Cats Trio Revisit Cover

Jesse Glenn (real-life Kenzie) and I have started a video podcast called 'THE PLOTMASTERS PROJECT" Where he and I revisit our oldest characters and stories and then each create a new piece as an exercise. For our first episode we looked back to the first project we ever worked on together: CATS TRIO! I've blogged about Cats Trio in the past, but to quickly summarize, it was a TMNT homage where three mutated/anthropomorphic cats befriend a similar raccoon as the group discover their shared origins, survive in abandoned places away rom human eyes, and avoid being hunted by another of their kind.  To the left you can see my new finished piece for The Plotmasters Project, but below I show the process from sketch & concept to finished colors.

I also want to state, that Jesse and I have no current plans to develop Cats Trio (or any of the subjects for our series) beyond these exercises.

The first order of business in creating this piece was to review the archive of Cats Trio stuff Jesse and I have as well as look at some of my most recent attempts to draw the Cats characters. Back in 2011 (20 years after Jesse and I first drew them) I started this piece. I was looking for something that spoke to their transient lifestyle. So they are out of doors, in the field near their abandoned farmhouse, cooking, drinking, and relaxing. But I never really took this piece further than this rough stage.


Much more recently, in 2016 (25 years after Jesse and I first drew the Cats) I did these pieces on toned paper at a sketch session with some other artists including Jesse. I inked them and added white like i would a typical toned paper commission, and then colored them digitally using the same technique for my Gotham Academy story. I felt really good about these headshots. They felt like the old friends, but not outdated or stuck-in-time artistically. These headshots and the unfinished outdoor rough above formed the foundation for my new piece.




My plan was to do a mock cover. It would feature all four of the main characters, have the transient outdoor vibe, and the feel of the headshots. I started sketching new poses for each character. As I drew I kept wanting to add details of gear they'd each own that not only help tell the story of what they do on a daily basis, but individually give them personality (flasks, canteens, binoculars, kitchen knife, kerosene blowtorch, wieners on a skewer, a beat-up roadsign, etc.). The only problem I had, was that I didn't like any of the new heads I drew better than my toned paper pieces...

...So, as I composited the figures together into a photoshop cover template, I also plopped in the headshots in place of new sketched heads. I also wanted to show their house, for what may be, the first time it's ever really been seen. It's an abandoned derelict farmhouse far away from prying eyes. Jess and I always had them using the basement as shelter, so when searching for reference (which I didn't redraw, but just dropped into the  rough) I liked the photo of a farmhouse where part of the roof is missing and all of the windows are broken and missing. As per usual, I tinted each character's sketch to help me understand what lines belong to which character.


Below are some in-process shots as I inked and tightened up pencils (I inked this with the above rough taped to the back of my bristol board on a lightpad, but had the light off when snapping these shots.

As I said above, I inked this on a Huion lightpad with the rough printout taped to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series Bristol board. I used Copic Multiliners (the 0.7 and 0.3 nibs...tough I did also resort to a 0.2 in a few tricky spots). I tried to keep the contours more important than the textures, but for their fur and some of the bits of their clothing and inventory, I had to add some dings, scratches, wear, and dents. When inking the house, I made sure I didn't ink those lines directly up to the characters. This helped me isolate that linework in the next coloring step, but also allowed a bit of breathing room around them and gave them some depth-of-field distance from the background.

After the inks were finished, I scanned them into Photoshop and started the coloring process by isolating the inked linework of the background and doing a brown color hold on it, and then laying in flat colors. This process of adding the color is called 'flatting' and is like the professional act of "coloring within the lines". It establishes that the various parts of an image are different colors from one another. This allows me, as I render the image, to quickly isolate each section to either shade and highlight it independently of the other parts or shift and adjust the hue & contrast.




Again here is the finished 'cover' with a "Cats Trio" typeface logo treatment. For the Plotmasters Project, I do not always intend doing something as big and as involved as this piece. But Cats is very special to me. These characters feel like old friends. They occupy a special place in my heart that idealizes a great time in my life. So I wanted to give them the respect and level of quality they've deserved from me for years.

