After a long absence from my bud Ernie Pelletier Jr. (since “Nightshade” on gallery page 2), he commissioned me for what I believe to be his 6th job with my 1st piece of La Countessa Valentina Allegra De Fontaine (or Val) and 1st effort, albeit minimal, over Mike Perkins. Ernie bought the Perkins original art, a character study of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent for the recent UNION JACK limited series he illustrated. He pencilled & inked the figure, drew the profile of her and drew in some horizontal lines. Then Ernie asked me to add an entire background reminiscent of classic S.H.I.E.L.D. covers by Jim Steranko. Using the lines I was able to split the images up in the montage backdrop. I added A.I.M. agents, patriotic elements like stars, a silhouette of the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier over a cityscape, a Kirby Crackle energy effect, Captain America’s shield splattered with blood to hint at the events of Marvel’s “Civil War” event, and bullet-ridden icons of S.H.I.E.L.D. enemies Hydra, Scorpio and the Yellow Claw. I think it came out pretty well but I have a couple of minor regrets like not using a psychedelic pop-art effect in Photoshop due to lack of time and my lack of tech-adeptability. I also wish I’d centered the Scorpio icon up and more to the right. And I don’t like the tangent created where Val’s holster touches Cap’s shield. Should I get around to digitally coloring this I planned to color the horizontal stripes and alternating a toned-down red & white to reflect the American flag. I inked Val’s profile with markers & brush. For the rest of the image I used brush, markers, drybrush, white & black ink spatter and a whole lot of zip. I finished this 11X17 job on May 9, 2007.

Mike Perkins inked figure & pencilled profile

Inks by Bob