Tonight, I continue the soccer player series with Lionel Messi. Lionel Andrés Messi was born 24 June 1987 and is an Argentine footballer who currently plays for FC Barcelona and the Argentina national team as a forward or winger. He also holds Spanish citizenship, which makes him eligible as a EU player. Considered one of the best football players of his generation and frequently cited as the world’s best contemporary player, Messi received several Ballon d’Or and FIFA World Player of the Year nominations by the age of 21 and won both by the age of 22. His playing style and ability have drawn comparisons to Diego Maradona, who himself declared Messi his “successor”.

I did a full body caricature on Messi. I didn’t like the background so I took him off and made a new one similar but with a little more depth and color. Hair can be challenging when changing backgrounds because the background color bleeds into the hair, and other places. I masked the hair off as best I could but it still required painting the hair on his head as well as his arm hair. I decided to add a little detail to his face because it seemed a little washed out. I added facial hair as well as some sweat droplets. He looked like he should be sweating. I really enjoyed this one and I hope you do as well. I’ve posted the image I started with below for comparison.

I hope you enjoyed. Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!