JCC [Image heavy]A thread for art: See note on page 776

The Eighth Doctor: Night of the Doctor by herbertzohl on DeviantArt


The Eighth Doctor and the Sisterhood of Karn by herbertzohl on DeviantArt

Spoiler

"Keepers of the flame... of utter boredom!!" ~the Eighth Doctor

Illustration of the Eighth Doctor and the Sisterhood of Karn inspired by the scene which the Doctor is about to drink the elixir which will trigger his regeneration into John Hurt's War Doctor from the mini webisode NIGHT OF THE DOCTOR.

The Sisterhood was last seen on television in the Fourth Doctor serial THE BRAIN OF MORBIUS. Although they did make an appearance in the Big Finish Eighth Doctor audios SISTERS OF THE FLAME and THE VENGEANCE OF MORBIUS, I've been hoping for a television return of the Sisterhood for a while.

And did I get it!! And more!!

The Eighth Doctors by herbertzohl on DeviantArt

Spoiler

This image features the three distinctive looks of the Eighth Doctor as portrayed by Paul McGann. Which prove none of the Doctors are necessarily stuck to one style.

The first is the Oscar Wilde in space outfit he wore in his first appearance in 1996 and the look he's best known for, the second being the leather pea-coat suggested to a designer by McGann himself for a convention appearance and utilized by Big Finish for their Dark Eyes audio adventure and the third swashbuckling steampunk outfit seen in his final outing NIGHT OF THE DOCTOR.

 

Space Jean Grey Power of X-Men 2021 wm by artoflucas on DeviantArt


Space Cyclops Power of X-Men 2022 3-3 wm by artoflucas on DeviantArt

 

Emma Frost (Earth-27) by phil-cho on DeviantArt


Cain Marko (Earth-27M) commission by phil-cho on DeviantArt


Victor Creed (Earth-27M) commission by phil-cho on DeviantArt


Bolivar Trask (Earth-27M) commission by phil-cho on DeviantArt


Sebastian Shaw (Earth-27M) commission by phil-cho on DeviantArt


Irene Adler (Earth-27M) commission by phil-cho on DeviantArt


Robert Kelly (Earth-27M) commission by phil-cho on DeviantArt

 

Aldo Di Gennaro

 

Take Her for a Whirl by UndyingNephalim on DeviantArt

 

UNLOCKING 2 MAGMA BLADES IN ELDEN RING BE LIKE: by ArtFrenzyBoris on DeviantArt

"What can I say, I like how these blades look, and they work well with Beth aesthetically ingame.(plus she generally gives of some Kratos vibes in combat XD) Felt like sketchin this dumb thing to celebrate getting them after like an hour of farming them yesterday"

 

from Dan Brereton's New Nocturnals Graphic Novel! by Steven Morger — Kickstarter

 

Sadhana - Gokula Temple by ATArts on DeviantArt


Gokula Temple Interior by ATArts on DeviantArt


Gaja Karna Temple Exterior by ATArts on DeviantArt


GajaKarna Temple Interior by ATArts on DeviantArt


Gauri Temple Exterior by ATArts on DeviantArt


Gauri Temple Interior by ATArts on DeviantArt

 

selkkie: Lady of the Lake

https://www.deviantart.com/selkkie/art/Lady-Of-The-Lake-Photomanipulation-908124660

 

M014--Doctor Strange by Green-Mamba on DeviantArt

Spoiler

Doctor Strange
Real Name: Stephen Strange
First Appearance: Strange Tales #110 (July 1963)

The resident of 177A Bleecker Street was something of an enigma to his neighbors. His very continued existence was baffling--in the seventies there was a world renowned neurosurgeon named Stephen Strange who lost the fine motor skills in his hands in a terrible car crash. Shortly thereafter Strange disappeared, only to reappear many years later, now living in the odd building that is his current address. But that couldn't truly have been the same man, could it? He looked as though he had not aged a day in the decades that followed--the odd occurrences around the building and Strange's own publicly eccentric lifestyle did not seem to help much. The man claimed to be a magician, but he never performed for anyone. What trickery was going on there?