You can watch the CATS TRIO episode of 

The Plotmasters Project on YouTube:

And follow us on Facebook & Twitter

2017 Appearances: 

Baltimore Comic Con: Sept. 22-24

New York Comic Con: Oct. 5-8

From the Vault: Jesters

 While doing some sorting in my studio, I cam across 10 pages of a comic Jesse Glenn (The real-life Kenzie) and I worked on together at the turn of the century. So for today's blogpost, I'm opening "The Vault" and sharing with you the origin & concepts for JESTERS as well as all of the pages that were completed, and two recent drawings I did of the characters.

Part of the reason for sharing this is that after the Art Of Mouse Guard came out, I realized how cathartic and rewarding for others it can be to share embarrassing older work, to show artistic development and that everyone has work they are no longer proud of.

Jesters started as Halloween costumes in 1995 Jesse cobbled together for he & I. The only store bought elements were the hats; the sashes were National Honors Society sashes, the shirts were old ones of Jesse's, and the chords were from High School Honors. After the Halloween party where these were used, I couldn't help but think that these characters would be a good starting point for a comic story. Two medieval spies, swashbucklers, and adventurers, who are loyal to the king, pose as fools to infiltrate enemy monarch's courts, and merchant's feasts in service to their king. Who would suspect the Jesters?

But, it wasn't until 2000, when Jesse started writing a script that anything more came of it. Jess had just re-read some Alexander Dumas that inspired him to craft a banter-filled story about political intrigue with the king and our heroes mistakenly jailed at the start. Jesse didn't break the script up into pages or panels, so I just started making notes on the printed script pages for where I though good breaks were or where I thought was the limit of what I could fit on a single page.

It was my first time illustrating comic pages from a written script (and echoes of this process are still with me in Mouse Guard today)


To the right are two watercolored "covers" (I don't know how I thought these could work as covers...each only showing half of the duo...and in no context...or even background.

Below are the 10 finished pages (as much as Jesse had produced script for). I was still in my phase of trying to emulate Mike Mignola's work to cover up my shortcomings at illustrating (especially when drawing people)

JESTERS PAGES

2000-2001

Now for the growth part of the post. I have no plans to do anything with JESTERS at the present time, but these old characters still rattle around inside my head and every now and then ask to be let out and updated. I find it a useful exercise (us the From the Vault tag at the bottom of this post to see more examples). 

The first of these was drawn & rendered in pencil and then digitally colored and manipulated. I stuck closely here with the original designs of the characters costumes (though I avoided the Insane Clown Posse-style face paint and just hinted at the happy and sad faces a bit more subtlety. 

And the second was done all in grey Copic markers (I'd originally planned to paint them in watercolor, but for some reason I broke out my rarely used markers instead) and digitally colored. Here I deviated from their original costumes, not just in style, but also in color (making a nod to the Saxon & Kenzie nature of the two)

As I said, I don't know if Jesse or I will ever do anything with Jesters, but digging out the old work, reviewing old files, and making some new artwork feels like visiting old friends.

Tower Items

Back in February, I posted about updating the portraits for my homemade board game Tower. To the left you can see each character's original starting items. In design terms, these items were thought of after the initial Tower set had been made as a way to balance out the characters...give cool items to weaker ones, and relatively innocuous items to the stronger ones. From a artistic perspective, I enjoy looking back at older artwork of mine and re-thinking how I'd tackle it now. Item art is also one of those things I really enjoy as a reader. It informs me all about the world and what the overall aesthetic is for that place.(Knolled item images are really cool. Hannah Christenson does it very well: examples 1, 2, 3) 

So this week, here are all 15 new Tower item paintings with info on each:

Ambidextrous Potion

Quiver Dare, the Gnomish Acrobat gets this 3 use potion which allows him to use two weapons at once and gain all the benefits from each.

Amulet of Power

Luthor Givem'ell needed a little something so as a Battle Mage he could have a more aggressive attack than the other magic users. This 3 use amulet allows him to cast two spells in the same turn.

Animal Companion

Solae Pathfinder, the Elven Ranger, starts the game with an animal companion who can take a weaker second attack for her after she fails to kill a monster. Her companion can only be used four times.

Bag of Holding
Fike the Mox, the human barbarian gets a useful item that allows him to store 2 items which can not be stolen by another player or dropped if attacked by a monster.

