Catwoman 25 Step by Step

Here's how the cover for DC Comics Catwoman 25, out in stores now, was created by Rachel and I.

These are the sketches I sent in to Catwoman Editor Rachel Gluckstern at DC Comics for approval. The theme was Catwoman Zero Year - Catwoman before she was Catwoman. These cover sketches were all well received but the story was very cat-centric so I was asked to include more cats on the cover and so...

A was picked so on to the pencils….

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

Here's my initial pencils still wrapping up details.

Almost final pencils - I had to go to Comic Con, so I needed Rachel to start inking so….

She inked a little and then I finished up the cat details - including the foreground cat - based on our cat "Chubs"

"Chubs"

Since Rachel was inking this at home while I was in San Diego she was asking questions

Questions

Rachel's inks done with Windsor Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable #2 Brush and Higgins Black Magic ink, plus a little tech pen and croquille for the straight lines.

The final inks.

Scanned and cleaned in Photoshop by Rachel.

The FLAT stage

My initial rough in of the colors, done in Photoshop CS3 with a Wacom Intuos Graphics Tablet.

Polishing the colors.

Turning the lineart into color lines.

The final version of the colors - note the cat in from the of the mystery figure has it's tail now "docked", to make it look like one of our cats, so all the kitties in this piece are based on cats we have had.

Ok, that all folks!

TD