New Convention Backdrop

This past weekend I set-up my new Convention backdrop for the first time at Baltimore Comic Con! It's a 6' x 8' tension fabric zip-stand (by Blue Wave Printing). I don't know that I'll use it at conventions other than the ones where I'll be at a booth (Emerald City, SDCC, and Baltimore as-of now), but I wanted to share the new look as well as the art-steps it took to get there.





A few weeks ago I did a blogpost all about my new tote-bag (going into my online store shortly), and I liked the artwork for that tone so well I considered trying it for the banner. But even colored, it was going to have too much negative space to draw people into Mouse Guard from across a convention hall when on my backdrop. I tried a few other Mouse Guard pieces from sketchbooks and covers, and I ultimately arrived back at this piece, deciding that I just needed to fill that empty space with background leaves, branches, and acorns...



So, on my light pad, I was able to place a blank sheet of bristol board over a printout copy of my tote design, and fill in all the background area.

I did this live on my Twitch channel, and the video should be available to watch on my videos page for a while longer: https://www.twitch.tv/davidpetersen/videos

In the image to the left, I've made the background inks grey to make them easier to pick-out from the original art of the tote.


When the inks were done, I scanned them into Photoshop and into a file where I already had the tote design placed. I got the new inkwork to line up with the old, and then started coloring the piece. This process is called 'flatting' because all you are doing is establishing the flat color areas.

Because the background inks were scanned separately, it was very easy for me to paint that linework as a lighter color to help push it back further into the background.





Then came the final color rendering. In this step I used a textured brush with the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop to add all my highlights and shadows.

This step was also something I broadcast on my Twitch channel as I worked: https://www.twitch.tv/davidpetersen/videos





Once the colors were done, the Mouse Guard logo and my name were added in (with a few effects and tricks to help make them more readable against the leafy background) and placed into the template provided by Blue Wave Printing so I could send the file off to them.

Since Baltimore was the last convention of the year for me, I won't get to use it again (and folks won't see it in person) until 2020 (starting with Emerald City Comic Con!



2019 Appearances
The Fantastic Workshop Nov. 13-18