David Petersen's Blog

2012-01-24T09:00:00.000-05:00

TMNT Leo Cover:
This is the last of my 4 Turtle covers for IDW (though I may do some more TMNT covers & work for them in the future). I had a melancholy feeling as I was working on this one. Bittersweet to be getting the chance to draw the Turtles (something I only dreamed of doing as far back as age 11) while at the same time finishing the job (at that point I didn't know if I was going to get the opportunity to do any more). To show Leo's commitment to his "work" I thought it would be good to show him in a rotten alley full of garbage. Someplace that would be uncomfortable for him, not only because he is above ground where he could be seen, but someplace even filthier than his sewer home.

The piece started with two sketches in my sketchbook that I compiled in photoshop. One was of Leo, the other the alley. I found a photo online to use as reference for the details of buildings and fire escapes and ladders and clothes lines and sketched it out with omissions and the addition of trash (though you can see I added quite a bit more in the final art). The section missing out of Leo's leg and his one sword were altered in photoshop. The sketch was a bit off (his one leg was too short and his sword was at the wrong angle and making an unfortunate tangent line with his head). The sewer cover I lightboxed from a photo of a NYC manhole cover I distorted in photoshop to match the angle and perspective of the alley.

The folks at Nickelodeon, who have approval over the comic line, were worried about the background seeming boring (they were also the ones to point out the tangent between the sword and Leo's head). To hedge my bets with them I added a great deal more trash to the alley. I filled up both sides and made some of the items recognizable (like a small mattress or couch cushion, florescent light bulbs, garbage bags, a pallet, & fruit crates) while making the rest of the bulk just shapes that are obviously junk. This was all done in the inking stage.

I also thought the scene would have more intensity (and make Leo more miserable) if it was raining. I placed my finished inked linework on my lighbox with a sheet of drawing paper over top. On the drawing paper I inked in rain falling, splashing, and running down the various objects in the alley. The inked rain is later scanned and adjusted to become semi-transparent light colored rain in the color file. This is the same method I use when creating rain and snow in Mouse Guard.

With the inked work scanned, I started flatting in the shapes. Flatting is the part of coloring where you distinguish color areas from one another: the green of his skin stops at the edges of his body, the red bandanna is different from his eye color, etc.. I have said in the past that the color choices are not even important, and here I used the wrong colors as I was flatting the garbage on purpose. Using these garish colors it's easier for me to see as I'm going that I have all those bits differentiated from one another and that I didn't miss any or that I didn't color outside the lines.

The final color art is ready when I have done all the textures and shading and highlights. I've color corrected all the color choices, and dropped in the rain overlay.

Upcoming Appearances:
London Super Con: Feb 25-26
Forbidden Planet London signing: March 1

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

C2E2: April 13-15
Boston Comic Con: April 21-22
FCBD: Jetpack Comics: May 5th
Heroes: June 22-24
San Diego Comic Con: July 11-15

2012-01-17T09:00:00.000-05:00

Papercraft Lieam:
Want your own Lieam papercarft to make, display and/or play with? Now you can! I've provided the file on the mouseguard.net website crafts section. I started designing this papercraft about a year ago. I then handed the final design tweaking and file making to the talented Deanna Piotrowski. My goal is to provide several more characters over time for you to download and build: Saxon, Kenzie, Sadie, Bastian, Elymis, Sienna...(so that you can have a army of papercraft guard mice on your shelf...just like you always wanted!) Here is the direct link for the printable .pdf

Fan Art:

Christian is a fan who sent me this link to a video file he made for his college final. He was instructed to make a mock-movie intro. He chose Fall 1152 as the subject for this intro. Watch the credits he's lined up for this mock-movie...Christian has some high hopes for the folks who would make a Mouse Guard movie! Even as a fantasy, it was fun to watch. Thanks Christian

Upcoming Appearances:
London Super Con: Feb 25-26
Forbidden Planet London signing: March 1

Emerald City: March 30-April 1
C2E2: April 13-15
Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2012-01-10T09:00:00.000-05:00

London Super Comic Con
In February, I will be a guest of the London Super Comic Con's inaugural show. This will be my first UK convention! For the convention I'll be doing commissions a bit differently than I have in the past. I'm taking a pre-order list by email. The pieces will be inked 7" x 7" on 12" square bristol for £130. I will get these done before arrving at the LSCC, so I will need to cut off the list once I have the number of requests I can handle before we depart for the UK.You MUST be at the convention in person to pick up the piece (no proxy picker-uppers please). ~~Email me to get on the list~~ (payments will be handled through paypal in advance)*EDIT: The 7" x 7" Commission list is now closed* . At the convention I will be signing books, selling prints, and doing much smaller commissions that are limited to 1 mouse + 1 profession/ with 1 weapon or tool for £40 (these will be limited and as time permits).
In addition to the convention, I'll also be doing a signing March 1st at the London Forbidden Planet. And perhaps another London signing I'm waiting forconfirmation on.

LSCC Program artwork:
I was asked to contribute a piece of artwork for the convention's program book. This is the final artwork I turned in, and the organizers have decided to make it the back cover of the program guide! The original inked artwork used to make the image is up for grabs too! To enter to win it, you MUST have purchased a ticket for the LSCC. Email creator@londonsupercomicconvention.com with the subject line Petersen London Super Comic Convention. Include your name and your order number from your ticket receipt. Cut off for entries is Feb 6th. The winner's name will be announced February 7th on the LSCC site

Process
The process of this piece started with me wanting to do something very specific to the UK. I toyed with doing a mousey version of a few London architectural icons, but decided instead to do a piece that paid more respect to the UK than that. Using the heraldry of the countries that make up the UK (Lion: England, Unicorn: Scotland, Elk & Lion: Northern Ireland, and the Dragon: Wales) I figured a mouse could pay homage to the animal icons of the UK. I sketched out the animals looking at reference for the animals as I drew.

The sketches were all scanned and assembled in photoshop. I grouped the animal heraldry into a big mass with the idea of it forming something like a UK Patronus for the Guard Mouse. I resized and rotated my sketches as I came up with the final composition. The tinting was a way for me to easily see which lines belong to which animal. I pasted in a Union Jack flag and distorted the perspective to become the setting of the image.

I printed out the layout and placed it behind the 300 series Strathmore bristol board I do my final art on. Using a lightbox I was able to use the layout as a guide to ink the piece. Most of my time inking this piece was to get the animal manes and fur and scales to all swirl together so that it was hard to tell where one ended and the next began. For the Union Jack, I distressed the surface texture as I inked...even making the flag seem to be disolving or being disturbed by the supernatural force of the summoning of the heraldic animals.

To color the piece I scanned in my inks, and worked in my traditional way in photoshop 7. Most of the work here was in establishing the various color holds. Color holds are areas where I choose to have the black inkwork display as a color instead of the original black. Here I have a color hold on the heraldic animals, the red and blue of the Union Jack and a few small ones on the details of the mouse's sword. The holds help push the animal figures back and to make them otherworldly. It also helped make the flag read more as the Union Jack instead of just shapes.

Upcoming Appearances:
London Super Con: Feb 25-26
Forbidden Planet London signing: March 1

Emerald City: March 30-April 1
C2E2: April 13-15
Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2012-01-03T09:00:00.000-05:00

Art Nouveau Mice:
A few weeks ago I was inspired to do a decorative piece of Mouse Guard artwork, perhaps to be used as this year's Sketchbook cover. We have a print in our hallway by French artist Paul Berthon. I thought it would be fun to do a piece completely in homage of this print. Berthon was a printmaker. So this piece (c.1900), while a print (a lithograph) isn't like owning a print of a painting, it was always meant to be a print. The subject is also of two women examining wallpaper they have just printed on a press. As a printmaking major, I like the piece for these reasons in addition to the aethetics of it.

I started with some very rough sketches in my sketchbook, and then scanned it knowing I would have to adjust a great deal in photoshop to get the mice in scale with one another where their ears didn't obstruct each other's faces, the arms were in proportion and still interacting with the wallpaper they are examining. Unfortunately, as I was doing this as a "quick evening project", I didn't save the photoshop file with the adjusted sketch. But if you look back at previous posts, it looked a great deal like the others with a border pre-sized and the mouse figures tinted different colors to help me distinguish the lines between them

I printed the adjusted digital mock up and using a lightbox inked in the mice in a more stylized manner than I normally do. I focused on the outer contour line, making it thicker than any interior contours, which I kept to a minimum (other that decorative patterning). It felt unusual to be inking a Mousey piece like this and not doing any hatching or stippling or texture. The patterns on the dresses and in the background were all drawn onto the bristol as I looked at the Berthon original for reference.

The piece didn't come alive until I scanned my inks and colored it. I inked in so many of the patterns dark and thick, that in ink it looks too heavy and clumsy. I color held all of the linework (meaning I used a color overtop of my inkwork to change the lines to a color instead of their original black). This way I was able to soften the dress and background patterns and get a closer sense of the original.

Papermodeling Large Scale:
I've done several posts about the models I build out of scrap cardboard and paper to make Mouse Guard locations and sets. Yesterday I decided that my Sister-In-Laws dog Olive, who is staying with us, needed a little indoor dog house. A past dog of ours, Augie, liked having a little place to hide, so I had made that dog a little box house. I wanted to make something nicer for Olive though (we also didn't want a taped up cardboard box in the livingroom as part of our decor).

The house is made of one box with another box or two cut up for the gable roof, the shingles, and the siding. I pre-painted sheets of cardboard before cutting it into strips for the siding. The shingles on the otehr hand, I pre-cut and then painted each one. For the shingle paint I poured a few similar colors into a tray and as I painted changed the color mix on the brush as I went so the shingles would look more random. and patchwork, as real shingles can. The benifit of this house, it that it's incredibly light and easy to move if we decide to relocate the house or for cleaning.

It took a little convincing to get Olive into her new house, but Autumn, our big dog, was ready to move in for her. Autumn is very curious (where Olive tends to be nervous) and seemed rather jealous that I made such a thing for her little cousin. I suppose I'll have to make one for Autumn, though I shudder to think of how big it will be and how many slats of siding and individual shingles I'll need to cut and paint. But it will be a fun project that is a change of pace for my hands from penciling, inking, and coloring.

Fan Art:
Since this feels like a crafting post, I figured this piece of fan art by Kate Buike seemd fitting. Kate wrote telling me she had just read the Mouse Guard books in December and enjoyed them so much she wanted to make her own plush of Kenzie. The Mouse Pattern she says comes from Carol's Zoo. Thanks Kate!!

Upcoming Appearances:
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-12-27T09:00:00.000-05:00

Donatello Cover:
I'm thrilled to be working on a childhood dream thanks to IDW Publishing. The Turtles are what got me excited about comics when I was 10 or 11. It also was my first foray into pen-and-paper role playing. For the IDW line of TMNT 1 issue micro series, I have been doing the covers, one cover per turtle. Here are my past posts about the process for Raphael & Michelangelo, but this post is about Donatello. Covers are storytelling and like the Raph & Mike covers conveying something about the personality of each Turtle, I wanted this cover to talk about the personality I saw Don having.

I decided to place Don in the sewer. It's where the Turtles call home, but I also felt that I could convey a bit of a loney-loner vibe that I see Don having. While I avoid the idea that the cartoons pushed of him being a computer programming rocket scientist, I think of Don as having more of a Mythbuster/practical physics mind..and I'm sure that would separate him from his brothers in terms of relate-able subject matter to discuss. Don is also the favorite turtle of Jesse Glenn (basis for my character Kenzie). Turtles are what brought Jesse & I together as friends, and I thought it would be fun to give Don a Kenzie-esque lantern-staff...but of course using NYC salvaged materials.

After searching for good sewer photos, I wasn't able to come up with something I liked, so I just drew a sewer with a vaulted ceiling. I was worried about all the perspective for the concentric circles the arched roof was made of. I was also worried about getting the spacing of the bricks right. So I quickly mocked up a sewer model to match my sketch using printed out sheets of a brick pattern conformed to the shape of the arched cardboard. I added a few dowels and straws to simulate steam and or electrical pipes that can run along the roof of sewers and drain pipes.

I printed my rough drawing above with a photo of the model substituted for my rough background drawing. I inked the piece on my lightbox using my rough & photo as a guide for the ink lines. Like usual, when inking I'm concerned with texture and line quality...how different patterns of line can suggest different textures or surfaces. For pens I'm now using Copic Multiliners, the same pens I'm using on Mouse Guard. I did a little bit to suggest the lighting with the ink (the cast shadow & the darker recesses of the sewer stippling into lighter foreground) but I wanted to save most of the lighting effects for the coloring.

The next step is to scan the inks and start 'flatting' which is the starting stage of coloring. Here I'm establishing areas of color..making the area that is Don's front shell different than the colors that are his arm or head or the sewer. Some color choices are made in this stage, but they could be all wrong on purpose if I wanted. The goal is to make sure that the different parts are all separated by a different color. Here I was pretty close and only made a few adjustments after I got into the rendering. I have to admit, even though I know the process, the flatness of these flats left me worried. I had envisioned a very atmospheric cover with a lot of depth and the flat colors showed that I had a long way to go to get there.

The last step was to render the piece. This means adding in all the shading and lighting effects and color holds and highlights. I was right when I thought it was going to be a long process from the flats to this point. There was a few hours of just tweaking the lighting and shadows until it was the right amount of contrast and glow.

Upcoming Appearances:
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-12-25T06:00:00.000-05:00

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2011-12-20T09:00:00.000-05:00

Free Comic Book Day
As Archaia announced earlier this month, they will be releasing a 48 page 6" x 9" hardcover for Free Comic Book Day (May 5th 2012). I'm doing a new Mouse Guard story which follows last year's tradition of being a morality tale told to a younger incarnation of one of the adult characters from my series. Other stories will include a Cursed Pirate Girl story by Jeremy Bastian, Labyrinth by Ted Naifeh & Cory Godby, Rust by Royden Lepp, Dapper Men by Jim McCann & Janet Lee, and Cow Boy by Chris Eliopoulos & Nate Cosby. It's going to be a real honor sharing the book with all that talent! (5 of whom either have-done or will-be-doing a Legends of the Guard story!)

Before I knew Archaia's plan to do a 6" x 9" book, I started work on a FCBD cover the way I normally would...as an 8" x 8" square flip book like the last two years. The morality tale in my story is all being told through a puppet show, so the cover features the three main cast of the play with the puppet theater where the show is staged. There was barely room to accommodate the traditionally blank space where retailers can stamp or label their store's info so new customers will know where to return. Then I got the call about the size format. I still plan to do my pages square, floating them on the 6" x 9" page with decorative elements framing the panels (so that later I can collect the FCBD stories sometime down the line in a Mouse Guard 8" x 8" format), but for the cover...that needed to be special.

With the art already colored, I needed to do a patch job to extend the artwork. I laid out more bristol board over the original inked linework and using a lightbox I added more height on this new piece feathering into the existing linework on my original below. I added a little to the top, and a great deal to the bottom. This way there would be plenty of room to place the retailer's stamp, and display all the titles for the various stories going into the volume. Scanning in my height-patches, I feathered in the coloring and tried to make it look as seamless as I could. Here is the artwork I sent to Archaia. They made some changes to the design to make room for all the titles and logos. It looks great this way too, and it sounds like the retailer's stamp/sticker will be on the back cover(?). You also notice the Free Comic Book Day banner on Archaia's version? That's one I was asked to draw. I don't know if it's fully approved by the FCBD committee yet...so let's move on (plus I could do a whole post just on the process for that logo!)

