Kaiju Drazoran Brothers Attack !!!

For those lucky enough (i’m just kidding) to follow me on Twitter, I’ve been burning the midnight oil the past few days getting this new painting done, for a new header card, limited print and toy releases in Japan and soon, here in the USA. For those not familiar with my toy and character, this figure called Kaiju Drazoran was sculpted by the uber talented Yajima-san of Dream Rocket toy company. Well you know you can’t keep a good Kaiju down, so it was decided that Kaiju Drazoran would have not one but two brothers … so Yajima-san was put to work on creating two brand new head sculpts, Kaiju Dragigus and Kaiju Drazorus ! Utilizing the basic body of Drazoran, both heads make the figure look like it’s a completely new toy.
Below is the process i went thru … really nothing too exciting ;-P I mainly work on Cresent Illustration board, hot press. Working on the board directly and using various pencils ( HB to 6HB ) I sketch out the scene .. which in my head is the the two new brothers, Dragigus and Drazorus getting into a slight disagreement , while big bro Drazoran comes in to break it up 😉 …The photo below has the pencil work done. I begin adding some paynes grey to the darkest areas , like the mouth and shadow sides of the figures …

I thought about having them in a city environment but opted for a Monster Island setting, with of course a Volcano .. you have to have one of those 😉
and of course if you look real close you’ll see Captain Maxx, Alien Xam and Kaiju Tripus, sorta stuck in the lava 😉

once the darks have been done i start painting from the background to the foreground… this is not always the way i go, but usually …

I block in yellow in the sky and red in the lava areas … I know I want the yellow to be very vibrant, so i use transparent washes and let the white of the board show thru…

using an Iwata airbrush I quickly spray red-orange and start to spray in the dense smoke from the volcano ash …

switching back to a brush, adding more details to the over all shape of the volcano..

Ok when i was a freelance illustrator and did not have a kid, I would stay up to all hours of the night to make my various deadlines .. however once I hit 40 I decided sleep was my priority ( kids will do that to you ! ) but of late, I’ve had to stay up to ..gasp ! .. 1-2 am because of all the deadlines!! So here’s my loopy face taken with my iPhone by my self, of course …even my cat doesn’t want to stay up this late !

stepping back here’s where were at … most of the back ground is blocked in .. the blue is working nicely with the red lava … but still there’s lots of details to go..

the next sequence shows how I “pop” the Alien Xam out of the lava .. I had washed the blue over these guys .. but that helps to add a base tone to them, which allows me to add various rim light to them to make them more visible…

again, using paynes grey I paint in the darks …

and add reds, yellows and greens… not too bad .. still not done, but will come back to this area after other areas have some color on them…

Above is how i lay out my paints .. I’m weird in that I actually use very small amounts of acrylic paint ( Liqitex and Golden ) and for some reason just noodle the painting with brushes from 0-000 in size .. oh and sometimes i use a nice Windsor&Newton , but usually just cheap Utrecht brushes ( but I like them ) …. oh and copious amounts of matte medium along the way for glazing colors in …

close up as i add in the highlights .. going from lean or thin paint to fat or thick more opaque highlights and areas …

I will switch back and forth between brush work and airbrush if certain areas are not quite right … so here I’m taping off Xam’s head so i can pop a darker tone behind it.. I use to use Frisket, but now just use 3M removable tape …

getting close now .. still have to work on Drazoran, but the over all feel is good .. another long night, thank god for my green tea 😉 and as i post these to Twitter, I’m amazed that folks are following the progress at this time of night ( ha-ha ) Although it is a pain to stop and take pics and post them up via my computer..

more details .. this part of painting is fun but is the slowest for me .. I know I have a deadline so at this point I’m just trying to get the painting to a 95% complete stage .. I’ll go back in, in the future and tweak some areas again .. but for now I’m seeing the light at the end of the tunnel 😉 ah, sleep and no more late nights.. right ?!!

So, after several late nights, the final piece is just about done ! Simple, right ? 😉
I’ll use this image on the new header cards of these figures, as well as a limited giclee print … and like i said after a few more days of minor touch ups will stop and put a final varnish over the painting.
Details: 19×20 inches, Acrylics on illustration board.
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And, coming soon what all this artwork is really for are these awesome new Kaiju figures to be released very soon only from Max Toy Company ! Painted by Master Kaiju Painter, Hiroshi Goto-san ( I call him the Yoda of painted Kaiju toys ! ) are Kaiju Drazorus and Kaiju Dragigus.. on Marusan Brown vinyl and painted in an Old School style … !

each will also come with an alternate Drazoran head (!) you can switch out to make a new figure.