Those who would come to be true allies of Strange would find out the whole truth--in Strange's journey to find a cure for his condition he came to be a student under the nameless Ancient One, where he learned of other worlds beyond ours and the art of manipulating their energies in a way one might call sorcery. But when another student of the Ancient One named Karl Mordo stared too long into the depths of one of the darker dimensions outside of conscious thought and saw that the abyss stared back, he was lost forever to the darkness and led an assault on the Ancient One's home of Kamar-Taj and other sanctums around the world. In the end Strange found himself as one of the few students of the Ancient One left, and he took it upon himself to become the resident protector of the Sanctum Supreme in Greenwich Village, one of the last lines of defense our reality has against others that might seek to interfere.

----

He draws energies from timeless realities in order to sustain his youth, as Mordo had never fallen and now they are attempting to out wait each other. He is of course wearing the Eye of Agamotto around his neck, and the red coat on his shoulders is actually the Cloak of Levitation in disguise.

So yeah okay, I wanted Strange to look like an eccentric citizen of New York instead of a traditional sorcerer, like there's this elaborate disguise going on about him. He still visually comes across as Doctor Strange to us, but to those in universe he's got some plausible deniability about his true nature, that sort of thing. When he tells people frankly about his nature most don't believe him, I imagine there would be a big moment when he reveals his true power to other heroes like the Avengers and stuff. Like there's this other side of existence that most don't know about and simply can't even comprehend--in my mind I see Strange's magic as being absolutely eldritch and difficult to grasp for a human mind kind of thing.

Still have a couple other characters completed that I'm still sitting on.

*UPDATED JANUARY 19, 2022*

As of writing this, Doctor Strange was my oldest character in the GMU project that was not updated... and that is no longer the case! I always liked my idea of Strange as a wizard passing as a normal human in New York, but I felt I could push him further--there was a lot of Doctor Strange iconography that my initial design dropped that I felt I could rework into his look. So I took a look at my original design, and decided he looked like a fairly eccentric guy, but what if he was *really* eccentric looking? And that is how I decided to take the design, making him into this rich hipster uncle type, if that makes sense. His suit is kinda part robe as well, he's got a yellow sash, his "coat" is flashier, he's got the rose colored sunglasses, and his facial hair now screams "I run a quirky micro brewery." I had a lot of fun with this revamp. It's the same basic idea as my original look but just pushed further in basically every direction.

One more updated old character coming this week as is how I like to do these updates.

Compare to the original Doctor Strange here: i.imgur.com/dnRQgsG.png

M181--Baron Mordo by Green-Mamba on DeviantArt

Spoiler

Baron Mordo
Real Name: Karl Mordo
First Appearance: Strange Tales #111 (August 1963)

Doctor Strange's most persistent nemesis, Karl Mordo had once been one of his closest allies, a fellow student of the nameless Ancient One. In many ways, their origin was much the same, Mordo came to Kamar-Taj a lost, broken man. In the nineteen-thirties, his daughter had been diagnosed with brain cancer. Mordo traveled the world seeking a cure, and by the time he reached the Ancient One he had abandoned all hope. Sensing his potential, the Ancient One told him there was no cure for his daughter--but his unrealized power in the mystic arts could be harnessed for the greater good of humanity. Training under the Ancient One, Mordo became a formidable sorcerer, but his daughter passed away in agony. For all the good he could do, he could not save his own child.

Mordo remained in Kamar-Taj as the years turned into decades, and by the seventies he oversaw the training of the Ancient One's newest recruit, Stephen Strange. But Strange had been a medical doctor in his previous vocation, and he recognized something Mordo had not--the Ancient One had brain cancer, the same tumor that had killed Mordo's daughter. Demanding answers, Mordo got the Ancient One to reveal that they drew energies from eldritch dimensions to extend their life, keeping their cancer at bay. But this existence was a curse, the Ancient One said, and not something that could be thrust upon a child like Mordo's daughter. Mordo's anger and curiosity got the best of him, however, and he used the Eye of Agamotto to peer into one of these dark dimensions and saw just one face look back--that of Dormammu. And so was Mordo lost forever to the darkness, becoming the perfect vessel for the dread one's power as he killed the Ancient One and burned Kamar-Taj to the ground.