Once I started working on the story, I wanted to build myself (you guessed it) a little model of the puppet stage. I did this because 1) I had already designed the look of it when I drew the cover, so it would only mean printing out my cover at and pasting it to a few sheets of cardboard, and 2) since I was going to be blocking out a tiny theatrical play, I wanted to make sure I had an understanding of how deep the stage was, how the backdrops could be unfurled for a new scene, what room the puppeteers had etc. The model is made of cardboard a few balsa sticks and my printed out drawings from the cover art. It has one of the highest quick/quality ratios of all the models I've built.

And earlier in the year, after drawing a Mouse puppet builder, I had a bug to make my own mouse marionette. I sculpted the shapes out of Sculpy, building up the mass of the head and body with balls of tinfoil. Once the polymer clay had baked in the oven and cured, I carved the enlarged woodgrain (and various dings, dents, & scratches) with my woodcarving tools. The marionette has come in very handy for me to reference...not just for proportion, scale, and the anatomy of the joints, but for feeling the weight of how the arms WANT to hang, the head WANTS to loll to the side, the legs WANT to dangle.

That brings us to a teaser. Here is the first page of my Free Comic Book Day Story colored sans-text. I know it's a long wait till May 5th of next year for the rest of it, but now is the time to tell your comic shop that you want this hardcover!

Upcoming Appearances:
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-12-13T09:00:00.000-05:00

Storyteller Pinup
I was lucky enough to be asked by the folks at Archaia to do a pinup for their Jim Henson's The Storyteller Anthology Graphic Novel.(This also marks the 3rd Henson property I have been fortunate enough to have done pinup/cover/promotional artwork for Archaia!) The show did a wonderful job of transitioning between the Storyteller character and his dog and the story he was telling. The characters from the tale would appear in the reflections of water in bowls, on the sides of decorative steins, and in the painting over the hearth. I focused much of my attention to a way I thought I could capture that transition idea in a single pinup.

The story I started with was called The Tinderbox by Hans Christian Andersen. The story starts with a soldier who, on the request of a old witch-like woman, climbs down the trunk of a hollow tree to a cavern where three giant dogs guarding piles of treasure dwelled, as well as a magic tinderbox capable of controlling the beasts. I only roughed-in these parts in my sketch and focused more on trying to get the linkess of John Hurt as the Storyteller and his Henson-furred dog. I scanned the sketches from my sketchbook and resized the elements (adjusting how close the Storyteller and his dog are sitting, where they sit in the frame, etc.) I also tinted the pencil work different colors to help me visualize what lines belong to which character or the window.

I printed that layout at full scale and used it as a template to ink the piece, I started with the characters choosing to focus on the stained glass last. With the inks I tried to translate the softer pencil lines as competent inks lines. While areas like the Storyteller's jacket, hair and his dog all benefited from the ink translation, I lost something in his face. I planned to put some of the volume back in at the coloring stage. I'm sorry to say that paper I did my tighter version of the stained glass on has vanished. I know I was layering paper over the top of the rough and tightening in pencil and then with another overlayed sheet of paper stylizing the lines into stained glass lead-lines.

For the coloring, I scanned the inkwork in as usual and then colored it in photoshop 7 (yes, I know it's old..it's pre-CS...but it works and I LIKE IT!). I tired to go a bit more painterly on the Storyteller's face than I do with my normal Mouse Guard coloring. Part of that was that the splotchy texture works on everything -Mouse-Guard-ish but not as much with people's skin tones.Lots of color holds (areas where I color my black inkwork instead of leaving it black) were applied to the stained glass window including an overall glow for the window.

I had fun with this piece. I struggle to draw people since I'm out of practice and never had a great hold on it even when I was taking figure drawing, but I do find that drawing craggy-faced old men comes very naturally to me.

Upcoming Appearances:
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-12-06T09:00:00.000-05:00

Reference Model Ildur Hall:
Now that Black Axe #3 is out, I can share some of my model-madness. This issue has the mice inside a Ferret hall on the un-mapped island of Ildur. For the aestetic I wanted something Norse. Back when designing Darkheather for the Winter series, I had planned on using that influence as well. I found it difficult to imagine the underground Darkheather with the Norse visuals of the rooflines and carved beams. I found a book on Moorish architecture and abandoned my Norse ideas...until it was time to show the Ferret hall. I kept the idea that much of it would still be subterranean and underground, but the main hall could have exposed gates, shingled areas, and retaining walls.

The model is built from my normal materials: chipboard (the backs of discarded sketchbooks and bristol pads) paper, cardboard, and some balsa wood scraps. Using rubber cement, I was able to apply printed designs to the columns and shingled roof areas. The rest of the model is held together with hot melt glue (which I've started using over other adhesives because it doesn't dry out over time and lose its bond).

I know it seems obsessive to build something this scale for an issue's background, but I feel the issue goes quicker because of this prep work. I've explained in the past that model making helps me focus on design in a way drawing doesn't. Something about holding some wood up to a scrap of cardboard to estimate what scale the columns will be to the door, or how tall the ceiling will be seems a more intuitive way for me to imagine a space than to draw and erase architectural elevations for days.

Like other models of mine, this one is modular, meaning it both comes apart and sections can be reused in other configurations. The 'real' Ferret hall would be two lengths of my model. but by making sure that details like the fire pit, the chimney-cupola, the skylights, the gates, and the throne were not connected to the main hall model, I could set up the model to represent either end of the hall. The 'wings' can come off as well, but that was so I could view the model from the side without having to view it through the restricte lower roof line there and tighter columns.

Using a tripod mounted camera and some photoshop trickery I was also able to patch together an imagined complete version of the hall model:

Here is a sample of some panels from Black Axe #3 showing Ildur Hall:

Upcoming Appearances:
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-11-29T09:00:00.000-05:00

Snowy Valentine: My 1st Children's Book: (part 3)
Over the past two weeks I've been showing the process of how my children's book Snowy Valentine came to be published by Harper Collins. What started as a gift story for my wife about a mouse and a cardinal grabbed the interest of an editor and became a story about a rabbit visiting his forest neighbors in an attempt to figure out the perfect gift for his wife. Last week I showed the process of creating the layouts and final inks for the book.

Having finished the inks it was time to move on to color for the final artwork. My editor at Harper was familiar with my Mouse Guard work, but also liked a Wind in the Willows piece I had done in the past. When coloring that piece, I had thought back to the wonderful stop-motion-animation series of Wind in the Willows from Cosgrove Hall and the lovely textures and models used for that series. I manipulated photos of fabric to be in line with the drape and wrinkles of the drawing and tinted and layered them to get the effect I wanted.

Knowing Harper liked that image and since I wanted to do something a bit different with this book than what I do on Mouse Guard, I decided to replicate the technique for the illustrations. With the Willows piece, I used mostly stock photography I found online. For Snowy Valentine, Julia and I went to a fabric store and took photos of various textures, knits, and types of material (we also took a few photos of items around our house). Included in these swatch photos is a photo of our Dog Autumn's tail fur (which doubled as one of the many layers used to make fox fur), a antique glazed pottery (which became the frog's skin), and batting (which became the rabbit's fur).

Here are a few of the finished colored pages which use a blending of my Mouse Guard coloring technique and the various fabric swatches distorted, layered, and tinted.

The last step in finishing this book was the cover. I originally submitted a version of what becomes the first two page spread (the rabbit starting out on his journey away from home). My editors thought (and I agree) thought the blue/purple sky and winter trees made it look more like a Halloween book than a Valentine book (also note at this time the book's title was Snowy Valentine's Day, but was shortened to be less of a mouthful). Various revisions and sketches took place to fix the problem. The editors liked the idea of cloud hearts, and we played with color palette and adjusting the scale of the house. There was also an option to nix the wrap-around cover in favor of a fabric textured back cover with some spot illustrations.

The sketches became rougher and looser as I went forward trying to decide with the editors what image would be the best way to draw an audience in to the book, to convey the romantic theme, the setting, to be wintry and still warm. This series of sketches I did quick color studies for to help us understand what the finished look could be. It was already decided the cover would focus on the rabbit and his bride together, and these sketches narrowed down which pose to use.

And finally, here is the final wrap-around jacket art sans-text:

Snowy Valentine is available now through Amazon or can be ordered by your local bookstore.

Upcoming Appearances:
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-11-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-22T09:00:00.000-05:00

Snowy Valentine: My 1st Children's Book: (part 2)
Last week I talked about it's origins as a hand drawn book called Mouse & Cardinal gift to my wife. Taking that seven page story and extending it into something more like 30 pages is the subject of this week's post. On a trip to Mackinac Island for our fourth wedding anniversary (2007) I wrote the new plan for the book. Instead of pacing around a small area like the mouse did in my original story, the rabbit would make a trip around to all the other forest critters to see what they were doing for their beloveds on Valentine's Day.

To extend the animal cast I included a cardinal to honor the original story as well as keeping the Fox as a threat to our hero. I added a frog, to pay homage to Mr. Toad from Wind in the Willows, a raccoon in honor of Jesse Glenn's character from Cats Trio, and a grouping of Porcupine children because I thought it would be really adorable. Each character would either suggest a gift or describe the gift they were giving their beloved (none of which seemed to fit for the Rabbit to give his bride).

Once I had the cast in order, and Harper Collins approved the outline, I worked up page layouts for the scenes. I added Lorem Ipsum text (placeholder text in latin) to give me an ide of how much space the text would take up so I could plan for it in the final inks. Here are a few of the pages with the pencil layouts I submitted to Harper Collins along with the final inks once they were approved. The original inks are 12" square for single pages and 12" x 24" for the two-page-spreads.

Next Week: Coloring with textures & Cover designs.

Snowy Valentine is available now through Amazon or can be ordered by your local bookstore.

Upcoming Appearances:
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-11-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

Snowy Valentine: My 1st Children's Book: (part 1)
Over the next 3 weeks I will be posting about the production of my first picture book: Snowy Valentine. November 22nd is when Amazon will ship orders (book stores can stock it, but I'm guessing they won't stock a Valentine's Book until after Christmas). It's surreal and exciting for me to have this book come out. For one, the book's artwork has been finished for almost two years & I haven't been able to share much about it until now. Secondly, I left college thinking that I while I wanted to draw comics, I would be more likely to find work in children's books. It was through the success of Mouse Guard though that led Harper Collins to contact me about the project.

Snowy Valentine started life as the second chapter in a hand drawn book I made for my wife called The Mouse and the Cardinal. The first chapter I drew and wrote about a Mouse (me) and a Cardinal (Julia) who fell in love and were getting married. I gave that chapter to her on our wedding night. I gave her the second chapter as a gift on our first Valentine's Day as husband and wife. Here below is the 7 page story (and cork cover for the book itself)

An editor at Harper Collins contacted me about making it into a longer format children's book. They did say that the mixed species romance should be changed to a single species. They first asked me to change the cardinal to a mouse...but I was a bit "moused-out" with Mouse Guard. Wanting to do something different than Mouse Guard I painted up watercolor samples if both the characters were cardinals. I thought the red bird on the white snow would be graphically striking and it would be fun to use a different media than Mouse Guard

Harper Collins was not in favor of birds as main characters, they wanted something fluffy and furry that a child would want to cuddle with. They suggested chipmunks, voles, and more things too similar to mice for my taste. I came up with rabbits and they agreed it was the perfect choice. This is a test colored sketch of Jasper the male rabbit. I designed him to be more like my Wind in the Willows illustrations that Harper Collins had seen and liked.

Next week: Development of the story beyond the original Mouse & Cardinal plot, and the production on the artwork for book.

Snowy Valentine can be ordered through Amazon or your local bookstore.

Upcoming Appearances:
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-11-08T09:00:00.000-05:00

Dead Duck & LBM:
As a birthday gift for Jay Fosgitt last month, I did this piece honoring a few of his characters & designs: Dead Duck & The Little Blue Men. For Dead Duck, I abanondoned Jay's design to draw the character as if it were a real undead duck. Jay liked that idea when I had sketched the character before, so I knew it would go over well with him again. And riding Dead Duck are the Little Blue Men, the rivals to the main characters in the book Jay drew & wrote for APE: The Little Green Men. The Green guys are tiny alien interpretations of the Three Stooges, so in a moment of brilliance, Jay designed some blue men that are tiny alien versions of the Marx Brothers. I love the Marx Bros. & I think Jay nailed the deigns for those guys.

Mouse Guard Costumes!
With Halloween last week, I wanted to wait for a few last minute photos to come in of all the amazing fans dressed as Mouse Guard characters! Enjoy!

Three ladies at Dragon*Con as Lieam, Saxon, & Kenzie

Nicole Costa sent this picture of her God Daughter as Gwendolyn

Katie Cook & Ryan Wilcox's daughter Grayson as Kenzie

James Mangles as Lieam with the Black Axe

Jeff Hendrickson & his girlfriend as Lieam & Sadie

A very little and adorable Guardmouse.

Upcoming Appearances:
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-11-01T18:58:00.000-04:00

Yesterday's Halloween piece step-by-step:
For Halloween I wanted to do a spooky Mouse Guard-ish piece which also became a gift owed to one of my nieces (I used commissions as rewards this summer to get them to try new things like different foods and tall water slides). I started this piece with a sketch on some copy paper of skeleton mice sitting on a pumpkin.

Then I took that drawing and scanned it to re-size it and correct some mistakes. The proportions were off on some of the skeletons and I drew the one mouse floating in air, knowing I'd shift him around digitally until I found a good place for him to rest.Like on other pieces I have shown, I'll sometimes tint the mice different colors from the backgrounds or each other. This helps me when the drawing is still light & sketchy to be able to see what lines belong to what subject. This is then printed so I can ink it on the light box...but something wasn't right...

The skeletons, while cool, just didn't have enough life to them. I wanted them to be more otherworldly than just what could have been posed bones. I took my printout from above and a sheet of copy paper and on the lightbox I sketched ghostly mice. I used the bone drawings on the printout as a guide so the ghosts would match the pose and scale of the skeletons perfectly.

The next step was inking. I first inked the piece just like my printed rough, with only the skeletons. I used Strathmore 300 series bristol, and Copic Multiliners for the linework. I was focused on line thickness, texture, and pattern as I inked. Another downside of the skeletons was how easy they are to loose if the background behind them has any detail (the sitting one's legs get a bit lost in the vine and the walking one is hard to make out through all the ground cover.)

I inked my ghostly versions of this trio on the copy paper itself. The copy paper lets the ink bleed a little if the pen sits too long in one place. I used this as motivation to ink these guys more gesturally and less detailed than I normally would. They are spirits after all, I didn't want there to be too much detail to focus on. I added the idea of them evaporating or part of their apparitions to be pulling away from them

I scanned all the inked materials and assembled them as I flatted the piece for color. The flats weer overall quite easy: a sky, the ground, the pumpkin, the vine & leaf, and the skeletons & ghosts. I used a color hold on the ghost & skeleton linework. Trying to get the mice to appear less than solid where you can still see their outlines as well as their skeletons was an exercise in patience and subtle contrasts as I colored the piece.

