Michael Firman

ALT An illustration crossover of five characters who have the ability to stretch their bodies. From left to right, Monkey D. Luffy from One Piece, Mr. Fantastic from Fantastic Four (whose arm is stretching in order to fistbump himself), Dhalsim from Street Fighter levitating in the background, Elastigirl from Pixar’s The Incredibles franchise, and Stretch Armstrong.

ALT Spider-man is mid-stride walking down the side of a Manhattan skyscraper as if it were a sidewalk, his masked face engrossed in his phone. Very rough brushstrokes hopefully create the impression of an NYC street below him, the sunlit palette using contrasting cools and warms.

ALT An illustration of Toad as a Goomba from the 1993 live action Super Mario Bros film, which, let’s say, deviates slightly from expected Mario lore and imagery. In this, Toad has been “de-evolved” by President Koopa into a form that is giant, lumbering and reptilian. He has a goofy little round head that is outrageously tiny compared to rest of his broad body. He wears a black shirt under a maroon trench coat, which is his Koopa uniform, and his three fingered, gloved right hand waves whilst he smiles widely.

ALT Illustration of the character Ann from the Harvest Moon franchise, petting a horse’s head. She is a farmgirl with orange hair pulled back into a white bow and long braid. She is angled to our right, towards a flaxen, bridled horse, but her head is turned towards the viewer with a tiny lift of the mouth corner: a subtle smile. She wears a yellow short-sleeve tee under blue overalls. The background is lazy but hopefully bucolically evocative, hinting at the shapes of a ranch rail fence behind her.

ALT An illustration of the rabbit ronin Miyamoto Usagi from the Usagi Yojimbo comics by Stan Sakai. He is white-furred and his floppy ears are tied up at the top of his head. He wears a blue (green/teal in my palette) kimono and dark hakama pants. He is holding out a sword, the trailing shape behind it suggesting a slash but his hand grip suggesting more relaxed motion. The following kanji, 兎用心棒, are written out vertically down the center of the image in pink, spelling out the comic’s name. They are probably not penned well but I am slowly trying to study Japanese and incorporating kana & kanji into illustrations is an opportunity for learning and practice.

ALT A portrait from the waist up of rappers Redman and Method Man, each of their right arms terminating in an arm blaster a la the Mega Man games by Capcom. The overall palette is monochromatically warm and beige. Redman has a dark snapback with the brim turned askew rearwards. He has a beard, necklace chain, white polo, and dark letterman sort of jacket. Method Man, also in a trim beard, wears a white durag under the hood of a beige jacket. He too sports a necklace, over a dark tee, and he holds his blaster arm up to his ribs, displaying the Wu Tang symbol affixed to it.

ALT Illustration from the shins up of Meryl Silverburgh, a character from the Metal Gear Solid franchise. She is a soldier with a fluffy bobcut of red hair, a headband, and tough expression. She is wearing a dark tanktop tucked into belted, green military pants that bloom from the constriction of a thigh holster as well as knee pads and high boots. She is racking the slide of a pistol held in front of her, and her left bicep is wrapped in a “FOXHOUND” tattoo.

ALT A messy portrait of a character portrayed by John C. Reilly, named Dr. Steve Brule, originally appearing on the Tim & Eric show and then starring in his own spinoff series. He has a curly explosion of brown hair, wears spectacles, and features an expression of characteristic befuddlement. He wears a drab green suit over a spotted maroon tie and grey dress shirt.

ALT A full body illustration of Charlotte Christine de Colde, a fighter from the Samurai Shodown franchise. She is a blonde fencing warrior, her hair up in a ponytail. She wears a blue double split dress with yellow trim. She wears armour pieces which I’ve exaggerated: massive metallic, ornately etched pauldrons and cuirass. She holds her foil down toward the ground. She wears brown gloves that rise past the elbow, a brown skirt and belt, as well as dark brown thigh-high boots with a scalloped edge frill at the top.

