X-Men Legacy 226 Cover Step by Step 2

OK, the continuing adventures of the X-Men cover.

In the next step, I finalized Rogue's figure and began working on Gambit and Danger. I also starting figuring out exactly what all the background elements would be.

After that, I starting finishing up Rogues costume details, especially the cape. 

Finally, I set up the fire in the foreground to properly light the figures and in Gambit's case to cast in shadows. I then nailed down Gambit's details before moving on.

X-Men Legacy 226 Cover Step by Step 1 Rough

Ok, as this issue hasn't shipped yet, I can't really say too much about the how's and why's of the concept for the piece but based off what I was told to do on the cover this image popped into my head and I only sent in the one sketch, colored up ( I actually prefer to send in as few sketches as possible, because it almost always seems that the weakest idea is picked - so I like to go with my idea/s). The sketch was done in my sketchbook at 4 x 6 inches with Col-Erase Light blue pencil, Staedtler HB lead, and a Pitt Black artist pen sizes S and B. This is actually pretty big for a cover sketch for me, I average about 1.75 x 2.75 inches for a cover sketch - so I can focus solely on the composition and not get caught up in  the detail of the image itself - that's what makes it fun to draw the actual cover and not just a boring tracing job.

I then scanned it and cleaned up and did a quick color job in Photoshop CS3 and sent that in for approval. The color sketch is more important than the drawing itself at this point as I will usually follow my initial color's fairly closely on the final piece.

Once approved, I then roughed in the drawing onto 13 x 19 Strathmore 500 2ply bristol board with the blue pencil. 

Then once I was happy with the composition, I begin roughing all the characters structure and perspective for the drawing. As Rogue was the focus of this cover I made sure I nailed her face to start off so I could then work away on the rest of it.

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X-Men Legacy 226 Cover Pencils and Inks

Here's my pencils and Rachel's inks for this cover - original art is 13" x 19".

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X-Men Legacy 226 Solicitation Art

Here's the solicited version of the cover to X-Men Legacy 226 featuring Rogue (yeah!), Gambit and Danger (huh?!).  This is only about halfway done colorwise as it needs lots more polishing and the SFX are cheesy. I will  have a fairly thorough step by step for this cover from the sketch stage all the way to the final printed version.

TD

Free Comic Book Day 2009

I will be doing two signings in Portland, Oregon this year for Free Comic Book Day May 2 2009.

11:30-12:30 Hollywood Things From Another World

3:00-4:00    Milwaukee Things From Another World

TD

Uncanny X-Men #504 page 3 Step by Step

So this is a good example of how I work - rough in page, establish perspectives and then draw figures so I stay loose and the figures have life. Finish off by double check reference for details such as tattoo equipment and backgrounds. As is par for the course, I found really good tattoo shop ref AFTER I completed page!

TD

Another sneak peek

Here's a close up preview of an upcoming cover. I'm still working on the colors for the final piece but this will the "solicited" version.

TD

WEEKEND REWIND Doves Kingdom of Rust

Something a little different for the weekend.

I've been meaning to showcase new books/etc that I find that interesting or inspiring etc, and this blog seems a good place to do that. Also I thought it might be interesting to see what I'm listening to as I have something on the whole time I'm working whether it's music, movie, radio, books on tape, sports etc to give an even better "behind the scenes" look.

I'm starting out today with the new album from Doves as I've been waiting 4 years for it - since they're last album came out! I'm not recommending this as only I've heard it 3x since I got it this week but am happy to report it sounds good so far. I got tickets to see them in concert next month and am really stoked to see them live for the first time.

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Details on Panel Construction - An answer to a comment

I am posting in response to a comment in a previous post re: a question about the above panel-

"I find it tough to draw a scene like that, period. But, when I do it can often appear rather static like its set in a jell mold."

"Any tips?"

OK, good question.

First off, I will say that this panel wasn't 100% successful as I didn't get the sense of the environment/scene setting that I was trying for - and - this panel asked for a lot of details and as this was the last page of the issue on a tight deadline, I took a # of shortcuts to get it done.

Process-

1. Storytelling - know what information you need to put in the picture to make it clear to the reader what is happening in the panel/story - sounds boring but if this step fails the rest is "just putting lipstick on a pig".

2. Now to make it interesting and explosive use a variety of shapes, sizes, textures, - basic composition - but use composition to help you out and to make the picture interesting and provide depth.  I tilted the horizon line to make the reader feel off kilter as everything in the picture is. One last thing I did was make all the objects/characters explode out from where the vehicle entered the scene like explosions lines.

3.Ground in reality - use perspective to pull all those things into the same scene. Also, use overlapping shapes to provide depth of field (and secondary perspective). Finally, use blacks to give depth, for overall design and to lead the eye where you want it -in this case the vehicle exploding into panel

After the piece was inked, I went back in and added little details and blacks to help push the panel like I conceived it in my head. I like being able to do this with all my art.

TD

Uncanny X-Men #506 page 22 Step by Step INKS

Here's Rachel's inks. I opted to do as little as possible to Emma's "diamond" flesh and I think it turned out well - especially once it was colored.

Uncanny X-Men #506 page 22 Step by Step PENCILS

So I made Colossus the correct # of heads tall and voila. The final thing I did was to add the dramatic double lighting to Colossus to really add some depth and power (as Emma is in diamond form and white costume to set off against).

Uncanny X-Men #506 page 22 Step by Step ROUGH PENCILS

So I was fairly happy with how the movements and posing of the figures turned out but something was bugging me on Colossus - turned out his proportions were a little off - which I corrected for the final. And, this was the final page of the issue and it was important to have this image read really strong.

Upcoming Step by Step Full Size Sneak Peek

So here's the whole  but no quite finished full version as there are number of coloring tweaks and effects I need to do still.

Upcoming Step by Step Sneak Peek

Here's a little sneak peek at an upcoming cover I did that will have a fairly thorough step by step from design to pencils to inks to colors featuring "The All New All Deadly Dark X-Men".

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-