Saxon, Kenzie, and Rand

Saxon, Kenzie, and Rand––all were rather grand...
For SDCC this week, I decided to do a new print. It was a last minute decision, and a crazy rush to get the art finished off to the printer, proofed, and ready with copies for the con. But, I managed to pull it off.

To the left you can see the finished 14" x 20" print. And below, I'll go through the steps to create it.

When I started I knew I wanted the print to be large, have known Mouse Guard characters, perhaps a bird, and be as much a landscape study as a Mouse Guard piece. There were a few rough sketches––one very loose, then a tighter one, and a re-draw of Kenzie to get the pose better.

Kenzie standing surveying what's ahead with his lantern staff was clear in my mind as a focal element, but deciding on how many mice, toying with the idea of a mouse structure (or a mouse structure in ruin), and how much/what vegetation was still being discovered in this sketching stage.

So, I went for a walk...

Around my neighborhood I crouched down and took low-perspective photos of various weeks, exposed tree roots, leaves, and weeds. To the left you can see most of the photos I took on that walk, but there were more with other plants I decided not to use for the final art.

A walk like this can be good. It wasn't long, just 20 min or so––long enough to get away from the desk, think about the piece in a more relaxed environment, and gather some reference.

I put it all together with tighter pencil drawings of Saxon, Kenzie, and Rand as well as a sparrow (referenced from a few photos) and a background incorporating the photo inspirations.

All of these elements were drawn separately on copy paper and then tinted differently in Photoshop as I placed and moved and nudged each character until the layout was right. Then I blocked in some rough color to help me see the forms––what was cloak or leaf or root or feather, etc.

With the layout locked in, I printed out a version of it that was 20" wide and 14" tall (I did this on three sheets of legal paper and then registered the image and taped them all together.). On my Huion lightpad I inked this huge piece on a trimmed down piece of 24" x 18" bristol with the printout taped to the back. To ink I used a Copic Multiliner SP 0.7 nib pen. 

I'll have the original art for sale at SDCC.

This piece needed to get to the printer though, so as soon as the inks were done, I scanned the art and started coloring by flatting in color. This step is where I block in shapes with flat color (no rendering, so effects) to distinguish all the different color areas––like a coloring-in-the-lines assignment for professionals.

At this stage I also added color holds (areas where I want the lineart to be a color other than black) on Rand's shield, Kenzie's lantern, and all of the background (including the sparrow) that is behind the mice.

The last step was a long night or rendering mainly using the dodge and burn tools with a textured brush to give all the forms light and shadow. I'll have 14" x 20" prints available at SDCC and perhaps in my online store after I'm home from the con.