The incredibly talented artist Pepe Larraz, who is responsible for much of the beloved art in Jonathan Hickman's 2019 relaunch of the X-Men franchise, has shared his process for creating gorgeous watercolor pieces of classic heroes, with the artist featuring the powerhouse Rogue in a Twitter post. The X-Office, the team of creatives at Marvel Comics behind the current X-Men books, are an incredibly talented and collaborative bunch, and it is clear that Larraz's beautiful interpretations of X-Men characters have inspired the rest of the group.
Rogue, sometimes known as Anna Marie, is a character who was first introduced in 1981's Avengers Annual #10 as the child of Mystique and Destiny and a powerful villain, but who quickly became one of the X-Men's strongest allies and eventual leaders. Rogue has gone through generations of revamping and redesign and has seen her costume updated in almost every era but always keeping her signature white hairstreak and strong southern accent. Rogue gained mainstream popularity with Anna Paquin's portrayal of her in the Fox X-Men franchise, and her on-again-off-again relationship with teammate Gambit has been one of the longest-lasting fan-favorite relationships in all of X-Men.
Larraz was the artist on Hickman's already iconic House of X (2019) mini-series which saw Xavier and Magneto (and secretly Moira X as well) slowly creating the new island nation of Krakoa. Since then, Larraz has continued to remain in the Marvel spotlight, doing covers for various X-Books, and internal art for the massive crossover event X of Swords, and currently working with Gerry Duggan on the most recent iteration of the X-Men team. Rogue is an important member of the current X-Men team, voted onto the team by the mutants of Krakoa, and is also finally able to have full control over her complex absorption powers after her run-in with ancient Otherworld magic during her tenure on the Excalibur team. It is no surprise that the painting process Larraz shared on Twitter used a watercolor portrait of Rogue to practice his art, and preview his multimedia talents, because the character is so beloved and recognizable.
While sharing his process, Larraz wrote, "This week I'm going to post some watercolors I've been doing as practice in the few spare moments I had these last months. I'm thinking on making prints of these watercolors. Would you be interested on that?" and from the hugely positive and loving response his post got, it is clear that the answer is YES, people would definitely like prints of these gorgeous pieces. Larraz shows how his watercolor art forms, starting from plain pencil, and then going in with broad watercolor paint, before finishing up the piece with watercolor and colored pencil details, revealing a stunning portrayal of Rogue in her instantly recognizable costume and jacket that any fan would love. Pepe Larraz's creative partner on X-Men Gerry Duggan, has shared in the past what the process is like for Larraz to bring Duggan's ideas from script to the digital art medium, but fans have not had a lot of exposure to Pepe's non-digital work, making this watercolor piece a perfect example of how multi-talented he truly is.
Rogue is pretty much always stunning, but Pepe Larraz's gorgeous watercolor interpretation of the powerful, independent X-Men character brings her fierceness to a whole other level. It is a real treat for up-and-coming artists, or those just starting out with watercolor, to see the process that Larraz goes through to get to his beautiful final piece, and hopefully, he will continue to share his artistic process in the future. Make sure to go check out Pepe Larraz's Twitter to see more of his delightful X-Men art, especially more portrait pieces featuring the super-strong and ever-iconic Rogue.
Source: Twitter
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