Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Tuesday, October 29, 2024
Halloween Trio Decorations
Happy Halloween!
These characters were from a Baltimore Yearbook and later a silkscreened poster I made to celebrate the spooky holiday. I've isolated them for these printouts as well as included the poem I wrote for the occasion
Tuesday, October 22, 2024
Recent Commissions
Tuesday, October 15, 2024
Skelton's Keys To The Classics: Jungle Book
I was given technical specifications for the thickness, width, height, etc as well as a caveat that I needed to pull visuals and details only from the original text instead of any popular adaptations.
My goal was to make the key look like a stone or bone carving of a portion of the ruined city itself that also featured Shere Kahn, Bagheera, Baloo, Kaa, and some monkeys (Not King Louie--as he was a Disney invention)
skeltoncrewstudio.bigcartel.com
And I have a few available with signed boxes in my online store:
mouseguard.bigcartel.com
Tuesday, October 8, 2024
Royal Taloned Octopus Dragon
Here is my finished colored Dragon (twenty first in the series). And below are my steps to create it as well as the community submissions.
This month the prompt was three words: Octopus, Talon, & Royal
I opened several tabs of google image searches of octopus species, bird talons, and crowns.
In some ways, this step was unnecessary and superfluous––I did a good enough job with the pencils that I could tell where the underbelly and suckers were to get the ink texture right in the next step...but I really do like trusting in this process of mine. It did make me think harder about how I was going to ink the skin pattern knowing what the final color issues would be.
With the above design printed out at full scale and taped that onto the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol, it was time to start inking. Using a lightpad, I was able to see through the surface of the bristol as I inked the dragon. I used Copic Multiliner 0.7 pen to ink the art.
The inking on this piece was about balancing the lighter hand I needed to not overwork the underbelly and to get the details on the suckers looking fleshy, and then being more textured and heavy-handed when it came to the skin pattern.
I wasn't able to finish my inks on stream before having to sign off an wish every one success over the weekend with their Dragons. Later that same night after some dinner I finished inking the last few tentacles and then scanned the inks and started the flatting process. In addition to the basics of color flatting–basically professional coloring-in-the-lines, I also established color holds (an area where I want the ink to be a color other than black)––the overall lines became a dark brown, the skin pattern got two different color holds and the pupil got one as well.Most of of the color selections were already established in the rough, but I played with the final value/hue choices for a while before getting to this point.
For the final colors I used a bit of the paintbrush to add some color variance to each area before using the dodge and burn tools to do the final rendering.
Below you can again see the final Dragon...
Tuesday, October 1, 2024
Usagi Yojimbo 40th Anniversary
To request a copy email Steve Hubbell: usagiyojimbodojo@yahoo.com
with subject line "Usagi Yojimbo 40th Anniversary book"
To the left you can see my finished pinup for the book, and below I go through the process of creating it.
These drawings were scanned back into Photoshop and given a quick color blocking to help me see the difference between the leaves and the ground and the branches, etc.
There was a lot going on in terms of depth on this piece and I wanted it not to get too busy, but still have bursts of texture and value so the viewer's eye could clearly see all the forms.
The original was then sent off to the fan who commissioned it.
The original inks for these birds are available for sale in my online store:
mouseguard.bigcartel.com
This is the first step of coloring that is essentially a professional version of coloring-in-the-lines. It's all about establishing color areas, that the fur is a different color than the clothes, or the leaves, or the branches, etc.
with subject line "Usagi Yojimbo 40th Anniversary book" and cover shipping. You can also charitably donate to the GoFundMe to help him with the costs: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-40th-anniversary-usagi-yojimbo-tribute-project
Tuesday, September 24, 2024
Magic the Gathering: Azure Beastbinder
The final card of mine from Bloomburrow that was revealed is Azure Beastbinder.
The set was released in early August, and I'm happy to share the artwork and process for creating it.
I started with a rough version of the rat in a power slide pose and did a few versions before I put it on a lightpad to draw it out more tightly and add in all the clothing details as well as the dagger. Before I drew the Calamity beast in pencil, I think I scanned in the rat, then painted a blocky mass where I wanted the creature, then printed that out to do the drawing seen here.The pencil roughs were all assembled and combined digitally in Photoshop. For the magic vapor wound I painted with a cyan color in Photoshop and had a stroke applied to that layer to give me an outline.
At this stage, I also like to do a preliminary digital color blocking, to make sure I have the color and value tangents worked out, and also to show my art director at WotC so they are on the same page as I am (no one likes surprises in the later stages of a commissioned art piece). This is the stage where I can also easily make adjustments moving a character or resizing something.
Here are the final rendered colors for the art (sans card borders). I did the light and shadow and texture by using the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop with a stock textured brush.
I have prints of this piece available for sale: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/category/magic
Tuesday, September 17, 2024
The Tick for Baltimore Yearbook 2024
This year's subject is Ben Edlund's The Tick! To the left you can see my finished art, and below in the blogpost I'll walk through my process.
We are always encouraged to include our own characters into our Yearbook piece--to create a cross-over image that might not have otherwise happened. I'm always hesitant to add mice from Mouse Guard into these pieces, but it dawned on me that I could parody my own characters with a close-but-not-quite version called Vole Patrol. That's when the line 'No more Mr. nice mice' came into my head. I drew vole versions of my characters on copy paper along with the banner and digitally added them in to the pencils I had of the Tick and blocked in some colors.I then printed out the digital assembly above at 14 x 17 and taped it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol board. On my Huion lightpad, I can see through the surface of the bristol down to the printout to use it as a guide to ink by. I used Copic Multiliner pens (mostly the 0.7 nib) to do all the inkwork.
I debated inking in the balloon and text, but to make the original art more salable (available at the auction in Baltimore), I opted to ink it in. I kept Tick open linework mostly, only adding a little bit of weight/texture to the contour lines. The voles I inked like I'd ink my mice and the groundcovering became my dark anchor visual.
In this step I also established all the color holds (areas where I want the ink lines to be a color other than black) like the text, banner stripes, lantern glow and fading the ground covering.
After I quickly switched all the bold vole colors to the correct ones, the last step was to do the final rendering and lighting effects for the piece. I did this mostly using the dodge and burn tools and a stock Photoshop brush.
This piece will be published in the Baltimore Yearbook later this month. That book will be available for purchase at the convention and through the con's website afterwards. The original inked piece will also be for sale in the art auction at the con on Saturday.
https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2022/10/scary-godmother-tribute-for-baltimore.html