Sunday, June 03, 2007

Cover process

For those who are into seeing a little bit of the artwork process stuff, I aim to please. In my previous post I showed the rough layout for the cover to issue #4. That was drawn small, about 3" by 4", then scanned in and a little color added to help me decide on the final design. I enlarge the layout up to comic book page size (about 10" by 15") and print it out. I lightbox the layout on to nice paper and using blue pencil redraw the image using the layout as a guide. Then I tighten up the details over the blue lines with a regular mechanical pencil.
Once I am happy with the pencil drawing I ink the image. Nowdays I use PITT brush markers and some pens, these are so much faster for me than a "real" brush. In this stage the design changed a bit as we decided to leave out the cast shadow. I scan the finished ink drawing into Photoshop, where I color it. Although in this case there is not much actual color :) I like to try to design a cover to "pop", that is why I decided to color most of it in gray tones excpt for the blood.

That is pretty much my process for most pages, although I am always trying new things in hopes I may find a faster/better method. Also dependng on how comfortable I am with whatever I am drawing, sometimes my pencils are much looser than above.

The Motor City Con came and went. It was fun. I met some nice people. This was the third year in a row I did a Iron Giant commision for this guy who has an amazing collection of Iron Giant original art. The Simon Bizley one is humbling. Check them all out here-
http://ultimateirongiant.com/origart/origart.php