Art Post: Blinding Speed

"Hey, Brutus, look'n for me?!" You yell at the two ton chunk of muscle terrorizing the streets of this nice town. He turns, snorts, and stomps your direction. He is only half a block away, but for such a massive dude, he can really run. However, in the time it took him to get to you, you saved a baby in a runaway stroller, checked your Myface page, ordered a new shipment of books online, stopped by the police station to register an incoming villain, and polished off a hotdog from that one really good street vendor ...no not that one, the other one with the awesome ketchup. When Brutus finally reached you, you were ready with a set of special super-handcuffs and about twenty feet of unbreakable cable. Before his face plowed into the pavement, his hands and feet were already hog-tied, cuffed, and the police were alerted. All in a days work for the fastest man on Earth. Okay, one of the fastest.

Blinding Speed was a basic card to work on. I love to try out unique ideas for powers, so the game doesn't feel generic. However, some powers are so fundamental to the superhero genre that you can't miss them. The trick is making them look cool and feel unique in their own special way. With this art I had fun playing around with different techniques to demonstrate speed. Why go with another movement power? They go so fast...oh, that was a bad pun.

About the art: First, the basic pose was important when approaching speed. I looked at dozens of shots of athletes running to find something that inspired me. However I didn't want it to seem like it's just a snapshot from a football game, or a track runner. I settled with several poses that were not from a specific sport, but just a study on running. The person looking back was actually on purpose, it portrays the idea of him moving so fast he's still thinking about what he left two miles ago. His whole form is moving, his limbs are all in various positions of balance / counter-balance for running. Then came the choice of color. So many speedster heroes are bright and flashy (pun intended), this brings home the fact that they are an energetic bunch. However, I thought about the idea of someone wanting to move with stealth as much a speed. He's blindingly fast, but does he want someone to see his every move as a bright dot whizzing by? No, he uses a touch of camouflage to aide his work. Also, I purposefully turned away from the common theme of blonde speedsters. The background was easy, not just because it was a swath of color speeding by, but because the idea of his blinding speed would make anything behind him nothing but a blur. So, instead an eye-aching blurry street scene, I just used the colors. Also, the color behind him carries the energy of the piece, replacing the bright colors that often come with speedster heroes.

I hope you enjoy the art and the card, it was fun to create.