As happenned all around the world during the March of 2014, I also drew a Hellboy in celebration of the character's 20th anniversary. This was part of an EXPO at Quanta Academia, which is the Art School I currently teach in São Paulo, Brazil, and is also part of a book that will be delivered to Mike Mignola himself (the creator of Hellboy for those who don't know) by Fabio Moon.
I was really excited about this and tried my best to deliver a non-conventional Hellboy, that captured not only the character's essence but my own as an artist.
Below is a detailed capture of the thought process and finding my own Hellboy, as well as the creation of the illustration itself.
Hope you enjoy.
BRÄO
Final Version
Isolated linework from scan
Original Scan. A3 pen and watercolor.
WIP - Finalizing the watercolors
WIP
WIP
WIP - Final linework
WIP - Linework
WIP - Pencils
Below here is the thought process from my sketchbook
Sketching his face. Experimenting with different looks and facial anatomy
Figuring out the Illustration. There were so many great ideas, but I wanted something simpler, so I avoided adding characters and too many elements.
Left, above, is where I found the pose, wasnt sure about his looks yet. From that pose I staterd experimenting with the background and the overall composition for that.
I also started trying with the watercolors to see how I could work with red.
Right here I tried another sketch of his face and I was pretty sure that this was the one, then I added the watercolors and found the look I was looking for. But I was still a bit undecided and kept experimenting with other compositions, poses and adding characters.
Below the face sketch is the ovearll tone for the pose I had previously chosen. I was working on two things now, moving along with the chosen one and trying new things at the same time, just to be sure.
More experiments and on the far right where I kept working on the pose.
Here I decided I didnt like anything I had previously done and tried to go into a whole different direction. Gladly, it didn't work.
Here I decided on the Art Nouveau background instead of the skull, thought it would be more unique and it still had something to do with Mignola's world and imagery for the character.
And here is the Final Image again, (with no PS add-ons)