Mouse & Magpie Illustration

This is a colored version of an inked commission I did for a fan a long while back. The idea was a mouse horder/collector (insert pack-rat joke here) along with a magpie companion.

I enjoy getting a chance to go back and color these to add some more depth and clarity while also hopefully making some new process blogposts for you all to see and eventually to be included in a new sketchbook (though I just released on this summer: Axe Wielders which is still available for sale)

Below is the process for creating the commission as well as coloring the artwork.

Pencils:
The start of this was done as three separate drawings on different sheets of copy paper. The mouse was drawn first and the magpie was drawn using photo reference. On top of those sheets on a lightpad I drew the mouse's collection of goods. Those elements were all scanned and tinted different color in photoshop and moved and re-sized until it fit well inside the square border of the piece. A quick amount of tan digital painting was done to imply the areas of the tree background and the rocks and stick debris in the foreground

Inks:
With the layout complete, I printed it out and taped it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my huion lightpad I was able to see through the surface of the bristol down to the printout to use as a guide as I inked. I inked this with Copic Multiliner SP pens (the 0.3 & 0.7 nibs). Since this original art is what the fan who commissioned this piece will own, I always want the art to be crisp, clean, and detailed enough to stand on it's own without color.

The original was then shipped off to be with it's owner, but not before I got a good scan of it.

Color Flats:
The first step of digitally coloring a piece is do establish the color areas with flat colors (a professional version of coloring-in-the-lines). Here the final color palate isn't as important as being able to easily isolate any part of the piece when it comes time to render it (like being able to grab just the mouse's fur or just the cooking pot, or the sword in the magpie's beak, etc)..so while I got the backgound and figure colors close to final in this step, with all the bits of the mouse's collection overlapping each other, I needed to abstract that and just do vibrantly wrong colors to be sure I got everything and enough separation between them all.

Final Render:
I'll admit, this piece was hard to manage so the viewer could still focus on the characters while being able to get lost in the objects. The rendering was all done with the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop with a stock textured brush. I forgot to mention on the step above, I added a color hold (where I want the ink lines to be a color other than black) to the trees in the background as well as the ground as it recedes into the background on the left.

This piece will be included in the next sketchbook out sometime in 2026!

 

Dawn of the Black Axe Hardcover

Dawn of the Black Axe, the three issue Mouse Guard mini series about the first wielder of the Black Axe is coming out in hardcover in early 2026. The miniseries was written and colored by me and drawn by Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key).

To Pre-Order: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/813486/mouse-guard-dawn-of-the-black-axe-by-david-petersen/

For the hardcover collection, I did all of the book design and asked Gabe to do a new illustration for the cover. Here you can see the final cover design, but below I'll walk you though the process Gabe & I went through to create it.

I sent Gabe some reference and a sketch of the type of image I though the cover needed. Specifically Bardrick with the Black Axe (referencing an old print of mine and a panel of Gabe's from the book) along with the concept of some kind of knot of the five snakes behind him.

Gabe was worried about making the background too chaotic and unreadable and opted for a more geometric and stylized version of the snakes (he told me he was inspire by Thulsa Doom's symbol from the Conan movie). Here are his pencils:

Gabe then inked the artwork in his expert way of knowing how to play with line weight and pattern. And he sent over a high-res scan. 

I then did the color flatting on the piece establishing flat colors for everything and also creating color holds (areas where I want the linework to be a color other than black) on the snake circle and then on all of their eyes. Most of the color choices were established in the issues already I needed just to sample them.

The final colors were done using the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop to render shadows and highlights and add some texture with a stock brush.

Dawn of the Black Axe Cover Roundup

With all issues of Mouse Guard: Dawn of the Black Axe now released (and a hardcover due out early next year) I wanted to look back at all the covers and share the process art posts about each of them and celebrate the work Gabriel, Goni, Derek, Walter, Kevin, Matt and I did for this mini series.

ISSUE #1

Gabriel Rodriguez:

https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/01/dawn-of-black-axe-1-rodriguez-cover.html

David Petersen:

https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/02/dawn-of-black-axe-1-petersen-cover.html

Goni Montes:

https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/06/dawn-of-black-axe-1-montes-cover-process.html

Derek Laufman:

https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/05/dawn-of-black-axe-1-laufman-cover.html

Walter Simonson:

http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/07/dawn-of-black-axe-1-simonson-sdcc-cover.html

ISSUE #2

Gabriel Rodriguez:

https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/03/dawn-of-black-axe-2-rodriguez-cover.html

David Petersen:

https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/03/dawn-of-black-axe-2-petersen-cover.html

Kevin Eastman:

https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/03/dawn-of-black-axe-2-kevin-eastman-cover.html

ISSUE #3

Gabriel Rodriguez:

https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/04/dawn-of-black-axe-3-rodriguez-cover.html

David Petersen:

https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/04/dawn-of-black-axe-3-petersen-cover.html

Matt Smith:

https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/06/dawn-of-black-axe-3-matt-smith-cover.html

Recent Sketchcover Commissions

Here are some of the recent Sketchcover commissions I've done at Heroes Con & SDCC

Lieam with the Black Axe

For my new Sketchbook 'Axe Wielders' I created a new illustration of Lieam with the Black Axe and a runic 11 (as he is the 11th wielder of the ancient weapon).