Caltrops

The Drow Assassin Demtremi O'Ballas starts the game with five sets of caltrops (spikes left on the floor to wound your enemies) which can be placed on stratigic spaces to prevent other heroes from reaching the main gate with their winning treasure amount

Cloak of Darkness

Lucas Taver, the Elven Thief needed something which made him better at stealing from other players than the other heroes, so he starts the game with a cloak that hides him more easily.

Prayer of Equality

This item of Packus Shortbeard, the Dwarven Cleric, has spawned many an argument at the Petersen gaming table. It's used to redistribute everyone's treasure amongst all the players, and not by gold amount, but by the count of cards.

Holy Relic

Madalyne Chevalier, a Human Paladin starts the game with this item which gives her an all-game bonus to defend against all monsters

Hypnotic Harp

For Annice Quinn, the Human Bard, this starting item allows her twice per game to remove one type of monster from the game on her current board level. The monsters hear the tune and shuffle out of the Tower.

Ninja Rope

Rien Draak, the Gnomish Ninja, gets an item which allows him to escape from a combat situation without any penalty hit from the monster.

Pipe Weed

Dalton Mattock the Dwarven Armorer already has 3 wounds he can suffer before he dies (compared to everyone elses 2) but this starting item allows him to relax, heal, and gain back a wound twice per game.

Rune of Determination

Fisher Spaskey, the Dwarven Berzerker, and one of the most powerful characters in the game, has this small item which allows him to avoid any trapped rooms (though still giving him the option of facing the most powerful 'trap' monster in the game)

Seed Pods

These 3 use pods explode into a massive snare of vines upon impact and tangle any monster in a room allowing Tyne Mossbrook to snag the treasure without ever having to enter combat.

Spirit Scimitar

Pax Teahille, the Halfling Preist needed some offensive help, so she gets this spectral blade which has a few uses each at different combat levels.

Summon Monster

J'han Silverthatch, the Elven Mage, has the option to re-enter a cleared room and summon another monster from that level. It gives him a chance of gaining another useful treasure card.

This was purely an exercise in enjoying revamping old artwork. I still have no firm plans to rework the rest of Tower or release it. But if ever I do, I'll have this current artwork to use or base new designs from.

2014 Appearances:

San Diego Comic Con: July 23-27

Boston Comic Con: August 8-10

Baltimore Comic Con: Sept. 5-7

NY Comic Con: Oct. 9-12

Updated Tower Portraits

Fans of my blog will know of my hand-made board game Tower. I've posted on it a few times, once about the game in general, and another where I looked back at the portrait art and the characters they portrayed. Today's post is about me revisiting those 15 characters and original art pieces, but this time with updated artwork for each character. This is an exercise I'd like to do more of for the blog: go back and revisit my old characters and concepts and while there take a stab at their redesign, as-if I were working on the project now. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here are the character portraits I painted about 15 years ago, and new pieces painted in the last few weeks:

Annice Quinn:Annice is a Human Bard. In the game, she cab try to distract monsters with music, ultimately giving her better odds at killing the beast.  Her original look was supposed to be inspired by Gwyneth Paltrow, but I didn't achieve that lofty goal back then. The red, white, and blue wardrobe was inspired by the bright colorful costume of the Bard class in the 1995 D&D player's Handbook. For the update, I didn't do much in terms of design changes, but focused more on improved artwork. I still have an unsteady time drawing humans, and females especially. I wanted Annice to be pretty, but not come across as sexy or sultry in any way. The updated version keeps the hint of a smile and has an improved sense of texture for both her dress and turban-wrap headpiece.

Dalton MattockDalton is a Dwarven Armorer. In the game, he can take one more wound than every other player because of his superior armor. Dalton's original look was based on a co-worker at Starbucks...who was not a dwarf nor an armorer. So, my old painting was mostly a caricature-portrait head with rather ugly armor as a pedestal for it. For my update, I no longer knew what that co-worker looked like (beyond blurred memory) so I could only base the new portrait on the old. I felt Dalton's hair and beard needed to be less neat to be a proper dwarf, and I added the bags under his eyes to show the exhaustion from lugging around the heavy full plate armor. For his new armor, I gave it a pattern to imply that it was a unique piece of work, and though scaled down, the neck still has the old rivet detail.