About toykarma

Over the years Mark Nagata has collected thousands of toys and a fair amount of titles. The man behind San Francisco-based Max Toy Company is widely known as: Toy Collector. Illustrator. Magazine Founder/Publisher. Toy Designer. Artist. Author. Husband. Father. But the one description that might fit best is an unofficial one – Kaiju Toy and Art Ambassador. In the Japanese-inspired art and toy area, as well as throughout the larger toy collecting community, Mark is welcomed and recognized for his personal passion and commitment to supporting artists all around the world and the unique works they create. Beginning as a collector in his youth, Mark has had for years a keen eye for great art and a personal interest in collecting that he has spread through a variety of outlets. Trained at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco, Mark honed his skills working for himself and for some of the most notable businesses in the country. As a freelance commercial illustrator, he completed works for such prominent companies as Lucasfilms, DC Comics, Hasbro Toys, IBM, Sony, and numerous advertising and design firms, both national and international. Mark’s colorful style graces over 40 cover paintings for R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps book series – Give Yourself Goosebumps. After hundreds of assignments, Mark made the decision to move in another direction, and that choice has led to whole new career as a successful businessman. For four years, the owner of one of the largest Ultraman toy collections in the world co-published Super 7 Magazine showcasing the finest in Japanese toy collecting. “I’d been collecting Japanese toys all along and suddenly realized it would be cool to have a magazine of some type devoted to them,” Nagata says. Mark’s devotion to presenting collectors with a selection of original figures inspired by classic Japanese toys from the 1960s and ‘70s as well as new versions of licensed Japanese characters is at the heart of Max Toy Company. Named for his son, Max Toys specializes in custom and limited editions of “kaiju” (Japanese monsters) toys and artwork. Many of the original toys produced are hand painted by Mark, a tradition that goes back to Japanese toy makers of the past. “Since our target is the soft vinyl Japanese toy collector, which is a very small niche, our runs of toys can be extremely small,” Mark says. “Runs range from 500 pieces of one toy to just one for a hand-painted, one-of-a-kind custom figure.” Through Max Toys, Mark has taken great pains to widen the reach of his two passions – toys and art. He played a significant part in the development of the first group kaiju show in the United States. Held at the Rotofugi Gallery in Chicago, Illinois in 2007, the “Toy Karma” Show featured detailed work from artists from Japan, the U.S. and South America. Participants marveled at the custom-painted toys and art on display. “Toy Karma” led to Mark being asked to be one of the artists spotlighted in the “Beyond Ultraman: Seven Artists Explore the Vinyl Frontier” exhibit at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. The October 2007 show, held jointly with the Los Angeles Toy, Doll and Amusement Museum, marked the first time – in a museum setting – that the influence of Japanese toys on California artists was explored. The exhibit featured more than 30 of Mark’s original paintings, toys and a selection of his vintage toy collection. Mark continued to be at the forefront as interest in Japanese-inspired art and toys expanded in 2008. Prestigious art houses Philips De Pury and Christie’s in New York and London sold Mark’s hand-painted custom kaiju toys in its auctions, spreading this unique art and toy movement into new and uncharted areas of the art world. In 2009, Mark once again took his love of toys and art overseas this time to a receptive and welcoming audience in Tokyo, Japan. Here, Mark curated the “Kaiju Comrades” Art Show, once again bringing together artists from various aspects of the kaiju toy realm in this first-of-its-kind toy art show. The following year found Mark in Barcelona, Spain co-curating with Emilio Garcia “Kaiju Attack,” the European country’s first kaiju art show. As the growth of kaiju art and toys increases worldwide, Mark continues in his unofficial role of Kaiju Toy and Art Ambassador. He has written and had his artwork and toy designs included in several books and magazines, both domestic and international. In 2010, Mark served as guest lecturer on kaiju and the toy-making process at the Morikami Museum in Florida. The San Francisco resident and his art can also be spotted in the first volume of the “ToyPunks” DVD and the “Toys R Us” DVD, while the video for the number one song by Owl City “Fireflies” featured Mark’s popular Kaiju Eyezon character. During this same time period, Mark has spearheaded the “Toy Karma 2” and “Kaiju Comrades 2” shows and has plans for future shows both in the U.S. and overseas. “Max Toys allows me to produce original artwork, new toys and work directly with a lot of talented artists,” Mark says. “Max Toy is a synthesis of toys and art, both life-long passions.”

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