I don’t know anything about Mario Kempes; this claim is made about most of the subjects in the secret series so far. I’m drawn to figures from the mists of football time, I’m free to draw them in any way as, to me, they’re shorn of any significance and narrative. They’re free real estate.
With this piece I was using a bobbly little inker for every aspect of the work; from line to colour to lighting. If you zoom in you can really see the knobbly way the colours are laid down. I love this because it creates hemmed in areas due to the thick line work. Then I can fill them with saturated vibrant colours and it kicks the temperature of the piece up a notch.
As Kempes is from the 80s, in my head, (maybe he isn’t and is from the 70s, we’ll never know) I used colours that I would associate with 2000 AD comics where the colours are very bright and eye-catching. I associate these comics with that period of time for some reason; they scream 80s. The final effect achieves this in my opinion. And I’ve added my favourite visual hallmark; the eyes draped in black shadow. In a funny way his hair slightly mimics the way Judge Dredd’s helmet encases his head, and the big oversized boots echo the chunky Judge boots.
You can watch a 30 second time-lapse of this artwork being created here.