1.26.2011

My Own Guardian Project

A few weeks back, I received an email from a girl named Kristina looking for info about a commission. She's a big Los Angeles Kings fan and season ticket holder, and also a self-described "tattoo fanatic". Apparently, the Kings are having a tattoo contest, to be judged by Kings player Matt Greene, and she wanted to hire me to do an illustration of herself as a kind-of "LA Kings super-heroine" so that she could enter. Pretty girls, hockey and super-heroes...probably the three things I love most in the world.

Time was tight, so I'd have to get cracking right away. I figured from the beginning that the Kings logo would be front and center on her chest, but I also thought the shape of the logo's crown shape would translate well as a mask, kinda pointy on the ends a la the Huntress. For the costume itself, I went with a classic Supergirl-y look with the miniskirt...after all, you can't go wrong with the classics. I sketched up the following thumbnail and sent it her way.


After that, things began to move pretty quick...I settled on the color scheme, using the Kings own black, purple and silver (okay, gray) scheme, and added a light blue, the color of Kristina's rec hockey league jerseys. I went ahead and made the skirt plaid, just to spice things up visually, and gave the hem of the cape a blocky square pattern meant to resemble battlements on a castle. Also, she had the idea of having the character wearing skates, which made such perfect sense I'm embarrassed I didn't think of it.

This was the final version, which I sent along before my trip to Pittsburgh last weekend.


Though my hand in the story ends there, Kristina's was just getting started. In order to make the Jan. 24 submission deadline for the contest, she went out pretty much immediately and had some ink applied. In what must have been a marathon session, her tattoo artist Graham created this image, which greeted me in an email late Sunday night.


I've seen several examples of my work being used as the basis for tattoos, and as you might expect, the quality varies wildly. I gotta say, this is about the best translation I've seen yet! I'm especially gratified that they included my little "dot-U" signature mark. It's a beautiful piece of work, Kristina...here's hoping you win!

12 comments:

Rob McMonigal said...

That's an awesome piece of work, Rob, and I agree, it translated nicely. Would you have thought twice if it was the Fliers? ;)

Electra Rose said...

Amazing!! Good luck!!

Tom said...

Dang. That's amazing. Hope she wins!

JD said...

Thanks for the back story. This may be your finest work.

TJ said...

Im pulling for her! Ive often considered gettin my girl applied in ink form...http://rkullman.blogspot.com/2010/05/nucks.html

Brad McGinty said...

Wow. She had a great tattoo artist on that. Those are some really nice lines for a tattoo gun.

Ben D said...

I've thought about having my commission done as a tatoo. It would be my first, and not knowing anything about tattoos I was wondering how it would translate. Seeing this makes me think it could be done, but I'd be worried about getting some of the quality that varied wildly.

Robert Ullman said...

Brad: I know, right? Really quality stuff. The detail in the hair, the blue skatelaces...just amazing.

Fellas, if you want to go the tattoo route with your commissions, drop me a line beforehand...I'll supply you with the black and white line art of your pieces...probably be a little easier to create a stencil from.

dylanio21 said...

That's fantastic! I love it!

TJ said...

Our Girl didnt make the final 10. She was robbed. Its CLEARLY MUCH better that MOST of the finalists

TJ said...

PS: id like a line drawing of my girl's artwork too!

Kansas said...

Go Kings, go!