14- Behind the scenes

Back again. Here are some side by side comparisons of my layout and the final inked art for some pages from issue 14. My current process (which seems to be changing regularly if you compare to older posts on this blog) is to do a rough layout (shown below) scan it, enlarge it and print it in light blue on to the art board. Then I tighten up the detail a bit in pencil (not shown below) and ink it (shown below). Then scan it again and its off to Fco for colors.

14!

In stores today. Buy it! Lots of cool prisony stuff this issue, plus the introduction of a major new bad guy in poor Wolf-Mans life.

MSU Comics forum.

Late notice, but for those of you in the Lansing, Michigan area I will be at the Michigan State University comics forum tomorrow (Saturday, March 28) from 11:30 am - 4:30 pm. Check more info here- http://www.comicsforum.msu.edu/

13 Pencils

Not much time to write stuff tonight, but really is that what people want to see? I say "No", anybody can write stuff. What you want to see are rough scribbly and occasionally (often ?) crappy behind the scenes sketches and stuff. So here you be, some of the rough pencil pages for issue 13. Go!

Note on page 1, panel 3 changed a bit on the final art. I like the scope of this panel, but Robert thought it might be better to zoom in so that we could actually SEE the characters. That Kirkman is a smart dude.
Note that on this page a dude gets punched.
These next 2 page spreads were some of the most fun things to draw for the whole issue.

Cover 17 process

Howdy. Cover process time! This cover for me was all about getting the right design. Robert discussed with me what would be happening and his idea for a cover for this issue. Based on this I did sketch A. This sketch came right away and I really liked it and thought it would make a cool 'in your face' cover. But Robert wanted to see something different. So I worked up some other sketches which i didn't like so much. I just couldn't get into them, mainly because I felt I had already solved the design with version A. After discussing these with Robert and letting a little time pass, I came back and did sketches F- H. We agreed on G, and I banged it out. I literally spent more time on the sketches for this cover than I did on the actual drawing of the cover.

As usual I forgot to scan my finished pencils.But the process went like this. I enlarged my sketch to about 4" X 6", tightened up the drawing on another sheet of paper, then I scanned that enlarged it to full comic page size, converted it to light blue color and printed to directly to the comic board. The I added detail and fixed things up a bit in pencil. I inked over that mainly using a brush on the figure and pens on the sword and ground.

After it was inked, I scaned it and using my good friend Photoshop added some color. I love coloring the covers, particularly as I now am no longer coloring the interior pages to the book. My goal is to pick a color scheme that I feel will pop, and make the image stand out.
And that is all.

13!

So, I have been a little slow on posts lately. Sorry. Not to make excuses but I have been drawing like a crazy person and just haven't had much extra time. Anyway, issue #13 comes out to day. Big things are happening in the world of Wolf-Man so check it out. I'll be back soon with some pencil pages and other goodness.

Things

A couple cool things today.

First. Last week The Astounding Wolf-Man volume 1 was named to the American Library Association's list of Great Graphic Novels for Teens 2009. We didn't make the top 10, but still making the list at all is pretty cool. Check out the full list of books here- http://tinyurl.com/djzhgh

Second. I finally have a gallery over at Deviant Art. If you have been following this blog for a while, most of the images over there will not be new to you, but there may be a couple things that you haven't seen. I will of course continue to keep up this blog. I am not sure but I am thinking that I will probably share more of my process and behind the scenes stuff here, and only put the finished stuff on DA. We'll see how it works out. Find it here- http://jasonhoward.deviantart.com/

Third. So as not to have a post with no art, here are a couple pencil pages from #12.

12 Today

Issue #12 comes out today. I have yet to see a printed version, but I am sure that it is smashing. Here is the cover so you can look for it. I find it a little odd to realize that I have drawn 12 consecutive issues of a comic book (technically more, but only 12 issues are out). I clearly remember a time in my attempts to make comics where just finishing 1 page seemed like a major accomplishment. And now I am going on almost 300 pages of comics just for Wolf-Man. Thats pretty cool. Anyway, I am not sure why I am telling you this. Unless you are struggling through difficult times in trying to reach a goal that you have, then I guess the message would be to stick with it. Anyway, bye.

Cover 15

Here's another sneak peak at an upcoming cover. Its a prison riot! The first 2 sketches were a little simpler and designy. But we felt that something showing more of the guards, and the prison would be cool. This led to sketch C, which with a few little tweaks became the design of the final cover. Enjoy!

Last post...

...of 2008! Yay.

So issue 11 was inked by the multi-talented Cliff Rathburn. If you haven't checked out the Reaper book he drew for Image a couple/few years ago do yourself a favor and track it down. Its a great action fest. Anyway, I thought yous guys might want to see some of the pencils. If not, then stop reading this post. It was a cool experience for me to see my pencils inked by someone else, especially someone as talented as Cliff.

By the way, have a great new year. If you have been regular viewer of my little blog here, I just want to say thanks! I appreciate the comments and I hope your 2009 is super fine.

