It started very simple. I asked on BlueSky what people would want to see, something angsty or something cute, whatever, I just wanted to draw MCU Sam.
The point is, I'm trying to find a way to draw MCU Sam in my style while still having him kind of recognizable. I mean, he is recognizable, he has very specific features such as a very bright glowy neon green eye and a blind one, making him look like kind of odd-eyed, a brainish diformed head and neck and a very pale greenish skin so.
But I also wanted to respect Tim's features. I love how he looks like, not just because he's handsome but also because the specific traits of his face are very comforting (on a "design" pov, he has a very gentle face). It's my duty, as an artist, to represent people how they are and to show the best in it. To not erase any features, even the one people don't like (it happens, from time to time, people asking me to draw them without this and that and I don't do that, btw, I will draw you how you are and make you look as good as you truly are, through my eyes rather than your twisted perception of yourself). It's part of our job to detect every trait that aren't "normed" or conformed to beauty standard and prove that it is even more beautiful that what they wanted to be. Because that's the thing, also, if you remove everything that make you not fiting in a beauty standard (that is always changing anyway), it means you're removing everything that makes you special and what's left if not a boring "it could be everybody" flat shell?
I don't know how Tim feels about himself and it's not my place to try to guess anyway. But in a way or another, it's important to me that I try to respect his face and that I don't erase any of the traits that makes him special. And that, folks, is a pretty damn hard exercise, because we're all influenced by norms but also our own vision of beauty, it's hard to stay neutral and to understand what features you need to keep and put extra care in and what features you need to remove in order to keep things simpler and cartoonish. Because beauty isn't about goodness. Tim isn't beautiful to me because he's hot (tho it helps ngl) but because of how I see him and what he means to me. And if you ever loved someone as deeply as I do (I'm not talking about romance folks, could be a friend, a family member, love has many many shapes) you get what I mean and how any kind of face, let it follow your own standard or not, can be the most beautiful thing. So the point here, is to give this much love and care to your drawing so people will feel at least enough curiosity to care about that special character or person in your heart. You don't love you mother or siblins because of how they look, you love how they look because of how you love them. And so, every traits that make their face recognizable is important to you.
So I made a few researches, I tried a few things to have "my own" TimSam (Sim, we said). There's a few reasons to the cartoonization of a live action character (or a person). The first is because I'm mostly into composing and stuff like that so I have no personal interest in just reproducing photography, as impressive as hyper realism is, I just have no fun in that since my favorite part is thinking what I'll do (and thinking a character in your style is the best part of the process). Second, Sam is a character I often draw, that's why I redesigned his comics self (which is easier 'cause he doesn't have a regular look or face so I can do whatever I want) to be able to easily and quickly draw him when needed. Let it be a big piece or a small doodle, I need it to be simple enough to be redraw a few time without struggling each time. It's a basic rule of comics art, actually, keeping things simple enough to be able to reproduce them quick without having to think too much about their face, their body, their outfit etc... Because of the publishing speed. Simple but recognizable enough.
But just because the goal is to keep MCU Sam as close as Tim as possible doesn't mean you're not allowed to add your own fun and headcanons (friendly reminder that a headcanon is something you made up in your mind that isn't "official/canon").
For his body I made him very skinny because I don't think he was (and will be in his new prison) well nutrished. Wouldn't be surprised if they often starved him in camp echo one in fact. Water was probably not a problem given he has a sink in his room, but food I think it would be.
Anyway. I also headcanon that Ross upped his gamma dosage through injections that he'd do in the right arm, because that's where his neck is more diformed, right part. So, like his neck, I like to think his right arm would suffer that. More visible veins, dark green and burn scars on it (because of how you need electrochoc and all, I headcanon that it burnt inside his own veins).
Of course you try to keep Tim's nose, his hollow eyes (make them worst like they did with Sam's makeup), keep the "skull" shape on his face that they make visible through light play and makeup in that shot :
(that's the trait on each side of his face I made). I don't always draw the nasogenian folds 'cause they're often use to amplify emotions so it makes him look odd. I add them through shadowing but not through a line (unless I wanna amplify an emotion). Of course it's important to draw him with little to no emotion except for annoyance, anger (and contempt, eventually) but I like having fun with more than that 'cause MCU Sam being very emotionless, every emotions he shows on his face is more impacting.
The chin, also (hardest part to draw for me haha. The ears. I also like to draw his little teeth gap
It's not THAT visible but he has a very teeth gap that I love a lot and that I think suits MCU Sam very well, so I add that through one simple line. I give comics Sam a fang, it's only fitting that I find something else for MCU Sam's teeth. And I put a line on the corner of his lip to the nose (sometimes another one neat the middle of the mouth) to draw that mouth shape he has.
As for the posing, Sam is an autistic emo edgelord and it's easy for me to draw that 'cause he basically stand and move like me (I'm tired all the time alright, don't judge me) but for others people here looking for advice it means you gotta draw the shoulders lowered. Look at how I made it a triangle on the sketch above rather than a straight line. As a little comparison, here's how I draw comics Sam shoulders :
He's a confident lad full of energy and you gotta reflect that in the way he poses and move, so a straight line to join both shoulders together (of course according to the posing it's not always THAT straight, but you get what I mean).