----

The artifact strapped to his back is called the Horns of Satannish, a piece of the Dark Dimension that grants him never ending life. He exists solely to outlive Strange, which would allow him to topple the Sanctum Sanctorum, the last bastion of defense against Dormammu.

Mordo got mentioned way back in my original Doctor Strange entry, so here he finally is. Generally, Mordo is a pretty straightforward comic nemesis, he's the ambitious evil rival to Strange. So I wanted to do something different, and he ended up more or less coming out pretty similarly to Kaecillius from the first Doctor Strange film, the guy with the tragic backstory who makes a deal with Dormammu because of the Ancient One hiding something from them. But I had a lot of backstory I wanted to get in for Mordo so I had to cram in quite a lot there, and there's still some stuff I thought of that didn't make it--like, I imagine he is from India who moved to Britain after serving in the the first World War, where he changed his first name from "Kumar" to "Karl." Or something like that? But yeah he's older than Strange and the two of them are locked in this decades long waiting game/battle of attrition.

But anyway I struggled on his design for a long time. I didn't just want him to be an evil version of Doctor Strange, who has a pretty different look in my universe. So would you believe I actually found inspiration in the Marvel mangaverse of all things? For whatever reason there Mordo is some guy who mostly just wears belts and has a bunch of tattoos, and somehow I came up with something based on that that ended up working. I imagine him as this lost, broken man who is kept alive purely by the powers that are controlling him. His humanity is basically completely gone, leaving him as this somewhat emaciated husk. The "Horns of Satannish" was something I thought would be cool to give him a sort of similar silhouette to his classic pointy shoulder design. Overall I really like this design.

M182--Hood by Green-Mamba on DeviantArt

Spoiler

Hood
Real Name: Parker Robbins
First Appearance: The Hood #1 (July 2002)

Petty thug Parker Robbins lived a dangerous and grimy life. In and out of jail for thievery more times than he could count, what had been intended to be his final imprisonment was cut short when associates of Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin of crime, had him released in exchange for a cut of every job he had ever pulled. Now in debt to the most dangerous man in New York and behind on child support for his ex-girlfriend, the crook's life did not get any easier post-incarceration. But in one single series of windfalls, Parker Robbins' luck took a dramatic turn.

It had been common knowledge that the Sanctum Sanctorum had been abandoned following the final battle of the Defenders, and it had been ransacked of nearly all artifacts it had once contained. But Parker decided to try his luck with one final comb through the Sanctum's pillaged halls, and as fate would have it, there was one artifact left; a simple hooded cloak. Against better judgement Parker donned the hood and found himself filled with power and purpose. Energy coursed through the fabric, and a voice told him that whatever wishes he had, were now the hood's. Everything that Parker wanted would now be his for the taking. And when the Kingpin fell shortly thereafter, there was a power vacuum at the top, one the hood intended to fill.

----

Basically, the hood is a cloak imbued with Dormammu's essence, just like in the comics. And where Parker ends and the hood begins in his quest for power is not really clear. The hood grants him many abilities, including flight, invisibility, teleportation, manipulation of dark energy, among many others that Parker may or may not be in full control over.

I like the concept of the Hood as this guy who starts out as an absolute nobody and turns himself into one of the worst villains in the Marvel universe, entirely through a piece of cloth that he has absolutely no business using. And this is obviously the angle to continue with here--I like to imagine he uses the hood itself to intimidate his victims when all else fails, and this "Hood" character just scares the ever loving bajeezus out of those that meet him. I also thought it would be fun to tie him to a couple of different major events. One of which, the fall of the Kingpin, is something I've gone over in my Spider-Man project. The other is the final battle between the Defenders and Mordo, which this is the first time I've mentioned it. What happened and why the Sanctum was abandoned will be explained later, but it obviously has a ripple effect if artifacts like the hood escaped out into the wild. Also I guess Defenders vs. Mordo happens like right around the same time as the fall of the Kingpin, so something to keep in mind as I slowly try to figure out a full timeline.

