid Vat MORDANTIX, The Pain Worshipping MISTRESS ZEMBA, and the Aquatic Killer SHREDTOOTH are just some of his followers- ready to kill or be killed at his command!

The original idea and composition is in the lower image which is just a basic layout of the overlapping characters moving from side to side. I ended up changing the direction, the middle character went from a henchman to the main villain, and I reversed direction from right to left, to left to right.  I had been working on Umex’s complex design so much (see prior post here about his character) that I felt he needed to be the centerpiece of the entire layout.  Also the Umex Logo was featured everywhere on the characters, so you can see why I took the time here to get the all seeing eye inside the mechanical hand done before I started any of the pinups.  The Umex logo artwork is here in inks, and here in pencils.  Now that the relationship between the graphic design element of the insignia is with the actual villains, I am glad I took the time to really get that basic visual touchstone correct.

It was fun to take some of the artistic lessons I’ve learned in the last 10 months and put them to use on my first original characters since I wrapped “The Painted Ladies of San Quentin” around this time last summer. I look forward to working with the rest of the LORDS OF THE COSMOS universe in the coming months! For those of you that have talked with me about this project,I think you can see the vision just starting, and if you have no idea what this is about, talk to me about it sometime…

So Enjoy, and spread the word, and keep an eye out for the inked version of the artwork coming soon!

The original thumbnail composition

Spent some time the last few weeks on this study of UMEX the main villain from “Lords of the Cosmos”. UMEX is Part machine, part biological warfare organism with both parts of his body in constant conflict.  I need to keep refining him as a principal image and main character, but I think I’m on the right path, disgusting flesh and angular metal always makes a nice contrast!

Final Pencils for my next “LORDS OF THE COSMOS” artwork. This is the Heroes Logo-“The Lords of the Cosmos” . The planet Aiden and the Sword of the Hero “Aegeus” are the featured elements in this insignia.

I felt this showed the heroic nature of the protectors of the planet and was a great contrast visually and from a graphic arts perspective an opposite design to the Cybernetic hand of Umex I just completed prior to this.  Using a triangle and different shapes and elements to the villains logo provides a visual contrast to the different factions in the world of Aiden we are building.

One note- Rings around a planet- very hard to get even close to looking correct!  I think this will be a fun piece of artwork to ink… so keep your eyes peeled.