Singular Sensation: Pig Guard

This second entry in my Singular Sensation series is of a character drawn for the cover of Oziana #37.  I simply call him "Pig Guard."  I got a request to draw characters that appeared in stories in the issue, but I didn't always have access to the actual stories.  In some cases, all I got was copies of artwork being used to illustrate the stories.  In this case, all I had was an illustration to go on, but one that really captured my imagination.  I am a big fan of the work that The Four Horsemen studio did on updating Mattel's Masters of the Universe property for the 2002 line.  The amount of detail they put into each of the character re-designs continues to impress me.  When I saw the illustration of this "Pig Guard" character, I thought it would be a really fun idea to give him that same kind of approach.  I wanted to put more detail into his look and to introduce a more aggressive and physical element to the entire wrap-around cover piece.

In the cover piece, the Pig Guard was going to be fighting on the same side as Bastinda, the Russian version of the Wicked Witch of the West.  I thought it would be a nice homage to the Winkie Soldiers in the MGM musical movie version of The Wizard of Oz if I made the Pig Guard's skin green.  However, when I thought about that, I worried that some people would think that I was trying to rip off the Gammorean Guards in the palace of Jabba the Hutt in Return of the Jedi.  So that idea was nixed.  I still wanted to make the Pig Guard look more otherwordly, instead of a pink, tan, or brown skin tones that one usually found on a pig.  That's when I hit upon the idea to make the skin tone a nice "decayed blue."  It really worked too!  I thought I was being so original, until a friend pointed out that Gannon, the Big Boss in The Legend of Zelda game for Nintendo, was a big blue pig.  It's true, there really is nothing entirely new!  I haven't played that game in years, but from what I remember of the character, I think I made this Pig Guard look significantly different.


Pencils, Ink, Prismacolor Color Pencils, Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator.
©Kevenn T. Smith 2011

Oziana #37

Oziana is the magazine of The International Wizard of Oz Club.  I was very honored when I was asked to provide the cover for issue #37, which is to be the final issue of the magazine.  The cover depicts characters featured in the stories contained inside the issue engaged in a magical battle inside the Emerald City.

Pictured in this piece from left to right are:  a Boar Guard (from the Russian Oz Series), the Witched Wick (an original character to a story in the issue), Bastinda (the Russian series Wicked Witch of the West), Polychrome the Rainbow's Daughter, Bungle the Glass Cat, The Wizard of Oz, Yurgod the Gryphon (from the Russian series), Princess Ozma of Oz, and a Rain Sprite (an original character from a story in the issue)

The issue will be available to order from The International Wizard of Oz Club's website.


Pencils, Ink, Prismacolor Color Pencils, Prismacolor Markers, Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator.
©Kevenn T. Smith 2011