These 9" x 12" paintings are inspired by characters from Dawn of the Black Axe, the latest Mouse Guard comic mini series written and colored by me, with art by Gabriel Rodriguez.
Below is a bit of behind the scenes process (I wish I had been better about photographing steps along the way, but must have forgotten) and clearer images of the final pieces.
The Bardrick piece started with a pencil drawing (based on a panel of Gabe's from issue 2). That drawing was then taped to the matboard the final painting would be on with graphite transfer paper sandwiched in between. By tracing over the original pencils with a pen (as seen here), the lines transfer over to the matboard.
The final painting of Brarick, first mouse to wield the Black Axe with brown color pencil to tighten in the linework.
Siobhan, the Matriarch of the story was the other painting's subject. I did a very quick pencil portrait of her that had several proportion errors, so I just scanned that sketch and started cutting and resizing bit until it felt right. I then did some digital drawing and color blocking to plan a dramatic uplight. The same transfer process was used on a printout of this to get the image onto the matboard.
Here is the final painting of Siobhan, Matriarch & Healer from Dawn of the Black Axe. I really struggled with the watercolor on this matboard. I usually use watercolor paper or illustration board for painting on, but I had some scraps of matboard and though 'what the hell--I've painted on matboard before'...but the board soaked up the water too quickly and just the wetness made every brush stroke look dark like when you get a tee-shirt wet. Because of that I never really achieved the dramatic color and uplighting I was hoping for.
