FACTS print

In April I'll be a guest at the FACTS comic convention in Ghent, Belgium (https://www.facts.be/en/). This was an event I'd hoped to attend back in 2020, but the pandemic put that all on hold and we are glad to be able to finally attend this year.

The organizers asked me to do a piece of artwork for the convention that could be used as VIP badge art, a print, and perhaps as part of a banner behind my signing table.

Here you can see the final image, and in this post I'll go through the steps to create it.

FACTS asked specifically for Bardrick from Dawn of the Black Axe (the latest hardcover available now!) and wondered if I could add something in with the word FACTS––they suggested a book with that on the spine. I decided to regionalize it even more by making the backdrop The Gravensteen a medieval castle in the city of Ghent and to make the FACTS text more heraldic.

I drew Bardrick on copy paper and used reference to draw the castle and ribbon banner...these were all scanned into Photoshop and assembled into this layout. Each drawing was tinted a bit differently to help me see the lines and then I blocked in some color on Bardrick to also help me see his overall form.

The layout was printed out at about 12" x 12" and taped to the back of a sheet of Strathmore bristol. On my Huion lightpad I was able to see through the surface of the bristol down to the printout to use as a guide as I inked.

The inking was all done with a Copic Multiliner SP 0.7 nib pen. While inking Bardrick was fairly straight forward, I did have to think about the density of texture and detail on the castle so it didn't become too busy and overbearing. I also looked back at how Gabriel Rodriguez drew the axe itself in Dawn of the Black Axe so I could emulate his inkwork on the weapon for some continuity.

The inks were then scanned and I started the coloring process. This first step in coloring is called 'flatting' because it's only about blocking in all the color areas with flat color––no shading, no texture. Think of it as a professional version of coloring-inside-the-lines. Now I did add a gradient to the sky because I needed to adjust my castle colors to work with the pink to blue transition.

It is also at this step where I establish color holds (areas where I want the lineart to be a color other than black) and I did that for the castle, the banner's details, and the text.

The last step was to render the color adding light, shadow, and texture. I do this mostly using the dodge (lighten) and burn (darken) tools in Photoshop with a stock textured brush––though I did some painting with a brush to get the sky transition more natural.

The final image was sent off to FACTS where it will become a VIP badge and print. Id you will be attending FACTS in Ghent Belgium April 11-12, I look forward to seeing you there!
https://www.facts.be/en/

Also of note––if you are attending FACTS, I have a commission pre-orders open in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/facts-brush-pen-commission