While my website is still in migration, here is my temporary reference sheet. Lots of text.


Church's Ref Sheet Web Format

Face Reference



Name: Gross
Age: 53
Height: Varies, (Chooses 6' 11")
Weight: Varies, (Chooses 354 lb)



His Origin

In response to S.H.E.I.L.D.'s misuse of the black Venom symbiote, Eddie Brock (Anti-Venom), reclaims the organism as his own. After the loss of one man's life, and the trauma on his family, Brock decides to take on the responsibility of the symbiote himself.

Tricking his own body, Brock ingests the black slime and immediately starts bonding to it, if the Anti-Venom were to eradicate the symbiote now, Brock's own life would be extingushed too. Eddie undergoes a permanent transformation. He himself becomes a living, breathing symbiote. The presence of his mind, the Anti-Venom, and Venom should cloud his judgement, but the exact opposite happens. Clarity becomes the mind of the monster. It is not just the thoughts of one human, the thoughts of one symbiote or another, but the thoughts of all three in one complete existence, the Gross of all his parts.

No longer is Gross plagued with previous concerns. Now he has the power to change his circumstances as he pleases. He can enjoy existing. Completeness meant no hunger, but the choice to enjoy taste. Completeness meant unheard of strength. Completeness meant invulnerabilities to much much more. Completeness meant peace of mind, finally.



Instructions

The scene has Church (looks very similar to Gross) and Cross (I have yet to visualize Cross).



Background

Cross is the smaller, lankier of the two. His is also an adolescent who trained and learned under Church's guidance. He has boyish good looks, and he's modest. Cross became an orphan at the age of five. Immediately he inherited his parent's vast wealth, but money has never filled the emptiness in his heart. He longs everyday to know the feeling other kids have. He longs everyday to be cared for and loved by someone dear. Money can't do that. Why did his parents have to die?

Cross in this scene is wearing a plain brown tee-shirt and jeans. He's your average looking kid (13). He's not supermodel handsome, but most girls in high school would be very attracted to him especially knowing he's rich. He has no facial hair, but he has no puberty side effects either. He is not buff, Church teaches him how to use his agility for power. His blonde hair is medium cut. He doesn't spike it with gel like most boys, but lets it lay down. He has green, hazel eyes. He is also a human.

Church used to be human. His personal training and a miracle slowly transformed him into what he is now. However, his people turned on him and thought him a monster. They weren't used to such a radical change. They weren't open minded. Church then sought purpose elsewhere. Soon his compassion for others became chaff to just pleasing himself. Using his strength was fun. He was unstoppable and he knew it. He began indulging and enjoying the finer things in life, but the finer things began to cost, so he took up lucrative but questionable work. Through his work he meets Cross, and a classic hero and apprentice relationship forms between the two, or so it seems.

Church is the bigger, buffer of the two. He has muscles for sure, but he doesn't over do it. He's not into the veined look for himself. He towers above most humans and just one of his hands could cover the whole of a normal human belly. He's broad, but not squared away. Where most body builders have 6-8 pack abs, he proudly sports his four. They're massive and produce the same if not more power than the typical form. His abs stick out in a fashion that sometimes he looks like he has a belly more than muscle there. Underneath his black and white skin he has tough muscle and bone. Hard to break, but they can break. Church's training usually keeps him from injury, but hit him hard enough, if one can catch him, and it will have an effect. Church has pretty much the same look as Gross. His eyes however have brilliant blue irises, that one can't help but get lost in. Church in this scene will be nude, but that won't be in the sketch. The cropping will be tighter.



Cropping

It'll be a portrait style scene. A three quarter view of Church's front, left and Cross' back, right. The crop will show all of their heads and shoulders and should end somewhere on Church's abodomen, enough to get his arms in the scene, no lower.



Posing

Both Church and Cross are sitting on the floor. Church has a wall behind him. Cross is kneeling in front of him in the space between his legs. Cross has his skinny arms around Church's torso, under his calic calic and holding on tight. He's trying to bury himself into Church's chest and neck. Tears stream down his young face. Pain and sorrow read off his expression. Church's big form is hunched slightly to get closer in to Cross. He's cradling him into his neck and chest. Church's right arm comes around Cross at the small of his back. The left arm and hand draw Cross in closer. His left hand is on the back of Cross' head. Some of Cross' hair pokes through the gaps in Church's fingers. Church holds Cross tighter to himself, resting his chin on the child's head. Some tufts of hair brushed against that chin. He does everything he can to embrace Cross. The position itself sends searing pain through the monster. But the bruised and broken bones don't cause as much pain as what's inside.