Demtremi O'BallasDemtremi is a Drow Assassin. In the game, instead of just ambushing players to steal treasure like the other characters, he can kill their characters and take it all, making the other player start over from scratch. Demtremi's old portrait is based on my college roomate Nick Kowalcyk. Demtremis was one of Nick's old D&D characters who I think in turn was inspired by the R.A. Salvatore character Drizzt Do'Urden. For his update, I tried to give the assassin a more menacing look, while not making him outright evil. The armor was added to both add visual interest while also look foreign and otherworldly compared to the rest of the characters' clothes and arms.

Fike the Mox:
Fike is a Human Barbarian. In the game, Fike served as a baseline character with no extra-special abilities or any handicaps (though later we gave him a special bag that allows him to hide 3 treasure cards to they can not be stolen). Fike's original portrait came from me trying to draw a box-headed barbarian build with my friend Mike Davis' hair and beard of the time (the scar was just to show how tough Fike was). Mike tended to name all his RPG characters Mike Fox, and somewhere along the line, we started mocking him calling all his characters Fike Mox. I added a 'the' to imply that Mox was some sort of tribe or region. For the update I just tried my best to make Fike look less goofy and more imposing as a physical specimen.

Fisher Spasky
Fisher is a Dwarven Berzerker. In the game, he has multiple attacks per turn. Fisher is based on my friend Seyth Mirsma's old D&D character (Seyth helped co-create the rules for Tower). I don't think my original version of Fisher looks anything like Seyth's idea of him, but I used this older portrait as my only starting point for the new one (so he still doesn't look like Seyth's idea of Fisher). I pushed for a more expressive face and some texture details for the fur cloak (a garment I think implies toughness, wealth, and determination). The way his front tuft of hair falls down into his face is something my Father's hair does when he gets worked up.

Jhan Silverthatch

Jhan is an Elven Mage. In the game, he has the widest range of magical spells  to choose from. The original portrait of Jhan was based on Seyth's college roommate John. The name Silverthatch was a joke on John's desire to dye his hair silver. For this updated portrait, I did debate giving him premature silver locks, but opted to retain the original design and started coming up with options for where the Silverthatch surname came from...is it a place? a guild? do elves in this bloodline tend to go silver before their time and Jhan hasn't yet? I focused on shifting the facial features away from bing a bad caricature and into looking more like a believable elf.

Lucas Taver
Lucas is an Elven Thief. In the game he can move quickly and pick what he steals from other players instead of choosing randomly. Lucas was my long-time D&D character. I don't think I played with any one incarnation of him more than twice, but I kept re-making him for new adventures. The original version was meant to look like me in my college days, but for the update, I tried to blend that young David Petersen visage with something that looked like a proper elf from a fantasy realm. The floppy hat was scaled back to feel more manageable for a thief to wear and still go un-noticed. The hat band being of a more reddish color and tying into a knot like that is an homage to my Mouse Guard alter-ego Saxon.

Luthor Givem'ell
Luthor is a Halfling Battle Mage. In the game he has only offensive spells like Fireball and Lightning as well as a few chances to cast two spells in the same turn.
The original Luthor art probably owes something to anime I was watching at the time. For the update I tried to keep the old hair, but give it more of a curly Halfling  texture, though he still looks more Dwarven than Halfling in every other respect. I gave the stole a more elaborate design that somehow felt cultural rather than just a pattern for-the-sake-of pattern





Madalyne Chevalier:
Madalyne is a Human Paladin. In the game, she has the ability to heal herself more quickly than other players, as well as being a good fighter. Tower was an attempt by Seyth and I to fix our gameplay & design issues with TSR's Dungeon board game. Madalyne the Paladin was a character card from Dungeon we decided to bring over to Tower. The original art was just an elaboration on the Dungeon art, and in that same way, the update is mostly an elaboration on the original. The flourishes added to the armor include designs I found in historic and ren-faire fantasy armor, etched sun-motif patterns, and a peacock feather for her heraldic plume. Madalyne also got an updated name with the addition of the surname Chevalier.