ALT Illustration from the knees up of Kasumi from the Dead or Alive franchise by Team Ninja, Koei Tecmo. She has red-brown long hair in a ponytail, and the bangs in this art cover her eyes. She wears a blue sort of cheongsam dress with white trim. It has puffed shoulders and folds across the upper body like a kimono, tucking into a white waistband that spans the whole abdomen. Then it falls into two hanging panels, front and back, that are wide enough to partially cover the legs but her hips and thighs are still quite visible as her silhouette. It’s similar to Chun-Li’s classic look. She also wears blue fingerless gloves with a yellow wristband and panel that covers the tops of her forearms, as well as white thigh-highs. On her back is a horizontally sheathed wakizashi sword.

ALT A painted study of a moment from John Carpenter’s 1982 film The Thing. Clark, a brown bearded dog handler for an Antarctic research station, is crouching by a husky and petting it with both hands while squinting into the distance. He wears a baseball cap and plaid shirt.

ALT An illustration of Julie, one of the playable characters from the 1993 SNES/Genesis game Zombies Ate My Neighbors by Lucasarts. She is raising one leg defensively and hunching low behind two water pistols (that look more like SMGs) which were the default weapon of the game and, yes, kill zombies. She wears a red cap over a brown ponytail and has an intense, mid-action focus including her mouth agape, perhaps yelling. She has a purple jacket over a white tee and short red gym shorts with white trim plus a split at the side hem. Her feet are in white boots with velcro bands around the ankles.

ALT An illustration of the puzzle-solving Professor Layton and his apprentice Luke Triton. Layton sports a tall top hat, of which his left hand fingers pinch the brim in a doffing grip. He wears a dark coat over an orange shirt, and dark trousers. Luke, a small boy, is to his right (our left) and wears a desaturated blue cardigan and matching colour flat cap. Underneath the cardigan is a white button shirt, and over it is his shoulder-strapped brown satchel. He wears dark green shorts and has brown suspenders dangling.

ALT An illustration of Fox McCloud (on the left) and Falco Lombardi (on the right) standing back to back, holding their blaster pistols downward and lookin’ cool. They wear spaceflight jackets and HUD eyepieces attached to headbands worn around the rear of their heads. They are anthropomorphic animals, Falco being a blue and red bird, Fox being a…fox. With white striping. And he wears a red kerchief as well as driving gloves. They are from Nintendo’s Star Fox franchise but are also prominent fighters in the Super Smash Bros series as well.

ALT An illustration from the knees up of Fallout 4 companion Piper Wright, a post-apocalyptic journalist operating out of Diamond City. She is holding a notepad up in her right hand and looking off to her left with keen scrutiny. I challenged myself to only use 6 colours in this piece, so it’s all peaches, blues and a dark purple. Piper wears a red newscap, red trench coat with the sleeves rolled up, black fingerless gloves that cover the forearms, dark pants, and a scarf knotted and hanging down her front.

ALT A perhaps too boring straight-on portrait of Joanna Dark from the Perfect Dark franchise, I’ll probably try drawing her again in the future. This is a bust. I mean like, depicted from the shoulders up, but I suppose also a bust in terms of being a disappointment. She has a neutral expression, and has short red hair in a sort of mom cut, with a blonde streak of swept bangs. She is in a slim, blue black zip up jacket.

ALT An illustration of the red spy from Team Fortress 2, drawn from the knees up. He is hunched and glaring at the viewer, his right hand holding a revolver pointed down, his left hand holding his suit jacket, also pointed down, gravitationally speaking. He has a long face obscured by a balaclava with cutouts for the eyes and mouth. He wears classy attire; a white dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up, a double breasted vest, necktie, and dress pants. Everything is brown apart from the shirt, even the balaclava, and the suit is chalk striped.

ALT Illustrated bust of Nien Nunb from Star Wars. He’s in a rebel alliance outfit, which is red coveralls under a black vest, and he wears a snug brown flight cap on his head. He is an alien species known as Sullustan. He has light pink skin with massive sagging jowls that fold once or twice before hitting his chin. He has massive black eyes, large ears, and a protruding lower lip. He is looking to the right, almost wistfully, but could also be an expression of curiosity.

ALT A thighs-up illustration of Little Mac from Nintendo’s Punch-Out series as well as the Smash Bros. franchise. He is a boxer, gritting his teeth, and cocking his right arm out to his side while his left is raised in an almost guard. He has spiky, short dark hair and strong eyebrows angled downwards. He is muscular, wearing a black tank top, and green boxing shorts with a red stripe down the sides. His boxing gloves are a matching green.