Inking Video:
I cobbled together the video below because of some recent conversations at conventions with aspiring artists and students made me realize I had something to say on the subject of inking greys as a technique. Now, I think if you had witnessed the various times I've shared these thoughts at conventions, you would find the points were made clearer, were more fully explained, and overall more interesting when given in person. Somehow in organizing these ideas, pairing them with images & demos, and keeping them on-track and to the point, I lost something...but forgive me and enjoy/glean whatever you can from this.(I'm also not well versed at setting up and using my tech for this type of project, so excuse the sound)
Here's a direct link: https://vimeo.com/49680379

inking grey from David Petersen on Vimeo.


Recent Commissions:
I put forward these recent commissions* as examples of filling 2-d shapes and compositions with varying textures and patterns of grey as a quieter and less rambley example of what I was trying to get across in the above video.

*Commissions are only available in conjunction with conventions I attend.
Unfortunately I do not have an open list when at home.

Watercolor Wednesday:

In the excitement of the new Hobbit Trailer, I decided last week's first piece should be this Bilbo painting I did for my German publisher's website (though I added the door after I send the scan to them). While I like this painting overall, I don't think this is my definitive Bilbo Baggins...it seems more like a random Halfling from a D&D adventure of my youth.

In keeping with the fantasy theme, I also made available this goblin like beastie and this trollish-horned-beastie. Both were painted quickly after some rough pencil lines were laid down to suggest the overall shape of the head and placement of the features.

Tomorrow I'll post some new Watercolor paintings available for purchase in the online store


2012 Appearances:
New York Comic Con: Oct 11-14
Detroit Fanfare: Oct 26-28
Thought Bubble: Nov 17-18
*2013 dates coming soon*

Learning From Copying:
These (mostly) Hellboy pieces (from around 2003-4) are compositional recreations of panels from the comics each done in marker on index cards (and then run through a photoshop filter) and were done purely for the sake of learning. I was trying to improve my compositions (in an abstract 2D design sense) by copying Mignola's big bold shapes (and a Frank Miller Sin City piece for good measure). It was a great tool in getting me to think about defining forms with the space around them, editing an image down to the essentials, forcing horizontals, verticals and diagonal compositions, and visual flow through an image.

Telling stories in comics has a lot to do with 2D design problem solving. Fitting the subjects into a panel, giving a sense of background, leaving room for the type (to be read in the correct order) and getting the reader's eye to move not only through each panel, but through the page as a whole. And none of that has to do with drawing per se. And that was what I hoped to have as my take-a-way lesson from this exercise. While the was time in my life I wanted desperately to draw like my heroes, when these drawings were made I was trying to learn from them instead.

Little practice sessions like this where you look to people who are successful in a specific aspect of image or comic making and then personally dissecting it through mimicry is a great way to figure out your own artistic voice. Even in just who you choose to focus on is a statement about you as an artist, and what you take from the copying lesson may be very different from what someone else (or even the subject artist) feels is important about their work.


The key though, is to stop copying and then apply the gathered information to your own work. You aren't trying to draw like Mike Mignola, or Frank Miller, or Jim Lee... you are trying to see what part of their storytelling or imagemaking you can take as an abstract lesson and apply to your own work. And the lessons learned need to go deeper than "Artist Hero A draws noses/eyes/mouths/hair/hands like this" or "a big jagged shadow is how Hero Artist B would solve this composition". What exaggerated expression or subtlety is the Hero Artist getting from drawing hands/hair/faces that way? Where is that jagged shadow leading your eye in the hero artist's work...and what can you do in your own work to lead your readers eye as you wish?

