I’m strongly considering picking up the Guardians of the Galaxy concept art book because it has to be filled with interesting designs. I’m happy with almost everything in the finished feature, but I’m always curious about what could have been, and concept art always shows roads not taken. Artist Andy Park has posted some of his unused designs for Thanos’ daughters Gamora and Nebula, and I think what he came up with was in some ways superior to what we saw in the finished feature.
Park’s been releasing various designs over the past few weeks. Here’s what he’s released for Gamora [via /Film]:
Here's an early #Gamora design I did for @Guardians Before she had to be green #GuardiansOfTheGalaxypic.twitter.com/2lfDhwk6Xk
— Andy Park (@andyparkart) August 12, 2014You can see that Gamora’s skin was more intricate and at one point she didn’t even have to be green. On the one hand, I think this makes her more visually interesting, but overall, restraint was probably the best way to go when you consider that the team already had one heavily-tattooed humanoid.
Had the most fun working on #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy My fav was designing Nebula! @KarenGillan2 was badass! #marvelpic.twitter.com/yrjEmnev88
— Andy Park (@andyparkart) August 8, 2014Here's another #Nebula design I did for @Guardians Too much fun to work on! She's a #badass#marvel#conceptartpic.twitter.com/01ccjU9la3
— Andy Park (@andyparkart) August 21, 2014#Nebula design I painted for @Guardians focused less on sexy & more on "can kick your a$$"#GuardiansOfTheGalaxypic.twitter.com/BEaay6W2cs
— Andy Park (@andyparkart) August 21, 2014And another #Nebula from @Guardians I painted during the concept phase. #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy#marvel#TooMuchFunpic.twitter.com/XXEglGvxuf
— Andy Park (@andyparkart) August 25, 2014Loved doing this #Nebula concept painting for @Guardians depicting the two sisters #Gamora#GuardiansOfTheGalaxypic.twitter.com/KCmBEKN8Hh
— Andy Park (@andyparkart) August 25, 2014Most of my time on @Guardians was spent designing Gamora. Had tons of fun exploring her look #GuardiansOfTheGalaxypic.twitter.com/XSq8kugBJL
— Andy Park (@andyparkart) August 11, 2014As for Nebula, I like that Park’s designs make her look more powerful. She still has the bald head and cybernetic eye-piece, but the piece is more pronounced in Park’s drawings than in the finished feature. Compared to the character’s final look, you can see how much Nebula was scaled back. I assume director James Gunn‘s thinking was that instead of making Nebula look like an unstoppable warrior, she should come off as the unimpressive sibling. If she looks like too much of a badass, then Gamora would have to look even tougher.
Finally, here’s a team piece Park did at the start of the project:
I painted this @Guardians art at the start of the project. Saw it as StarWars/MadMax #GuardiansOfTheGalaxy#marvelpic.twitter.com/1e6J9lxE09
— Andy Park (@andyparkart) August 15, 2014SEE ALSO: It took three hours to do Zoe Saldana's makeup every day for "Guardians of the Galaxy"
