busy holiday for the villains 🇺🇸
I was looking at this commission I did of Spider-man and Venon, thinking about how people like a good villain. Sometimes, they like it more than the hero. Other times, they like the villain so much that the villain ends up redeeming him/herself at some point of the continuing story. Venon isn’t a clear cut villain anymore. Neither is Loki or Magneto.
And neither is Darth Vader.
The evolution of the character of Darth Vader is a very interesting. He’s clearly the villain of the first Star Wars movie, but by the end of Empire Strikes Back, he’s also Luke’s father, and from that moment on he begins the shift to redemption until he sacrifices himself at the end of Return of the Jedi.
The first commission on my new list asked for a menacing Darth Vader wielding his lightsaber. For me, “menacing” meant mysterious, so I knew I wanted to have him mostly in black. And I also wanted to draw some background that would pull people back to moments in the movies when he evoked fear and danger in everybody else.
(Properly researching the background ended up taking more time than I thought, so I didn’t finish this image yesterday, and thus, haven’t send this letter yesterday either.)
A part of me wishes I was asked to do two characters just so that I could have Vader fighting someone (Luke!), but I like him just standing there, lightsaber in hand, as if he’s defying the audience.
“Who, among all of you, will face me?”
Sometimes I use rulers for the pencils (to help with difficult perspective angles or very technical objects), but when I’m inking, I like to give everything the same organic look of my brush. “This was handmade”, people can say of my work.
The customer asked for a black and white piece, but I couldn’t help myself and I gave him a red lightsaber. Like I said in another letter, you add just a little bit of color, and it makes all the difference in the World.
What’s next?
I shall go back to the story I’m doing with my brother for the rest of the week, eventually paying attention to the semester-long class I’m developing and curating and its current stage’s demands (which nowadays have to do will going trough the candidates who applied and making the selection). I have already started to look up references for the next commission on my list, which involves French cinema.
There are still a few places left on my commission list, so if you think you might want an original piece of art from me, go here to know what are the available options.
San Diego is around the corner, and I see a lot of people I know gearing up for it, but this will be another skip year for me and my brother. I’ll have to get my dose of excitement of a comic book convention at the open air book fair happening this week in São Paulo.
It might involve karaoke.
Be safe. Be kind. Be curious.
Pa-ZOW!
Fábio Moon
Moon Base, São Paulo
July 2nd, 2024