Without going into too much detail about the ghost process, the ingredients to my solution were color holds, setting a few layers to 'screen' mode, making a few layers with a healthy Gaussian blur, and a subtle outter glow on the linework. The rest of the piece was rendered in my traditional way using the dodge & burn tools to render my flat color areas.The end result was a piece that I think is spooky and fun and will surely make it in to next year's sketchbook (as well as the original making it into my youngest niece's art collection)

Upcoming Appearances:
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-10-31T08:00:00.000-04:00

Happy Halloween!

I'm planning on posting the Mouse Guard costume photos next week to give some last minute crafters a few extra days to snap photos.

Upcoming Appearances:
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-10-25T21:23:00.004-04:00

Happy Anniversary to my amazing wife:

2011-10-25T09:00:00.000-04:00

World Building Q&A:
Last week Jeremy Bastian & I posted our video presentation about worldbuilding AND had a live Ustream on Monday Q&A where we answered questions about the video and techniques for creating a fictional world. We recorded the Ustream for those who couldn't make the live program to watch later. Here is that video:

Video streaming by Ustream

Upcoming Appearances:
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-10-18T09:00:00.000-04:00

World Building Video:
Jeremy Bastian & I presented a slideshow and discussion on world building at Detroit Fanfare this year. We showed examples in our work about how we tackle the idea of creating a fictional world for our readers that is believable and cohesive. We had a fair amount of people asking if the presentation would be available online. So Jeremy and I recorded a new version of the presentation for the web. I think if you are a creator working on a fictional world (or aspire to be) or are a fan of fictional worlds and our books, that you will enjoy the video.

Posting this presentation felt a bit static though. At a panel we can interact with the audience and leave plenty of room for Q&A. So next Monday (10-24-2011) at 8pm EST, Jeremy and I will do a live Ustream (link: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/davidpetersen) to answer your questions about creating, writing, & drawing a fictional world. (we plan to record this as well so if you can't make it, you can watch it later)

So enjoy the video below, and catch us this Friday on Ustream for the follow-up!

World Building with Bastian & Petersen from David Petersen on Vimeo.

Upcoming Appearances:
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-10-11T19:53:00.003-04:00

Recent Commissions:
7" x 7" commissions for fans (I only take requests for these at conventions, sorry, no email orders.) I colored a few for upcoming sketchbooks:

Upcoming Appearances:
2011:
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-10-04T09:00:00.000-04:00

TMNT: Michelangelo Cover:

I have been very fortunate to be asked by IDW to do the 4 one-shot micro series covers for the TMNT relaunch. A few months ago I shared the Raphael cover, and now I can share the Michelangelo cover. The final cover appears to the left. I wanted to draw something with more action than the Raph cover for Mike. With Raph, I went for the brooding vigilante look, for Mike I wanted him more outgoing without being silly or a "party-dude" (I want to avoid the caricature-ization the turtles got after the cartoon hit...and bring them back to subtle personality distinctions)

Pencils:
I drew the figure on one page in my sketchbook with the background on another. My original idea was to have Mike jumping down a sewer tube, but I couldn't get it to work how I had it in my head, so I switched to another New York staple: a tenement building (the Raph cover had the classic rooftop water tower). I found some photo reference to help me with the details of the building and did a quick sketch. I merged the two pages of my sketchbook into this image to send off to IDW for approval. I added the tinting to help me visualize some of the final palette, which would also help IDW understand where I was going with the image.

Inks:
Once IDW approved the pencils, I printed them out (had to fit it on 2 sheets of paper and then trim & tape them together) and taped it to the back of my Strathmore Bristol 300 series paper to do the final inks. On my lightbox I'm able to see the pencils through the bristol and ink overtop of them without making a mess of pencils lines that I need to erase in the end. I tried eyeballing the details and perspective on the building using the photos I had and my sketch as a guide, but after I inked a few parts of the building, I realized it was getting wonky-er by the minute. I set up a tripod off to the side of my desk and tied a string to it and was able to locate a vanishing point that would be a good splitting of the difference in the lines I already had inked.

Color Flats:
I scanned my inks and layed in the colors. This process is called 'flatting' and means that I'm establishing where the various colors start and stop...think of it like a kid learning to color in a coloring book within the lines and using colors that are correct for the image. To make Michelangelo more of a focus, I pushed the building back by choosing colors that were darker and more muted than I may have in other circumstances. And while I'm already thinking about the shading and lighting effects, I'm just trying to get an overall palette and make sure that details already can be differentiated from each other with color choices (like the carved stone being different from the brick being different from the limestone.)

Rendering & texture
Then I rendered the image (seen in full above) adding all the shading and texture. I wanted to give a bit of a street glow coming up on the underside of Mike and the lower part of the building. I also needed to make the nunchucks look like they were spinning. and I used a few smearing techniques along with a color-hold on the lines. Lastly I added a texture to the final image to emulate the feel of the original zip-a-tone shading the black &; white Eastman & Laird books had. (left image shows closeup of my colors next to a closeup of an image from Eastman & Laird's first issue)

I feel VERY lucky to be doing these covers. Still have Donatello & Leanardo to do for 2012!

Mouse Guard Costume photos:
I tweeted a request, but figured I should repeat it here. For Haloween this year, I'd love to do a post of all the Mouse Guard costumes you awesome fans have done. I have a folder of ones sent to me in the past, but if you have a new photo or one you have not sent, or you plan on having a Mouse Guard costume this year, please send me photos! Follow the contact info on mouseguard.net to send in photos, cut off is Oct. 29th.
(These ladies dressed up as Lieam, Saxon, & Kenzie at Dragon*Con a few years back)

Fan Art:
This week's fan art was sent in by Emil Friis Ernst, a 17 year old from Denmark. He writes: "Coming from a house half consumed by a big forest, nature has been my playground since childhood and your detailed and feral-like environments bring back memories...I have made this little piece to celebrate Mouse Guard! It's my character Ferdin...He's an intrepid yet also slightly jumpy (jittery?) tunneler, exploring abandoned tunnel systems left by other animals." Thanks Emil! You have a great sense of mood going here!

Upcoming Appearances:
2011:
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-09-27T09:00:00.000-04:00

Darkheather Model pt.3
Over the last few weeks I have been sharing photos and info about the models I built to help me design, visualize, and draw Darkheather in Winter 1152 (pt1, pt2).This week I'm showing the location of one of the most emotinally important scenes in Winter 1152. Once Saxon climbs down the pile of bones in the bone chamber, he finds a maze of prisons...or at least, that was my intent. I tried to come up with an idea for the shapes and designs of the prisons beyond the chamber, where Saxon ultimately has a very emotional discovery, but with little success.

In one of those magic moments as I was going to sleep (or waking up, I don't recall which it was now) I envisioned a floorplan that would resemble a repeating design like the tilework of the weasels'. It would start with a hexagonal hub that leads out to triangular columns and stone archways repeating the shapes from the bone chamber to connect it all. This image with digital help over-top a photo of the model you can see that even though the geometry isn't perfect, you can imagine the floorplan repeating all around the bone chamber.

The model itself started with the hexagonal center and the six triangular columns from my half dreaming floorplan idea with archway pieces cut with a stencil many, many, many times over to be used as connecting pieces between the columns. I wasn't as precise as I should have been, and the bristol had more flex that I wished, so the model became unsymmetrical and warped as I built. The wood strapping accross the tops of the arches were glued on in hopes of correcting that as much as possible. At the bottom of this photo you can see I tried to match the shape and angles of the entry archways from the bone room.

These prisons are only seen for a few brief pages in Winter 1152, and I may have over thought the design of the prison, but when my mind was blank, I thought I'd have the quickest and best success for design by assembling a model. This way if I ever need to revisit this or any other Darkheather location, I can dust off the model and get the characters right back in there. To the right you can see a few panels of Saxon's journey through there.

Fan Art:
Morgan Bilicki (who, with her friends, sent in painted fan art previously) recently emailed a photo of her knit fan art. She writes: "I'm a knitter, so it was only a matter of time before I made my own mouse with yarn. I designed the pattern myself and knitted him up. So, here's Kenzie of the Mouse Guard"

Upcoming Appearances:
2011:
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-09-20T09:00:00.000-04:00

Darkheather Model pt. 2:
Time to continue from the model post I did a few weeks back. In the 4th Issue (chapter) of Winter 1152 Saxon plummets through a hole in the Darkheather tunnels into a room piled with the bones of weasel victims/meals long past. In a past blogpost I quickly showed and mentioned the model I made for the room, but wanted to go into more detail here.

Sometimes I find that trying to build a physical model helps me design a space much quicker than if I tried sketching out ideas. I had a few photos of various arches & architectural details I thought appropriate for the architecture of Darkheather. In photoshop I stacked two arch patterns on top of each other and made the overall shape a wedge. I printed out several copies of the image, pasting them to bristol board and then attaching their sides to each other in what would be a octagon (but I left 4 sides off so I could see into the model.) In this photo you can see I've highlighted one section of the photo-collage so you can see how it was assembled.

This idea of repeating a section of something to make a bigger something seem like the sum of more than its parts was something I learned in 2D Design class (one of the most important classes I ever took). The room was glued to a piece of cardboard which I cut a hole into so I could view the model from below. To help the bristol board walls to keep their shape and not distort, I added the cardboard arch wings. Building a model like this only took an hour or so, but it saved me a lot of time in design and in imagining the way it would look in various angles and perspectives.

Below you can see some panels from the book of the bone chamber.

Where those lower arches lead will be the subject of next week's blog: Darkheather model pt.3

Fan Art:

This work by Isaac Montalbano (7) was sent to me by his mother Sarah. She writes: "By some chance our local library put Fall 1152 in the children's section on display. Even though the book is usually upstairs in the Young Adult section. If this hadn't happened I never would have seen it next to the water fountain. I myself love pretty much anything to do with the medieval time period and I have been picking up Brian Jaques books at Goodwill or tag sales and they wait on the shelf for my three sons to become full fledged readers. Anyway, when I brought Mouse Guard home we knew it was love. A while ago Isaac was inspired to draw his own version of The Black Axe, The green part is the cloak, and the reason one arm is super long is that the other arm is folded and also his head is turned to look at the axe which is why he only has one eye."

Upcoming Appearances:
2011:
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-09-13T09:00:00.000-04:00

Inspiration photos:
For the last four days Julia and I have been visiting at my Dad & his wife's place in Ludington, MI. Ludington has long been a wellspring of inspiration for me and has served as a reference point for a great deal of Mouse Guard artwork & locations. I went for a walk yesterday along one of my favorite paths up on a wooded bluff that occasionally overlooks Lake Michigan. These photos I took then will be added to a folder at home I use to recharge the creative spark when working on my books. I wanted to share this place with my blog readers.

I love seeing these critter holes and imagining what kind of houses they would build if these were their front entryways. I suppose the tall grass acts like what would be a decorative tree or bush outside a human home.

Here is another one of those openings that could serve as a gate to a hidden city of mice, or chipmunks, or voles. I love the lumpy and organic shapes trees can have, and it's fun to imagine how that could effect the shape of the inner dwelling.

I did a spot illustration trying to capture the feel of looking up at light dancing through a canopy of leaves in the RPG hardcover. It looked odd in black & white, but started to resemble a leafy light filter when I gave it some color.

Using focused bits of nature like this not only help me set the mood and atmosphere of Mouse Guard, but it also sets up the idea of scale...instead of showing a full forest floor, I can show the details of a few berries and leaves so the audience starts to think in terms of mouse-size.

In this photo overlooking the bluff & lake, I tried to show the inspiration for the shift from water to sand to grass to dark tree cover in Black Axe issue 1 when Celanawe leads Em away from the shoreline.

Like the berries above, these mushrooms shown from the undersize go a long way to explain scale and point of view. I also think mushrooms are just visually cool.

Erroded sand has left half of this tree's root system exposed. This path is littered with them and they always remind me of Ringwraiths from Lord of the Rings. Not only is the setting pretty well suited for the hobbits to use this as a hiding place when they are hunted, but also the dark exploring finger-ey roots remind me of the wraiths themselves. I set Celanawe & Em's own hiding place here in Black Axe 1.

Lastly, because I'm a texture & pattern guy I like focusing on things like bark.

I hope you enjoyed a glimpse of the place I retreat to when I need to get back to the soul of childhood exploration and wonder. I camped near there when I was a kid, swam right in those waves since I was three, read the first Harry Potter book to Julia outside the woods there, proposed to Julia on the beach, and have been making wonderful new memories with my nieces the past few years. It's special to me and I hope you enjoyed my indulgence in sharing it with you.

NEXT week I'll do part 2 of the Darkheather models

Upcoming Appearances:
2011:
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-09-06T09:00:00.000-04:00

Darkheather Model pt1:

In Winter 1152 Kenzie, Saxon, & Sadie are plunged into the seemingly abandoned Weasel kingdom of Darkheather. My original concept for the designs were going to be more Norse but after thinking how well Moorish architecture would fit into an underground domain with the columns & arches to support the "cave" ceiling, I went that direction. At first, I tried drawing the location purely using reference photos, but after feeling like a slave to them, I switched to building the model shown here (which I talked about briefly in a past post). It is made of insulating foam, dowel, and a few bits of plastic tubing.

The model proved useful for examining the arch shapes at various difficult angles, but also for figuring out what shapes appear in the negative spaces of the arches when it is repeated down a hallway. Locking down a camera on a tripod, I was able to take three successive photos and assemble them in photoshop. I have tinted the three depths different colors to help my eye make sense of what details are on what level of depth.

I used the same kind of trick when wanting to make a "room" in which the "walls" were these arches and the roof was a geometric pattern. Instead of laying all this out as a drawing, I took a series of photos and let the camera help me figure out my angles. I used a line tool in photoshop to add the ceiling beams, and inserted a pattern I designed for the tiles in the ceiling. I printed this model mock-up and used it as a guide on the lightbox when inking the final panel

The Darkheather guide page (found in the extras of Winter and online here) was drawn after I had finished Winter 1152's six issues. I looked back at various scenes and settings from the story to try and assemble a multi-layered floorplan with a path the mice followed that made sense. I pulled out my trusty arch model to look at for reference as I drew arch after arch after arch.

Next Time, I'll have pt. 2 of the Darkheather models: The Bone Room.

Fan Art:
Paige Connelly sent this Mouse Guard fan art my way. She is an animation & illustration student working towards her BFA. She hopes to start the RPG soon with some fellow students. I think this is a great mouse piece, it clearly shows the preperation, packing, and weariness the life of a Guarmouse must take on. Looks like Paige has a start for her RPG character!

Upcoming Appearances:
2011:
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-08-30T09:00:00.000-04:00

From the Vault: Cats Trio:

In the past I have mentioned friends Jesse Glenn & Mike Davis who I started drawing comics with in middle school. These guys were and are like my brothers. We developed so many concepts in just a few years, that it would take us our lives to develop and publish just the good ones. Freshman year of high school, Mike had a comic idea called Cats that was then handed off to me. I narrowed down the characters to just three distinct personalities (based on us and a mutual friend Nick) and renamed the idea "Cats Trio". Not long after I offered it to Jesse, who could draw better than me. Jesse added his own character, a raccon named Max that he had made using the Turtles RPG on a Boy Scout Camping Trip we were on together.