Church's neck still has the very modest gold chain coming down to a gold crucifix. On Church's wrist are thick iron shackles with remnants of chains hanging free. Church had ripped them out of the wall previously when it got to be too much. His forearms and shoulders, his ribs, were bruised very badly. Most of the damage is on his left side. There are lacerations in his obliques and dried smeared blood mixed in with the bruises (from where he slumped on the floor after breaking the chains) all over his rib cage and arms. It get's much worse towards his face. Face Reference

The entire left side of his face is swollen badly, his right side not as much. His lip is cut and severely swollen on the left. His cheekbone is bruised and broken. His left brow has swollen his eye shut. And what looks like tears trickling down his left cheek and along his neck is blood from his busted eye. The pain is racking his body, but his spirit is screaming more. He digs his right side face into the boys noggin. His right eye isn't swollen, just bruised, but he can barely see or keep it open either. His good eye takes on a glass a look as water starts. Tears start forming on the far side of his eye. There are cuts in his forehead. The bridge on his nose is lacerated. It looks like he's had plenty of nose bleeds too. Church actually has a nose, unlike Gross.

Who is more sorry Cross or Church? Either way they'll never let go now.

Salamat Po.



Coloring and Body Preference

The stomach I prefer most, is on the middle render, but again it's not quite there yet. I'm interested to see what you come up with for his belly. The general shape of him is in the first two renders. The third render was just a color test for his back, so use that only for color reference. Of course, correct muscle as you see fit to mold to his type of body.

The black and white are like they are in the first render. He has a white head and that ominous black stripe straight down his face which continues to the back. The edges of that stripe on his face, align with the center of his eyes. When the white gets to his neck on the front, it stops right were the jugulars start to pop out. Then on his chest he has a white stripe that is as wide as his head is, that flows into his four pack. All the abdominals are white and the white stops where their curve stops. As it gets to the groin area, the white fades out. It doesn't continue, so he doesn't look like he has a diaper. That should be all the white on his front side aside from his arms.

On the back of his neck, the white continues into the big triangles that muscled guys usually get, and the edge of that color follows the natural taper of the muscles. When it gets to his lumbar, to connect to his bum, there is another white stripe the same width as the stripe on his chest. Then his cheeks get swathed in white. On the back side of his thighs would be a large muscle, much like the calves are on the lower legs, this is the part that's white. Where that muscle ends around the sides of his leg, is where the white will also end. Then his calves are the only muscle on his lower legs that get white, and that continues around the ball of his ankle and the very bottoms of his feet.

On his arms the white only surrounds the bulge of his bicep, continues along the inner side of his forearm, and colors the bottom of his wrist, palms, and fingers.



Color Palette | Highlights/Shading

Gross' color palette is pretty easy aside from one part. Two basic colors, black and white. I figured Gross would be a good experiment for you too. He has slime properties, which will change the way you shade a bit.

His whites, unless really drastic, go from slight greys to bright whites. Take this into consideration when you place highlights. It's rare that he'll have really dark grays in his whites. They usually stay on the lighter side of 50%

His blacks will trip you up the most. While he has black slime, his darkest parts will throw you off. Say you shaded the underside of his arm away from the light source, instead of black it would take on a dark blue color, a real deep wet look. It's weird I know. His highlight is still white, his midtone is his deepest blacks and grays, but his parts away from light will be that blueish hue. I'm expecting the weird tints, like on the undersides of his arms, the bottom "highlights" of his pecks, the glow on the curves of his obliques on his side. Just normally where you would put shadowed skin, he has an extra blueish highlight instead.

Basically, you'll trade your normal shadowing with a dark blue instead of a black. I'm not expecting a super blue hue either, more like a really dark slate blue, very close to black. He is also a very shiney character. He is slime, so he reflects like a liquid. Dramatic changes in gradients maybe could suggest a chrome like effect, but don't over do it. I don't what exact reflections, just a glossy look. Gross isn't really a showy character, so keep it modest.



Details: Face

What I haven't got to draw any yet, is his face. He has a larger lower jaw, and over all just an evenly shaped head. The outstanding features will be a large tooth on either side of his lower jaw that point up and are always on the outside of his mouth.

Gross: He has no nose. His face in generally flat and smooth, with the disjoint at his jaw line, but overall a fairly blank rounded face. His eye and eyebrow structure, I will refer you to Marvel Knight's Venom's eyes. They are that real shape with blank white pupils. There is very little furrowing in his brow, but he does have large brows, mmmm...much like Bill's. Remember, the edges of the stripe on his face stop at the center of his eyes.

Face Reference

Church: Use the above image as a good reference for his nose. His jaw line and brow are more akin to Gross'. But Church has a nose unlike Gross.



Details: Hands & Feet

Gross actually has no meat and bone to his body. All of his body is completely made of slime, and with the uneasy compatibility with the white and black symbiotes, that causes a "glandular" problem for him. I mention this cause the slime sorta shapes his hands and feet.

They aren't webbed and sticky, icky with mucousy tendrils and drips, but they are thick. Imagine your own hand covered in a thick slime layer, and how soft and goopy your fingers would feel. Gross' fingers are bit like covered in mittens. He still has five digits, but they look rounded and soft. Around his feet, you'll have to convey his glandular problem. While they don't typically stick to themselves, they slighty "sweat" onto the floor. They don't however mishape at all, just leak in excess.