Packus Shortbeard:

Packus is a Dwarven Cleric. In the Game Packus has some cleric spells at his disposal as well as a special 1 use spell that redistributes all the discovered treasure cards equally amongst the players. For his updated portrait, I gave him a bit more of a beard while still keeping it short. His overall facial structure became more traditional Dwarf, and I gave the armor a touch of believeability to the construction. His front tuft of hair as well as his mole stayed for this incarnation.





Pax Teahille:
Pax is a Halfling Priest. In the game Pax has the widest range of clerical spells and a special spectral sword she can summon twice to help her attacks. The original portrait of Pax was an instance of me looking at a photo of someone to base the drawing on because of my inexperience & comfort drawing women well. For her update, I wanted to make her look more like a Halfling, so I broadened her face and gave her hair a bit more texture. While struggling to draw her features this time around I tried to think of Tony DiTerlizzi drawings I liked. The costume dress was one I always liked from the original version, so I didn't do anything really to update it.

Quiver Dare:
Quiver is a Gnomish Acrobat. In the game, he can tumble while defending against monsters to lower his chances of being killed by that beast. Quiver is another D&D character of Seyth's. The original portrait was a bit of a caricature (the sideburns mostly) of Seyth, but I don't know why I added the Mike Nesmith-esque wool hat. For the update, I decided to make the hat shaped a bit more like a traditional gnome hat, I kept the diamond pattern tunic because it felt like something a performer-adventurer might wear. The facial structure for Quiver was the biggest change. I wanted him to look less human and more fey-like. I enlarged the nose, sunk the jawline and compacted the eyes/nose/mouth relationship. But I kept the sideburns.

Rien Draak:
Rien Draak (originally un-named) is a Gnomish Ninja. In the game he has a few spells to help him attack quickly. He also has a hooked rope which allows him to quickly escape rooms with monsters with no penalty. The original character and portrait was Seyth & I scraping the bottom of the barrel for ideas. For the update, because there was nothing Gnomish about my original art, I did the biggest re-design of this series. I approached it with what ninja apparel would look like if it came from Gnomish culture. The folded hood is meant to echo a folded Gnome hat. Since he was un-named in the original, I thought he deserved better. The Rien comes from Rien Poortvliet the Dutch illustrator of the Gnomes Book. Draak is the Dutch word for dragon...to evoke the culture associated with ninjitsu.

Solae Pathfinder:
Solae is an Elven Ranger. In the game she has an animal companion that allows her a second attack on a monster at a reduced efficacy. The art for Solae was always meant to show a confident, capeable, and dangerous woman. I didn't want to loose those qualities, but had to figure out how to apply them to a less stylized facial structure. I remembered that when I drew the original I'd looked at photos of Julianne Moore, so I did that again this time, but made sure I was only trying to capture her personality qualities and not her actual facial features. I added a small flourish to the collar of her tunic and had a lot of fun drawing in the texture and drape of her hair.

Tyne Mossbrook:
Tyne is a Halfling Druid. In the game she has a small mix of magic spells, but also some special seed pods that grow rapidly and ensnare monsters. Tyne  was the last character I painted for the original game. I think Seyth and I re-designed her a number of times and I couldn't do the art for her until we had something nailed down. I meant for her not to be a representation of my friend Ann Glenn, but more of a character I could see her play in D&D. For the re-design I widened the face to feel more like a Halfling's, and I added texture and detail to the costume as it stood.

Luke Crane, game designer who wrote the Mouse Guard RPG,  visited me last week, he and I discussed what game mechanics were broken with Tower. We made a mental list of what worked and what was broken. He and I hammered out a few ideas on where I could take the game (in design terms) to get it to a place I could release this game (which fans have asked about since the first I shared it.) I don't know when I'll get to that point, but I have a direction, and 15 new character portraits to go with it.

2014 Appearances:

MSU Comics Forum: February 22

Emerald City Comic Con: March 28-30

C2E2: April 25-27

Motor City Comic Con: May 16-18

Comicpalooza: May 23-25

Phoenix Comic Con: June 5-8

Heroes Con: June 20-22

San Diego Comic Con: July 23-27

Boston Comic Con: August 8-10

Baltimore Comic Con: Sept. 5-7

NY Comic Con: Oct. 9-12