The entire concept was a blatant TMNT homage. We all loved the Turtles and wanted to do our own spin on it: a lab doing animal bio-resarch mutating animals into more anthropomorphic beings for military work has a massive explosion. Two of the subjects: a raccoon & a mountain lion escape through the side of the blown out building. The effects of the explosion also mutate 3 stray cats in the alley outside the building. The cats, naive and playful, meet the raccoon and find they have a common enemy, the mountain lion named Claw. They train together and are fighting & on the run from their foe all while trying to remain hidden from human eyes Below are the 11 unfinished pages Jesse drew back in 1990-91 (which he recently uncovered in a box).

Unfortunately, we never got past those 11 pages...but the idea didn't die. At various points in high school Jesse and I would hand the idea back and forth me writing, him drawing or me drawing and him writing...even breaking Max out into his own prequel book.

As high school ended, I wanted to give Cats another shot on my own. I redid & honed down some of the original pages into a single page with the idea of taking over the art duties, but I never got past this single page & pinup.

In college I did two Beatles cover spoof images: Help & Let It Be.

A few other times in college (1995-2000) Jesse and I had aspirations of bringing back the comic that brought us working together (cats was one of at least 20 projects we conceived, wrote, drew, and played with). Jesse, influenced by a re-watching of Robotech, did some fun redesigns. This was followed by a massive rewrite session where we looked over the first Cats story ideas and honed them into a four issue outline with two other story arcs planned. I wrote the first issue, but no pages were ever produced, and this would be the last big push we had together to make Cats Trio into a comic

The cats would creep into the margins of my notebooks, on scrap paper, on notepads at work, etc. While I think I knew the TMNT ripoff would never work as a real comic project, it was a part of my history with three good friends. It was a constatnt thread running through our own adventures together, and drawing them or redesigning the characters was similar to calling the real friends just to say "hello".

Post graduation, I was living in an apartment where three stray cats kept hiding under cars in the parking lot that were warm. They especially liked getting up on the wheels under the fenders of my 1974 VW Beetle. I decided to do a Cats Trio concept piece as though the characters were really animals, there was no mutation( just some human-like intellect) while being hunted in a rural area by a mountain lion. I like the idea, and feel it has better legs of becoming a real project than the original incarnation ever did, but by removing the anthro-angle, it removed a lot of what felt magical about it in nostalgia terms.

The most recent finished image I did of the Cats Trio was about 8 years ago as a "Happy New Year" to Jesse, Mike, & Nick.

However, after Jesse uncovered the original comic and I pawed through the folder with the rest of this artwork (and more) I have a feeling I'll take another stab of doing some Cats Trio artwork just for fun. I hope to get Jesse Glenn to do some as well and we will both share it here. Nothing like saying "hello" to these old friends again.

Fan Art:

Marc Lehner sent these to me via a friend of his at the Baltimore Comic Con. They are mice from the campaign he is playing of the Mouse Guard RPG. I like that in both the drawings there is a sense of history: "The Brothers of Pebblebrook" sounds as though these two already have a reputation for themselves & the architectural details on the other piece suggests an aesthetic all it's own. Thanks Marc!

Upcoming Appearances:
2011:
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16
2012
London Super Con: Feb 25-26

Emerald City: March 30-April 1

Boston Comic Con: April 21-22

2011-08-23T09:00:00.000-04:00

Following Cerebus:

Back in 2007 I was asked by Dave Sim to do an interview for his magazine Following Cerebus. In the process of the interview by correspondence Dave also asked if I'd like to do a Cerebus/Mouse Guard jam cover. Well after several years, the issue has been released (available here) and I can share the process of the cover art (which I now cringe at in terms of inking & coloring crudeness)

Dave sent over the inks for his piece. The idea he had was to have Cerebus waking up to find guardmice climbing on him. I told Dave to ink his piece in fully, that instead of jaming on the layout, just to finish his own drawing and inks, so the styles would only look different between the characters, not from the top to bottom of the image.

I drew & inked my mice on a sheet of bristol on the lighbox with a printout of Dave's inks behind it. That way I was able to match up the contact points where Saxon's sword is touching Cerebus' nose, the mouse feet touch Cerebus' belly etc. It also allowed me to get the shadows to fall in the right spots on the fence and Cerebus himself.

I merged the inked pieces together in photoshop and edited out the inkwork where the two pieces overlapped. Then I colored the piece. The colors look a bit over-saturated and over textured to my eye now, but I do remember at the time wanting to do less texture on Cerebus than the mice to push the idea of two different artistic styles coming together.

As a side note, as one of my donations to the silent auction at Detroit Fanfare this fall, I will be donating the original inks to my part of the jam cover as well as a signed copy of the issue it appears on.

Fan Art:

Fellow Michigander and all around cool artist Jeremy Treece did this Mouse Guard piece as part of his u-stream commission drive. The artwork is on chipboard (think the backs of notepads, sketchbooks, and kids puzzleboxes) and because of the toned surface he was able to use white and black to great effect. Thanks Jeremy

Upcoming Appearances:
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-08-16T09:00:00.002-04:00

Colored on Ustream:

I have been coloring various artwork & gifts on Ustream recently (I notify fans of the next ustream via Twitter to this viewing link: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/davidpetersen) Here is the most recent batch.

Happy Birthday Tough Pigs!:
The Muppet Fan-Site Tough Pigs is celebrating it's 10th anniversary online. They asked various artists who have contributed to the site & Muppet comics to do an image to showcase in their gallery for the occasion. This Kermit piece is a modified piece because I couldn't squeeze in a new piece before their deadline. Thanks Tough Pigs for the news & info and for always being kind to my Muppet themed projects!

Fan Art:

Miniatures model sculptor Kyla Richards did this AMAZING set of Mouse Guard Winter miniatures and sent me a hand painted set! The minis are not available for purchase, but someday I hope to do a tabletop miniatures game with Kyla & Luke Crane...

Upcoming Appearances:
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-08-09T09:00:00.001-04:00

Color:

The Amazing Skottie Young & I did an art trade at the Cherry Capital Con a few months ago. He added to my Harry Potter art collection, and I did this piece of Ludo from Labyrinth. I had some fun throwing color on it after Skottie got me a scan. Thanks again Skottie!

Online 2011 Sketchbook Orders:

Wednesday Julia and I will be accepting online orders for the 2011 Sketchbook (24 pages, full color, signed & numbered to 400 copies). $20 + shipping ($5 US, $10 International) To order, email a request to ericebon (at) hotmail (dot) com. with the number of copies and the shipping address. We will email you back a paypal invoice to complete the purchase.

Fan Art:

Morgan Bilicki writes: "My friends and I LOVE your art-work, and we all decided to paint the picture of Liam on a rock from the Fall Volume of Mouse Guard. Here's our pictures! :D"

Thanks Morgan!

Upcoming Appearances:
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-08-02T09:00:00.001-04:00

Legends of the Guard's Eisner:

Little over a week ago, Legends of the Guard won the 2011 Eisner for Best Anthology! I'm really proud of this book, and it's all thanks to the contributors who worked on the book. I set out to do an anthology in which the contributors had as much freedom as possible. I chose those storytellers for good reason, I liked their work and I could trust them to do something amazing if not tethered too much editorially.

So a huge thank you an congratulations to the following artists and storytellers. Not only would we have not won the Eisner without them, but also without whom the book itself wouldn't have been possible. (names link to their sites, interview links to their interviews about working on Legends):

Jeremy Bastian: Interview

Ted Naifeh

Alex Sheikman: Interview

Gene Ha & Lowell Francis: Interview

Alex Kain & Sean Rubin: Interview

Terry Moore: Interview

Guy Davis

Jason Shawn Alexander: Interview

Katie Cook: Interview

Nate Pride: Interview

Craig Rousseau: Interview

Karl Kerschl: Interview

Mark Smylie: Interview

Joao Lemos: Interview

Paul Morrissey & I are already working with contributors for Legends of the guard volume 2 (set to start in 2012) such as: Jim McCann & Janet Lee, Kenneth Rockafort, Bill Willingham, Nick Tapalansky & Alex Eckman Lawn, Eric Canete, & Stan Sakai!!

Upcoming Appearances:
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-07-26T09:00:00.002-04:00

Dreams DO Come True...

A few weeks back I crypticly tweeted I was working on a cover that would make 11 year old me ecstatic and was a professional dream coming true. I can now reveal that IDW asked me to do a cover for their recently announced Ninja Turtles relaunch! My cover will be on the Raphael one-shot. My love of comics started with the Turtles, I started roleplaying because of the TMNT RPG, and I broke the ice when meeting now-lifelong friend Jesse Glenn (Kenzie) over TMNT at a Boy Scout camp before the cartoon had even hit the airwaves.

TMNT process:

I started with a sketch in my sketchbook (this was attempt #2, I'm keeping #1 under wraps as it was too dull a pose & mood for Raph, but could be reworked in the future if I'm asked to do another TMNT cover). I scanned the sketch, made some adjustments to proportions in photoshop and changed the building and background. I felt the composition were better served of Raph "keeping watch" if I allowed more head room and implied more of a gaze over the whole city. I sent in the digital composition for approval and then printed it out full scale when I got the go ahead to start inking. I layed a sheet of bristol board over the printout and used my sketch as a guide for inking on a lightbox. I scanned the finished inks and started coloring the piece in photoshop by "flatting" in the colors. (Scroll back up to see the finished color artwork)

Color
In that Ustream coloring session from a few weeks back I was able to put some color into this Yoda piece. Not to start a Prequel complaint list, but I had imagined Yoda as a Jedi using a lightsaber quite differently than what was ultimately portrayed. Since control, calmness, focus, etc are the virtues of a Jedi, and Yoda is a master among them, he would wield a lightsaber of traditional length, but without touching it. He would close his eyes, raise his arm, and using the force, guide that blade through an amazing spectacle of dueling never letting the opponent get close. Which is why Yoda is not touching his ignited lightsaber in this piece.

Fan Art:

This Fan Art comes from Jono Kys in South Africa (!!!) He writes: I've been reading comics for many years but this is my first ever fanart and hopefully not the last. Really looking forward to the Winter War series.

Upcoming Appearances:
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-07-19T09:00:00.003-04:00

Mouse Guard at Comic Con
For the 5 days that is comic con, I'll be spending time at my Artist Alley Table GG-09. I'll have several signings at the Archaia booth: 2635 almost every day. I'll be signing books, selling the 2011 sketchbook. I'm looking forward to the geekfest of creators and fans coming together that is comic con, so I'll see you in a few days!(For those attending, I'll try and tweet (@mouseguard) any location/signing/info updates as much as I can. For those not attending, This will be a good way to keep up with any announcements & Eisner info)

2011 Sketchbook:

Speaking of this year's sketchbook, I wanted to give you all some more info about it. It's a 24 page full color collection of original artwork I have colored specifically for the sketchbook with a few other covers added for good measure.

Color:

For Jeremy Bastian's Birthday I did a piece of his Cursed Pirate Girl character Tag Clamb. The character is mostly seen over the course of a few panels in Jeremy's 3rd issue of CPG, but the visuals of this character struck me as amusing and fun to draw. When I was ready to color him, I had to give Jeremy a call to ask about the palette. Jeremy's book being in black & white, I had no idea if Tag was cream or blue or green or mustard...etc. I colored this piece last week as part of that live coloring Ustream session.

Fan Art:

This week's Fan Art comes from Duncan Walden. He writes that he enjoys Mouse Guard and took pride in all the detail in his fan artwork. Thanks Duncan!!

Upcoming Appearances:
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-07-12T09:00:00.001-04:00

Congrats in advance!

Jesse Glenn (my friend & the real life basis for Kenzie) and his girlfriend Tomoko Miller are getting married this weekend! I am proud to be serving as the best man and looking forward to having a front-row seat to seeing them tie the knot (provided I don't get him in too much trouble tonight at the bachelor party...)

Colored Artwork:

Last night I did a Ustream as I colored artwork that would otherwise never be colored or published (they are not Mouse Guard related). I did so to 1) have a Ustream event and 2) to have some material to share here on the blog for the next few weeks as a wedding, SDCC, & a family get together bar me from current posts). I really like the finished piece, but because it's not how foxes behave in Mouse Guard, I couldn't include it in this year's sketchbook without creating confusion.

Older Sketches:

While looking for material to fill the blog in advance with for the next few weeks, I stumbled across this drawing of a Mystic (or Uru) from the Dark Crystal. I did this sketch as a warm-up before I did the Dark Crystal poster for Archaia a few years back. The sketch is unfinsihed, but I remember at the time wondering if I had it in me to take something rough like this and use it as the foundation for a digital painting. This seems to be as far as I got, which makes for a nice quick study but a rather unfinished digital painting.

Fan Art:

This week the art was sent in by Alex Challand. He said that Mouse Guard inspires his own artwork. Thanks for the kind words Alex! Very glad you sent this in, I like the character you have put into this mouse with his cool hood & belts.

Upcoming Appearances:
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-07-05T09:00:00.000-04:00

Birthday Recovery + Deadlines on 3
simultaneous projects = cool gift guest art as blogpost

An awesome toad riding goblin-ish-Green-man By Nate Pride (who told me the title that sounded like a Magic the Gathering card, but I forgot it)

A Katie Cook piece for my Harry Potter art collection of Ron playing Keeper for Griffindor (Weasley is our King...)

Upcoming Appearances:
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-06-28T09:00:00.001-04:00

Short post this week because I'm catching up from time in Traverse City for the Cherry Capital Con & I'm on a deadline (or three).

3 Self-Published Independent book recommendations:
Comics are stories. And while I enjoy a superhero bash-em-up from time to time, I want the diversity in comic stories & genres to be more widely known & appreciated. Here are three books that I have discovered at conventions this year which were all self-published by the creators and I think are deserving of wider recognition, not just for their conviction and bravery to self-publish, but also for their quality work.

Order of Tales: The City of Shells: by Evan Dahm
This is the first book in a series of three by Evan Dahm about a storyteller Koark keeping history alive as he searches to discover a lost story important to his people. What grabbed me about this book is the immersive world-building that Evan is setting up. I have not yet read the remaining two books, but I finished book one feeling I needed to (the story can be read online for free at http://rice-boy.com/ but I am waiting to acquire the physical books which may be tough for new readers as it seems the first book may have gone out-of-print... ). The fantasy world of Order of Tales is slowly unfolded through illuminated manuscript-like storytelling, race & culture designs, maps, and the sense that there is more to discover with every turn of the page.

The Green Monk: by Brandon Dayton
Brandon's ink work drew me to his booth when I passed it in the Phoenix Comic Con's artist alley. I saw his debut comic The Green Monk, a fairy tale of-sorts about a wandering monk who ,using an enchanted blade of grass, takes on a giant. After reading the story back at my table I went back and bugged Brandon several more times to talk shop about inking, pen work, his colored work (he had some lovely prints he colored digitally which looked hand-colored) and ultimately I purchased a commission piece from him for my Harry Potter themed collection.
You can find out more about Brandon & even buy a copy of Green Monk here: http://brandondayton.com/

Shi Long Pang (pronounced Sher Loong Pong): by Ben Costa

Ben also came by at Phoenix to show me his Xeric Award winning book. The Xeric is granted once a year to a comic creator deserving of taking their vision to print by a grant of funds to be used for the printing costs. Ben's story started as a webcomic and after winning the Xeric, he was able to publish his first volume. Pang is historical fiction in the tradition of Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo (Stan was awesome enough to give Ben a quote for the book cover) set in 17th century China about a short & fat young monk. Ben has really done his research about the history of the period and the politics and language, and religion....and it shows! You can read Shi Long Pang every Friday on Ben's site as well as order his hardcover: http://www.shilongpang.com/

Fan Art:

Titled "I did not agree to this" by Adakie. I really like the design for the front of Kenzie & Saxon's cloaks. They both look a bit young...perhaps this is when they were still tenderpaws in the Guard.