I know fans have been long waiting for a story that takes place after the Winter storyline, so seeing this illustration of Lieam must feel like a tease, and for that I apologize and thank you for your patience.

Below I'll share the process into making this new piece of art for the sketchbook about all the past wielders of the Black Axe.

It started with a loose sketch of Lieam with the axe that I scanned and color blocked in Photoshop. There's a bit of a homage here to Sean Rubin & Alex Kain's Legends of the Guard story, so I then looked at a lot of photos of bears until I found one that would fit where it looked like it was behind him, but also shrunk down enough to fit in the frame.

I did a draw-over that photo to get a pencil version of the bear's key points I needed to include.

As you can see below, I opted to cover over much of the bear with a stone den opening and also included ferns (barely visible here).

With a printout of the above rough (and perhaps a bit more work done on that stone den and fern leaves) I taped it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series brisol. On my Huion lightpad I was able to ink the piece seeing through to the printout to use as a guide. 

I used Copic Multiliner pens (the 0.7 nib mostly) to ink the piece. With all of Lieam's bracken cloak, lineweight had a lot to do with making sure the image was readable. I also used more texture on the fern leaves to help differentiate from the more open bits of Lieam's cloak and the bear's fur.

When the inks were finished I scanned them and started the coloring process. That first step is all about establishing flat color areas (known as flatting) with no lighting or texture. A professional version of coloring-in-the-lines.

Most of the color choices were straightforward, though I did have to play a bit to get something that worked in color harmony as well as value-play.

At this step I also established color holds (areas where I wanted to linework to be a color other than black) and did so for the runic number (and later the bear's eye)

Here again is the final rendered artwork included in the new sketchbook.

The colors were finished using the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop with a stock textured brush to add shadows and highlights.

The Mouse Guard sketchbook 'Axe Wielders' is available in my online store:
mouseguard.bigcartel.com

Farrer Forging the Black Axe

For a new Mouse Guard Sketchbook titled 'Axe Wielders' about the past wielders of the Black Axe, I created a new piece of Artwork of Farrer forging the ebon blade itself.

Axe Lore was fresh in my mind from the Dawn of the Black Axe mini-series Gabriel Rodriguez and I did together, and it felt only fitting that rather than feature one wielder above another for the cover of the sketchbook, I'd show Farrer creating the mythic weapon.

The sketchbook debuts at SDCC this weekend, but will be available in my online store shortly after. And below is more info about the process of creating the artwork.

Pencils started with a drawing of Farrer himself with his hammer and tongs. I watched a few blacksmithing videos showing axe forging to get the idea of how the Black Axe would have been made. His Hammer and tongs were designs I'd made long ago (and Gabe used in Dawn of the Black Axe for one flashback panel)

Other drawings of the anvil, the axe's barley-twist handle, and Farrer's shop were assembled together in Photoshop (in fact I took a few stabs at the shop environment before I was happy). The Celtic knot-work around the forge was inspired from the illuminated page from Fall showing a stylized illustration of this same scene.

With the above pencils in shape, I printed them out and taped them to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my Huion lightpad I was able to see through the surface of the bristol down to the printout to use as a guide while I inked. I used Copic Multiliner SP pens (the 0.7 nib mostly).

The texture is mostly in the environment around Farrer and his linework is fairly open. What felt odd to me as I inked this was leaving so much of the normally almost entirely inked in axe open for the lighting effects of the forge glow and the hot ore being hammered.

When the inks were finished I scanned them and started the coloring process in Photoshop. The first step of digital coloring is establishing color areas with flat colors (this process is known as 'flatting') and is basically a professional version of coloring-in-the-lines.

With so much of the environment being about lighting and glow that would be added via painting and rendering later, the flats were very hard to make look right––just base colors. At this stage I also established color holds (areas where I want the linework to be a color other than black) on Farrer's tears, the coals, flame, glow, water ripples, and the hot axe head.

The last step was to render the piece. Normally most everything I do in this step is with Photoshop's Dodge and burn tool, but for so many of those glow transitions I used a paintbrush to softly blend in my color transitions.

The dodge and burn tools with a stock texture brush still did do a lot of the heavy lifting to add shadows and highlights with some pebbly texture.

The Mouse Guard Sketchbook 'Axe Wielders'

will be available in my online store shortly after I return from SDCC

mouseguard.bigcartel.com