Lois & Clark #5 Cover - Inking Neal Adams

Heres a look at my first professional inking job over somebody else. It was for a Lois and Clark cover by Neal Adams.... no pressure.

Had a total blast doing this - if the penciling gig goes dry I might switch to inking..

The cover is out in stores now from DC Comics!

Here are Neal's pencils that were provided to me...

Detail.

I had email my editor to determine if he was changing into a monster or just mad -didn't know anything about the story. Interesting to be on this side of things...

I turned the art into blue line and printed out on full size DC Cover Stock.

I stared with a Pigma Micron 02 pen and just started with the faces.

Detail of Pigma 02 and a Zig Managka Flexible F on the thicker blacks.

Worked into the main figures - using 02 and 08 Pigmas and some Pitt S.

Same tools just working farther back into depth of field

Detail

Not worrying pretty lines just drawing in ink...

All main figure work done. 

Using the 08 and Mangaka F to thicken everything up plus a little Pitt F. Basically whatever was handy... 

Detail

Really happy with how the face turned out - good thing....

The finished art. 

I had Rachel Dodson fill in the blacks with her brush and india ink to make sure it looked sharp (good help if you can get it ;-)

Detail

Worked on the wedding dress material and little bits of white out here and there.

Scanned in and sent off to Mark Chiarello for approval.

Alex Sinclair added his masterful coloring for final print.

TD

Star Wars #16 Step by Step Part 2 Color

How we made the Star Wars #16 cover - out now from Marvel Comics!

Part 2 COLOR

Flats

The first stage of color is called flats - flatting allows me to choose an area to color at any point throughout the coloring process.

Generally, I hire someone to do this for me - a "flatter".

At this stage I go and adjust the colors to their medium value or imprimatura - I use this as the starting point for the piece. - the first part of coloring. 

Initial Color Rough in

I colored this on my Cintiq 13 HD using Photoshop CS3 after I scanned the original line art.

Detail 1

Refine and adding lights and darks.

Detail 2

Begin turning lineart to color - really focused on Leia first.. plus working on reflective light.

Detail 3

Final colors

Add a shadow across Leia's legs to focus the piece more.

And then colored lineart on Stormtroopers

How my screen looks... 

Reworked lighting on Leia's Face, the red glow of the Numbers (77 of course),  and lots of little clean ups.

And the printed art-

Out in stores now by Jason Aaron and Leinil Yu!

PART 1

LINE ART

TD

Star Wars #16 Step by Step Part 1 Lineart

How we made the Star Wars #16 cover - out now from Marvel Comics!

Part 1 Lineart

So the first thing to do is come up with a cover sketch. Leia guarding Stormtroopers given to me by my Marvel Editors Jordan White and Heather Antos - pretty simple!

Cover Rough

Leia guarding Stormtroopers given to me by my Marvel Editors Jordan White adn Heather Antos - pretty simple!

Sketch was approved as is!

 The sketches are drawn at 2x3 inches in my sketchbook in pencil and pen and then cleaned up and colored in Photoshop.

Initial Pencils

My initial pencils drawn in Light Blue and HB lead on 12 x 18 Bristol Board,

Final pencils.

Detail of Leia

Lineart

Rachel Dodson's inks over my pencils with a Windsor Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable #2 Brush and Higgins Black Magic Ink to ink the covers with.

Leia Detail

Stormtrooper Detail

Next - 

Part 2 

Colors

TD

Long Beach Comics Expo, Feb 20-21

Rachel and I will be Special Guests at Long Beach Comics Expo, Feb 20 -21-

http://longbeachcomicexpo.com/

WHERE/WHEN

We will be in Artist Alley D1 and will be there all day Saturday and Sunday apart from breaks and this panel -

Art of Star Wars and the Fandom Behind It, Saturday, Feb 20

I will notify via twitter

twitter.com/TerryDodsonArt

any specific time changes for my table.

SIGNING

We will be signing the whole time we are at the table.

COMMISSIONS/SKETCHES

I will be taking a sketch list at the start of the show.

12 x 16 Sketches $400

9 x 12 Sketches $250

Blank Cover Sketches $150

ORIGINAL ART

We will have original art pages and covers available.

PRINTS/POSTCARDS

We will have a variety of Prints and Postcards for sale.

SKETCHBOOKS

I will have my sketchbooks MASQUERADE and Bombshells 7 available.

I will also have copies of RED ONE plus some variant covers!

See you there!

TD

Flash #47 Harley Quinn Cover Step 2 Color

Here's the second part of a look at how we created the Flash #47 Harley Quinn Variant Cover - out now from DC Comics.

The Color Stage 

Flats

The first stage of color is called flats - flatting allows me to choose an area to color at any point throughout the coloring process.

Generally, I hire someone to do this for me - a "flatter".

On the left are the flats directly from my flatter and on the right is my version - optimized for how I color.

At this stage I go and adjust the colors to their medium value or imprimatura - I use this as the starting point for the piece. - the first part of coloring. 

Initial Color Rough in

I colored this on my Cintiq 13 HD using Photoshop CS3 after I scanned the original line art.

Detail

Refine and adding lights and darks - the work in progress version of the cover I sent in to make sure we were all on the same page.

Detail

Begin turning linear to colors and then making sure that fire looked HOT!

Detail

Finished colors

Worked on the background more and pushed shadows more.

And the comic itself -

Out now!

STEP 1 LINE ART

TD

Flash #47 Harley Quinn Cover Step 1 Lineart

How we made the Harley Variant cover. We had a blast making this cover and I think it shows up in the final cover!

Step 1 - Lineart

So the first thing to do is come up with a cover sketch. It  needs to be approved by DC Comics before I can start drawing the cover.

Wasn't 100% sure what to do for this cover as I could do anything - too many choices! So I asked my editor, Eddy Choi, if he had any ideas and he mentioned Harley and Flash racing in the desert like Wiley E. Coyote and the Roadrunner! Bingo!

Sent initial sketch to Eddy and sketch "C".

 The sketches are drawn at 2x3 inches in my sketchbook in pencil and pen and then cleaned up and colored in Photoshop.

My initial pencils drawn in Light Blue and HB lead on 12 x 18 Bristol Board

Nailing Harley down.

Final pencils.

Detail of Harley and Flash

Detail of Harley's boots...

Rachel Dodson's inks over my pencils with a Windsor Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable #2 Brush and Higgins Black Magic Ink to ink the covers with.

Harley

Flash

Boots

And then I scan and clean in Photoshop.

Next COLOR

TD