Upcoming Appearances:
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-06-21T09:00:00.002-04:00

Unexpected & Unplanned Visual Influence:

Looking over Black Axe #2, there are two examples of where the visuals were the result of fan interactions at conventions. I had no preconceived notion of how the Captain's Captain character Roarke would look when I started Black Axe (in fact, I didn't have anything specific for him when I started issue 2). I knew he needed to be surly and pirate like to fit in with the crowd I figured would populate the Mariner's Bell. I had also written the character's motives to be underhanded and swindle-ly when dealing with Conrad. Then it dawned on me, that a few years back, I had done a Conrad vs a Pirate Mouse piece. Seemed fitting to use that design again. Luckily, I had also already colored the piece for the 2010 sketchbook, so the design for Roarke was 98% done before I started.

The other example of this is the visual representation of the history lesson of the Black Axe. In the past I have used illuminated manuscript based on the Book of Kells to be the visual portal into what could otherwise be boring exposition/explanation pages of talking mouse heads. This timer around, I wanted to do something different (also suggesting that all of Mouse History isn't recorded in this way, and that the Legend of the Black Axe is legendary enough to be found in multiple sources) but was stuck on what to use as a visual. As I was headed to my shelf to retrieve a Kells reference book, I knocked over a fold-out scale reprinting (in book form) of the Bayeux Tapestry a fan had given me as a gift last year at a convention. I loved how the tapestry is essentially a long comic narrative, mixing images with words. Had it not been for that fan being so kind, I wouldn't have been led in that direction.

Recent Colored Artwork:

I sent the printer the files for the 2011 Mouse Guard sketchbook last week. I try and keep the sketchbook pure Mouse Guard making most of the content images you could see in the comics. These few are non-mouse related, but wanted to share them. I did the colors as a 'warm up' before I was going to be doing a batch of Black Axe pages. (Panda & T-Rex in love, & Characters from Stuff of Legend)

Upcoming Appearances:
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-06-14T09:00:00.001-04:00

2-D Design -or- The Most Valuable Art Class I took:

Ok, so that heading may seem a bit skewed, and may seem like I'm chalking up other classes I took as rubbish (which they weren't), but what I'm getting at is that 2-D Design 101 (or whatever the course number was at Mott Community College) was the class that switched on a lightbulb in my mind and offered me something new. Other classes were more about assignments that forced you to practice or pushed your comfort zone, while for me, 2-D was about discovering new information.

In 2-D I learned a language for things I took for granted: contrast, focus, balance, color, value, negative space, etc...AND how to manipulate them to achieve a visual goal. In this example, we were assigned to take a layout of shapes, and with three different color harmonies and placements, design three very different images. In the orange one, I was going for a subtle vertical transition from darker reds to lighter oranges. The green and red was designed to split the image aggressively into a left and right (and make the zig zag line between them a focus). And lastly, in the violet & yellow one I wanted to bring out that yellow elbow shape as the focus.

Using contrast (of color, value, and texture) I was able to make the three images look (somewhat) different. With my inking on Mouse Guard, I still use this concept with patterned linework. One of the points of contrast is to make touching areas either leap off of each other (high contrast) or blend together (low contrast). So to separate mice from backgrounds or overlapping characters I vary the style, texture, pattern, and thickness of lines to create contrast. And that is before I ever bring color into the page. Shape, pattern, & contrast became the framework for what my drawings & subject matter needed to fit into.

In another assignment, we were to create a design on an equilateral triangle and through mirroring and repetition, create four different hexagonal designs. This assignment (as did most every assignment) also featured some color theory, but I want to focus on the pattern design aspect. While I was called out by the professor for a few shapes still being recognizable & in similar configurations (remember the assignment was to make 4 very different hexes.) overall the hexagons were satisfactorily different enough for a good grade though.

This lesson came back to me when in Mouse Guard it was time to cover the walls of Darkheather in tile patterns similar to Moorish tilework, but without their iconography, substituting weasel iconography instead. I drew a stylized heather flower bud and then put the 2-D skills to work and came up with a variety of tile patterns. And I could put my lesson's mistake to good use, I have a few designs there that are very similar, and a few that are more different. Depending on how much contrast I wanted in adjacent tile areas, I had a pattern to do the job.

Though computers were well infused in education and design when I was starting college, we did not use them for this class. So all these assignments were done by mixing paint to specific colors & values, then painting them evenly on paper so as to not leave visible brush strokes (though later we could when trying to implement texture). The paper was then carefully trimmed with xacto knives, and lastly glued down with rubber cement so that there was no trace of residue. I may have groaned at the time about "how much easier this would be to do on a computer" but I'm glad I didn't. I may have still learned the design concepts, but I wouldn't have learned the Mr. Miyagi-type lesson of craftsmanship: no fingerprints, name in the right place, no exposed glue, no visible brush strokes, etc. It was a big part of our grade (1/3 most of the time). I think about the idea of craftsmanship being 1/3 of the grade on every page I do.

2-D Design class got me onto the path of thinking about an image before I start it (or at least before I try and finish it). It was printmaking that fully forced me to really process what my end goals were for an image, and what techniques executed in what order would get me there. No coincidence, it was my 2-D design professor Sam Morello that also taught Printmaking.

Upcoming Appearances:
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-06-07T09:00:00.002-04:00

Free Comic Book Day 2011 Story:
I am very proud of the story from this year's Free Comic Book Day flip-book. I am continuing to get emails and tweets from fans who discovered Mouse Guard through the story and from existing fans who loved using it as a gateway for their friends and relatives to get into the series.
So I wanted to take a post to talk about my process in getting that story finished.
In case you missed this year's issue, you can read it for free online at Graphicly.com here before reading the rest of this post.

Last year I found the task of writing short a Mouse Guard story for FCBD rather daunting. It needed to be accessible to new readers who have never seen Mouse Guard while still having something new and plot-connected for the existing fans. I was able to do a story that worked, but this year I felt I had to try a new approach. After the success of Legends of the Guard, I thought it would be fun to change the FCBD story format to be more like a folktale or Legend. With the story being told to a younger aged version of a known character, I could show how something as simple as a bedtime story could shape who that mouse became.

On a car ride to a friend's house I started thinking of folktales I liked which I could just do a comic translation of with mice. J.K. Rowling's Tale of the Three Brothers (featured in the Deathly Hallows), Chaucer's Pardoner's Tale (from the Canterbury tales), and Snow, Crow, & Blood (I had re-written a version years ago). What they all featured were a series of items, used in succession which change the outcome of the ending.

I then settled on a trio of concepts that are frequently echoed in Mouse Guard: Aggression, Defense, and Wisdom (Saxon, Rand, & Kenzie-- Swords, Strongholds, & Diplomacy). I couldn't come up with a "wisdom" item that would work to twist the ending and swapped it for poison, but made wisdom the key attribute to acquiring and successfully using the items in the correct sequence. Therefore, it made sense that I have a young Kenzie (the character's name means 'wise') told the tale that would shape his future.

The Hawk, Crab, and Snake would gift parts of themselves in their greed to get a greater claim on mouse-prey. A talon became a sword, a shell became a shield, and poison became..well, poison. The process of making the pages is my standard: break down the script into 1 page chunks, sketch the panels in a sketchbook, scan the sketches and assemble them in a Photoshop template of the page with placed text blocked where I think it goes, print out those layouts, and ink the final artwork on bristol using a lightbox to follow my layouts as guides. Lastly I scan the inks, and color the artwork and make final text changes.

ps: Sorry about missing last week's post. I was swamped returning home from Phoenix,and
with the power outage later that week I never got a good chance to catch up on the posting.

Upcoming Appearances:
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-05-24T09:00:00.001-04:00

Reference Model: The Mariner's Bell:

In issue 2 of Black Axe, Em & Celanawe were going to meet Conrad at a tavern. To design this brew-hall, I had to choose one of the buildings from the larger Port Sumac Model to fit my interior design into. The octagonal dwelling I chose was one that I found free online as a 'medieval hut'. I had also tacked on another free online cottage piece to the roof on the town model, so my interior design needed to use that exterior shape.

I took the same hut model and upscaled the printout. I reworked the graphics to be a two story space with a row of windows around the upper floor and stone walls on the lower one. To have a purpose for the hut I glued onto the roof, I made that the housing for a big bell that perhaps the town uses as a signal for predators, upcoming storms, or incoming mouse ships (deafening to the patrons of the tavern though!). I didn't build the bell into the model, but the idea came to me as I was gluing together that space.

I glued up the printed out design so that the graphics were on the inside. I left off a section of the wall to give me a view inside. The spiral staircase is a bunch of equally trimmed pieces of craftwood glued piece by piece onto a drinking straw. The balcony is sections of cardboard. While I had an idea of what the interior of this tavern would look like, it wasn't until I built a physical version of it that I got a real sense of the design as a complete location, before it was just floating elements (windows, staircase, balcony, etc.)

Upcoming Appearances:
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-05-17T09:00:00.001-04:00

Reference Model: Port Sumac:
New Mouse City, new design aesthetic! I wrote the description for the lower portion of the seaside mouse town as: "Docks, moored ships, and floating dwellings lashed and built off of one another form the heart of the port...". But to visualize the location and keep the design consistent, I built a model.

This time I had less to build though. When doing the Fall 1152 extras, I printed several free online papermodels of medieval cottages and buildings. I had about fifteen or so of them, which I tucked away in a drawer in case I ever needed them again. I dug them out and found a few more freebie models to print and construct. Then I started placing them on craft sticks poking out of a sheet of rigid insulating foam.

scrap bristol formed the docks and walkways, and I just kept cobbling everything together until I found it visually pleasing. This hodgepodge approach of collecting various models, in various scales, and placing them by eye and with no plan in mind, lent itself to perfectly designing the spirit of this mousey location which was supposed to evoke a bit of Mos Eisley from Star Wars, Scabb Island from Monkey Island, and a medieval shanty town.

More photos:

Upcoming Appearances:
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-05-10T09:00:00.001-04:00

Reference Model: Conrad's Ship:
Because of how frequently Conrad's boat would be seen in Black Axe #2, I knew I needed to build reference for it. unfortunately, I didn't take photos of the build process, but I can tell you that it started with a cardboard skeleton of the hull, followed by a cardboard deck, and bristol board sides. The railings were all made with match-stick sized craft scrap wood.

For adhesive, I started with rubber cement, but as I went along making more permanent decisions, I switched to hot-melt-glue. The bottom of the boat's hull is also covered in blue painter's tape. It's helped me smooth out the contour of the compound curves, but also gave me a reference line for where the water level would be.

I tried to figure out a way to design the rigging so that Conrad could man the ship alone having full control over the sheet (how tight the sail is) and the rudder. This project was (like the Legends cover #2 library model) an exercise in tactile design. I tried drawing concept sketches for this boat based on various historic ships, abut didn't get very far. By cutting and gluing, I designed as I went eyeballing shapes proportions in 3d as I went. (only took 1 night)

So to showcase my madness here is a gallery of the model (16" long, 17" tall, 5.5" wide):

Thank you to Julia, who helped me take these photos, but photos of all my hand built Mouse Guard models that still exist (three older ones have bitten the dust).

Upcoming Appearances:
Motor City Comic Con:May 13-15
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-05-03T09:00:00.001-04:00

Black Axe #2: May 4th

After my lateness in getting the issue finished, and the printer dropping a zero from our quantity request, the issue will be out Wed. May 4th. Archaia posted a nice preview of the issue here. I want to thank you fans for being patient. I know it's been quite a wait and I'm quite aware of how far behind I've fallen. It's because of you guys that I earn my living, and I hate to make you wait.

This will also mean that for the next few weeks I can post photos & commentary on the 3 models I built as visual aids for production on the issue.

Free Comic Book Day UPDATE:

I now have 2 appearances on Free Comic Book Day. From 11am-3pm I'll be at Meltdown Comics in LA. This event will be Archaia's home base for FCBD and I will be joined by Brian Holguin (writer of the Dark Crystal FCBD offering). The Henson Co. will have two life sized Skeksis from the original movie on display for photos! From 4-6pm I'll have moved over to The Pasadena location of Collector's Paradise. You can preview the Mouse Guard/Dark Crystal FCBD offering here.

Transylvania TV
In the past I have mentioned Transylvania TV, a Puppet-Retro-Monster Comedy web show that is NOT FOR KIDS & is spearheaded by a pal of mine Gordon Smuder. I did a new T-Shirt design of the vampire LeShock for their online store. Currently the show is unsponsored, so fans can show support and keep the cameras recording with purchases. I hope to do a few more of these of the other characters as time allows.

Fan Art:

Karine Charlebois (@kanthara on twitter) sent me this fanart based on the Mouse Guard RPG campaign she is playing in. I really like the depth of focus in this piece, all the design work on the cloaks and weapons, and the texture details on the trees and forest floor.

Upcoming Appearances:
FCBD: Meltdown Comics: May 7 (11-3)
FCBD: Collectors Paradise Pasadena: May 7 (4-6)
Motor City Comic Con:May 13-15
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 13-16

2011-04-26T09:00:00.002-04:00

Loukas:

In Winter 1152, Saxon discovers the corpse of his mentor and inherits his sword in what was supposed to be a touching emotional moment for the otherwise uncouth redcloak. In my notes for the book, I had the mentor down as "mentor" and no idea what I was going to do with him (even though he appears as a pile of bones to Saxon, we get a flashback of him in life). I did this series of sketches and then did a quick color test while jotting down notes about the mouse Loukas. His name is an obvious homage to someone I consider a storytelling mentor: George Lucas. The rest wrote itself as I drew.

Loukas trivia: Though he has only appeared alive in 2 panels of the comics, he has made it into every year's sketchbook since 2008 and will be in this year's as well.)

Fan Art:

From Kubert School student Derek Rodenbeck comes this fanart. Thanks Derek!

Upcoming Appearances:

FCBD: Meltdown Comics: May 7

Motor City Comic Con: May 13-15

Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29

Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13

San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24

Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21

New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-04-18T09:00:00.002-04:00

Free Comic Book Day:

Saturday May 7th is Free Comic Book Day this year. For those unfamiliar, you can walk into your local comic book retailer, and they will have a selection of FREE comics that have (mostly) been specially created for the idea of getting everyone from existing comic fans to folks who have never picked up an issue of anything to try something for nothing. I will be at Meltdown Comics in LA to sign the Mouse Guard/Dark Crystal flip book Archaia published for FCBD. You can preview the book here

Excuse the short post this week. I'm trying to tie up some loose ends and get back on track with page production before family arrive for the Easter weekend. 'Till next week, enjoy this image of an apothecary mouse where I infused visual reference from: the MG RPG, historic recreation photos, the Cadfel DVD series, and a 1506 German urine chart for calculating what ails you.