MCU Sam is tired and gloomy, he moves and look like a ghost so keep that in mind, avoid to give him too much dynamism (which can be as complicated, if not more, as giving dynamism because it's hard to avoid lifeless and flat arts. Just because you draw someone emotionless doesn't mean your art gotta be this way, quite the other way around, especially for MCU Sam who's actually incredibly expressive through his voice and facial expression, even if he tries not to and in that Tim did an amazing work).
The easiest way to do that is to play with his hands. People understimate hands, that's why they struggle so much with it, but it's as expressive as a face and more detailed, actually. For a face you gotta think a mouth, a nose, two eyes, two brows and some traits here and there. For a hand you have at least 17 parts to think, 3 per fingers, 2 to 4 on the palm depending on how you think and that's ONLY if you draw the palm side like I did with comics Sam above, otherwise you gotta think knuckles as well, hand bones etc etc...
Even if MCU Sam keeps his arms lifeless close to his body, you can still do that with dynamism. If you can't give dynamism through the pose, you gotta do it through your line and the shape.
That is why I give him exagerated triangle pointy shoulders and arm part. Also why I make his wrist bending like this, it gives him that kind of gross "cracking" movement you see in horror movies, mostly on zombies or ghosts, without even moving. Since we're talking MCU, you see that moment Scarlet Witch leaves the mirror in the most horrific undead-ish way? That's the kind of cracking movements I'm talking about.
You'll notice, however, that the one I did with the very long coat has very straight arms with no movement on purpose too, because it gotta feels like an extention to that long heavy coat, 'cause that's where the drama and dynamism is, through the movement of that coat. It's visible here :
So the arms gotta stay "invisible" for this specific design.
As for his legs, I kept the same kind of thinking. I keep the autistic gaped straight legs standing but I add shape to that gap and I break the straight lines to add movement and awkwardness to his very simple pose :
So basically the point is to exagerate his pose, lower his shoulders even more, making the gap between his feet and knees weirder etc...
Something you can also play with is his hand, look at these shots, his left hand is always relaxed while his right hand is kind of "clawed", as if he was grabbing something.
Again, it's a typical neuroA behaviors born from the inability to totally relax your body (which makes sense given MCU Sam is canonically ADHD and it's not a stretch to say he's autistic too given the way he stands, get carried away etc etc). It's slightly visible in my sketch (keep in mind that I don't draw hands and feet in sketches, I do ugly-ass breaded fish stick fingers). You'll see in another post that I don't always respect that, given my needs (rules are made to be broken anyway haha but in order to break them properly you gotta master them first), but it's also a nice thing you can think about to add to your art.
I think that's all I have to say about his design, for now, so let's go back to the art I'm supposed to talk about :
So as I said the point was to do something cute. I kept that in mind through colors that I make both flashy and somewhat pastel (turning the black lines into dark blue).
I gave Bruce more curves in both his body shape (Mark Ruffalo having more curve than Tim Blake Nelson) but also in his pose, unlike Sam who's quite straight (in his pose only, that lad is incredibly gay). Made him slightly taller too as he's 8 cm taller than Tim, I think?
I felt in love with Sam's hoodie (I said several time that I had a thing for hooded figures), depending on how you draw him it can makes him look mysterious and threatening or just like an edgy awkward boy, it's a lot of fun to play with that.
I like to think that he'd hide his head around Bruce, because he clearly dislikes his appearance and while it's not a problem when he's around people he doesn't care about or when he doesn't need to hide, I think he would keep hiding himself around people he likes so if he develops affection for Bruce he would just hide himself, inconsciously probably, to avoid disgusting him.
Sam's pose is less awkward than sketches because while I wanted him to be awkward, I wanted him to look very human.
I love his sunglasses, also, it's quite conveniant when I wanna draw Sam wandering outside with Bruce in simple everyday situations. You put the hood, you put sunglasses and you add a chirurgical mask and hope, your Sam is safe (you can add glove and even imagine that he put makeup on for the still visible skin part of his face, lots of things you can do). But drawing sunglasses here or a mask would mean hidding his face and I wanted his facial expression to be visible, because it's what make this art cute, it's his reaction to his need to grab Bruce's hand (one day I'll talk about comics Sam's obvious touch craving). Physically looking away (like, with his head facing the opposite direction), blushing and just drinking his strawberry banana smoothie (that's what it is yes) kind of like you can't help but do something when you're embarassed.
Totally opposing Bruce who turns around to directly look at him, not doing anything but focusing on Sam and only Sam, even if he's also blushing. Even his expression is very different, Sam's brows being very "è.é" while Bruce's are up because of the surprise. Samuce is a fun ship to draw because let it be comics or MCU they oppose each others so have fun with that in your design and pose. Sam is wearing big loose-y clothings (I like to think that he borrowed them to Bruce 'cause Bruce probably felt reponsible for Sam so he'd kind of sheltering him the way he did with She-Hulk, trying to "fix" him and shit) that covers most of his body, making him look awkward and insecured while Bruce as a more confident kind of outfit. visible torso, stuff like that. MCU Bruce used to be incredibly insecured and depressed and he's probably still full of traumas and very awkward but clearly recently he gained self estime and a way more joyful personality, I want that to be visible through the way he dresses, stands, talks. A mix of joy, confidence and awkwardness.
