2019 HEROES CON Paintings

For Heroes Con this weekend, I've created two new Mouse Guard 16" x 20" watercolor paintings. Like last year, one of my paintings will be going into the auction, the other will be available for sale at my table Sunday (the morning after the auction) with a price based on the auction results. Below you can see both of the paintings of Gwendolyn and Sadie, but further down, I'll go thorough the process pictures as I created the paintings.

First step was to sketch out my characters on copy paper. I'd known I wanted to do Gwendolyn and Sadie, two prominent female characters from Mouse Guard. For the characters I pushed their costumes a bit beyond their looks in the comic. And over the course of three sheets of paper, I had the elements I needed for the characters themselves. Note I drew the pike-axe separately as I re-designed it, and I only drew one of Sadie's short swords knowing I could digitally re-use it for her other paw. As for the backgrounds...

I decided to reference some architectural photos I took a few years ago in Central Park. I'm bad with my park geography, but I'm pretty sure the diagonal floral motif is near the bridge where the scene from Avengers was filmed. Anyhow, these spoke to me, and I had them on-hand to make a pretty architectural-design inspired background for each painting. 

In photoshop, I took my pencil drawings, and the architectural photos and combined them into a satisfying color study of what I wanted my final paintings to resemble. The digital colors helped me pick colors and to pick the color values (light-dark ranges). To give the pieces some cohesion, I used the same arch template formed by Sadie's background to shape the diagonal floral pattern for Gwendolyn's. 

Then I printed out each design at 16" x 20, the same size as the mat board I was ready to paint them on. That meant printing each image in sections and taping the printouts together. This is what the grid on the digital version is for, to help me line-up and re-register the pieces.

To transfer the piece over to the matboard, I taped down a large sheet of graphite paper (like carbon paper) to the matboard, then taped down the image printout, and lastly traced over all the image details with a ball point pen. Wherever the pen put pressure on the graphite paper, the graphite was transferred onto the matboard. Below you can see the backside of the graphite paper after the transfer where the graphite is already lifted.

While the process went very smoothly (and below you can see the final transfer of Gwendolyn) I wouldn't ever use graphite paper for this use again. The wax binder that holds the graphite to the paper also transferred over to the matboard and acted as a bit of a resist for the watercolor. It was workable, but there was a thin white halo between the linework and the paint.

Then it was time to start the painting. I streamed most of that process over on Twitch. Below is a photo I took of my work set-up. A few brushes (mainly one wide flat, and two smaller round), an uncleaned tray of old watercolors (a few tubes were still wet enough to squeeze new dolops from), a water mug, and my painting. I should also mention that while I did my best to document the process, there are several points where I was focused enough on the work, I forgot to stop and take a photo.

Below is the background of Gwendolyn painted.

Below is the wash of Sadie's background painted.

Below I've worked on more of the design, shadows, and colors of Sadie's background.

Working on Sadie with the watercolor tray set-up.

Starting in on the fur and skin tones.

Skipped a few steps of Gwendolyn's fur, skin, and costume colors getting washed in and then built up...at this point I only had her dress, jewelry, book, and the pike-axe handle to work on.

Sadie is nearly done here. Just some color correction and the yellow piping/stitch trim to paint in.

Details of the two at that stage:

And then the painting portion of each were finished.

But––I always feel that my work looks better with a strong line. My painting skills aren't quite up to snuff to define forms entirely with color and shape. So, I 'inked' each piece with a brown color pencil. I used a dark brown color pencil instead of ink to soften the linework a bit compared to ink--I didn't want it to look like a coloring book. 

And below you can see both paintings fully finished. 

To repeat, one of these will be going into the Heroes Con auction (I've been told they do phone bids) And the other will be available at my artist alley table at Heroes the morning after with a similar price to the winning bid at the auction. 