Upcoming Appearances:
FCBD: Meltdown Comics: May 7

Motor City Comic Con: May 13-15

Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29

Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13

San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24

Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21

New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-04-12T09:00:00.006-04:00

Eisner Nominations:

Last Thursday the nominations for the 2011 Eisner Awards were announced and I am pleased and honored that Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard has been nominated for Best Anthology. I was also shocked to discover that I had been nominated for best cover artist for the series. Legends is a remarkable book and couldn't have been possible without the amazing work of the contributors who took the time to play in my sand-box. I offer a huge thank you & congratulations to them: Jeremy Bastian, Ted Naifeh,Alex Sheikman, Sean Rubin, Alex Kain, Terry Moore, Gene Ha, Lowell Francis, Nate Pride, Guy Davis, Katie Cook, Jason Shawn Alexander, Craig Rousseau, Karl Kerschl, Joao Lemos, and Mark Smylie.

Recent work: It has been a while since I've been able to share. Clockwise from upper right: New Avengers as mice, Recreation of the cover of X-men #141 with Cyclops & Phoenix as mice, Saxon & Gwendolyn holding hands, & an anthropomorphic fox in armor.

Fan Art: This sculpture of Saxon was done by Richard Hiltbrunner. Thanks Richard for sending me a photo of your tribute to Sax! If you have fanart you would like to share, email a photo or scan to ericebon (at) hotmail (dot) com.

Upcoming Appearances:

Motor City Comic Con: May 13-15

Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29

Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13

San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24

Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21

New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-04-05T09:00:00.001-04:00

"Camera" Choices:

When laying out a comic, it's important to switch up the "camera angle" (the reader's point of view) to make sure your page layouts are dynamic and interesting. I have seen a lot of portfolios where the artists repeats the same camera placement for nearly every panel, and while there is a time & place you can use that technique for effect, it's not what you want to do to tell most stories. Here are a few examples of camera angles with various Mouse Guard panels as examples:

Upshot:

Here the camera is under the subjects and looking upwards. The angle can be subtle or extreme. This can be effective for a scene where you need to include the sky or a very tall item with the characters. It's also a helpful angle when showing something falling towards the characters.

Downshot:

Just like the Upshot, but from above the characters. I use this often when I'm trying to show the characters relative to each other and/or their location. Drawing them from above can become much like a map of the characters and where they stand in a room. Just like the Upshot, this can be useful to force the perspective and show a character's scale to an item, location, or other character.

Non-Character focus:

Pulling away from your characters to avoid a series of 'talking head' panels can break up the monotony and give your reader a better sense of the world your characters inhabit. Showing a detail of architecture, someones handwriting, an establishing landscape view, or the craftsmanship of items on a desk, can still allow for narration or dialogue without having to put the character in every panel.

Zoom:

With each of these camera angles and view, you also have a choice of zoom. The basics are a tight, medium, or wide shot, but you can go between these levels and fall outside of them with extremes. Wide shots work well for establishing shots. Medium shots are good for one or two characters having dialogue. Closeups are good at showing emotion on characters.

So if you are working on telling stories in comics, make sure you are varying the point of view your reader has. Try inserting a new camera angle into your pages.

Fan Art: From Jason Forest: "My sons, though they are young (age 2 and 6) love to pour over the art in your books. My oldest asked me to draw him as a Mouse of the Guard- I decided not to compete with your mice, or toiling over making my son into one of them-so I compromised with him, and did a David Petersen inspired piece"

It's lovely and really captures the spirit of what I try to make Mouse Guard all about. Thanks Jason!

2011 Appearances

Motor City Comic Con: May 13-15

Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29

Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26

San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24

Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21

New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-03-29T09:00:00.002-04:00

Signature Sketches: When I started signing Mouse Guard books, I did a little mouse sketch next to my signature in each hardcover as a nice "thank you" to anyone who bought it and/or lugged it to a show for me to sign it. Now, with 3 hardcovers, an RPG, and the Fall B&W ed. I can't keep up with doing a doodle in every one. At a recent signing I saw the line backing up, and me rushing through the doodles (therefore making them a bit sloppier than I'd like). So I have a solution:

Annual print-stamps: I will hand carve a stamp each year and in lieu of the mouse doodle, I'll stamp your book. This will also mean that I can re-stamp it the following year with the new stamp if you like. While I wish I could do an individual doodle for everyone, I just can't anymore. So this stamp is a better quality image, that I still handmade and will stamp myself (and sign) in every hardcover you bring me. I plan to only do custom doodles on request in the oversized B&W limited books.

Stamp process: I started with a doodle in my sketchbook of a random mouse with a sword. I scanned the doodle, added the '2011' date, resized it to fit my stamp material, and them mirrored the entire image before I printed it out. The mirroring is so that when the image is stamped into your book, the date and design will be facing the right direction. I scribbled with a soft lead pencil over the back of the image so that I could transfer it to the stamp material.

The base material for the stamp is Speedball's Speedy-Carve. It's a linoleum substitute printmaking students can use that is easier to carve. It is also soft enough that you can use the carving like a stamp instead of a block print (where the paper must be applied to the block and then rubbed to get the final print.) Placing my design print-out over the material and retracing it, I got a graphite transfer on the Speedy-Carve. I then used a permanent marker to firm up the lines and make sure I didn't rub them off as I handled the material.

Just like I would carve a block print, I carefully carved into the Speedy-Carve with my woodcutting chisel. The idea is to cut away all the white space leaving only the areas you want to print. I covered another example of this printmaking process called 'relief printing' in a previous post. At this stage I also decided to add a series of lines to the background, something the eye would interpret as an optically mixed grey.

Using a stamping ink pad, I was able to make the print on paper by just using the Speedy-Carve block like a rubber stamp. The final 'prints' will all be a bit unique where the ink transfer wasn't perfect, but I tend to like those imperfections, as they will also make everyone's stamped books a bit more unique.

2011 Appearances

Motor City Comic Con: May 13-15

Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29

Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26

San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24

Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21

New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-03-22T09:25:00.008-04:00

C2E2:
If you couldn't tell from my tweets, the convention was a blast. ReedPop knows how to put on a convention that makes everyone feel welcome and happy. Thanks to the Archaia crew, Jeremy Bastain, Katie Cook, Gene Ha, and Lowell Francis for taking time to sign Legends of the Guard books at the Archaia booth with me.

Fan Art: I have some awesome fans. I'll let you all read why in the letter and artwork I received:

2011 AppearancesMotor City Comic Con: May 13-15
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-03-15T09:00:00.003-04:00

C2E2:
This weekend is C2E2 at the McCormick Place in Chicago! Archaia will have Hardcovers (Fall, Winter, Legends v1), and of course, looking forward to meeting with fans, talking about upcoming books, etc.

Where to find me:
My time will be split between my Artist Alley table (M13) and The Archaia booth (#701)
I'll start and end each day at my Artist Alley table, but have signing scheduled at the Archaia booth for the following times: Friday: 11-noon & 3-5, Saturday: 11-noon & 3-5, Sunday: 1-3

2011 Appearances

C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-03-08T09:00:00.001-05:00

New Print:For conventions this year (see list below). The print is a convention exclusive and will not be offered through email orders. I'm sorry to the folks that can't make it out to conventions, but I do advise that to avoid ebay scalpers crazy price hikes, find a fellow fan online who is attending a con and is willing to ship it to you. I have a few fans who do this already for UK fans who can't make it to US shows.

Process:
Last summer we encountered some turkey vultures on a family vacation. They stuck in my mind and I drew one recently as part of some Black Axe lore for an upcoming issue. As a poster, I could have more fun with the imagery and treat it more like a Legends cover (this very well may end up being used in Legends vol2). I looked at several photos of buzzards and vultures for reference while I sketched out my bird. I drew the mouse away from the buzzard knowing I would want to adjust his size and rotation.

I scanned that sketchpage and layed the image out in the proper size for the final artwork (8.25" x 16.25"). Because I had not drawn the full bird, I copied and mirrored his wing, yet the buzzards body wasn't full enough. I like manipulating sketches in photoshop for layout for this very reason. I can make adjustments without needing to redraw or erase my sketch. I tinted the various elements to help me see what lines belonged to what element (mouse, sword, bird, or bones).

The color tinted sketch was printed out and I layed bristol board on top of it on my light box. This way, I was able to use the sketch as a guide for my final inks on the bristol. I adjusted the left side of the buzzard as I went. The mirrored wing gave me a good sense of the scale I wanted for it, but was the wrong shape. For this piece I also inked using only Copic Multiliners (mainly the .05 & .08). I really like the lines they give me and I will be switching to them for my final artwork now.

Last step was to scan my inked artwork and color the piece in photoshop. Because I didn't draw much in the background, I went with a more painted sky than I normally do. I added a color hold to the bones to make them retreat a bit into the background. And I tried to get the mouse-rider's garb to mimic his carrion-eating mount.

2011 Appearances
C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-03-02T01:18:00.003-05:00

Day late and a dollar short...
Sorry about the day-delay in getting this post up. I'm also sorry that it's not a very content-filled post, but a preview of something I'm hoping to be able to share with Mouse Guard fans soon:

2011 Appearances
C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-02-21T18:26:00.006-05:00

Gem Awards:
I am very happy to announce that Mouse Guard Legends of the Guard vol. 1 has won the Gem Award for Best 2010 Anthology! So I offer a huge thank you & congratulations to the contibutors: Jeremy Bastian, Ted Naifeh, Alex Sheikman, Sean Rubin, Alex Kain, Terry Moore, Gene Ha, Lowell Francis, Nate Pride, Guy Davis, Katie Cook, Jason Shawn Alexander, Craig Rousseau, Karl Kerschl, and Mark Smylie.

click here for Newsarama's coverage of the award announcement

June Alley Inn Model:Seeing the Gem announcement for Legends, I felt it would be a good time to share photos of my June Alley Inn model. I have shared a few photos of it before, but decided to make a gallery on my Facebook page* showing lots of angles of the model and with its various walls removed (click here for album). I made this model because I knew how important it was to make the setting for Legends as real as I could. I was introducing fifteen mouse characters the readers had never seen before and I needed their clothing, mugs, and even where they sat, as cues to which mouse they were. Seeing the mouse by the fire or the mouse under the painting of the ghost or the mouse near the stairs, would help identify the characters. With Legends of the Guard vol. 2 announced to be published after the Black Axe hardcover, I am very glad I made this model so durable, I'll be needing it again...
*Even without a Facebook account, you can view the album of photos

In future posts I plan to add to the Facebook gallery and show more angles of my other models.

Fan Art:
Ryan Horvath sent this fan art to me titled "Lieam with Totems". He wrote in the email:

Big fan of your work, both as an artist and a reader. I was out on some trails a
few months ago, spotted a tree I liked, came back to draw it and it eventually
turned into this. Hope you enjoy it.

I do! Thanks Ryan!

2011 Appearances
C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-02-15T09:00:00.000-05:00

Rendered Pencil
I don't often get a chance to do rendered pencil drawings these days. Mouse Guard keeps me inking away. but after I finished my Free Comic book Day story, I took an evening to just draw for fun, with no story or subject in mind. This pencil drawing was the result (well, I got 70% done that night and finished the other 30 a few weeks later). After finishing, I decided to try splashing some color on it in photoshop. I'm pleased with the result and wanted to share it with you.

Materials Unlimited
For several years I worked at an architectural salvage and antiques store in Ypsilanti, MI called Materials Unlimited. I left to work on Mouse Guard full-time, but after a recent visit, I realized how much I missed the constant aesthetic bombardment of the past. The shop is full of the craftsmanship of people long since gone, but I loved pouring over the details of materials and techniques, and patterns, and color on all the mantels, light fixtures, fencing, furniture, stained glass and other oddities. It is and will remain one of my favorite places to become inspired and find motifs and visual cues for the world of Mouse Guard.
(click the link above to browse the store virtually...unless you live in south-east Michigan, in which case it's worth the trip!)

2011 Appearances
C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-02-07T17:01:00.006-05:00

Rest in Peace Mr. Jacques

Today's blogpost comes a day early to mark the passing of Brian Jacques, author of the wonderful children's series of Redwall novels. The series focuses on the medieval goings on of generations of animals who live in and around Redwall Abbey. Mr. Jacques was the lead torch holder in keeping anthropomorphic characters alive and prospering after such other greats as Aesop, Rudyard Kipling, & Kenneth Grahame.

Redwall was as much an influence on Mouse Guard as it was an anti-influence. It was while I was developing the ideas for my own group of mouse rangers I was handed the first book in the series. I thoroughly enjoyed Brian's writing, and his gift for including vocal accents into the text. It charged in me even more desire to pursue my love of animal stories and medieval cultures.

However, I knew instantly that I could never top what Mr. Jacques was doing. So when I say his books were a counter influence, I only mean that I had to set out in a different path from what he was already master of.

In honor of a great and prolific author who scouted the road and opened the doors of the modern market for tales of mouse heroes, I humbly thank him and wish his family peace.

above: the trio from Mr. Jacques' 2nd book Mossflower mourning their creator

2011-02-01T09:00:00.000-05:00

Em of Appleloft:The character of Em is loosely based on my friend Emily Bastian (married to Jeremy Bastian). Emily loves raising animals & currently has in her care: 2 dogs, 1 cat, 2 sheep, several horses, and 5 ducks. It was the trait of instinctive animal husbandry that I gave to the mouse character Em. (this photo is of Emily last fall encouraging her duck Fleur to flap her wings so I had photo reference for the duck in Black Axe #1)

I started the layout of her home with a top-down cutaway of the apple tree she lives in. I figured a hollowed out knot hole right at the junction of a few branches would give her enough room in a fairly narrow trunked twisty tree. I initially had her bookcase inset in one of the branches...but it looks like I didn't draw it that way in the final version. The other branch nook becomes a sleeping area, with an open knothole in the back of the tree providing a nice window.

I thought about making a quick model of this room before I drew it, but changed my mind, feeling that it wasn't a location I planned on reusing too much, and my top-down sketch mapped out a floor plan for the items I knew I wanted to include. Also I knew I wouldn't make little models of all the furniture, so the model's only real use would be for the room's geometry, which was for the most part, round. Any imperfections I had with the geometry in not making all those concentric circles accurate and in perspective, would only add to the charm of Em's small, quaint, mouse hollowed, home.

I tried to give Em's home the feel of a place Emily herself would live, and filled it with things that relate to Emily's real life interests (taxidermy, gardening, dried flowers, textiles, old books, etc.) which at the same time would start to establish some of Em's character. I also wanted to show Em's love of birds in particular (which I equate to Emily's horses) So Em's bed is less like a bed and more like a nest, she has an unhatched egg in her bookcase, & she has a bird skull (perhaps she studies it for Phrenology)

2011 Appearances
C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-01-25T09:00:00.000-05:00

Free Comic Book Day:

I am still nailing down my plans for a Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) appearance, but I do know for certain that Archaia is doing another FCBD flip-book. Last year they published a Fraggle Rock/Mouse Guard issue...This year it will be a Dark Crystal/Mouse Guard issue! The Mouse Guard story is 6 pages long and to the left is the cover for my side (the other side will feature a Brian Froud Dark Crystal cover!) Free Comic Book Day is May 7th this year, and I encourage you to go try some books you wouldn't otherwise try & try and get some of your non-comics-reading friends to tag along too.

More Fraggle Fun:

To celebrate the release of Fraggle Rock Vol.2 Issue 1 (Cover B has my artwork which I featured last week on the blog showing my process), Just for fun I drew a Fraggle excited about the new issue and tweeted it. I was honored when the folks at Archaia & Henson retweeted it. The plan was for me to do a Fraggle story in Volume 2 of the series, but because of my Black Axe schedule, it wasn't possible, so fingers crossed sales of Fraggle books warrant a third volume!

