Dawn of the Black Axe #3 Petersen cover

Dawn of the Black Axe is a 3 issue mini series written and colored by me and illustrated by the amazingly talented Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key) about Bardrick, the first wielder of the Black Axe!

Issue 3 is up for preorder now in local and online comic shops (APR250931 for my cover) And I wanted to use this post to share a deeper dive into the cover art for cover B (I also have a variant cover and there will be at least one other guest artist for each issue)

To the side you can see the finished cover with logo etc, below I go through the art process to create it.

For my cover I wanted to draw both the Elk and the Matriarch since I hadn't gotten to draw them on either of my past covers. It was a tough composition to get the Elk's head in there as well as a view of the Matriarch and moving around rough drawings in Photoshop was the longest part of the layout stage.

I drew the elk from a reference photo, shile also making some adjustments to make it closer to the anatomy Gabe draws for the interiors. I also found a reference model of a tower roof and used that to trace over and modifu for a balcony/parapet of Lockhaven. The rough was also colored just enough to help me make out the various forms from one another.

With the above layout in a state that I liked, I printed it out on copy paper (two sheets of legal paper trimmed and taped together after printing to fit the whole image) and taped to the back of a sheet of 13" x 13" Strathmore bristol (art size is 12" x 12").

I inked the piece on my Huion lightpad where I can 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 & 0.3 nibs).

The inking work on this piece was about managing texture on the elk, the stone, the dead ivy, the moss, etc.

The inks were then scanned in and I started the coloring process. The first step is called flatting, basically a color-in-the-lines for professionals with flat base colors (no shading or textures.)

The Matriarch and the Elk's  colors were already established in the series, but I had to alter them to fit the lighting of this scene. The background is basically 2 values of the same violet. There was also a fair amount of work in establishing color holds (areas where I want the lineart to be a color other than black) to the elk the moon and the background.

To render the color I used Photoshop's dodge and burn tools with a textured brush to get the highlights, shadows and textures. The cool lighting highlights were achieved by using the freehand lasso tool with a feather to select areas and color shift them more cyan. I also painted in a bit of moon (slightly offset) in the elk to make it look more spectral.

Below is the solicitation info for the third and final issue that will be in shops June 18th, 2025

CODE: APR250931 (Petersen cover)

(W) David Petersen (A) Gabriel Rodriguez

Bardrick's quest to protect the Lockhaven and mouse territories from the surrounding serpents comes to a thrilling conclusion! Will the Black Axe's first wielder be able to complete his task before the poison flowing through his veins claims his life? And who shall come to his aid in his hour of need?!

Dawn of the Black Axe #3 Rodriguez Cover

Dawn of the Black Axe is a 3 issue mini series written and colored by me and illustrated by the amazingly talented Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key) about Bardrick, the first wielder of the Black Axe!

Issue 3 is up for preorder now in local and online comic shops (APR250930 for Gabe's cover) And I wanted to use this post to share a deeper dive into the cover art for cover A (I also have a variant cover and there will be at least one other guest artist for each issue)

To the right you can see the finished cover with logo etc, below I go through the art process to create it.

Since we are both doing covers for the series, I tried to avoid us drawing the same scene or have the same emotional tone for the same issue.

For his Issue 3 cover I asked Gabe for a cover that's a bit of a spoiler, with the Matriarch Siobhan tending to Bardrick.

In the order of events, I'd described idea for the cover before I had a finished script off to Gabe (due to how early covers need to be done and turned in). It meant that when Gabe sent over pencils, he'd drawn a different setting, and I had to quickly ask for the change (which Gabe accomplished with little impact to the figures.) Later this amazingly clean and detailed inked art arrived in my inbox.

When coloring these Dawn of the Black Axe pieces of Gabe's I start with establishing the color holds (areas I want the inkwork to be a color other than black) like the glow of the lantern and the details on Siobhan's garments, and then start laying in flat colors to establish all the shapes. Anywhere Gabe didn't close off his linework I needed to smudge out my hard line of color in the gaps.

I wanted this scene have a color scheme with muted colors of the tent Bardrick erects in issue 2, but then the lantern to cast directional warm light that was done in the next step.

To render the colors, I used the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop with a stock textured brush. I then lasso areas and color shift them to warm them or cool them. Getting that lantern light was very time consuming––and I had to do it again and again for several pages in the issue itself and I used this cover as my guide.

