Lake Como Folio Print

 This weekend I’ll be a guest at the Lake Como Comic Art Festival: https://www.lccaf.com/

They will publish a folio of art pieces done by the guests and made available at the convention. You can see my finished piece here and below I’ll show the process of creating the piece.

For the layout, I wanted to include some architecture found in Lake Como. I happened upon a photo of a terrace with an amazing tile floor and used it for reference (though I did have to alter the scale of the roof and columns). I also found that the Kingfisher is a native bird there, and loved the idea of mice in partnership with the bird catching small fish (for oil, scaled skin, bones, and meat for the bird). I drew these elements on copy paper and then assembled them in photoshop and did a quick blocking color pass to help me see everything clearer.

The layout was printed out and taped to the back of a sheet of 14”x17” Strathmore bristol. On my huion lightpad I was able to see through the bristol surface and use the printout as a guide to ink from. I inked the piece with Copic Multiliner SP pens. The original of this piece will be offered for sale at Lake Como, but later in my online store if it doesn’t sell there.

When the inks were finished, I scanned them and started the digital coloring process. This first step is called ‘flatting’ where only flat base colors are painted in (like a professional version of coloring in the lines). I’d mostly decided the color choices in the layout stage. I also established color holds (areas where I want the inkwork to be a color other than black) on the background landscape and the details of the tile floor.

Here again are the final colors, all rendered in Photoshop with the dodge and burn tools and a stock textured brush. The folio with the print will be available at the con, and *if* I get any extras I’ll make them available in my store.