For Reference, here is the blogpost for my two paintings from last year: https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2018/06/heroes-con-2018-auction-pieces.html

2019 Appearances
Heroes Con June 14-16
San Diego Comic Con July 17-21
GenCon August 1-4
New York Comic Con October 3-6
Baltimore Comic Con October 18-20
The Fantastic Workshop Nov. 13-18

Rosard Mouse Print Process

*NOTE: THIS WAS WRITTEN PRIOR TO DISNEY CANCELING THE MOVIE AT FOX––WE ARE STILL EXPLORING ALL OPTIONS TO BRING THE MICE OF MOUSE GUARD TO LIFE*

When the Mouse Guard Movie was given a full green light from FOX, Stephen Christy and Ross Richie came to Michigan to deliver the good news, deliver the payment, and celebrate with a meal. As a thank you for their work on Mouse Guard as a book series and on the Movie (they are involved both in publishing at BOOM! and producers on the film at the FOX lot) I drew them each as a Guardmouse and gave them the original inked piece.

To the left you can see the finished colored version of 'Rosard' that I've released as a print available in my online store: mouseguard.bigcartel.com



Ross Richie is head of BOOM! Studios who acquired Archaia several years ago. But even before that, Ross had always been in my and Mouse Guard's corner. Early on he'd shared with me his appreciation for my book and hired me to do covers for BOOM! titles. When Archaia had hit some hard times, he mentioned to me, with no pressure or hard sell, that if things got bad, and I ever needed a new home for Mouse Guard, he was there for me. It was BOOM!'s deal with FOX that made the movie possible (and under the favorable terms for me). He's made a lot of things possible for me and Mouse Guard.



So, how to interpret Ross as a mouse? Well, I thought of Ross as firstly a guy who needed a weapon whose sound effect would go 'BOOM!'. Ross' personality is a big presence. It's not overwhelming, or oppressive, but it has a mass to it. I wanted to add that volume to his mouse's cloak, his oversized warhammer, and a story told in his fur and his scars.

The name Rosard comes from the origin spelling of the name Ross ('Ros') and the pronunciation of the Scottish Gaelic for 'Hammer' ('òrd' pronounced 'Ard'). I drew the Ross-mouse and the swirly patterned stones on one sheet of copy paper, scanned it in to Photoshop to resize it for the final artwork-size.



With the layout assembled and printed on to copy paper, I started inking it. I taped the printout to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my Huion lightpad, I can see through the surface of the bristol to the printout below and use that as a guide to ink from. For pens I used my trusty Copic Multiliner SPs...primarily the 0.7 nib that I like so much.

It would have been easy to get carried away with the textures of the scarred mouse, his fur cloak, well-used front sash, hammer details, and stone background...but I tried to restrain myself and leave room for color.



I scanned the inks and started to lay in flat colors as well as establish the few color holds (areas where I want the ink lines to be a color other than black) on his scars

Ross' colors weren't as easy to pin-down as other human-to-guardmice-inspirations. I think of some of Ross' tenacity and directness to be in the red-family for cloak colors...but I opted to make that the front accent panel color and leave his fur and cloak more in a natural cream and brown tone-range. The hammer also had to be seen...it needs to do some of its job before it's even swung...so I went with a brassy tone for that.



The last step was to render the colors by adding light and shadow as well as texture using the Dodge and Burn tools in Photoshop with a stock textured brush. I did some color adjustments from the flat colors, punching up the fungus color to be a bit more vivid.


I've told Ross that his mouse 'Rosard' may make it into the Weasel War as a casualty...and to not take that personally. It doesn't mean there aren't stories to tell about that mouse earlier in his life...

You can buy a print of Rosard in my online store: mouseguard.bigcartel.com

2019 Appearances
Heroes Con June 14-16
San Diego Comic Con July 17-21
GenCon August 1-4
New York Comic Con October 3-6
Baltimore Comic Con October 18-20
The Fantastic Workshop Nov. 13-18

Stjepan Mouse Print Process

*NOTE: THIS WAS WRITTEN PRIOR TO DISNEY CANCELING THE MOVIE AT FOX––WE ARE STILL EXPLORING ALL OPTIONS TO BRING THE MICE OF MOUSE GUARD TO LIFE*

Back when the Mouse Guard Movie was given a full green light from FOX, Stephen Christy and Ross Richie came to Michigan to deliver the good news, deliver the payment, and celebrate with a meal. As a thank you for their work on Mouse Guard as a book series and on the Movie (they are involved both in publishing at BOOM! and producers on the film at the FOX lot) I drew them each as a Guardmouse and gave them the original inked piece.