Below is the solicitation info for the third and final issue that will be in shops June 18th, 2025

CODE: APR250930 (Rodriguez cover)

(W) David Petersen (A) Gabriel Rodriguez

Bardrick's quest to protect the Lockhaven and mouse territories from the surrounding serpents comes to a thrilling conclusion! Will the Black Axe's first wielder be able to complete his task before the poison flowing through his veins claims his life? And who shall come to his aid in his hour of need?!

 

Recent Commissions

No April Fools---Here are some Toned Commissions from ECCC

Saxon on a rock with lichen

Samurai Mouse

Kenzie

A mouse version of an excited young fan

Wood collecting Guardmouse

A Fan's D&D character

Dawn of the Black Axe #2 Kevin Eastman cover

For Issue 2 of Dawn of the Black Axe (mini series written and colored by me and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key) about the first wielder of the Black Axe!), I asked Kevin Eastman to collaborate with me on a variant cover (Cover C: FEB250075)

TMNT is a HUGE part of my comics DNA, and the first comic I saw that made me understand 'people make this stuff up and draw it––I want that job!' I knew Kevin and Peter had swapped pages of the early issues back and forth and that Kevin had recently done some of that with Freddie Williams on some of the IDW TMNT series. 11 year old me wouldn't believe me if I told him I was going to collaborate with Kevin on a cover for Mouse Guard.

Already knowing Gabe's cover for issue 2 was emotional and featured the elk, and mine was all about anticipation with snakes in a cave, I penciled another scene from the series for the collaboration with Kevin. I drew the snake, Bardrick, and the ground on separate sheets of copy paper and scanned them and assembled them in Photoshop (tinting them different colors just to help see the elements).

These pencils were probably a bit unfair to Kevin since there's a lot going on with the sliced blades of grass, all those snake scales, and the textured ground cover.

I sent it off to Kevin and he lightboxed and inked the cover. At this point I also realized I hadn't made design accommodations for the logo, and called my editors were we made the dcecision to have the C covers be logo-free.

I couldn't tell you what pens Kevin used to ink this piece, but it sure 'feels' like Kevin, all that texture and grit. Seeing the file show up in my inbox made me feel like looking over the old balck and white TMNT work in the comics and RPG--except it was Mouse Guard this time.

I started the coloring process by adding flat color to every area––basically a professional version of coloring-in-the-lines to establish the shape and base color of things like Bardrick's fur, the soil, the snake scales, the grass, Bardrick's cloak, etc.

This step is also where I established color holds (areas where I want the lineart to be a color other than black) on the snake's eyes, the texture in the sky, and a faded one on the snake to help add some depth.

The last step was to render all the color with the dodge and burn tools and shift colors and values around until the piece worked as a whole.

I've found that I need to be more subtle with my choices when coloring Gabe's work than with my own and with Kevins I needed to be more bold.

Lastly, I moved Kevin's signature (that was outside the live area of the art) into the piece as a color hold. He said the only way he was comfortable with that was if I added my signature in with his. A boyhood dream come true.

Below is the solicitation info for the second issue that will be in shops April 23rd, 2025

CODE: FEB250075 (Eastman Cover)
(W) David Petersen (A) Gabriel Rodriguez

The origin story of the Black Axe continues!
Bardrick, the first wielder of the Axe, continues his campaign against the serpents surrounding the mouse territories, but even he can't be everywhere at once...The legendary weapon-bearer must serve his duty, but can he truly manage it all on his lonesome?!

Dawn of the Black Axe #2 Petersen Cover

Dawn of the Black Axe is a 3 issue mini series written and colored by me and illustrated by the amazingly talented Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key) about Bardrick, the first wielder of the Black Axe! 

Issue 2 is up for preorder now in local and online comic shops (FEB250074 for my cover) And I wanted to use this post to share a deeper dive into the cover art for cover A (I also have a variant cover and there will be at least one other guest artist for each issue)

To the right you can see the finished cover with logo etc, below I go through the art process to create it.

I gave Gabe the emotional cover and I opted to focus on one of the action scenes...or the anticipation of one of the action scenes.

There is a cave scene, where I was very much inspired by some of the shadow-on-the-wall cinematography of Stephen Spielberg from Raiders of the Lost Ark. So here I drew our hero Bardrick reacting to what we can't see––yet, though he can. The lighting doesn't make logical sense, but oh well, I liked how it communicated so graphically the point. The shadows were actually gleaned from the flats of the scene in the issue of Gabe's snakes and I altered them here and there to get my shadow shapes where I wanted them while avoiding tangents. 

