Mortal Kombat "Where's Scorpion?" illustration

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Where's Scorpion?

M o r t a l K o m b a t p o s T e r

Gus Morais was commissioned to make a huge seek-and-find illustration for WarnerBros Games & NetherRealm Studios highlighting the events, characters and scenarios that made Mortal Kombat

an incomparable videogame's classic through the last three decades.

I was invited to bring to life a nice idea from Mortal Kombat social media team (thanks, Eriq Martin!).

The job was to imagine and develop a very complex illustration that would be published as a funny online engagement action before the release of NetherRealm Studios new DLC:
Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath.

The challenge here is to find the classic MK character Scorpion, a yellow ninja from the Shirai Ryu clan. Through all illustration, the famous violent approach of the game is mixed with cute and funny situations.

The classic Shao Khan's arena is the most crowded scene of the illustration. The big boss of the game is playing Wack-a-Mole with an unfortunate prisoner. Can you spot other MK characters like Motaro, Ferra/Torr and Sheeva?

The Mortal Kombat storyline takes place in a world full of parallel dimensions. I've blended them in a way that would look a respectful representation for a die-hard fan, but still keeping it funny for a casual player. Here we can see the Graveyard, the ruins of Edenian Desert, Sea of Blood and Scorpion's Lair.

A very famous fight stage in MK series is the Living Forest. I've blended it with another cool scenario, the Dead Pool. Can you spot Baraka brushing his teeth with some acid water? :)

SOME NOTES ABOUT SKETCHING AND DRAWING PROCESS

I have got great support and visual orientation from NetherRealm Studios art director Bruno Neves and Eriq Martin from WarnerBros, who made a great initial job by collecting dozens of pictures and concepts from characters and locations of all editions of the game.

Scenario sketch

Below, you can see 3 different stages of the sketching process. From first image to second, some locations were added and some deleted. Also, some changes in the dimensions and positions of each location were made to achieve a more interesting balance of colors and atmospheres.

Character studies

The "Where's Scorpion" illustration presents ALL 77 playable characters from different editions of the game, from classical to most recent ones. I've studied many official character concepts and watched lots of videos of the game to get a deeper understanding of their personalities, moves and overall behavior
so I could achieve a new and fresh cartoonish version for them.

Easter Eggs, GAGS AND CROWDS

After the scenario and main characters were defined, I've brought them together in a single sketch. This sketch presents the main position for each main character and already suggests some gags and funny situations. NetherRealm Studios staff also worked hard to give me lots of ideas. Take a look

below to see a comparison between a part of the sketch and final illustration.

Sketch showing only the basic shapes and colors of some stages + situations for main characters.

Final illustration with more generic people added + finalized characters and scenario.

Finalization

After the sketch was approved, I started to create the final linework for all the scenario and characters.

In a complex project like this, digital painting, linework and light/shadow effects need to be very balanced. So, instead of making each step at a time, I ended up working all this phases at the same time. Take a look at the evolution of the finalization process:

Finally,
here you can see the
complete poster with
the Mortal Kombat
official logo.

Hope you liked reading about this project! You can see and play a larger 4K version
version of "Where's Scorpion?" illustration here , at WarnerBros website.

By the way: did you find Scorpion? ;)

Have a project in mind? Drop a line!

Gus Morais - Seek-and-find Illustrator

instagram http://instagram.com/gus_morais

e-mail gusilustra@gmail.com