To the left you can see the finished colored version of 'Stjepan' that I've released as a print available in my online store: mouseguard.bigcartel.com


Stephen Christy joined Archaia after a troubled time where due to a partner leaving and other complications, the publisher was bankrupt and unable to publish comics. Until a new owner bought the company and had Stephen as his right-hand-man. Stephen essentially worked on the re-launch from his dining room table in Chicago (this is when Archaia had been in Fort Lee, NJ and before the official move to LA). Stephen has also been there for every incarnation of Mouse Guard being approached, pitched, and *nearly* sold as a movie prior to FOX and has been instrumental in shepherding it this time.




So, how to interpret Stephen as a mouse? Well, I think of Stephen as having an elegance about him. For that reason I kept his fur simple and I wanted his cloak to have detail. Trim and perhaps an insignia. And for a weapon, he's have something more like an epee or saber fencing sword.

I drew the Stephen-mouse on one sheet of copy paper, and the tree-trunk with mushroom fungus on another and then assembled the parts in Photoshop (tinting the background a different color to help me visualize it). The thistle was also inserted digitally from a clip-art sheet of insignias (I suppose that means he's either from or has valiantly served Thistledown--the same town where Gwendolyn is from).


With the layout assembled and printed on to copy paper, I can start inking it. I taped the printout to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my Huion lightpad, I can see through the surface of the bristol to the printout below and use that as a guide to ink from. For pens I used my trusty Copic Multiliner SPs...primarily the 0.7 nib that I like so much.

To make sure I could separate the background lines of the forest floor, I left a white gap between the foreground inks and the sticks on the ground. That not only helps visually separate them, but also makes it easier in the next step when I have to establish the color holds.


I scanned the inks and started to lay in flat colors as well as establish all the color holds (areas where I want the ink lines to be a color other than black) on the cloak details and the background floor.

Stephen's colors came to me very quickly: Brown fur, and a royal blue cloak. There is an elegance to that color that fits what I was going for, but beyond that I just associate Stephen with the color blue, so it was a natural fit. The mushrooms then get into an orangey-tan to compliment the wardrobe hues.


The last step was to render the colors by adding light and shadow as well as texture using the Dodge and Burn tools in Photoshop with a stock textured brush. I did some color adjustments from the flat colors, punching up the fungus color to be a bit more vivid.

I've told Stephen that his mouse 'Stjepan' may make it into the Weasel War as a casualty...and to not take that personally. It doesn't mean there aren't stories to tell about that mouse earlier in his life...

You can buy a print of Stjepan in my online store: mouseguard.bigcartel.com


2019 Appearances
Heroes Con June 14-16
San Diego Comic Con July 17-21
GenCon August 1-4
New York Comic Con October 3-6
Baltimore Comic Con October 18-20
The Fantastic Workshop Nov. 13-18

Celanawe Print Process

To have a new character print for my 2019 conventions and appearances, as well as to round out the main cast of Mouse Guard character prints, I've created a print of Celanawe (aka The Black Axe). To the left you can see the finished artwork, but for this blogpost I'll be sharing the art steps for how I got there in the post below.


Before the step-by-step though, the print is available for purchase in my online store: mouseguard.bigcartel.com




I started with a drawing of Celanawe on copy paper (right). I didn't have a clear picture in my head of where to put him in terms of a setting...mossy rocks, ferny undergrowth, something else entirely? So I scanned the character drawing and did a quick digital painting of fern-like plants surrounding the oldfur (not pictured). Using a printout of that digital painting as a guide, I penciled on a lightbox linework for the flora. The patterns of the leaf shapes in the foreground (bottom) were getting a bit too repetitive to also use as the background shapes, so I used a new sheet of copy paper to draw out a broader leaf that felt like it was from the same family.


