A background with stars pattern with 4 multishape stars in 4 colors
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Stan Lee

Stan Lee

Medium
Fine Art
Dimension
6 x 9 in
Date
March 2026
Tools Used
Gouache
Winsor & Newton
Project
The Fantastic Four: First Dreams
Description

If Kirby built the room, Stan Lee opened the door and told you to come in. I painted him smiling, because that is how he is remembered, in the same blue key as his partner and in a shirt patterned with the circled four. The rule around this one is orange rather than yellow, and his years run beneath the portrait, 1922 to 2018. Excelsior was his sign-off and his instruction at the same time. It still reads as both.

Tribute card for Stan Lee: the blue gouache portrait inside a hand-drawn orange rule, hand-lettered with his name and the dates 1922 to 2018.
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The Fantastic Four: First Dreams

Previous workNext work
Gouache portrait of Jack Kirby in blues and teals, hand resting at his cheek, against a ground patterned with four-pointed stars.
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Jack Kirby

March 2026
Gouache portrait of Stan Lee smiling in blues, in dark-framed glasses and a shirt patterned with circled number four motifs.
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Stan Lee

March 2026
Graphite and coloured pencil presentation drawing of the Baxter Building and the Excelsior tower in perspective, with hand-lettered callouts and a circled number four mark.
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The Baxter Building & The Excelsior in Perspective

December 2025
Alcohol marker, acrylic and coloured pencil still life of the Fantastic Four uniform, a blue suit with a circled four, a white glove in the sleeve, grey boots and a buckled belt, against cream with turquoise stars.
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Fantastic Costume

November 2025
Oil painting on canvas of an open hand held palm out with the thumb tucked, hand-lettered four three two one we have lift off, with the First Steps logo at lower right.
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‘Four’ The Stars

November 2025
Composite poster of a torso in a blue Fantastic Four suit with arms crossed over a city skyline, lettered PREPARE and LAUNCH beside the circled four, with the First Dreams lockup below.
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Prepare 4 Launch

December 2025
Mock magazine cover composite with a large serif masthead, a portrait in a blue Fantastic Four suit beside a futuristic tower and launch spires, and cover lines reading Fantastic Dreams.
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NY Times Cover

December 2025
Composite poster of a young man in a knitted four jumper looking upward through blue confetti on a New York street, crowds holding hand-painted good luck and we love Fantastic Four signs.
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Look Up To My Heroes

December 2025
Composite poster in forced perspective, a white-gloved hand reaching toward the camera past a portrait in a blue suit, with towers, a rocket and a small robot saying hello.
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Four Fingers

December 2025
Digital illustration of the Excelsior spacecraft, a swept silver craft with blue wingtips firing orange engine trails above the curve of Earth, stars and distant planets behind.
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Excelsior In Space

December 2025
Retrofuturist vector poster on cream, the numeral four repeated as nested rounded shapes in blue, cyan, orange and red receding to four small figures at the centre, with a monogram and Future Foundation lockup along the base.
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44444444

December 2025
Retrofuturist vector illustration of a figure in a blue suit with gloved hands crossed, the Excelsior arcing overhead on an orange trail among planets and starbursts, inside an orange and blue border.
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First Dream

March 2026
Four Fantastic Four First Steps flyers arranged in a two by two grid on cream, their shattered blue glass, orange rock and flame shards meeting in a single burst at the centre.
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Fantastic Four Flyers

October 2025
Final frame of the animation, cream ground with pale teal atomic starbursts, a blue rocket trailing yellow, the circled Fantastic Four badge and the words Happy 4-4 Day.
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Happy 4-4 Day

April 2026
Animation frame with a scanline texture, four flat-shaded figures in Santa hats standing inside rounded orange, red and teal outlines that recede behind them on cream.
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Message from Marvel's First Family

December 2025
The First Dreams artbook seen face on, a deep blue hardcover with the title the Fantastic 4 First Dreams in silver, the circled four at the right and four small character panels at the corners.
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The Fantastic Four: First Dreams Artbook

December 2025 - Ongoing
The printed research paper laid out flat, the cover carrying a blue painted portrait of Stan Lee smiling in his glasses inside a gold keyline, with interior pages either side.
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Stan Lee — A Hero Beyond All Superheroes

April 2026
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Look Up!

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Gouache self-portrait in black-framed glasses on a deep red field, a red rose crossing the face, a spent sunflower at the shoulder and the letters T, A and N set into the composition.
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Multi-Portrait

November 2025
Framed charcoal and graphite drawing of a mock TIME magazine cover, with a hand-lettered masthead and a portrait of a young man in glasses under the headline A Plan in Tan's Hand.
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A Plan in Tan’s Hand

April 2026
Four gouache panels in blue and gold shown together as a set, each staging a different idiom as a single image.
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Visual Idioms

January 2026
Gouache self-portrait with the top of the head opened like a planter and filled with coloured building blocks, a small green umbrella above and a tree at the left.
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Father Nature

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DTMF Bad Bunny

April 2026
Oil painting of the Statue of Liberty in green with a hand on her heart against red and white stripes, beside a hand-lettered blue panel reading Miss Liberty says, America needs love.
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America Needs Love

April 2026
Oil portrait of a young man with vivid blue hair shading his eyes, in a gold garment against a dark ground, with a teal square, red circle and yellow triangle at his shoulder spelling his full name in Mandarin characters.
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Kyle’s Portrait

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Oil portrait of a young girl in a crown of daisies, roses, tulips and a sunflower, a yellow butterfly at the left and a glowing blue butterfly at her shoulder, on a warm yellow to pink ground.
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The Flower Crown On Sister's Hair

June 2026
Oil self-portrait in glasses against a ground split between red and deep navy, with a glowing sunflower behind the ear and two monarch butterflies lifting away from it.
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Young Man With Sunflower

May 2026
Alcohol marker and coloured pencil illustration of a Vietnamese broken rice plate with grilled pork, a fried egg, herbs and pickles, hand-lettered Cơm Tấm.
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Vietnamese Food

November 2025
Gouache painting on a red field, a large gold five-pointed star with a single eye behind black-framed glasses set inside it.
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A Star In Tan

March 2026
Oil triptych Vietnamese Spirit, the Lac bird carrying a golden lotus, a young man in a red Ao dai holding a gold star, and a Ly-Tran dynasty dragon.
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Vietnamese Spirit · Long Lac Heart Reunion

April 2026
Gouache portrait of Jack Kirby in blues and teals, hand resting at his cheek, against a ground patterned with four-pointed stars.
View

Jack Kirby

March 2026
Gouache portrait of Stan Lee smiling in blues, in dark-framed glasses and a shirt patterned with circled number four motifs.
View

Stan Lee

March 2026
Graphite and coloured pencil presentation drawing of the Baxter Building and the Excelsior tower in perspective, with hand-lettered callouts and a circled number four mark.
View

The Baxter Building & The Excelsior in Perspective

December 2025
Alcohol marker, acrylic and coloured pencil still life of the Fantastic Four uniform, a blue suit with a circled four, a white glove in the sleeve, grey boots and a buckled belt, against cream with turquoise stars.
View

Fantastic Costume

November 2025
Oil painting on canvas of an open hand held palm out with the thumb tucked, hand-lettered four three two one we have lift off, with the First Steps logo at lower right.
View

‘Four’ The Stars

November 2025
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Tribute card for Stan Lee: the blue gouache portrait inside a hand-drawn orange rule, hand-lettered with his name and the dates 1922 to 2018.Tribute card for Stan Lee: the blue gouache portrait inside a hand-drawn orange rule, hand-lettered with his name and the dates 1922 to 2018.
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