Oh and I guess I dropped his boots. He originally found boots alongside the cloak but I thought it would be better if it all just came from the cloak.

Anyway, the Hood is a cool character but he's a bit plain--which is by design, really. But it was tricky for me to come up with something I thought would be interesting to design. I had originally thought to make him an older business man who had been using the hood for years to build his empire, but I didn't want to get away from his grungy origins entirely so I decided to make it something he only found recently for his design. So he's basically just this average joe shmoe under the cloak, literally nothing interesting about him at all, but the hood itself is this very controlling presence over his entire figure, concealing most of his silhouette and completely covering his eyes, selling him as this completely unknowable figure. And the belts with the runes was my attempt to make the whole design spookier and more interesting looking.

M183--Absorbing Man by Green-Mamba on DeviantArt

Spoiler

Absorbing Man
Real Name: Carl Creel
First Appearance: Journey Into Mystery #114 (March 1965)

Petty criminal Carl Creel began working as an enforcer for the Maggia when his attempt at breaking into the professional boxing world fell short. Left as the sole survivor in an attack on the Maggia by Frank Castle early in his days as the Punisher, Creel was arrested and sentenced to eighty years in federal prison for a murder he had committed for the crime family. That was where Creel thought he would spend the rest of his miserable life, protecting Maggia bosses and under bosses who were thrown into Ryker's after him as the government dismantled the organization. And that was how it would have been, had fate not taken an unsuspecting turn.

When an unearthly fire lit the skies blood red signalling the arrival of Thor's wicked sibling Loki, the power of the Norn Stones tore holes in space and time across the nine realms, unleashing the trickster's forces on Earth. One of these fractures in space opened in the prison yard of Ryker's, and in a stroke of pure chance, it ruptured in the exact space Creel stood, tearing his atoms apart. It was not until the Norn Stones were destroyed and Loki's forces repelled did the fractures close, reassembling Creel in the spot he vaporized in. Whole once again, Creel was a changed man, the extra dimensional energies of the reassembled fracture turning his molecules into reservoirs of unlimited potential, letting him absorb the physical properties of any substance he touched. Taking the form of the stone and iron that caged him, Creel killed the Maggia dons who had bossed him around both outside and inside of prison, then broke out. No one would be telling Creel what to do anymore. Not the Maggia, not the feds, not even the Avengers.

----

Well, okay, maybe the Avengers could. Creel is immensely powerful but kind of aimless without a boss directing him... maybe a dangerous weapon in the hands of the Masters of Evil or some other organization. The iron ball and chain he carries around is a good source of strong material to absorb that doubles as a deadly weapon, and he wears a necklace with samples of other materials so he always has something on hand.

The Absorbing Man is a fun classic villain. I love villains like him who have these immense, god-like powers, but are basically just thugs. I also think he's interesting because his powers are explicitly magical in origin, as he started out fighting Thor. So I decided to think of an origin that linked him to Loki (who gave him his powers in the comics) while still fitting in my established universe. So here he's a prisoner, just like in the comics, albeit one I distinctly linked to the Maggia, as well as to the Punisher, just to tie everything together. Here though, he got his powers from Loki by pure chance, a random happenstance due to Loki ****ing around with the Norn Stones and stuff during their first appearance against the Avengers (detailed a bit more in Loki's entry). Basically he's just some random thug who gets tremendous powers due to random luck and this turns him into a serious threat.

For his design I stayed pretty true to his basic design--he's just a big, muscular bald guy with a ball and chain. I went through a couple different variations of his clothing, a couple with shirts, one where he's wearing part of a prison jumpsuit, etc. But most of my work went into visualizing the absorbing part of the Absorbing Man, it took a long time to get it to look just right. I ended up with an effect that kind of looks like there are "waves" to the pattern as he transforms, and this, serendipitously, gave me a solution to his striped pants from the comics. These were originally just the old, outdated white and black striped prison pants in the comics, but here I decided to make it soot or something from a prior transformation that he had done through his feet or something. Oh, and yeah, he's barefoot because I thought that would be a convenient way for him to absorb something. And the necklace with the samples of materials was something I came up with on a whim, I think he would want to be prepared.

