JAL Badge (FWA 2015 Commission)

First commission of FWA 2015, this one's for  newgeorgiarr's character Jal, depicted in his occupation as a locomotive engineer. Looks like some balky piece of mechanical equipment needs some persuasion out on the line, judging from that sledgehammer :)

So it looks like I can still do color traditional works. This being the first in quite a while, and the first project with my new set of 'Touch Three' markers, I took a long time coloring this--most of the day in the Artist's Alley in fact--carefully selecting and testing colors on a second piece of bristol so I could see how the colors changed as they dried, to better match the reference I had which was done in color pencil.

I did learn something with this project though, Most badges are 'just' a head or bust shot for a reason. This is another case of "going overboard with details when left to my own devices", as not only did I depict Jal in his occupational outfit, I crafted an entire occupational environment around him, depicting him standing on the end platform of a typical high-nosed Norfolk Southern diesel locomotive. That may not seem like a great undertaking to those experienced with markers, but remember I'm not one of those people. The amount of time this took (something like six hours O-o) led me to designate this as an example of a new category of "complex detail" badge, with a price tag on par with a digital color-with-backdrop commission.

Other than that, this was fun and the end result looks better than I thought it would come out. I actually completed what amounts to a marker-color commission at a con without screwing it up :D

Copic tech-pen inked pencils on 65-pound bristol, colored with Touch Three alcohol markers. Scan straightened and attributes added with Micrografx Picture Publisher 10. Originally a 14MB cropped color scan.