The Master's Will

"The Master's Will"
(Mega Man Legends 2)
 
To say this is a long time coming is an understatement. You all know I'm a fan of Mega Man, but Mega Man Legends is the series that truly grabbed my attention and never let go. The new gameplay notwithstanding, what reeled me in was the amazing story, which was so well written in mysteries that not only your character wanted to solve, but YOU wanted to solve. Legends 2, in particular, did a fantastic job of diving further into this story element; a massive risk for a Mega Man title, to be sure. One that seemingly did not pay off as well as we'd like...

I wanted to focus on the biggest enigma of the series, Elysium and its overseers, the Master System. Nothing of all of them grouped together exists, and it's something I'd always wanted to do for quite some time. I threw Juno in there as well. Despite his absence from MML2, he was the one to drop the bombshell on our hero (and the player) at the tail end of 1. I also snuck in the silhouette of Sera's final form, making her the dividing line between the Master and those who were to keep his order.

Colors were tripping me up pretty bad on this, as I had multiple markers run out on me, and being short-funded for resupplies, had to make due with what I had. Some was salvageable, some had to require some trickery to fix or hide. I debated making a space scene at the very top of the background and have it fade at the midway point, but decided against it. It's not the illustration Mega Man Legends deserves, but it's definitely one I needed to do.

April 6, 2016
Micron pens, Sakura Pigma pens, normal pens, Prismacolor Markers, colored pencils, and gel pens
on 8.5x11" cardstock

MegaMan Juno

 "MegaMan Juno"
(MegaMan Juno from the Mega Man Legends)
 
Maybe it was just the shock of this character, who came almost literally out of nowhere in the last few minutes of Mega Man Legends, or his strangely calm, callous demeanor, but something about Juno stuck with me. Once I discovered no official art exists for his character (despite one very rough draft, which hails from one guide book), I knew I had to somehow make up for that...

I tried my best to mimic Hideki Ishikawa's at-the-time style to allow it to mesh with his other designs from the game, though going with the lighting used on the reaverbot illustrations, since he tends to fit in better with them than characters like the Bonnes or even MegaMan, himself. I don't declare it 1-for-1, by any means, but I think I got fairly close. The red digital-esque lines were a challenge to pull off, but I think they came out good given what I was working with. The final touch was giving it a "scanned" look, using some filters and reverse-DNR, just to really cement it into looking "official."

 December 6, 2015
Micron pens, Pigma pens, Photoshop Elements 7.0
4224x5746 pixels