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all have a great holiday this coming week. Hopefully you have some time off from work/school and are able to spend some time with family and friends. Remember the true meaning of the season and try to avoid getting caught up in the commercialization of the holiday. Of course if you want to be commercialized, well who I am I to stop you? In fact let me even suggest something that you can spend your money on. Shipping to finer comic book shops everywhere this week are both parts of the Invincible/Wolf-Man crossover. Invincible 57 actually continues the story from Wolf-Man 10, and leads right into Wolf-Man 11. Lots of cool stuff. I got to draw Invincible which was fun. And Ryan Ottley draws a great Wolf-Man. So check it out.

Cover 14

I don't think this cover has been shown anywhere yet, so you get an exclusive preview here. Who else would do that for you? First up is the layout/design. Pretty simple concept, Wolf-Man goes to jail.

And now the finished piece. The color scheme changed a bit, but otherwise it stayed pretty close to the sketch.

10 Pencils

Just a quick one today. Here are some of the pencil pages for issue 10.

Time for 10

Issue 10 should be out this Wednesday. Its the big "secret orgin of Zechariah" issue. Here is some of the process stuff for the cover (the original black and white art for this, is for sale at splashpageart.com. Plug. Plug).

After talking about the type of image that we wanted with Robert, I did a couple small sketches. I wanted something with a "Batman" feel. This one seemed to have potential so I dropped in some color to start getting a sense for what the final image might look like.

Once I got the OK on this sketch I began the pencils. After seeing how it worked with the logo dropped in place, I decided that the design worked better facing the other direction.


Then on to the inks. This was done with a real brush. This marks a switch for me on Wolf-Man as previous to this I had mostly been using brush markers and pens to ink with. Since this cover I have done a majority of the inking with a real brush.



And here is the final cover all colored and with the logo and other trade dress in place. So as not to make it seem too "girly" I left out the pink background in favor of the red. Sorry to any girls who would have preferred the pink :)

Cover 13 Process

I've been super busy the past couple weeks. But I always make time for you my lovely internet. Well, maybe not quite so lovely. Anyway. Here is a sneak peak at the cover for issue 13 of Wolf-Man. Plus the development sketches that went into it. I think most the sketch stuff is pretty self-explanatory. But if you want to know what I have to say about them, read one of my other cover process posts, I am sure much of the same stuff applies.

9 is mine!

And on Wednesday it can be yours. Issue 9 is full of all sort of comic book coolness. Lets see, there is some talking, then some fighting, then a little bit of running, then some more talking, interrupted by some clawing and jumping, then we have some angry talking plus a bit more fighting and then a surprise. I hope that doesn't give away too much, but as you can see a whole bunch of cool stuff happens. After the issue comes out I will post some pencil pages and such, but for now here is the cover.


Also, I mentioned the 24hr comic book thing in my last post. I will at some point give a more in depth review of the event, but leading up to it one of the local papers wanted to run self portraits of the artists involved. Below was my submission.

24

No, not the TV show with Keifer Sutherland getting blown up once an hour, I am talking about 24hr comic day. This Saturday, October 18 I will be participating in 24 hr comic day at Clem's Collectibles in Lansing, MI.

www.clemslansing.com/wordpress/?cat=16

If you are in the area stop in and wake me up.

Wolvie

Here's a Wolverine that I did just for fun. Everyone likes Wolverine right? Yes, I know that his costume is not quite right. I based it on the JR JR design from the Enemy of the State run, and the web image I found for reference was tiny and I missed some details (5 geek points for anyone who knows what the costume is missing). Then as I was coloring the image I realized I had this trade on my book shelf which is full of non-tiny art and would have made great reference. Oh well.

8 Process

So, here we are again. How's your week going? Good? I'm glad to hear it. Now on to business.

This time I thought that I would show some of the process stuff for a couple pages from the recently released issue #8. First a little background. Starting with issue #8 (actually it started with the short story in Monster Pile-Up but since that was not a full issue I will just say "starting with issue #8") Fco Placencia has been helping me out on the coloring of the book. Fco also colors Invincible as well as the neato Gemini book from Image, check them out. Anyway, I am big nerd for color. In a perfect world I would have a clone of me that did all my coloring for me. This clone would also have more talent and be more skilled than I. While I know that I am not the worlds best colorist, I enjoy coloring my own work, and I even more than that I like having the control. Thats the reason why for the first 7 issues of Wolf-Man I colored them. But the reality is that this stuff has to be done on a relatively quick time table and it is hard enough to pencil a monthly book, let alone pencil ink and color one. In order for me to be able to spend the time necessary to do the level of quality I want to do on the actual drawing (and hopefully improve), I needed to give up some of the coloring. This is where Fco comes in. He takes my flat colors adds light and shadow and brings them to life. So on the following 2 sets of examples you will see the whole page from the rough pencils/layout that I do, to the inks, to my flat colors and finally to Fco's finished colors. Enjoy.