Happy Holidays 2017

Happy Holidays!

Terry

Old Man Jack, Uncanny Avengers, Generation X and Bombshells United all out today! Woof!

A bunch of our new covers are out in stores today!

For the person who has everything on you shopping list ;-)

Star Wars #38 Step by Step Part 3 Color

Our variant cover for Star Wars #38 - out now from Marvel Comics - a chance to draw Luke and Leia and X-Wings and Jedha!

Check out how we made it.

PART 3

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.

I try to adjust the colors to their medium value or imprimatura - I use this as the starting point for the piece. 

INITIAL COLOR (ROUGH IN)

I colored this on my Cintiq 22 HD using Photoshop CS3 .

I rough in quickly all the medium lights and darks on the figures and cast initial shadows.

Using the Pencil Tool (Hard Round pixel Brush) at 100% to to begin and then switch to lower 30-50% to get the right value of color for the next stages of rendering.

RIM LIGHT, GRADIENT, ROSY CHEEKS

On layers above the initial rough in -

LAYER 1 - Used the Gradient tool to fade out the background

LAYER 2 - I added Rosy cheeks to Leia and rounded out her face referencing photos from Empire 

Strikes Back

LAYER 3 - I added the yellow rim light to Luke using the Pencils tool at 100%

COLORING THE LINE ART

This is the icing on the cake step of the process.

I just started working on Luke here...

I colored a lot of the characters black lines, notice the lips, flesh outline and the rocks and clouds in the background.

Fun stuff!

ALMOST FINAL 

The colors I submitted to Marvel, editor Heather Antos had me light the background behind Luke...

FINAL COLOR 

Great suggestion, Heather!

PART 1

PENCILS

PART 2

LINE ART

TD

Star Wars #38 Step by Step Part 2 Line Art

Our variant cover for Star Wars #38 - out now from Marvel Comics - a chance to draw Luke and Leia and X-Wings and Jedha!

Check out how we made it.

PART 2

LINE ART

Rachel Dodson's initial start on the line art on this cover.

Rachel inks directly over my pencils.

TOOLS

Rachel inks with a Windsor Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable #2 Brush and Dr. Martens Hi Carb Ink.

I took a final pass on the inks to get things just right!
I used Pro White and Pitt S Pen to do a few corrects on Leia.

Same thing for Luke's face!

Check out the dust Rachel made with Pro White

Finished inks!

Final line art

Artwork is scanned into Photoshop at 800dpi Gray full size. I then go in and convert to Bitmap and clean to prepare for...

COLOR

Next time in

PART 3

And

PART 1

PENCILS

TD

Star Wars #38 Step by Step Part 1 Pencils

Our variant cover for Star Wars #38 - out now from Marvel Comics - a chance to draw Luke and Leia and X-Wings and Jedha!

Check out how we made it.

COVER SKETCH

The cover concept I sent into Marvel Comics Editors Heather Antos and Jordan White and Lucasfilm for approval.

Roughs were drawn at 2" x 3" in my sketchbook using Warm Grey Copics then colored in Photoshop CS3.

I had a pretty idea of what I wanted to with this one so you can so I set up a pretty simply design with just some editorial tweaks for background figures.

INITIAL PENCILS

Drawn in Light Blue on 12" x 18" Bristol Board 

Quickly roughed in the drawing making sure the composition still help.

I printed out my rough in light blue on the paper to ensure the composition was positioned correctly.

Now that I'm happy with the layout I proceed to penciling - using Staedtler HB lead.

Pretty happy with how this looks compositionally, etc so just keep plugging away!

I draw Leia out of my head and find 3 different photos for both her and the X-Wing in approximately the same position to check for correctness.

I find ref for Luke's blaster and also change his outfit slightly as per editorial.

Using Pitt S Pen to tighten up blaster details.

And here to help Rachel see what I'm doing better...

And a look at the actual pencils...

NOTE - I changed Leia's eyes to look more at camera... I had fought this a bit because none of my ref did this but I knew all along this was the RIGHT way to go,  just had to IGNORE the reference!

And the scan of the pencils....

Next time, 

PART 2

INKS 

TD

Wonder Woman 34 Justice League Variant Cover Step by Step Part 3 Color

The cover to Wonder Woman #34 by Rachel Dodson and me - ships this week!

Here's how we made the cover.

Part 3

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.

I try to adjust the colors to their medium value or imprimatura - I use this as the starting point for the piece. 

Beginning slightly tweaking colors

INITIAL COLOR (ROUGH IN)

I colored this on my Cintiq 22 HD using Photoshop CS3 .

Using the GRADIENT Tool I put in the sky and using the Pencil Tool at 100% to rough in the clouds, as this background is kinda important to the FEEL of the piece.

Next....

I rough in quickly all the medium lights and darks on the figures and cast initial shadows.

Using the Pencil Tool at 100% to knock those in.

I also use the Pencil Tool at about 40% Yellow for the Rim Lighting on the left side of Diana

REFINING THE COLORS

Using a custom brush I added depth to the clouds and refining the shadow in the background using the LASSO tool for the shapes.

COLORING THE LINE ART

This is the icing on the cake step of the process.

I colored a lot of the characters black lines, notice the lips, flesh outline and the rocks and clouds in the background.

REFINING MORE...

You can see I pushed the color of the lineart...

more into the details and the rim light on Dianas hair...

FINAL COLOR

I turn Diana's eyes to brown and voila...

done!

Previously

PART 1

PENCILS

PART 2

LINE ART

TD