M184--Angela by Green-Mamba on DeviantArt

Spoiler

Angela
Real Name: Aldrif Odinsdottir
First Appearance: Spawn #9 (March 1993)

The firstborn of Odin and original heir to the throne, Aldrif's exploits as the Leader of the Hunt against the worst beasts to plague the nine realms in ages long past were legendary. As strong as she was brave, it was said that she had lost her life in the final battle against the Mangog, leaving her younger brother, Thor, as the Allfather's heir. But as the forces of Muspelheim grew, signalling the return of Surtur and the rise of Ragnarok, the Thunder Prince's quest for knowledge and allies against the coming hordes revealed the truth.

Aldrif had not perished, but had instead learned the horrible truth of Asgard in her fight against the Mangog. The Bifrost was old--too old, and it was failing. The palings against the forces of eternity were failing, and required the sacrifice of billions to sate. The Mangog was vengeance for this, and Ragnarok was merely a necessary reset. With Ragnarok came death, but also came new life. Asgard feared this change, and Aldrif rejected their ways, leaving her home and family behind. In its place, she built what she called the tenth realm, Heven, a safe haven for those who chose to live free of Asgard's chains, from valkyrie to frost giant alike. Calling themselves the angels, Aldrif took the name of Angela and became their protector. Rejecting the isolated ways of the nine realms, she had fought against the forces of the Cul Obsidian and had assisted the Guardians of the Galaxy in their fight against the void. But against the forces of Ragnarok she would not lift a finger.

----

Aldrif is just as strong as her brother, and wields more than a few of Asgard's most powerful lost weapons, including the sword Xiphos, the shape shifting blades of the Ichors, and a pair of prehensile, razor sharp ribbons.

So Angela is a funny character. She started out her life as a character in... Spawn, back in the nineties, and only made her way to Marvel in like 2014 or so after Neil Gaiman sold her to Marvel, and he had only gained the rights to her after a lawsuit, and... well, I won't bore you with the details. But anyway! For some reason when they inserted her into Marvel they made her a lost sister to Thor and introduced a tenth realm and such. I actually like a lot of those ideas but I thought it would fit better if they felt less... retconned in. So here I decided to play up her role as Thor's lost sister, and changed up her story quite a bit--she's kind of like a backwards MCU Hela, someone who became disillusioned with her father, Odin, but for the complete opposite reason. And here, the "tenth realm" of Heven is actually just an after the fact creation of hers. I also inserted a lot of lore to the whole Bifrost/Ragnarok stuff that I had established in earlier entries, and I even got a link to the Guardians of the Galaxy in there.

For her design, I really wanted to help better connect her to the Asgardian aesthetic. Her traditional design is better than her original battle bikini from Spawn but it's not much better. I wanted her to be more tough and imposing, a real daughter of the Allfather. So she's got a lot of her Marvel look built in here but she's much more covered up, with a full body suit. I also made her muscular like her brother, and her hair is matted and dread locked. And of course she's got a fur collar, which is kind of a standard part of Asgardian fashion in my universe. Her ribbons were tricky but manageable. And I had a lot of fun re-imagining the Ichors--they're liquid metal in the comics and can shape shift. So I imagined them as like... sold waves of liquid gold, shapes I see her creating by waving the weapon in a specific pattern and then like shaking them to lock them in, or something. I think it's pretty cool looking.

Oh, and I sneaked in a reference to the Spawn emblem on her arm there, albeit without the eyes, just as a fun reference to her roots.

M185--Thor (Jane Foster) by Green-Mamba on DeviantArt

Spoiler

Thor
Real Name: Jane Foster
First Appearance: Journey Into Mystery #84 (September 1962)

Doctor Jane Foster had been one of the leading minds in the field of astrophysics in the eighties. Having gotten her degree at the Culver Institute, she accepted a position at Project PEGASUS, which was where she met the love of her life, Donald Blake. But her happy days on Earth were limited when she was diagnosed with terminal breast cancer. On her death bed, Blake confessed his true identity as the prince of Asgard, Thor; but this humility restored the thunder god's worthiness, and the two of them were whisked away by the Bifrost. There she was treated with Asgardian medicine that helped keep her body in stasis, holding her cancer at bay and halting her aging--but she would never again be allowed to leave Asgard. She was weak, but given a new lease on life, and Thor promised to never again leave her side. But Foster convinced him otherwise, as she believed there were people on Earth he could help, and thus did he become Midgard's protector.

