Inspiration
I focus a lot on pop culture parody, and one of the main themes I use is taking two different characters or franchises and mashing them up in new and interesting ways. Mega Man has a lot of visual similarities with the movie Tron…from the futuristic style, to the costumes and color…even the fact that Mega Man beams down from the sky at the start of each level similarly to how characters beam out of the digital world in the movie…I saw a lot of similarities between the two franchises and thought it would be a fantastic “mashup.”
The Process
Once I have a concept in mind and I’ve checked around to make sure it’s original, I typically start my design process with quick, iterative pencil sketches in a small sketchbook. I may do a half dozen of these until I’m happy with the basic composition. Then I do a ton of research online to make sure I understand all the details of the source material. Since I am creating a parody of existing characters, accuracy is very important. Then I move straight into the digital drawing stage, which involves a drawing tablet and Adobe Illustrator. The reason I use a vector-based software is because my primary goal is to create T-shirt graphics out of my artwork, and this makes it easier to produce files for screen printing. Then if I need more enhanced effects, like for posters, I’ll bring the artwork into Adobe Photoshop.