Putting all their books back on the shelf, and then drawing somewhere isolated (where you are not tempted to look at their work again) will be helpful, keeping in mind things like "what do I like about Artist X's compositions for horizontal panels" or "How can I get action in my work like the action I like in Artist X's pages" or "I like how loose & free/tight & detailed Artist X's work is"... all the while drawing like yourself

Watercolor Wednesday:
Last week's Watercolor Wednesday pieces were originals of mine (not characters created by or belonging to someone else). Here are better looks at the pieces in case you missed them. The first was a Greenman face. I saw a lot of Greenman variations when I worked at Materials Unlimited, an architectural antique store. The face of a Greenman was used in lots of castings and carvings on mantels and furniture, building ornamentation, even light fixtures. This was my version starting with loose pencils and moving quickly into watercolor shapes & tones.

The second Watercolor Wednesday piece from last week was a variation on a character from my old unfinished comic with Jesse Glenn called Jesters. This version of Donovan seems to have more in common with the character Clopin from Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame, but I still see it as Donovan (and a nice way to move the character away from a direct translation of me in my 1995 Halloween costume)

Tomorrow I'll post a new original watercolor piece in my online store and I'll tweet and Facebook update when the new art is available.



2012 Appearances:
New York Comic Con: Oct 11-14
Detroit Fanfare: Oct 26-28
Thought Bubble: Nov 17-18

TMNT Fugitoid Cover Process

This is my last TMNT cover for a while (though there is a chance I'll do some more of them for IDW down the road). The scheduling was such that this cover was not shown in previews because I couldn't get the artwork done in time for the solicitation deadline, but I was able to schedule it in before the publication deadline. And for a long time, I was told the subject of this micro-series 1 shot was to be kept under wraps (I think everyone assumed it would be Shredder...and this was a surprise) but the cat is out of the bag now, and I can share the process of this cover.

False Starts: My original sketch for this cover (which I started early) was straight forward...the old Eastman & Laird Fugitoid design in an alien city looking frightened (he is a fugitive droid after all). But I then got word from my editor that there was a new design for the character. He sent over the new design in the form of one of the alternate covers for the issue. I did a new drawing of this Fugitoid and digitally composited him into my old layout. Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the layout work...

Everything IDW (comic publisher) approves has to also then go through Nickelodeon (TMNT rights owners). Nick thought the cover was a mis-direct to the audience. In this issue, Fugitoid isn't hiding out on the alien planet, he comes to earth to lay low. So, they wanted a redrawn cover with a Manhattan background. Knowing I was short on time for a redrawn cover, IDW editor Bobby Curnow suggested a salvage job on the layout with Fugitoid stepping through a portal and into New York. I loved the idea and reworked the layout trying to keep as much of my alien planet background as I could while showing a street that clearly was New York (with the Manhattan Bridge in the background).

Once Nick approved the layout, with a few small change requests, I printed out my layout, and used a lightbox so I could ink the cover on bristol using the printed layout as a guide underneath. One of the changes Nick asked for was to add either a Stone Soldier or Utrom as one of the background aliens. You will notice I altered the tank-tred-car's pilot in the lower right to be a Utrom. To get the portal effect, I inked the portal's edge on a separate sheet of paper. I used a brush (wet & dry) and a pen to get some fine lines and stipples. Doing the effect artwork on an overlay sheet makes it easier to isolate it in the coloring process.

Final colors: It took a while to get the right balance of light/dark, foreground & background push pull, and Fugitoid's leg to look like it was still coming through the portal, but with a good audio book and a night to yourself, you get there in the end. The color choices centered around Fugitoid being in the yellow/orange family, so I wanted to make the background violets & blues as a complimentary contrast to keep him as a focal point amid two complicated backgrounds and a cross-dimensional rift. I have two version of the portal effect layer going here. Both have been inverted so the inkwork is displaying white, but one is blurred out so the effect glows and isn't too crisp and clean looking.

I put in a lot of personal details on this cover. As a big fan of the Eastman & Laird run, I referenced their issues with Fugitoid. I looked to the shapes they made for the skyline of the alien planet, I added a few aliens from their panels (top left & right). The tank-tred-car started as something of theirs, but I thought it needed a pilot, which then became my place to sneak in a Utrom. Even the ground of the alien planet is based on the texture pattern of the alien-wood fence that Fugitoid & the TMNTs find themselves up against when they meet (I always liked how simply that pattern did the job of making the material understandable & foreign at the same time). As a personal touch, I hid a redesigned version of a race (drawn here by me) created by my friend Mike Davis back when we were in high school.

