Skelton's Keys To The Classics: Jungle Book

Skelton Crew has a line of 'Keys to the Classics' of keys designed by artists to summarize a book in classic literature. As you may remember, Israel Skelton and I did a line of Mouse Guard replica weapons years ago, so it was a pleasure to reunite when he asked if I'd design a Jungle Book themed key: 'The Key to the Ruined City'

I was given technical specifications for the thickness, width, height, etc as well as a caveat that I needed to pull visuals and details only from the original text instead of any popular adaptations.

My goal was to make the key look like a stone or bone carving of a portion of the ruined city itself that also featured Shere Kahn, Bagheera, Baloo, Kaa, and some monkeys (Not King Louie--as he was a Disney invention)

The job started with pencil sketches digitally toned of the key rotation where each side is a bit different (especially the monkeys) This stage took the longest as I had to keep making adjustments so that the silhouette of each side matched the other and that the side edge details wrapped around convincingly enough. 

Because I knew Skelton Crew would like cleaner linework to use as etched/carved lines in the key itself, I then did an inked version using the above pencil version as a guide to ink from on my Huion lightpad. While in some ways I think the stark lines take away from the softer and more subtle pencil version above, it did give me a chance to clean up bits I wanted to refine.

The last step before sending it off was to do a digital render on the inked drawing to help show the relief and form.

The key itself is available for purchase at Skelton Crew's Online Store:
skeltoncrewstudio.bigcartel.com

And I have a few available with signed boxes in my online store:
mouseguard.bigcartel.com

 

Royal Taloned Octopus Dragon

Last week on my Twitch Stream, we did the #DiscoveringDragons Community-Draw-Along! It's a fun event where I welcome all skill levels to push their pencils (or whatever tools they use to make art). It takes place on the first Friday of the month.

I worked on my piece live on my Twitch stream while viewers worked at home and then on the following Monday we shared our finished pieces.

Here is my finished colored Dragon (twenty first in the series). And below are my steps to create it as well as the community submissions.

For #DiscoveringDragons, I post two or three prompt words for everyone to make into a dragon. It's a nice framework for artists of any skill level to focus some time on an 'assignment' to shake the rust off or get the pencil moving again––all while also being loose enough that there's plenty of room for individual expression and interpretation.

This month the prompt was three words: Octopus, Talon, & Royal

I opened several tabs of google image searches of octopus species, bird talons, and crowns.

I started on copy paper with the body form of a Blue Ringed Octopus and then added on a taller dragon head and a bit of a hood like a King Cobra (adding to the Royal prompt).  That loose sketch was taken into Photoshop where I added blocky colors to help refine and define the overall shape and silhouette. I also put in a pale green to be the underbelly so I could keep track of where a tentacle would have suckers or not. With that  rougher version bolstered with color shape design, I printed it out and did a tighter pencil drawing over it on a clean sheet of paper on my Huion lightpad. 

With the tighter pencil drawing done, I wend back into Photoshop and blocked in some flat colors to again help me see which parts were which (negative space, underbelly, top skin, shin pattern, etc. but also to just get me closer to envisioning what my goal was for the final image.

In some ways, this step was unnecessary and superfluous––I did a good enough job with the pencils that I could tell where the underbelly and suckers were to get the ink texture right in the next step...but I really do like trusting in this process of mine. It did make me think harder about how I was going to ink the skin pattern knowing what the final color issues would be. 

With the above design printed out at full scale and taped that onto the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol, it was time to start inking. Using a lightpad, I was able to see through the surface of the bristol as I inked the dragon. I used Copic Multiliner 0.7 pen to ink the art.

The inking on this piece was about balancing the lighter hand I needed to not overwork the underbelly and to get the details on the suckers looking fleshy, and then being more textured and heavy-handed when it came to the skin pattern.

I wasn't able to finish my inks on stream before having to sign off an wish every one success over the weekend with their Dragons. Later that same night after some dinner I finished inking the last few tentacles and then scanned the inks and started the flatting process. In addition to the basics of color flatting–basically professional coloring-in-the-lines, I also established color holds (an area where I want the ink to be a color other than black)––the overall lines became a dark brown, the skin pattern got two different color holds and the pupil got one as well.

Most of of the color selections were already established in the rough, but I played with the final value/hue choices for a while before getting to this point.

For the final colors I used a bit of the paintbrush to add some color variance to each area before using the dodge and burn tools to do the final rendering.
Below you can again see the final Dragon...

But, as this is a community event, I wanted to share all the other entries posted in the Discord. 

Capt.Nemo

Nathan Pride

Nuvalo

Nuvalo

RedSkwrl

Jonathan Towry

88UncleErnie

Usagi Yojimbo 40th Anniversary

The Usagi Yojimbo Dojo will be publishing a 40th Anniversary Usagi Yojimbo Tribute book this November. It will be by fans and for fans of Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo. Limited to 500 copies, available upon request for free (just pay postage) while supplies last. Since this will be a non-profit labor of love, any and all contributions to help cover the costs of printing are appreciated GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-40th-anniversary-usagi-yojimbo-tribute-project

To request a copy email Steve Hubbell: usagiyojimbodojo@yahoo.com
with subject line "Usagi Yojimbo 40th Anniversary book"

To the left you can see my finished pinup for the book, and below I go through the process of creating it.

This piece started long before I knew about the 40th anniversary tribute book with a commission request by a fan who wanted a Mouse Guard Usagi crossover piece. I drew Usagi on copy paper, scanned him and placed him into a Photoshop template for the size of the commission, and then printed that out to use as reference to draw the branches and Guardmouse.

These drawings were scanned back into Photoshop and given a quick color blocking to help me see the difference between the leaves and the ground and the branches, etc.

I printed that above layout and taped it to a back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol.  On my Huion Lightpad I could se ethrough the bristol surface down to the printout to use as a guide while I inked. The pen I used were Copic Multiliner SP 0.7 & 0.3 nibs.

There was a lot going on in terms of depth on this piece and I wanted it not to get too busy, but still have bursts of texture and value so the viewer's eye could clearly see all the forms. 

The original was then sent off to the fan who commissioned it.

Then Steve Hubbell reached out about the tribute book asking if I could contribute something. I was so slammed with freelance work, commissions, and Convention prep, I didn't have time to create something new, so I made a plan to take the square commission and get it tall enough to fit a standard comic size. To do this I drew two birds and photoshopped in a cobbled together background pattern based on some Japanese patterns to become top and bottom border designs. Once the pencils and patterns were digitally assembled, I inked the two bird pieces in the same process as the main commission piece described above.

The original inks for these birds are available for sale in my online store:
mouseguard.bigcartel.com

With all the inked drawings scanned, I started the process of color flatting the piece.

This is the first step of coloring that is essentially a professional version of coloring-in-the-lines. It's all about establishing color areas, that the fur is a different color than the clothes, or the leaves, or the branches, etc.

In this step I also established color holds (areas where I want the linework to be a color other than black) on the leaf veins, Usagi's scar, the ground texture, and two on the decorative pattern behind the birds.

The final step was to render the image which I did mostly with the dodge and burn tools, but also a paintbrush and some special layers to created the dappled shadows on the scene.

Again, to request a FREE copy of the tribute book email Steve Hubbell: usagiyojimbodojo@yahoo.com
with subject line "Usagi Yojimbo 40th Anniversary book" and cover shipping. You can also charitably donate to the GoFundMe to help him with the costs: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-40th-anniversary-usagi-yojimbo-tribute-project