Phyrexian Hulk Redux

So I was asked to do a new version of the Phyrexian Hulk for Magic: the Gathering.  I've been asked to make new versions of old pieces several times in the past, and the difficulty of such a task can vary greatly.  Whenever I've been asked to break from the original, it's been far less difficult because I needn't worry myself too much with what has come before.  The freedom allows for the same mindset as any other piece I'd done where no previous version exists.

When asked to do the complete opposite, however, things tend to get a little more complicated.  The piece becomes an exercise in balancing the original work with my own sensibilities — something that can be exceedingly difficult depending on the previous version's artist.

In the Phyrexian Hulk's case, I was definitely asked to do something of the latter.  While a complete rehash of the original was certainly not what the art director wanted to see, it still needed to clearly be a Phyrexian Hulk.  And so my sketches became a filthy mess of smears and eraser marks as I added this, subtracted that, and fought to keep the flavor of the previous iteration.

©Wizards of the Coast

Above is the original Phyrexian Hulk.  Below is my sketch.

©Wizards of the Coast

Straight away several things are obviously different.  As an image, it reveals more of the hulk itself, and the details are quite a bit different.  Still, the silhouette is similar, and I like to think that I kept a degree of the original's spirit.

A side note on the sketch: A lot of cutting and pasting went into this one.  I drew and redrew parts of this guy at various scales and had to put it all together in Photoshop.  It made for a really ugly sketch, but one that I ended up sticking fairly close to as evidenced in the finish: 

©Wizards of the Coast

The changes I made were for various reasons.  First and foremost, compositionally I wanted to get away from the original and do my own thing.  Second, the original is more about the interplay of smaller shapes and I wanted mine to be a bit more about larger ones for greater legibility when reduced.  Third, the shapes themselves were changed to infuse just a touch of sleekness found in the world of Mirrodin (where the card block this piece belongs to is set).  Just a touch, mind you.  Finally, I put the hulk in a setting.  I wanted the hulk to be in an environment, rather than be a portrait of the hulk.

Despite these changes, the hulk is still clunky (hopefully in all the right ways) and the original is directly referenced in more ways than one.  Still, it might fall short in a couple of areas for some.  For me, the biggest shortcoming is how difficult it is to see the red eyes.  Though I was asked to not include the original's laser, I wanted to reference it somehow and the red eyes seemed the best way.  Unfortunately, they were just too small to be clear.  When I scaled the eyes up the whole creature felt smaller as a whole.  That was clearly not the way to go.  So, I zoomed in, but then found the whole composition either poorly cropped or too cramped.  I then tried different poses to allow for a tighter angle and found the revised poses to be rather stagnant.  In the end, I was forced to choose whether the overall piece or more visible red eyes were more important.  I like to think I made the right choice.

One last tidbit about this piece before I go.  I worked on this painting at the same time as Rally the Forces.  Though not asked to, I included a bit of a crossover.  There, silhouetted in the distance is our Phyrexian Hulk.  I stuck with the same pose in order to help the keen observer make the connection.  'Course I've gone ahead and ruined this Easter egg, but not many people read this blog, anyway.