With the above layout in a state that I liked, I printed it out on copy paper (two sheets of legal paper trimmed and taped together after printing to fit the whole image) and taped to the back of a sheet of 13" x 13" Strathmore bristol (art size is 12" x 12").

I inked the piece on my Huion lightpad where I can 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 & 0.3 nibs).

The inking work on this piece was in the shadows making those gradients and avoiding the wall crack-lines.

The inks were then scanned in and I started the coloring process. The first step is called flatting, basically a color-in-the-lines for professionals with flat base colors (no shading or textures.)

Bardrick's colors were already established in the series, but I had to alter them to fit the lighting of this scene. The background is basically 2 values of the same brown and a lot of the heavy lifting of this cover (as well as the work in flatting it) is in those snake silhouettes as color holds (areas where I want the lineart to be a color other than black). I also added color holds to the glow of the lantern and the flame of the candle.

To render the color I used Photoshop's dodge and burn tools with a textured brush to get the highlights, shadows and textures. The warm lighting highlights were achieved by using the freehand lasso tool with a feather to select areas and color shift them warmer I also decided to alter the shadows all a bit cooler because with the warm glow of the lantern, everything was too color matchy-matchy.

Below is the solicitation info for the second issue that will be in shops April 23rd, 2025

CODE: FEB250074 (Petersen cover)
(W) David Petersen (A) Gabriel Rodriguez

The origin story of the Black Axe continues!
Bardrick, the first wielder of the Axe, continues his campaign against the serpents surrounding the mouse territories, but even he can't be everywhere at once...The legendary weapon-bearer must serve his duty, but can he truly manage it all on his lonesome?!

Dawn of the Black Axe #2 Rodriguez Cover

Dawn of the Black Axe is a 3 issue mini series written and colored by me and illustrated by the amazingly talented Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key) about Bardrick, the first wielder of the Black Axe! 

Issue 2 is up for preorder now in local and online comic shops (FEB250073 for the Gabe cover) And I wanted to use this post to share a deeper dive into the cover art for cover A (I also have a variant cover and there will be at least one other guest artist for each issue)

Gabe agreed to do the project, but really wanted me to be the colorist. It's been the hardest coloring work I've ever done...

Since we are both doing covers for the series, I tried to avoid us drawing the same scene or have the same emotional tone for the same issue.

For his Issue 2 cover I asked Gabe to have Bardrick alone and in despair as the spectral elk looms behind him (it will make more sense after you get to read issue 1 next month!).

Gabe sent over pencils (which I quickly approved), and then later this amazingly clean and detailed inked art.

When coloring these Dawn of the Black Axe pieces of Gabe's I start with establishing the color holds (areas I want the inkwork to be a color other than black) like the elk, and then start laying in flat colors to establish all the shapes. Anywhere Gabe didn't close off his linework I needed to smudge out my hard line of color in the gaps.

I wanted this scene (which isn't a direct scene from the issue––but sums up an emotional tone for part of it) to be very blue and set at night. That meant toning down and adjusting the hue of Bardrick and his cloak.

While the flats were easy to establish (only one color hold and a few areas of different color), the rendering is where the work was for my part.

I started by quickly gradating the sky with a paintbrush and then by rendering the elk, all with the dodge tool adding in highlights as through the elk was lit from within and below. to help the ghostly feel I also added an outer glow to the layer and painted in stars (where the stars we see through the elk are at a lighter opacity). I then used Dodge and Burn tools to light the branch and Bardrick from below. To give that warm light I used the freehand lasso with a light feather to select areas to color shift warmer.

Below is the solicitation info for the second issue that will be in shops April 23rd, 2025

CODE: FEB250073

(W) David Petersen (A/CA) Gabriel Rodriguez

The origin story of the Black Axe continues!

Bardrick, the first wielder of the Axe, continues his campaign against the serpents surrounding the mouse territories, but even he can't be everywhere at once...The legendary weapon-bearer must serve his duty, but can he truly manage it all on his lonesome?!

Emerald City 2025

 Emerald City Comic Con is this weekend, and Julia and I will be back in Seattle for the convention! 

I'm in BOOTH 20505 (not in Artist Alley) and you can find me in the exhibitor listing on their webpage. Below is a map showing my location.