The Fraggle I drew for the promo is my finished concept for a Fraggle puppet I started building last spring. His name is Gib (my paternal Grandfather's nickname). The hair, goatee and glasses are all just placed on with no adhesive at the moment (in fact the glasses are my every day glasses) After Black Axe is finished I hope to be able to finish the Gib puppet with the finished features and clothing shown in the drawing.

2011 Appearances
C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-01-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

Fraggle Rock Cover Process:

The first Issue of Fraggle Rock Volume 2 will be out tomorrow. My artwork is featured on the 'B' cover, and though I had posted the final cover art a while back, I thought I'd share the process. I had a different idea for the cover originally, with Boober and Junior and one Doozer being the only characters, but due to some similatrities in concept of a cover already turned in, I had to alter my plan.

I think one of the great things about Fraggle Rock is the three different species and their understanding and relationships to one another, so I really wanted my cover to have Fraggles, Doozers, and at least 1 Gorg with the size relationships being exploited. Unfortunately, there is no good way to show a Gorg at full height with a Fraggle AND a Doozer without the latter two being diminished and too tiny to draw well.

Forcing the perspective by showing the Gorg castle with Junior standing by it helped show that even though he is about the same height on the page as the Fraggles in the final piece, the scale to the castle and garden growth and tools we understand that he is a giant to them.

After I had sketches of all the components I would need, I scanned them and tinted them to assemble in a layout template for the covers's specs. This is a stage where I can play with proportion, nudge the characters closer together or further apart, rotate character's arms or legs, or the character altogether. I tint the different characters and elements differently so I don't get lost in the mess of sketchy lines.

The final layout was approved by Archaia and Henson, so I printed it out and used it as a guide while I inked on strathmore 300 bristol on a lightbox. This cover had so much going on, that I worried about how congested the inks were and without a lot of line weight variation, but for Fraggles, I didn't want to go too heavy on the inks and shadows, I wanted a lighter feeling to them than that and planned to fix the lack of focus in color.

While coloring I noticed that several of the overlapping characters and background/foreground elements had a similar color or value. I kept flatting the piece (establishing color areas, not necessarily final color choices) planning to deal with the depth of field issues once I got into rendering.

Here again is the final cover. In this rendering stage I did a few things to make sure that things popped off one another, I added a color hold and muted things in the background (relative to the Fraggles) I used a color hold on the grass to tone down the 'noise' on my inked grass lines. I altered some colors slightly pushing them to the ends of what makes them that color (the radish leaves are more blue green while the Doozers are yellow green...The Radishes themselves became more of a muted Red violet to pop them away from the more middle of the road reds on the Fraggles).

The issue is due out tomorrow, but you can check out a preview of the interiors here

2011 Appearances
MSU Comics Forum: Jan. 22
C2E2: March 18-22
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-01-11T08:25:00.005-05:00

Up too late coloring for a long post this week...

Gronk Guest Art:
Last week Katie Cook featured a pinup piece I did for her webcomic Gronk. Katie and her husband Ryan just brought home their first baby and Katie asked for a Guest piece to post for her strip while she is on self-employment-maternity-leave. Wished I had time to do a full strip for her...

Art about Art:
An Art History professor I had did an assignment on the concept of "Art about Art" where you were asked to do some piece of artwork based on another artists' work, or specifically one of their pieces. I made a variable puzzle based on the work of Piet Mondrian. The pieces were all wood, and two sided (sometimes with different colors) and they could be arranged to fit in the frame in a variety of ways. I cut a channel into the frame so that a sheet of plexiglass could be slid in once you had an arrangement you liked for display. I did all this, even though I never had the particular class with that professor that this assignment was given...but I heard him talking about it, and wanted to try my hand at it. The result (these two Mondrian puzzles) were Christmas gifts for my two sisters that year.

Mouse Guard Fan Art:
Denver Brubaker, cartoonist of the webstrip The Checkered Man sent me this great drawing of Kenzie. I really like the feet on Kenzie and also the watercolor background. Thanks Denver!

2011 Appearances
MSU Comics Forum: Jan. 22
C2E2: March 18-22
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2011-01-04T09:00:00.000-05:00

Fishers: Black Axe Issue 1 has some Fishers as one of the obstacles Celanawe and Em must face before starting their quest. I had planned on having fishers in Mouse guard as far back as the late 90's. The drawing on the left is a concept for a lone adventuring fisher I drew back then.
Skip ahead to me working on Black Axe in 2010. I had a few goals for the larger-species-encounter in the first issue. I wanted to show a different resolution than I had when mice had faced a snake, crabs, & an owl in the previous series. This time I needed the threat to be more than a single Guardmouse would take on, where avoidance was the key to success, instead of confrontation.

These fishers needed to be fierce and scary. Since other weasel-like species will be featured in Mouse Guard and beyond, I didn't want these guys (and gals) to be just larger versions of the same thing. I worked off of the idea of them being savage, nomadic, hunters that used every bit of everything they killed. Incorporating those previous victims as armor and clothing was fun, and I think really set the fishers apart from any species I have shown so far (and will again...I think this will be a signature of theirs). To the right are my initial concepts for the characters, and ways to make them scarred, battle worn, and terrifying to a mouse.

Here is one of the pages in process from the issue that feature them best. They never speak (and not because they are unable, but because they are hunting prey, and wish to remain silent) I mention in the issue they are a pair of mates...though I never spell out which is which, in my head I have the scarred one with the coat of pelts (M) with the skull mask draped with fish (F) and then the porcupine coat (M) with the crab-armor & tiara (F).

Fan Art: This week I wanted to share the work of Jackson Sze a concept artist and digital painter. Jackson & I met a few years back at San Diego Comic con where BATTLEMiLK, a portfolio book he contributed to, featured this painting. I keep going back and looking at it from time to time being envious of how interesting that mouse city is.
feel free to visit Jackson's site and blog

2011 Appearances
MSU Comics Forum: Jan. 22
C2E2: March 18-22
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2010-12-28T09:00:00.006-05:00

On the Heels of 2011: Busy week with holidays, gatherings, friends, family, and deadlines looming. So I'll share some past work I've done.

(row 1 L-R: 'mice smoking', 'mouse-kong', 'x-mice #141'. row 2: 'LoEG's Mr. Hyde', 'in memory of Alice', 'Muppet Abbey Road')

Fan Art:
Outcast Studios' forum has a Daily Sketch Challenge and a few weeks ago they had Saxon as their subject for the day. You can follow this link to see the various contributions (like the one to the left by 'busasami')

2011 Appearances
MSU Comics Forum: Jan. 22
C2E2: March 18-22
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2010-12-25T07:00:00.000-05:00

2010-12-21T09:00:00.003-05:00

Black Axe #3 is currently in previews (order code DEC100735) And since I was so late getting the full cover art to you last time, I wanted to share this much sooner. The mead-hall design is one that I spoke about at the end of my model video. I tried illustrating a design after looking at Norse architecture, photos of real mead halls, and design work from Alan Lee and other folks with regard to fantasy illustration. None of my drawings made it very far, so I felt a model was necessary. So far, this is my favorite Black Axe cover, and it was fun to revisit the Ferret King's designs that I established back in 2009 for the Black Axe promo print given away at my SDCC panel.

When I found that lino-cut Christmas card I shared last week, I also found a hand drawn card that Jesse Glenn (real life Kenzie) gave me from back when I was 15 or so. Jess is mocking my enthusiasm and drive to barrel ahead on projects without fully understanding how massive they are. We did a great deal of mini-movie making (though we tended to do a lot of pre-production work and then stall out) so the caricature of me is juggling a hot melt glue gun, a puppet head, a welding torch, a tin-woodsman leg, spraypaint and the video camera.
The "O'Furry" & "O'Fearless" were nods to nicknames Cyclops and Beast mocked each other with in Xmen at the time

Fan Art: Sasha sent this sculpture she did of Saxon. I don't know what her materials are, but she did include this not in the email: "I've never actually said it, because I hate doing the shreeky fan-girl thing, but that's exactly what I am - a fan. I love your work and attached is my version of fan art. Hope you like it. "

I do indeed like it Sasha. Thank you!

2011 Appearances
MSU Comics Forum: Jan. 22
C2E2: March 18-22
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2010-12-14T09:00:00.004-05:00

With Black Axe #1 shipping this week, I noticed I hadn't shared the full cover art for Issue #2. I did tweet a few photos of the model (here) and of the progress on the inks (here and here) but never showed you guys the final cover art. Fans of Conrad will be happy to see his return in issue #2 (with both legs and an un-maimed ear to boot!)

Last week I showed the process of making a lino cut and print using the relief printing method. I just found a Christmas card I made back around 1999/2000 with a mouse theme. The ink didn't apply as evenly on this print, and that is why I still have it instead of having mailed it out. I have tried a few times in the past to make a yearly Christmas card, but we usually end up purchasing them as it's easier. Perhaps next year...

Fan Art:

R. Mark Ygona sent this to me saying: "I've been enjoying Mouse Guard thus far and wanted to contribute a piece of Fan Art to show my appreciation for the series. Attached is my rendition of Lieam wielding the Black Axe in action. "

Awesome! Thanks!

2011 Appearances
MSU Comics Forum: Jan. 22
C2E2: March 18-22
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2010-12-07T09:00:00.002-05:00

It has been a long time ince I last talked about printmaking techniques (see etching post here) and I wanted to share the process on a gift I gave to Julia for our wedding anniversary back in October. We took wedding photos in the leaves at a park near the church, and I decided to do a small lino-cut print of that moment from our special day.

Woodblocks and linolium blocks cane be carved to do a type of print called a relief print. Unlike etching, where the ink goes under the surface of the plate to make the image, in relief printing the ink sits on the surface of the block.

I stared by doing a drawing the same size as my lino block (2" x 3"). It is hard to achive grey tones in relief printing when working at such a small scale, so my design theory was to play just with black and white and have each of us visable by what surrounded us. The white of Julia's dress would be defined by the tree behind her, and the black of my suit would stand out against an open sky area. It was fun to think soley in these terms again, like a 2D design class first assignment.

The next step was to transfer the image to the block. Using a soft lead pencil, I coated the back of my drawing. I then placed the drawing on the block (graphite coated side-down) and then retraced my lines with a ball point pen. When the paper is removed, the places the ball point pen applied preasure transfered the graphite from the back of the paper to the surface of the block.

Next comes the carving. Because ultimately it's the ink sitting on the surface of the block that will form the image, I need to carve away just the areas that are to be white. It's a complete oposite of most etching techniques as with relief printing you are actively working on the negative spaces and the areas you don't want to print.

Using a brayer (think of it as a printmaker's inky rolling pin) I coated the surface of the finished block with 'ink' (in this case acrylic paint). Because the brayer is straight accross, it will not get ink down into the carved portions of the block, but apply it only to the surface. A sheet of paper is placed on the block surface and then rubbed with a spoon. The spoon applies the preassure needed to make sure the ink transfers to the paper evenly.

I hand colored the final print to add the fall color that was so much a part of our Wedding Day. Good to note that the printed image is the mirror of the original block (true with etching as well).

2011 Appearances
MSU Comics Forum: Jan. 22
C2E2: March 18-22
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

2010-11-30T09:00:00.001-05:00

Spotlight on Legends of the Guard creator: Karl Kerschl:

David Petersen: Karl, I discovered your work through your web comic The Abominable Charles Christopher, but you have a wider audience through your work for DC like the Flash for Wednesday Comics. Was working on a Legends of the Guard story more like the work-for-hire jobs or more like your creator owned strip? or was it somewhere between?

Karl Kerschl: I guess it was somewhere in between. It's strange, but I rarely think of drawing comics (of any sort) as 'work'. That's not to say that it isn't difficult, or that I sometimes wouldn't rather be doing something else, but rather that each story requires some investment of my energy in a way that's more social than laborious. In order to craft a convincing story, the characters require personal attention; if I don't treat them as real beings then they won't feel real to anyone else. So in the case of the 'Legends' story, my part in it was really just to spend some time with Sadie and see what she was interested in. Superman or The Flash or Charles Christopher all require the same kind of attention. They just have different personalities.

David: I set out a few rules for the creators, and one was to not use existing main characters in their legend stories. You asked to use Sadie and showed me how the story wouldn’t upset any continuity plans I have with her as a character. What was it about Sadie that drew you to a tale of hers?

Karl: When I was reading through the Mouse Guard books I found myself constantly wondering about Sadie's state of mind whenever she was in the scene. She's very quiet. She's obviously brave and capable, but there's something beneath the surface of her character that always seems to be asking a question, and I was interested in what that question might be. I thought of her as a very reflective, almost meditative character and it occurred to me that her time in Frostic, in complete isolation, might have been an important time for her, spiritually.

David: When discussing the project you mentioned Northern Ontario being inspiration for the setting. Is there any place in particular? It also feels like the same woods that Charles Christopher tromps around in...did you set your webstrip there too?

Karl: Not consciously, but I'm sure it influences most of my woodland settings. I grew up in Southern Ontario - almost as far south as one can get in Canada - and it was a rural area with a forest behind the house where we would go for long walks. My family also spent a lot of time up north at my uncle's cottage, and it's one of my favourite settings, geographically speaking. I love the rocky Canadian Shield coasts and the mossy forests.

David: The story you described to me on the phone went into Sadie’s feelings, mental state, motivations, etc....however, the story ended up being wordless (other than sound effects). Why did you feel the story worked better this way (and I think it does!)?

Karl: We talked about adding narration of some sort, but I don't think it would have played very well. The idea was really to accentuate the loneliness and quietude of Sadie's time at the Frostic outpost and to suggest that perhaps that extended period of solitude had affected her state of mind - cleared here head, so to speak. Adding words would have amounted to mental chatter, which is in direct opposition to the meditative state I was hoping to convey. I also like the way the sounds of nature build to a crescendo with the rumbling of the caribou herd, and adding narration to those moments would have been redundant.

Daivd: Speaking of sound, what do you listen to while working? music? audiobooks? your studio mates? podcasts?

Karl: When I'm writing, or just trying to imagine scenes, which is basically the same as writing, I listen to a lot of soundtrack music from films. Anything wordless, really. Unless I have a very specific emotional idea in mind for the scene, for which I'll play appropriate lyrical songs. Sigur Ros and Aimee Mann got a lot of play for some of the scenes in The Abominable Charles Christopher. The 'Legends' story was all about ambient music. I liked listening to 'Joga' by Bjork because of all the cracking ice sounds.
When I'm just inking or colouring and I don't need to concentrate on mood, I listen to podcasts. Mostly tech and video game news.
David: As for process, how did you take your story idea and pace it into your 5 pages?

Karl: I think 5 pages may actually have been too short for what I had in mind here, but I think it still works. I just loosely mapped out the arc of the story in my head and jotted down certain moments in the margins of the pages that I wanted to see, knowing that it needed to culminate in a stampede by page 4. If I'd had more time and space I would have liked to start the story with Sadie inside the outpost, making herself some tea before going out.
David: In terms of format, you seem to work in opposite layouts, either more vertical with your mainstream work, or horizontal for your Abominable Charles Christopher strip. This project had you splitting the difference with a perfect square. Was there any difference to your storytelling or layouts in the format?

