Mouse Guard Coloring Book

I have released a new Mouse Guard coloring book! It is a 10" x 10" 96 page coloring book! This item is available EXCLUSIVELY through my online store and at conventions I attend:
http://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/mouse-guard-coloring-book

"Experience David Petersen's beloved comic series Mouse Guard with this lush coloring book. Featuring over 90 black and white illustrations showcasing the intricate detail of the environments, cities, and characters from across the Mouse Territories, readers of Mouse Guard and colorists alike can bring this world to life with th vivid colors of their imaginations."

Years ago the first coloring book we did with Archaia went out of print, and fans and the coloring book community have been asking all that time if or when we'd ever reprint or put out a new edition. Julia and I opted to do a new version with all new art not included in the original. 

We also went with a lay-flat binding option so that you can open the book to any page and have the book stay open without having to fight the page next to you closing or break the spine to stop it. 

Usagi Yojimbo Kaito 84' Cover

I've been fortunate enough to get to do several Usagi covers for Stan Sakai's beloved series (see past covers/pinups), so when I was asked to do a cover for the new Usagi series written by Zack Rosenberg and painted by Jared Cullum that is set in 1984, I was thrilled. Not just because I'm a fan of Usagi, but it's interesting to be part of this historic project where Stan Sakai is not at the helm. This could worry some fans, but anyone who know's Jared's work and Zack's enthusiasm and their combined dedication to this book, it's source material, and the outside influences it's tapping into will be picking this book up with every new issue.
To the side you can see my finished cover, and in this post I'll talk about the process of creating it.

It started with a conversation with Jared & Zack at SDCC last year where they asked if I'd do a cover. We talked about the story and influences of 80's anime they were inspired by for this 'modern' take on Usagi––and Zack mentioned I could do something that wasn't even story specific and just gave off a 1980's vibe. I mentioned Usagi at an arcade where all the cabinets had art on the sides that were not our real world games but nods to Usagi comics––and with that agreed upon I started compiling photos I could find of early 80's arcades.

Using that reference to draw a tight series of cabinets (tighter than I wanted, but it was hard to get enough of the machines in that they could be seen in the tall formatting of a cover. I penciled Usagi and Yukichi using the costume reference Jared shared with me each separately and had to move and reposition bits (Usagi's head tilt and his hand) until I had a composition where they were interacting with the arcade cabinet.

I over-did the color blocking, but this was partly to assure, Stan, Zack, Jared and their editor I knew where I was going with this––but it was also to show myself that I knew where I was going. I still left the cabinet decoration loose until I knew they were all on board.

Luckily I was approved to move forward and while I was able to play with motifs and design bits for the other cabinets, I decided to pay homage to The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy on the machine Usagi's using (which I inked as a negative based on one of Stan's drawings).

The inks were done by printing out the layout and taping it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore bristol. On my Huion lightpad I was able to ink while using the printout as a guide instead of traditional pencils. 

Most of the tricky parts on this cover were the density of lines on the cabinets while trying to still keep spaces open for color to do a lot of the heavy lifting when it came to the lighting. 

The inks were then scanned and I started the coloring process. This first step is called flatting, where it's more of a professional coloring-in-the-lines assignment so long as each color area (Usagi's fur, Usagi's coat, Yukichi's fur, coat, each cabinet, the floor, etc) are all different flat colors. As you see here, the colors don't even need to be final choices, they can be anything as long as they are different from one another.

At this stage I also established color holds, areas where I want the lineart to be a color other than black, on all the graphics of the cabinets, Usagi's scar, and the screens.

Once I got the base colors closer to my layout piece, the final rendering was done using dodge and burn tools in Photoshop to add light and shadow. This cover also relies on a lot of lighting effect layers to add those screen glows and the bounced color lighting. It was fun to re-imagine my experiences in retro arcades Tilt, Alladin's Castle, and Pinball Pete's and try to make it work for a Usagi comic. 

USAGI YOJIMBO: KAITO '84 #3

Publication date: May 20, 2026

UPC: 76156801508900331

Kestrel Archer

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 Kestrel archer with a mouse helper. In this post I'll break down the steps to creating the illustration

Leaning into the era of Mouse Guard before the Guard...when mice were in the employ of other beasts (see Jeremy Bastian's Legends of the Guard Vol 1) I wanted to show a bird using a weapon of its own as a mouse helper rode with it keeping arrows stocked.

I drew the kestrel based on photo reference (though I made anatomical adjustments to get the legs in the right position to draw back the bowstring) and then on another sheet of copy paper overlayed on the first drawing, I drew the mouse & bow. These were assembled in Photoshop where I dropped in some vector silhouettes of pine trees as background.

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 the kestrel's feather pattern and on all those pine needle clusters. Originally my plan was to use the bird & mouse as a tee shirt design and to drop the pine branches away for the shirt, but ink them in so the original art looked more finished. I opted to not use this as a shirt (mouse was too small).

With the inks scanned, the color flatting (painting areas of flat color to establish all the color areas) started. The kestrel colors were referenced from the photo, but I certainly made hue, value, and saturation decisions with the base colors. The mouse colors were to echo the orange and grey-blue of the kestrel's head.

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 feather patterns, bow string, and the pine branches.

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 shifted colors a bit here or there either with a soft paintbrush or a feathered lasso and the color balance tool.

This illustration, along with many more, is in the sketchbook 'Past Whereabouts'
which is available in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/

Grain Cart Model Video

The model of the grain merchant's cart, made of oak twigs, scrap wood, popsicle sticks, and twine. 

In the video below, I show and talk about every step in making it 20 years after I drew the scene in the first issue of Mouse Guard to mark it's anniversary with a print in 2025 as well as wandering the woods with it taking photos at tree bases until the right reference photo leaps out as the one to use.

Direct YouTube Link:

https://youtu.be/JsX337hPtRI