I'll have a few new items debuting at the convention: a new silk screened tee shirt, a new 11x11 print, and a 2025 Bookplate. (see below)

I'll also have Mouse Guard books, prints, the RPG, as well as Magic the Gathering Bloomburrow playmats. Original Art will be available for sale and I'll be taking Toned Commissions at my booth.

Map to 20505
I'm on the 2nd level of the convention center near Penguin Random House's booth

New Tee Shirt (sizes S-3X) to debut at ECCC
(in my online store shortly after we return home)

2025 Bookplate
(in my online store shortly after we return home)

11x11 Belladonna Print
(in my online store shortly after we return home)

ECCC Booth from 2024

2025 Convention Plans:

Emerald City Comic Con (Seattle, WA): March 6-9
Motor City Comic Con (Novi, MI): May 16-18

Heroes Comic Con (Charlotte, NC): June 20-22

San Diego Comic Con: July 24-27
New York Comic Con: October 9-12
Baltimore Comic Con: October 17-19

Motor City Comic Con Tee/Hoodie

I'll be returning to Motor City Comic Con this year––a special year as it was 20 years ago at that very convention I launched Mouse Guard with the self-published first issue (which later was republished in color by Archaia and collected as chapter one of Fall 1152). As part of celebrating that occasion, I designed the Motor City Comic Con tee shirt (which they also wanted to make a hoodie of).

They will be available for purchase at the con, but also in their online store: https://mc3.bigcartel.com/

In this blogpost I'll run down the process to create the art for the MC3 merch.

The first bit was talking with the folks over at Motory City Comic Con to see what the printing/color situation they planned for their con-tee. They liked some recent Mouse Guard pieces of mine (like the trio print) and wanted it to be a full color photo transfer tee. They also provided me with logo reference.

I penciled Lieam standing on a mossy rock with a snake behind him (echoing the issue one cover from 20 years ago) and added in some cascading parchment ribbons to frame the piece.

The quick color blocking was to show them my intentions for the overall palette.

Motor City showed the piece around internally as well as to their printer to check for any potential technical trouble. It was given the go-ahead from all involved and so I printed the rough artwork out  and taped it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol.

On my Huion lightpad I was able to see the printout through the bristol's surface to ink from. I used Copic Multiliner SP pens (the 0.7 & 0.3 nibs)

The inking was rather straight forward, but I did try to limit the texture and not go overboard with ink details on the cloak and rock.

With the inks finished I scanned them, cleaned them up (adjusting levels and getting rid of any dust/hairs caught by my scanner) and started the coloring process. Normally when doing colors for a tee shirt design I have to get clever by limiting the colors for silkscreening, but since Motor City wanted to do a full color photo transfer style printing, I could color this just as I would any other Mouse Guard piece.

I blocked in flat colors, mostly based on the ones I'd chosen from the rough layout) and added in  color holds (areas where I want the lineart to be a color other than black) to the text, the logo, and the background weeds. I'd also been provided the final color choice for the tee material, so I dropped that in as reference.

The last step was to render the color using my normal Dodge and Burn tools in Photoshop to add shadows, highlights, and textures as seen at the top of the post.

Here you can also see the mockups of the art on the tee shirt and hoodie as they appear on the Motor City Con's online store (available now for pre-order) https://mc3.bigcartel.com/

2025 Convention Plans:

Emerald City Comic Con (Seattle, WA): March 6-9
Motor City Comic Con (Novi, MI): May 16-18

Heroes Comic Con (Charlotte, NC): June 20-22

San Diego Comic Con: July 24-27
New York Comic Con: October 9-12
Baltimore Comic Con: October 17-19

Belladonna Print

Each Year I create a new limited edition signed and numbered 11" x 11" print. The tradition started many years ago when Julia urged me to create a new print for a convention or event that was 'just pretty'. She thought that we had plenty of images of mice wielding swords and threatening snakes and owls––that the audience, especially women, appreciated when I just drew tender moments, or nature, or flowers.  I followed her advice, and for years now fans have proven her right by anticipating and purchasing the new square print I offer.

This year the piece is titled 'Belladonna'. Below I'll show the step-by-step of creating the art.

