Mary Jane Watson-Parker
This was another case where most everyone who voted for Mary Jane Watson/Parker had specific depictions of the character they wanted me to draw. Off the top of my head there was the iconic John Romita version, the '80s yellow sweater cartoon version, Todd McFarlane's Cindy Crawford twin sister version, the "Mary Jane Loves Spider-Man" version, Kirsten Dunst, and the short-lived MTV CGI version. Now personally, I'd have loved to take a crack at the Ultimate universe version, though sadly that was never on the table. But being as this would be my first attempt at illustrating the love of Peter Parker's life, I figured the best course of action was just to do my own thing and draw her my own way.
What wasn't compromised was what she'd be wearing. With a vote of 11-0 (excluding my own opinion), it was obviously clear she'd be in the Spider-Man outfit.
I can gush on and on about the art, but what I'm the most proud about is the coloring job. Here I took a red-haired character with ruby red pouting lips and put it in her a primarily red spandex costume. That's a lot of the same color and in order for it to work, it required me to use as much different pallets as I could. Now, before you dismiss that, keep in mind that one little annoying detail I find myself mentioning so much it's even starting to get my own nerves: I'm completely color-blind. Pretty bleeping cool, huh?
- Jake