Uncanny X-Men #507 page 18 Step by Step INKS

Rachel's inks for the page.

Uncanny X-Men #507 page 18 Step by Step PENCILS

OK, final pencils except writer Matt Fraction had asked me to add in the "newbridge is for lovers" t-shirt for Pixie in panel 2 after he saw the scan of the page. So here I was dropping it in via Photoshop while Rachel was inking the actual page.

My favorite part of the page is the box of "Giant-Sized Sugar Bombs" cereal - I was rereading Calving and Hobbes at the time.

Uncanny X-Men #507 page 18 Step by Step ROUGH PENCILS 2

I took a photo of a milk jug and a cereal carton for panel 2. I already drew page 19 first, so I already knew the setting, lighting, furniture for the bottom panel of Cyclops and the mayor.

Uncanny X-Men #507 page 18 Step by Step THE SCRIPT/THUMBNAILS

So we start off with page 18 script and layout. Again, this was a ways into the issue so I already had a good idea of what the page would look like so no need for a real tight layout. Also, this entire issue was drawn in 4 weeks as opposed close to 6 weeks for the first 3 issues in the arc so the most of this issue was drawn on the fly - optimizing shortcuts over details. Interestingly enough, I think this is most solid issue page for page of the 4 issues. I had finally got a feel for how all the characters and locations looked. And I really prioritized crisp storytelling and solid drafting over everything else.

Uncanny X-Men #507 page 18 Step by Step ROUGH PENCILS

Not a real spectacular page - but you will see a number of stages going in the creation of this page. I always get the figures drawn first so as not to waste time fussing with background details - I will do this last as time allows - however the backgrounds and perspectives are are roughed in lightly.

Rachel's Inks for page 2 and 20

Rachel did a great job on Sebastian Shaw's scruff, in panel 1 of page 20 (just ask her)!

Uncanny X-Men #507 page 20 Step by Step FINAL PENCILS

And how the final pencils turned out.

Uncanny X-Men #507 page 20 Step by Step ROUGH PENCILS

OK, enough monsters, here's a little Emma Frost for you. This page was later in the issue so by the time I got to it, I knew what it was going to look like, so no thumbnails. Also, the first 15 pages were all horizontal based pages because of the overlapping story and I had been dying to do some vertical panels. I scanned this one in as I wanted to doublecheck Emma as something was bugging me. The bottom panel is lighter as there is tracing paper over the top of it to prevent smearing.

Uncanny X-Men #507 page 2 Step by Step FINAL PENCILS

If you compare what I did with the monster here to 506, you'll notice this is a lot less humanoid than that version - I actually used a toy of the beaver character from the Narnia movie (don't ask why this was in the studio) as a basis for this version - it really helped with putting the eyes on side of the monster's face.

I was really  happy with how Angel and Beast turned out in the bottom panel.

Uncanny X-Men #507 page 2 Step by Step ROUGH PENCILS

So here I roughed in the the monster and backgrounds for panel 1 and roughed all of panel 2. I scanned in the page to doublecheck on the proportions of the  monster.

Uncanny X-Men #507 page 2 Step by Step THE SCRIPT/THUMBNAILS

Okay, here's the script and thumbnails-

Rachel's inks for page 1

Rachel inks directly over the top of my pencils with a brush and ink, and a little bit of crowquill, but mostly brush. Borders are done with Rapidographs.

Larger scan 3

Larger scan 2

Larger scan 1

Uncanny X-Men #507 page 1 Step by Step

First off, here's Matt's script for pages one and my thumbnails. Also on this page is the script for pages 2 and 3 and my thumbnails for those pages as well.

Here's the partially completed page. I've drawn all the major figures and roughed in the backgrounds and even roughed in  the perspective for panel 3. I scanned this page in to enlarge the little drawing of the bunker I did in panel 4 and then trace off that enlarged version in panel 3.

 Here's the finished pencils. Note in panel 4, how I changed the shadow on the monster in the foreground. I spotted the blacks in panel 2 and 3 of what I did in the little building in panel 4.

Next up Rachel's inks and Justin's colors.

TD

Jungle Girl

Here's a sketch I did recently of a Jungle Girl outfit (for the first time). Original art is drawn with a light blue Col Erase pencil and HB Lead on 7" x 10" watercolor paper.