Watercolor Wednesday:

Here are last week's Watercolor Wednesday pieces and better look at the pieces in case you missed them. First up was this version of Frankenstein's Monster. I've drawn the Monster several times and I keep coming back to pretty much this design of him: bald, neck bolts, stapled brain cavity access scars, face sewn in places (perhaps from multiple donation subjects) This time I played up some dark bruising under the eyes like one would tend to have after having surgery on the head or face.
The second is a rooster...because I felt like painting a roster with bright colors. And third is an older piece (from 2004-ish) of The Thing. This was the style of watercolor I was doing where I'd outline the color splotches after I painted a loose painting. You can see more of that type of work of mine here.

Tomorrow I'll post a new original watercolor piece in my online store and I'll tweet and Facebook update when the new art is available.


2012 Appearances:
New York Comic Con: Oct 11-14
Detroit Fanfare: Oct 26-28
Thought Bubble: Nov 17-18

Baltimore Comic Con Yearbook 2012

This year for the Baltimore Comic Con, Marc Nathan is doing a hardcover sketchbook called the Baltimore comic Con Yearbook. He asked Frank Cho for permission to use Liberty Meadows as a theme for the book. Participating artists were invited to do a piece of original work of Liberty Meadows and encouraged to add their creator-owned characters to the piece as well. I opted to no do a literal Mouse Guard/Liberty Meadows piece, but rather a Liberty Meadows piece that has the hallmarks of a Mouse Guard piece: small adorable creatures in medieval warrior garb cascading over rock piles while riding animals.

I knew instantly I'd use Truman (the duck) riding Oscar (the wiener dog)...and the rest fell into place..well, sort of. The sketch seemed fine, but once I scanned it and place it in a template for the book's dimensions, I had to rework Truman's sword arm. Doing so meant cutting and pasting his arm in a few places, moving his leg, and replacing the word balloon (as well as a tweak to the length of the sword & scabbard). While drawing this, thought about the balance of copying or imitating someone's work and doing your own take on it. In this case, the character's needed to look like Frank's designs, so I didn't do too much interpretation. I printed out the layout and used a lightbox to lightly transfer the drawing to watercolor paper in pencil.

The finished piece is in watercolor. I did this because the original is part of an auction for the convention. If I had done the artwork traditionally, the high bidder would get an inked piece, this way that person gets a color one. I also figured that if I was going to try something different (like a full piece in watercolor) this would be a piece I could do it on without creating an inconsistency like if I had done a new Mouse Guard piece this way (though I'm not ruling that out either).The book will be available this weekend at the Baltimore Comic Con, and the original watercolor will be auctioned there as well.

New Limited Tee Shirt
With a few more conventions left for this year and the holiday season approaching, I saw that quantities of the Mouse & Crow shirt design are running low. So it's time for a new shirt! As with the last design, I plan to only do this print run with this design, and when it runs out, I'll do a new design/color/etc. The image shown here is a digital mock-up with the colors as closely approximated as possible. If everything goes according to plan, I'll debut these at Baltimore this weekend and then make them available in the online store once I get home from the convention. (We will have more sizes available than last time also)


Watercolor Wednesday: Last week's Watercolor Wednesday piece was this Oz themed piece of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodsman.Here is a better look at the piece in case you missed it. Brains & Heart...Kenzie & Saxon... Tomorrow I'll post a new original watercolor piece in my online store and I'll tweet and Facebook update when the new art is available.



2012 Appearances:
Baltimore Comic Con: Sept 8-9
New York Comic Con: Oct 11-14
Detroit Fanfare: Oct 26-28
Thought Bubble: Nov 17-18