Btw the reason I gave him a smoothie while I gave a bubble tea (I hate these things, sorry) to Bruce is because, first of all it's my fav kind of smoothie (I love smoothies), second, because of how he seems to be into plants and his little tea set in his prison and stuff like that I mentionned here, I like to think he's into more natural kind of drink. I wouldn't say he's healthy, oooooh boi, far from it. But what he eats would be more bio, more natural, he's a scientist who uses plants in a very pragmatic scientist way so I can totally imagine him eating the same way, especially now that he's kind of a computer rather than a human, thinking through probabilities and shit, I don't see him being that much into little pleasure (and that's the thing with Samuce, through he affection for Bruce he can learn how to have fun again, like he used to). So a smoothie it is. Still pleasuring but still something natural, a nice in-between.
Of course for the outfits I sticked to their signature colors and MCU outfits, giving orange to Sam (like he had in his first design) and purple to Bruce. Black pants and very dark blue hoodie for Sam, brown pants for Bruce etc...
It's a quick art so I didn't think that deep for everything, no background, no elaborated clothes or poses etc... Simple but efficient was the mindness.
As I said, it was an excuse to try to draw MCU Sam in my style (and Bruce too). But it's also an excuse to draw MCU Sam's leg.
I mostly draw comics Sam with thickkk large hips and thighs, in fact I draw most characters like this because that's what people expect from me when they buy me a commission, they either want characters with curves of they buy a half-body so no legs visible so you can't have fun drawing thin legs like MCU Sam's.
But I always loved this kind of shape on characters, pointy larger shoulders and very thin hips and legs. It's a bodyshape that is very fun to draw, very expressive also.
From time to time I wanna draw Sam like this but it would clash with the consistency that I try to keep in between each of my arts (and I also like bigger hips, obviously, I'm just into anything at this point), so I'm happy to be able to explore this kind of morphololgy through MCU Sam.
There's also another thing I wanted to try and work on, these very black shadow mixing legs and feet.
I tried that on another very little art that I won't share just yet because I want to make a whole post about it when its purpose is done and not before. But anyway, I like that effect.
If you look at colors now, you'll notice that in all my art I add a bit of purple on Sam and a bit of orange on Bruce. It's my way to illustrate their unbreakable "ying yang" bound (there's a part of evil in good and good in evil and humanity in the monster and monster in humand and blablabla you get it).
As I said, no background, but no background is stressing me out because I like cluttered shit so no background means lazy simple forms, like these. Stars, circles, they're the easiest and the one I use the most (they're on almost all my arts, it became a signature at this point haha). A touch of green to avoid plain white and make it more pastel and "softer" and voilà, you have your art.
What else do I have to say about it? Not much, not much. We were talking about who would hold hands first in my Discord and we all agreed that it will be Sam because Bruce would respect his need of space, so Sam would have to do the first step most of the time, also because while Bruce grew in confidence, I don't want nor think he would be, like, Sam's therapy, in the way that I want Bruce to need Sam the way Sam would need Bruce, in a different way, but still. And I think Sam is more likely to have that in him, this confidence that Bruce would still lack of. Let it be through calculation ("there's 80% chance that this is the right time to hold hands" would be a funny thing to write) but also through his whole personality. He gets what he wants, he doesn't wait for it (unless it's part of the process) to randomly fall on him. He's way bolder than Bruce and I think would need that.
So, he takes Bruce's hand grumpily because he knows very well Bruce wanted to but didn't in a "jeez you can't do anything right" way. But Sam being Sam and being so conflicted with Bruce (I'll write a whole post about their potential relationship in the MCU) in a way that he probably feels ressent but also still admiration for him, would just kind of hate having feelings for him. Destabilizing him from his one goal (revenge and shit), so of course he would act reluctant and grumpy.
But that's the fun part of that ship haha, his tsundere behaviors.
But I'm also a romantic, y'know, I like giving happy endings to my little gremlins once in a while, so have this little bonus.
Oh and of course, the song related to the art. I'm in my late 30s so I spent my teenage years being an emo and listening to AMV and reading ship fanfictions online so y'know, in this context there's only two kind of song that comes to my mind. Evanescence or Cascada. But make it Electic Callboy because I like the "parodic" kind of vibe. It's the vibe I want in my soft Samuce art, something very cliche, teenagy, to the point of flirting with parody while still staying serious enough to be cute. Because I like the funny awkward kind of romance a lot.
I think that's all for this one, I have a lot to upload but I'm also working on a website so I'm starting to think about the future of this blog. Will I keep it up? Will I just re-upload it on my website? I don't know, I'll think about it.
But in the meantime, enjoy~