And there Foster remained, becoming one of Odin's main advisors regarding the people of Earth. The days became years, and the years decades. And when the forces of Ragnarok stormed the gates of Asgard, Foster was instrumental in relocating the refugees to their new colony of Asgardia on Earth as Thor and his allies bought them all the time they could. After the dust cleared and Asgard was no more, Thor too was gone. Only his hammer had made it back to Asgard, calling out to Foster to show her worthiness and begin the cycle anew. To take on the power of Thor as Asgardia's eternal protector.

----

Basically Thor is gone after Ragnarok and his hammer takes on his power, which is transferred to Foster after she displays her worthiness, making her the new Thor of this cycle of Ragnarok. This restores her health and grants her Thor's power, but only while she holds the hammer.

Jane Foster is of course a really old character, but her identity as Thor is really new. So I thought this would be a cool way of showing how the cycle of Ragnarok ends and a new one begins. She was first mentioned in my project way back in Thor's entry, and now here she comes full circle. I liked the idea of her as a token human at Odin's table, which I would imagine is quite the honor. And then we have the colony of Asgardia, which I'm picturing is in Norway like New Asgard in the films rather than in Oklahoma like in the comics, and she is basically its protector. As for *when* this exactly all takes place is up in the air for a moment, I'm still pinning that down.

Her Thor design in the comics is a good one, something that was easy to translate into my style. In my concept while the Asgardians traditionally wear masks, I think the people of Asgardia here specifically do not--they do not consider themselves above mortals--Jane's helmet is instead intended to be a part of her "protector" uniform, to better sell herself as the hero of Asgardia. I also opted to make her right arm totally bare, as this is the one she lifts Mjolnir with and it better demonstrates her strength I guess. And she actually does have a full cape (albeit rolled up on one side to better showcase her Mjolnir lifting arm), I'm imagining she really leans into the whole superhero aspect of her new role.

 

Minor invasion by a20t43c on DeviantArt

"WHFB fanart. Kislev facing minor chaos forces invasion."

Kos-Kos-Kostaltyn by a20t43c on DeviantArt

"Some Warhammer: Fantasy Battles fan art. Kostaltyn (Not-Rasputin), character from Warhammer 3: total war. It's pity that he is not likely to have certain rasputin's features."

Kostaltyn - model and lore by a20t43c on DeviantArt

"Warhammer 3 :Total war fanart. Kostaltyn. Zealot on holy mission, trying to rule cold wasteland. For me his ingame model looks more like alcoholic, who escaped from clinic and looted some church. Artist (who made cinematics) made him more formidable and fitting. But ingame model...
I wish his arts an models could be more close to Nikolay Cherkasov(as Ivan IV) from Eisenstein's movie."

 

rainbow-zebra-art: Archer Cinder

https://www.deviantart.com/rainbow-zebra-art/art/Archer-Cinder-commission-815718740

 

Whose sword is that?

 

Pygmy Elf Teacher by Shabazik on DeviantArt

Spoiler

"I'm a Pygmy Elf or a Fairy. I'm NOT, I say, NOT a Goblin. Is that clear class?"

"sure, goblins have tits. eyyy!!"

"Excuse me?!"

"I was making a joke, no flat shaming, all people are precious!"

"That's still detention for you!"



Did a quick round of suggestions on the World of Aiers Discord. Pablo asked for "Pygmy Elf Teacher"

No idea

 

I appreciate the nod in the lower left to Lisbeth Salander & Michael Blomkist of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo fame.
_______________________________________

Raven on Vacation by Rinotuna

 

Jeffach: Wonder Woman

https://www.deviantart.com/jeffach/art/Wonder-Woman-318122254