Karl: It definitely forced me to think about my layouts differently. I like to use a lot of 'widescreen' panels when possible - page-wide panels that allow for landscapes and long pauses in reading. But with this square format it was tough to do that while still being economic with the space. I wanted to stick to the aesthetic you'd already established, otherwise I might have used more inset panels here and there. But I like that the end result is clean and uses the whole page in a very even, geometric way.

David: With a layout ready, how to you move on to the final artwork?

Karl: I kind of blur the line between layouts and finished art. The pencils on the page serve as my layouts and are very rough. Sometimes I'll ink panels or pages before I even know what I'm going to draw on the following page, which is not something I'd recommend to anybody. :)

David: What size did you do the final art? And using what supplies?

Karl: These were 12" by 12" on Strathmore Bristol. I used a blue pencil to do my drawing and inked everything with a Staedtler pigment liner and a Pentel Brush Pen.
David: The colors on Charles Christopher is all done in a pale green/grey tone, so even though I shouldn’t have been, I was surprised when you turned in your colored Legends pages as they were full color. Did you ever consider using a limited palate? or has this project made you think about introducing color ever to Charles’ neck of the woods?

Karl: This story was a bit of an experiment for me in that I could see what Charles Christopher might look like if I were to colour it with a more diverse palette. It's something I couldn't and wouldn't do in the strip because A) I don't have enough time to do it weekly, and B) it's no longer appropriate. I think the limited palette on Charles Christopher gives a dreamy, otherworldly felling to the comic that full colour would take away. Everything would seem too 'literal'. But it was fun to do here.
David: What process do you use to color? Are you a tablet guy?

Karl: Yeah, I do all my colouring in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet I recently bought a Cintiq tablet so I'm eager to see how my process changes now that I can draw directly on the screen. I also use WAY too many layers.

David: Where can people find out more about Karl Kerschl and your work?

Karl: I have a blog and gallery at karlkerschl.com, but most of my online presence is centred around The Abominable Charles Christopher, which updates weekly at http://www.abominable.cc/.

Karl's Story "Bowen's Tale" is in Issue 4 of Legends of the Guard and collected in the recently released Hardcover collecting all 4 issues.

2010-11-23T09:00:00.000-05:00

Spotlight on Legends of the Guard creator: Craig Rousseau:

David Petersen: Craig, I have told aspiring artists before that there are two kinds of artists out there, those that love telling other people’s stories with other people’s characters (like Marvel or DC) and those that simply must work on their own projects. You have a foothold in both sides of my model. For that reason, was it fairly simple to slip out of your other work to jump in to Legends of the Guard?

Craig Rousseau: Simple answer, yes.
David: Your story: ‘The Lion and the Mouse’ is a retelling of the Aesop’s fable. What resonated with that story for you to do a Mouse guard retelling?

Craig: Well, I knew the story obviously needed a mouse protagonist .... and trying to figure out what I wanted to draw, immediately I thought of that fable.

David: When we wrote the series bible/guidelines for the creators, one of the points had to do with keeping the animal species and location much like my Mouse Guard stories (where I use my home state of MI as a guide). however, I was open to creators who wanted to break and bend the rules. Did you find it difficult to take the story outside of the normal settings and species and still make it feel Mouse Guard?

Craig: See, I know we had a conversation about this via email back when I had the idea... but to be honest, I only JUST found the bible attached to an earlier email you sent (and STILL haven’t read it)... I knew the framing sequence would allow some flexibility, and the idea of a story passed along from generation to generation, across continents becomes a “legend” of a sort. I particularly liked the idea that the story had traveled so far and a lion would be a fantastical creature and Africa like another world.
David: With your book Perhapanauts, the co-creator Todd Dezago handles the writing. For this project you acted as word-jockey as well. Was that something new for you? And did you find it to be difficult or a breeze?

Craig: It was a bit intimidating. I knew where I thought the story should go and worked out the story beats and panels easily enough. For the dialogue and captions, I was going to fall back and just have Todd script it from my notes (“so, the mouse will say something like...” and “then the lion says...” and “a caption like...” ) but as I sent them to him, his reply was “dude, you’ve already written it.”

David: Lets talk about art process. Do you thumbnail your layouts as you are writing the story? Or do you have an outline first?

Craig: Being the first story I’ve actually written, I went with my strength and started with an image (that last big panel on page 2) and worked it out in both directions from there. From there, I had a rough plot breakdown in my head and started laying out the pages.

David: Once you have your thumbnails, do you enlarge them or transfer them to your final working size? or do you just use them as a sight guide and redraw at the full size?

Craig: At this point in my career (crazy to think how long I‘ve been doing this... and how many pages I’ve turned out over the last 14 or so years), I thumbnail the pages in my head and go straight to the boards.

David: Your inks are a defining ‘Rousseau’ style for me. I read in a comic art magazine "Work on line weights, only a few people like Craig Rousseau can pull off not using any" Where did your finished line style come from and what tools do you use to achieve them?

Craig: Even though I’ve never really working in animation (beyond dabbling in storyboard work for Walt Disney Television animation a few times), over the years I’ve done quite a bit of work on animated properties for publishers... and one defining aspect of most animation styles is a very consistent line weight and tried to work that look into my ink. I’d also been trying to break down my work into the simplest drawings possible, using that one “right” line rather than using 20.
Oddly, with my next Marvel project, i started inking heavier lines and spotting blacks to mix things up (it’s been years since i’ve done it), but i’m still using only Faber Castell Pitt pens (S for super fine)... for the Perhapanauts i’m still using a more open line work.

David: How did you color your pages for Legends of the Guard? And where did your color choices come from?

Craig: All the color work was done in Photoshop CS4. I tried to keep the palette very simple with minimal shading and highlights (and added a subtle aged paper texture to the art in a semi opaque layer). The mouse’s garb is based on the Massai warriors of Africa and i wanted to keep that the most vibrant element in the art (being so small, I needed the mouse to stand out) and wanted those golden, earthy tones throughout.
David: Where can people find out more about Craig Rousseau and all your various projects?

Craig: www.craigrousseau.com and www.perhapanauts.com

Craig's Story "The Lion and the Mouse" is in Issue 4 of Legends of the Guard and collected in the recently released Hardcover collecting all 4 issues.

2010-11-16T09:00:00.000-05:00

Legends of the Guard Creator Spotlight: Joao Lemos
For the hardcover collection, I asked Portuguese artist Joao Lemos to do an epilogue. Instead of a typed interview though, I asked him questions and talked with him about story, process, and his past works on Skype. Here in two parts, is my interview/conversation with Joao.
I appologize that Joao's audio is fuzzy, it is a fault of my recording set-up.

Direct Link to part 1

Direct link to part 2

The Legends of the Guard hardcover collects issues 1-4 of the Mouse Guard spinoff anthology series and is available tomorrow 11-17-10. In addition to Joao's epilogue also features a cutaway of the in, map of the territories, a guide to the characters, cover gallery, and a contributor section with bios and sketches. It is available at your local comic shop and major book sellers.

2010-11-09T09:00:00.001-05:00

Legends of the Guard Creator Spotlight: Mark Smylie

David Petersen: Mark, I think Legends of the Guard is the first non-Artesia sequential storytelling you have ever done. How was working on another property different from your work in your own book

Mark Smylie: Process-wise it wasn’t that different, but I have to admit that I had a lot of trepidations about doing a Mouse Guard story in particular, given the dedication of MG fans and the unusual page aspect ratio. The square format was fun to work with, however, and the universe is a pretty deep one to find storytelling ideas in...

David: This project started as a comment I made to you an Jeremy after you turned in your awesome pinups for Fall 1152 (because of that, I bookended the series with your two stories). As both a creator on the series and a decision maker at Archaia, did you have any idea when I mentioned that you and Jeremy could "play in the world of Mouse Guard whenever you wanted" we would be 4 issues in to an anthology series?

Mark: No, it’s been very nice to watch this project grow from that random conversation into an amazing anthology. Conversations and ideas like that all too often fall into the “that’s nice, but it’ll never happen” category, so both as a publisher and as an artist it’s fantastic when a great idea that’s kind of casually batted around then grows into an actual published work.

David: When you submitted story ideas, there were three to choose from. I picked one because I thought it felt the most ‘like you’ and because you would be drawing mice in armor. Tell folks about your story and talk about how you developed it.

Mark: Oddly enough there’s not necessarily a lot of mouse armor in it, at least not in comparison to Jeremy’s take on mouse armor. For this particular story I had been inspired by the cover of LEGENDS #1, with the two mouse kings fighting each other on the bridge. I thought a bit about what the history of mouse war would have been like; given how many predators and natural dangers there are for them, inter-mouse war would seem pretty rare, but clearly (as we saw in FALL 1152) the Mouse Territories have reached a point of safety and security that, oddly enough, opens up the option of mice fighting mice. So I thought about the idea of these two lineages squabbling with each other, generation after generation, and about some of the things that would motivate them to fight and do un-mouse-like things, and how that kind of vendetta war could come to an end. I wound up drawing from the story of David and Bathsheeba from the Bible, in which David sends his general Uriah the Hittite out on a suicide mission so he can marry Bathsheeba, and tried to put a Guard spin on it.

David: With Artesia you are doing something I’m a real fan of: World Building. It’s a very complete place with culture(s), maps, & history. And you seem to be bringing that commitment to your Legends story as well. What went into making the cities and armor in your story and who are some of your favorite world builders in art and storytelling?

Mark: Well, there’s a lot to work with already in the MG world. I took the name “Rosestone” to be kind of literal, and wanted to have a mouse town that combined both an earthy, underground atmosphere with these flowering roses everywhere. And since the events of the story are supposed to be happening at some point in the past, I tried to take the medieval flavorings of the current MG series and work backwards a bit, so hopefully there’s an early medieval, Romanesque feel to the armor and “costumes” (for example, Moira’s bonnet, the legionnaire shields that the mouse soldiers use, etc.). I think there are a lot of great world-builders out there to be inspired by; beginning with Tolkien’s Middle Earth, of course, but Robert Howard’s Hyboria, Lloyd Alexander’s Welsh Prydain, Roger Zelazny’s Amber, Robert Adams’ post-apocalyptic Horseclans novels, Glen Cook’s Black Company books, George Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire, all of them have awesome fantasy settings. Same with fantasy RPG settings like Greg Stafford’s Glorantha and Bob Bledsaw’s Wilderlands. For visual worldbuilding you can’t get much better than James Gurney’s Dinotopia and Rien Poortvliet’s Gnomes.

David: You and I are both fans of paper modeling, but what other real world techniques do you use to try and build a world as real as you can make on paper?

Mark: I use some plastic models of men in armor (there are some Japanese companies that do historical plastic model kits, for example), and have a few reproduction weapons and helmets, but a lot of it is book research: just trying to read as much as possible about the history of culture and technology, look at lots of pictures of real places and objects and costumes.

David: With your process, how do you take an outline or story description and break it into pages and panels?

Mark: The words are first, at least most of the time, and tend to dictate for me which panel is coming next, where the characters are positioned, etc. I break down the script of the dialogue and story actions, grouping them into beats, then thumbnail the pages and panels to see how it’s all going to flow, how much can fit into each page, whether material has to be cut or stretched out to make a particular page or transition work.

David: You did a pinup for me on the square format, but this is your first time doing panel by panel storytelling in it. Did you find it very different from how you lay out a traditional page?

Mark: The basics are still the same. The square format definitely changes things subtly; like when you do wide panels, they’re very wide, almost cinematic. I tried to give this particular story a little bit of a fairy tale quality, so the panel selection was fairly simple, nothing too complicated (which always feels more modern to me).

David: Your final artwork and thumbnails match fairly closely, do you redraw the thumbnails on your final surface? or do you transfer them somehow using a lightbox or blueline printing?

Mark: No, I do the thumbnails on spare typewriter paper. I’ll have them nearby as reference when I’m doing the actual penciling, but I generally don’t use a lightbox even though I have them available.

David: Your work is all hand painted using watercolors and gouache. What brands and materials do you use (paints, paper, brushes)?

Mark: I pencil and paint onto Strathmore 500 2-ply Bristol plate, sometimes 3-ply; I usually buy it by the sheet and then cut to the size I need. Though for the LEGENDS pages I think I used a pad of 14x18 2-ply Bristol plate. It’s not really suitable for watercolor painting, but I like to ink on the plate surface. I use a variety of watercolor and gouache brands; Windsor & Newton, Sennelier, and Old Holland, mostly, with an occasional Grumbacher Academy. I often use Wilcox’s Guide to Watercolor Paints to pick a brand for lightfastness and pigmentation. I use a bunch of different brushes, mostly sable, from industry standard Windsor & Newton Series 7 No 2s and Rekabs to brushes of uncertain origin that I just happen to like. There’s a lot of detail work so I don’t tend to use brushes with big heads, they’re usually size 2-8.

David: What is the process for painting a page? Do you ink first and paint second? How long do you spend painting vs waiting for paint to dry?

Mark: I paint directly onto the pencils, then ink afterwards; then usually do a second pass with paints, and then finish with another round of inks and colored pencils. Watercolor dries pretty fast, which is both good and bad, in that it doesn’t give you much time to correct mistakes. Other watercolorists work differently; Mike Kaluta, for example, inks first and then sprays a workable fixative to fix the inks, and then paints on his inks.

David: Where can people find out more about Mark Smylie and Artesia?

Mark: Well, I used to have a big fancy website at www.artesiaonline.com, but we lost the files on the server a little while back and I haven’t had a chance to reconstitute it (such is the life of an artist turned publisher, unfortunately). Hopefully it’ll be back up and running soon...

Mark's Story "Crown of Silver Crown of Gold"
appears in Issue 4 of Legends of the Guard available 11-10-10

2010-11-02T09:00:00.000-04:00

Windy Ludington:
My Dad was in a blustery Ludington last week where locals say they can't remember having winds so strong. The gusts were as strong as fifty miles per hour and lasted for two days straight. Dad drove down to the lake front and snapped a few photos (including this one) of waves hitting the breakwater and lighthouse. He said getting out of the car was painful as the beach was being sand-blasted at you. I think this photo is a wonderful example for people who have never been to the Great Lakes and hear the word 'lake' and think 'pond'. Lake Michigan is so wide, you can't see the other side because of the curvature of the earth. Storms on the Great Lakes have taken down ocean going vessels. This lake is closer to an ocean experience with the added bonus of no creatures that can eat or sting you.

Panels for Primates:Troy Wilson edited a charity webcomic anthology hosted by ACT-I-VATE to benefit Primate Rescue. I contributed a one page story called 'Great Primates in History' which is a farcical accounting of four primates and their effect on history. My story will go live here tomorrow.

Legends of the Guard Contributors Signing:

Tomorrow, Wed. Nov. 3rd, Jeremy Bastian, Nate Pride, Katie Cook, and I will be signing Legends of the Guard issues and the collected hardcover at Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, MI. I know this is short notice, but if you are in the area, please stop by between 4pm and 7pm to say hello and/or get your book(s) signed.

Fan Art:

Jeff Hendrickson send me this photo of he and his girlfriend in their Halloween costumes as Lieam and Sadie. Thanks for sending it in Jeff!

Upcoming Appearances:
Mid-Ohio Con: Nov. 6-7
2011 dates TBA

2010-10-26T09:00:00.000-04:00

Video Blog:
Trying something new with a video post about the models I make for Mouse Guard. The video is about 13 min long. Enjoy!

Direct YouTube link for video

Upcoming Appearances:
Mid-Ohio Con: Nov. 6-7
2011 dates TBA