Lord Vader? Izzat you?

INTERIOR: REBEL BLOCKADE RUNNER -- MAIN HALLWAY. The awesome, seven-foot-tall Dark Lord of the Sith makes his way into the blinding light of the main passageway. This is Darth Vader, right hand of the Emperor. His face is obscured by his flowing black robes and grotesque breath mask, which stands out next to the fascist white armored suits of the Imperial stormtroopers. Everyone instinctively backs away from the imposing warrior and a deathly quiet sweeps through the Rebel troops. Several of the Rebel troops break and run in a frenzied panic.

Me and a couple cronies at American Greetings decided to give ourselves a little design assignment. Something we would do as quickly as we could, down and dirty. We decided to redesign...
DARTH VADER!
Tall order. Redesign one of the most recognized icons of modern fantasy/sci-fi film.
Above is the first passage of George Lucas's script that refers to Lord Vader and his first appearance...
Oh, and check out Carlos Villagra and Jorge Lacera's on our newly resurrected Sketch-O-Rama blog to see their versions as well.

Horrible Half-Man Hughes....

Many years ago I created a villianous centaur monster to do battle with my Monster Hunter character (see my previous posts). He was a gigantic and evil creature from Greek Mythology granted the gift of eternal life. In the late 19th century he traveled to the United States and became a terrible and legendary outlaw dubbed with the moniker: Horrible Half-Man Hughes.
A good friend of mine, Rick Sellers, has a company that creates Science Fiction, Fantasy and horror audio books (Rick Sellers). He has decided to revive Half-Man in his latest offering, and is in the midst of creating an audio book in which the monster will star. We decided it would be cool if I created a sculpture of the beast that could be used on the CD cover, and perhaps produce it as a limited edition statue as well. Here is my first stab at a design sketch of Hughes. I am trying to decide if he needs the Clint Eastwood style hat, or if it just looks silly. More to come...