Odin's Underwear

Odin in his royal drawers

Once in a rare while, I get to work as a costume illustrator.  I had a brief two week stint on THOR. I was tasked with doing some ceremonial and casual costumes for Odin.  Usually,  I start by taking a "paper doll" approach starting with a version character nude ( or near nude ) and build variations on top of that base. Sometimes I do this with pencil sketches.  In this case I used photoshop.  I built the base Odin with pieces of bodybuilder photos I found, twisting and skewing limbs til they fit the pose that I want. Most of the face was hand painted. His beard was built from a clump of hair I cloned til it worked as a full beard.

I did a version of Odin in his ceremonial robes. I wanted to really create an epic look for Odin.  I wanted to create a Kirbyesque feel of vast, god-like power!  All of the elements I made radiate toward Odin's face.  I made the shoulder elements and parts of his helmet, wide and tall to the extreme.  I still wanted to ground him in the Marvel Thor world by echoing the circular plates on his chest--only giving him more than his son.  I took elements from another painting and flaired out his cape to accentuate his magnificence.

Odin in full regalia

It was a  fun project.  Would love to do more of this type of work.