With all those pencil drawings done, I was able to composite together a digital layout for the print. I blocked in the color on Celanawe so I could see him as a mass, and also to make it easier to paint in the leaf shapes behind him. The colors help me see when I'm inking what area is what item so that I can get their contours right but also so I can add texture in the right places.

This is a little overboard for a 'layout', and some fans who watched the process on Twitch pointed out that this almost looks finished as a piece in it's own right...


But I like inked lines, and that's what you all know Mouse Guard to be. So, with the above layout printed and taped to the back of a sheet of Strathmore Bristol 300, I started inking on my Huion lightpad with Copic Multiliner SP pens (the 0.7 for everything but around the eyes where I used a 0.3).

I streamed this part on Twitch as I built up my line weights, added texture, and tried to make sense of those lacy ferns.



The step after the inks are finished is scan them and start to add color. This part is all about flat color, no rendered effects, no shading, just establishing which parts are which colors. Since I'd done some color work on my layout, some of the color selection was already done, it was just a matter of carefully getting the new color layers to meet up with (and stay within the lines of) the inked drawing. At this stage I also established the few color holds (places where I want the ink line to be a color other than black)––in this case the cut on Celanawe's nose, the bowl opening of his pipe, and a little detail on the Ladybug shell where the white dot meets the red.


The last step was to render all the colors adding light and shadow as well as texture. I do most of that with the Dodge and Burn tools in Photoshop and a stock textured brush.

Another effect was I made a trail of my thumbprints on copy paper and a roller ball pen and scanned that pattern as the smoke trailing from Celanawe's pipe. I treated the thumbprints like a color hold on a separate layer where I could control the opacity over the existing scenery.



You can purchase this print (along with most of the other Mouse Guard characters) at my upcoming convention appearances as well as in my online store: mouseguard.bigcartel.com

2019 Convention Appearances

Heroes Con June 14-16
San Diego Comic Con July 17-21
New York Comic Con October 3-6
Baltimore Comic Con October 18-20

Beneath the Dark Crystal #10 Cover Process

Here is my tenth variant cover for Archaia's Beneath the Dark Crystal series!

To view my past Dark Crystal covers click here. 

This cover, the last in the run to feature Mystics and skeksis, is of UrSu the Wisest of the Mystics and skekSo the Emperor of the Skeksis. Like my other covers these two are the counterparts of each other and paired together facing opposite directions. To the left you can see the finished artwork for the cover, but below I'll walk through the steps I took to to get there.



I'll start by saying that the challenge of this cover was that there was no official design for skekSo the Emperor in full skeksis garb. In the film he's bedridden and dying. My editor and I asked Henson for any chance of possible past Froud sketches or even perhaps any insight if skekSo is in the new Netflix prequel series, but they were only able to provide me with photos of the puppet used in the original film and some nice images of his bedchambers to draw inspiration from. So I set out to design The Emperor's costume myself.

Like all the past covers, I drew each character on separate sheets of copy paper. For the Emperor, I tried to use some of his blankets, wall hangings, and tasseled chords to drape him in. I also noticed in the run of drawing these covers that skeksis tend to have some carapace from some beast on Thra as part of their adornment––so I gave him a Crystal Bat collar with the crystal eye acting like an all-seeing 3rd eye for the ruler of those wretched cruel creatures. On his back I attempted to draw something resembling a Landstrider skull, but I'm not sure if I really did that so well.

The Wisest of the Mystics was fairly straight forward as a drawing in comparison, and when the two were drawn, I scanned them and tinted them each a different color when laying them out for the composition to help me see them better.

My editors and I waited, a little worried about the approvals on this one. The others were so inline with the original designs, that I took few liberties (other than trying to work out and interpret details of the costumes)––but here I 'd completely made up the visuals for a main character's look. We all breathed a big sigh of relief when Henson approved.

