Fight of the Century
   THE WAY OF THE DRAGON

The making of FIGHT OF THE CENTURY, a 3D2D digital painting tribute to Tang Lung vs. Colt's epic duel to the death at the Colosseum in THE WAY OF THE DRAGON. Their unforgettable fight consistently ranks #1 on film fight lists everywhere, and when you analyze the fight, the psychology, drama and honor between these two modern gladiators are second to none.

3D rendered image of Colt vs Tang Lung who are 3D models fighting in the 3D modeled Colosseum

CG Modeling

Built the characters and background in 3D software, XSI. Painted basic skin, hair, face, clothing and background textures in Photoshop. Actually, the entire Colosseum was built just for this shot. Man, did those bricks give me nightmares...




Work in progress illustration of Colt vs Tang Lung fighting in the Colosseum

Digital Painting

The 3D rendered image was then imported into Photoshop... now let the 2D painting, BEGIN! Every inch of the image was painted over. This is the two-step process I coined? - 3D2D Digital Painting.



2012 completed version of Tang Lung vs Colt in full figure fighting in the Colosseum

2012 Version

Completed this version in 2012 as a posting for my Bruce Lee Facebook fanpage. I had no intention to do anything further with this piece, but something was missing... can you spot it in the next image? Tang Lung also needed a makeover the more I looked at it over the years.








Cropped version of the finished illustration of Colt vs Tang Lung fighting in the Colosseum

2016 Revision   |   Fight of the Century

That one week stay in the hospital really woke me up. I couldn't wait to get home to start revising, and so, the cropping of the image was designed to make the gladiators appear even larger. Majority of the revision was on Tang Lung, and the title? It was a no-brainer.

Full image of Fight of the Century created in 3D2D digital painting of Colt throwing a punch at Tang Lung who is ducking and loading up a punch himself











Medium closeup of Colt vs. Tang Lung fighting at the Colosseum












Don't hesitate to email me at martengo or via if you have any questions regarding my work process.


Positive SSL