This piece started more with the character––the mouse is the Matriarch Siobhan (seen in the Black Axe hardcover extras and she will be explored more in the upcoming Dawn of the Black Axe mini series coming out this year). As a Matriarch she was a healer, but there's something about her I always saw as ominous––hence the pairing with Belladonna; a flowering plant known for being poisonous, but also historically used in small doses medically. I drew Sibhan & some of the plant life on a single piece of copy paper, then drew more of the Belladonna on another sheet with the first drawing on a lightpad. Those were then scanned and assembled and I did a quick color blocking to be sure the overall composition was to my liking.

I printed out the above layout composite and taped it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my Huion A3 Lightpad I can see through the surface of the bristol down to the printout to use as a guide for inking. I used a Copic Multiliner SP 0.7 pen.

Lots of the inking was just about weighting the contour lines and only using texture sparingly (like the density of the veins in the leaves, the spots of the blooms, the shading on the berries, and the embroidery on her stole.

When the inks were finished and scanned, I could start the coloring process. The first step to that is called 'flatting' which is where you paint in all the areas with flat colors only. It's about establishing easy to grab and re-isolate areas for the later step of rendering. Think of it as a professional version of digitally coloring in the lines.

I also added color holds (areas where I want the linework to be a color other than black) to the leaf veins, the spots on the blooms, the berry highlights, and the chalice details.

Some of the color palette was already dictated by the character's look in Dawn of the Black Axe and the belladonna coloring was inspired from several photos found online.

The last step was to render the color with shadows, highlights, and texture. I do most of that work with the Dodge and Burn tools in Photoshop, though I did use a soft paintbrush here and there and several areas where I shifted the color of an area when I had it lassoed (with a feathered edge).
The Belladonna print will be signed and numbered, available at ECCC next month and then in my online store afterwards.

As this is the 14th year I've been doing these, here are the past year's 11x11 limited prints (many of which are available in a bundle in my online store) and links to blogposts for these pieces below

2012 Peacock

2013 Raspberry

2014 Moonflower

2015 Lavender

2016 Juniper

2017 Rose

2018 Elderberry

2019 Teasel

2020 Sharon

2021 Yarrow

2022 Pinecone

2023 Clematis
2024 Foxglove

2025 Bookplate

 Every year since 2012 I do a new Mouse Guard bookplate for sale at conventions and in my online store. The idea is that this mini-print can be pasted/taped into your book(s), you can write your name in to identify it as yours to borrowers, and since the bookplates are signed, it means you now have a signed book. I try and make each year's bookplate art some medium the mice would/could use. I've done stained glass, relief printing, embroidery, mosaic, etc in past years––this year I was inspired by relief stone carving.

The bookplate will be made available at Emerald City Comic Con and then in my online store shortly after.

The process started when I was wowed by a photo of a restoration/recreation of facade from Louis Sullivan's Gage building. I did some clay relief carving in college this reminded me of. I ended up cutting up the reference photo and making it into a new configuration and then I went about sketching some mice––specifically a scene of the first Matriarch and founding Guardmice as documented in Jeremy Bastian's Legends of the Guard tale.

With this year (in May) being the 20th anniversary of Mouse Guard, I thought showing the in-world founding of the Mouse Guard in stone would be a nice touch. The pencil sketch was quickly digitally blocked in with some greyscale values for reference for the next step.

I printed out the above layout and on my Huion Lightpad I was able to transfer the basic drawing in pencil on the lightpad.  Below you can see three stages of me slowly shading in the areas of the drawing with graphite while using an eraser to pull highlights and a tortillon to smudge and blend the greys.

When I finished that process I carefully cleaned up the outer edges with an eraser and then scanned the piece in greyscale.

To tighten up the value range I adjusted the levels to set the darkest point and lightest point and fiddle with a midrange until I got what looked right to me.

I contemplated leaving the art this way for the bookplate, but decided to add a little bit of tone and color.

So in Photoshop I did just that. The final bookplate has been printed and as I said above will debut at Emerald City Comic Con in March (booth 20505) and then be made available in my online store sometime shortly afterward.

Here are all the past years Bookplates––many of which are available in my online store as a bundle (https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/set-of-10-mouse-guard-bookplates). Below are the blogposts about the process of making each:

Blogposts:
2012 – Lino Print
2013 – Stained Glass
2014 – Embroidery
2015 – Mosaic
2016 – Pencil Rendering
2017 – Engraving
2018 – Wood Painting
2019 – Gouache Painting
2020 – Wood Carving
2021 – Lino Registration Print
2022 – Stained Glass
2023 –– Gouache Painting on Canvas

2024 –– Encaustic Tile