I printed out the above layout and taped it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore bristol to start inking it on a lightpad with Copic Multiliner pens.

In terms of ink details, I do think this one got a bit more texture than most of the other covers as I tried to help the viewer's eye (as well as my own) understand where fabrics and materials changed as they overlapped and draped the characters.


When the inks were approved, I started on flatting the colors. This is the step where I add flat colors, not worried about the texture and rendering and lighting effects of them, to the characters to establish what parts of the image are which colors.

The biggest challenge here was that I had very little to go on for what the Emperor's color palate would be. I opted to make him a bit darker than I think most of the bedchamber & puppet reference was to make this skeksis the most terrifying looking of them all.




The last step was to render all the colors adding highlights and shadows and texture with the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop while using a textured brush.

This cover marks a transition in the run. I still have two covers to go in the series, but this is the last cover to feature skeksis and mystics, and it was the last cover my Mouse Guard & Dark Crystal editor Cameron Chittock worked on with me before he moved on to a new path with his wife (another former Mouse Guard editor) as they start a new chapter in Boston.

2 covers left to go...time for some gelflings...


2019 Convention Appearances

Emerald City Comic Con March 14-17
Heroes Con June 14-16
San Diego Comic Con July 17-21
New York Comic Con October 3-6
Baltimore Comic Con October 18-20

2019 German Print Process

A few weeks ago on the return leg of my trip to Finland (my niece is an exchange student there) I did a signing at T3 in Frankfurt, Germany.
It was great to be back in Europe doing Mouse Guard promotion and getting to meet with fans from overseas.

The shop asked me to create a Mouse Guard print that we could sell and I could sign at the event.

To the left you can see the finished piece, but below I'll go through the steps to get there...



Back in 2007 I visited Berlin, Germany on a signing tour. For that appearance I was asked to create a limited print (hopefully with a German theme since I'd done something similar with aUK theme for an appearance there that same year). Here is that print, with a Germanic armored mouse with the heraldry of the black eagle and the German flag behind him.

I went back to this piece as the inspiration for the new one.



On a sheet of copy paper, I drew the same mouse, this time with his helmet removed and his body language more humble and reverent. It was fun to go back and rework a design from over a decade ago...to pay homage and make slight alterations in proportions, detail, and texture.  The eagle was drawn on a separate sheet of copy paper as I referenced a traditional image of a heraldic German black eagle. In place of the tiny details on the shield in the photo reference I substituted the colors of the German flag.

All of this was scanned and digitally assembled in Photoshop at the proper sizing for the finished print.

I printed the above digital composite of the sketches onto copy paper and then taped to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol.

Using a light pad, I was able to see through the surface of the bristol to the printout underneath to use it as a guide as I inked. To ink the piece I used Copic Multiliner SP pens (the 0.7 nib almost exclusively).

Knowing I was going to use a color hold on the eagle and heraldry, I tried to make sure I left a gap between the inks on those elements and the mouse himself.

After the inks were finished I scanned them into Photoshop. The first step in the coloring process is called 'flatting' because it deals with laying in flat colors to all of the image, establishing what areas are what colors (his fur is orange, the eagle is a grey-brown, the sky is cream, etc...) Most of those colors were already established by the previous print from 2007, but there were still tonal changes to be made.

This is also the step where I established all the color holds (areas I want the ink work to be a painted color other than black) on the eagle, his halo, the flag stripes, and the axe details.



The final step was to do the rendering an adding texture. I did that using a textured brush in Photoshop and the Dodge and Burn tools. The final piece got golor shifted a bit warmer than the flats in the end, and I added 'Mouse Guard' to the bottom for the final print.


Didn't make it to Frankfurt for the signing and you'd like to own one of these prints? Well, GOOD NEWS! I have a limited supply of them in my online store for sale currently:
mouseguard.bigcartel.com



2019 Convention Appearances

Heroes Con June 14-16
San Diego Comic Con July 17-21
New York Comic Con October 3-6
Baltimore Comic Con October 18-20