Em of Appleloft

As I work toward a new sketchbook this year, I'll be doing a series of posts about Mouse Guard illustrations I've done that will be included in that new release: 'Past Whereabouts' that will debut at Emerald City Comic Con and be available in my online store soon afterwards.

Sketchbook illustrations are often a chance to explore corners of Mouse Guard that I haven't gotten to yet. Whether it's certain locations, characters, or just ideas or thematic tones. For this illustration it's Em of Appleloft and a crow friend. In this post I'll break down the steps to creating the illustration

I made a list of places to return for 'Past Whereabouts' and had Em of Appleloft at the top. I started with a drawing of the outside of her home, a balcony/air-dock-perch with an awning looking into the open knothole in an apple tree. I referenced my original drawings from The Black Axe volume as well as some photos of apple trees. On a new sheet of copy paper I drew em and a crow (based on photo reference).

These were all digitally assembled in photoshop with some color blocking to help identify the forms.

The digitally assembled pencil layout was printed out and taped to the back of a sheet of Strathmore Bristol and placed on a light pad. With the light shining up, I was able to see through the bristol surface to the printout to use as a guide as I ink the artwork. I used Copic Multiliner SP pens to do the inking (the 0.7 nib mostly)

The inking focus was on making sense of all the organic shapes of the bark, the balcony bracing, the leaves, etc by trying to be careful with texture and line density differences. 

With the inks scanned, the color flatting (painting areas of flat color to establish all the color areas) started I pulled colors from the The Black Axe for Em and her clothing and the crow, but I was able to play with the browns, greens, and reds of the setting until the flats looked harmonious enough.

It's also at this stage that I established color holds (areas where I wanted the lineart to be a color other than black) for Em's clothing embroidery, the leaf veins, and the speckles on the apples.

The last step was to render the colors with dodge and burn tools and a stock textured brush. Dodge and Burn are tools based on photography terms (and from when Photoshop was a photo retouching program) having to do with purposely over or under exposing areas––or in other words darkening or lightening them.

I use these tools to create shadows and highlights to my base colors while giving a bit of a pebbly texture with that stock brush. I also toyed with pushing the other leaves and apples back a bit by adding some lighting effects in the lower right corner.

This illustration, along with many more, will be published in the sketchbook 'Past Whereabouts' which will debut at Emerald City Comic Con in March 2026 and will be available in my online store soon afterwards: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/

Lillygrove Library Funeral

As I work toward a new sketchbook this year, I'll be doing a series of posts about Mouse Guard illustrations I've done that will be included in that new release: 'Past Whereabouts' that will debut at Emerald City Comic Con and be available in my online store soon afterwards.

Sketchbook illustrations are often a chance to explore corners of Mouse Guard that I haven't gotten to yet. Whether it's certain locations, characters, or just ideas or thematic tones. For this illustration it's a funeral in the Lillygrove Library. In this post I'll break down the steps to creating the illustration

After dusting off the Library Arch model for a recent Architectural Model Video (https://youtu.be/sqiKdE50BNc) I wanted to revisit that location for an illustration, and liked the idea of the sun streaming in, but also keeping the ghostly tone of when I showed the location in Legends of the Guard Vol 1 by setting a funeral there.

The location was drawn on a sheet of copy paper over the top of a composite photo of the model with and added design of the window (based on a tile pattern). Then the dead mouse and altar and flowers were drawn on another sheet, and the mouse paying respects on yet another sheet. They were all assembled in Photoshop (each tinted a different color) and a tone blocking to help me see where the light's edges were.

The digitally assembled pencil layout was printed out and taped to the back of a sheet of Strathmore Bristol and placed on a light pad. With the light shining up, I was able to see through the bristol surface to the printout to use as a guide as I ink the artwork. I used Copic Multiliner SP pens to do the inking (the 0.7 nib mostly)

The inking focus was on keeping the line weight and details spare in the stream of light, but much more dense the further in the corners everything was. There was still a lot of detail in the walls, mice, flowers, and books to worry about on top of those lighting concerns too.

With the inks scanned, the color flatting (painting areas of flat color to establish all the color areas) started. I pulled colors from the Legends of the Guard issue cover with this library for starters before shifting everything a bit darker and greener.

It's also at this stage that I established color holds (areas where I wanted the lineart to be a color other than black) for the window and the murals (as well as that one open book).

The last step was to render the colors with dodge and burn tools and a stock textured brush. Dodge and Burn are tools based on photography terms (and from when Photoshop was a photo retouching program) having to do with purposely over or under exposing areas––or in other words darkening or lightening them.

I use these tools to create shadows and highlights to my base colors while giving a bit of a pebbly texture with that stock brush. I also toyed with additional layers to help sell the beam of light streaming in and the cast tones from all the window glass on the floor and deceased Guardmouse.

This illustration, along with many more, will be published in the sketchbook 'Past Whereabouts' which will debut at Emerald City Comic Con in March 2026 and will be available in my online store soon afterwards: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/