20th Anniversary Print

This weekend marks the 20th anniversary of the first self-published issue of Mouse Guard that I released at Motor City and to help celebrate, I decided to do a new 14" x 20" print of the Guardmouse trio of Saxon, Kenzie, and Lieam on the adventure that started it all.  

The signed print on heavy paper stock will be available at Motor City Comic Con and then in my online store soon afterwards (and perhaps at other summer cons I attend). 

Below I'm sharing the steps in creating the artwork for the print...

I wanted the print artwork to be a scene from that first issue (originally published in black and white––because that was all I could afford at the time). There are the panels of the trio walking where we first meet them and learn their names, there's the scene with Lieam facing the black rat snake, and there was this scene with the overturned grain cart (though I also considered the moment where they camp overnight in it as well)

As I posted a few weeks ago, I made a model of the grain cart specifically for this print...and to have a day away from the drawing board and computer to stretch creatively.

Then I went for a walk.

In the woods along nature footpaths I'd place the cart model in the tree roots and base of any tree that inspired me. I took photos of different angles, placed the cart in different positions and looked for that 'right' inspiration. There were several more photos that what I have shown here.

Because I was taking these photos on my phone, I didn't really get to inspect them until I was home and could pull them up on a large screen. I picked the last on the top row of this grid.

Time to start drawing! I did a combination of using smaller scanned pencil drawings of the characters along with a reference drawing of the cart and digital color blocking and re-drawing...all to get this rough that I just wasn't happy with.

I played with sky color, mouse placement, and how tightly cropped in we were...

This version, with Kenzie kneeling was a digitally drawn edit to help the composition, but it still felt off to me. And Julia agreed. Worried I was putting too much pressure on myself to get a print done before the convention she suggested that I could stop and postpone it for a later convention.

The next day I went back in to the file and mirrored the whole thing. I did that just to see if that trick would help me see compositional flaws...and instead, it just became more interesting to my eye. And I realized this direction matched the original panel better. So, I started redrawing the tree and each character (on a light pad overtop of a printout of the rough version) and had to take special steps to get Saxon's food placement to work on the mirrored cart (since I liked him looking out into the open space rather than at the tree trunk (which also more closely matches the original panel.

Here you can see the tightened pencils all placed and color blocked in ready to ink.

The above layout was printed out at size (14" x 20") over several sheets of legal size paper and then taped together. That was then taped with painters tape to the back of a large sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. 

On my Huion lightpad I was able to see through the surface of the bristol to use the prinout as a guide to ink from. I used Copic Multiliner SP pens (the 0.7 nib mainly, but I think I used a smaller nib for the eyes).

I did the inking in two sessions: the cart, characters, foreground, and tree trunk outline in one go, and then the hatching on the tree and the distant silhouette trees in another.

The art was then scanned (in two passes) on my scanner ready for color.
Then I started color flatting...this is the step all about establishing all the areas of color with flat colors (no rendering, no texture). I use different layers for different color groups (fur, cloaks, ground, sky, etc). The colors don't even need to be accurate––in some cases using entirely the wrong colors helps make the flatting process easier by thinking about shapes rather than color theory and final palates.

This version is in that first stage where are the colors are purposely wrong (including the color hold––an area where I want the ink lines to be something other than black, on the distant trees.

And then what I thought was going to be the final color scheme. Just like the original rough for his piece.

A sunset sky with purples going into oranges. It was a nod to the bit in the first issue where after they find the cart the daylight is dying and they need to camp overnight before continuing their search. I also though making the purple sky helped differentiate it from so many of my other prints with pale yellow skies.

I actually rendered most of it with this color palate in place...and only at the end realized I didn't like it.

So, I swapped out the sky for a more autumn leaf color sunset, tinted the trees and all the base colors warmer so the new sky lighting worked with everything else.

Here are the final colors again, all rendered using the dodge and burn tools and a textured brush in Photoshop.

The 14" x 20" print on heavy paper will be available at Motor City Comic Con this weekend and in my online store soon afterward

Dawn of the Black Axe #2 Release Party

Mouse Guard: Dawn of the Black Axe issue 2 will be in stores tomorrow! It's being offered with 3 different covers.
You can see the art process posts about each cover here: 
Gabriel Rodriguez: http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/03/dawn-of-black-axe-2-rodriguez-cover.html

David Petersen: http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/03/dawn-of-black-axe-2-petersen-cover.html

Kevin Eastman: http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/03/dawn-of-black-axe-2-kevin-eastman-cover.html

I'll also be hosting a virtual release party for paid Patreon subscribers over on: patreon.com/davidpetersen May 7th at 8pm Eastern.

I'll talk about the issue's story, share some behind the scenes thoughts and process, and take viewer questions. You just need to subscribe at any tier before the event to participate.

I look forward to hearing what you all thought of Bardrick's adventure with the Black Axe in this middle issue of the series.

Free Comic Book Day 2025

For Free Comic Book Day this year BOOM! has an offering with a Mouse Guard story that will see publication for the first time: King, Knight, Fool, Villain. 

For those of you who don't know, most comic retailers offer a selection of new comics on the first Saturday in May for FREE! They use it as a way to try and get people who have never tried reading a comic -or- haven't picked up a comic in years, to try a comic for free. Many stores will also have planned signings, events, food drives, and sometimes sales for their regular inventory.

I believe that because comics are stories, there is a comic for every person in your life who enjoys stories...(I've done a post about recommendations for those reluctant-to-comics folks in your life who think comics are all capes, cowls, bullets, & blams: https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2018/05/recommendations-of-comics-by-genre.html)

The short story in my publisher BOOM!'s FCBD offering 'King, Knight, Fool, Villain', was originally drawn in my usual square Mouse Guard format (I've shared live readings of this story online and at some conventions), but it has not yet been collected (I still need a few more tales this length to make a new hardcover of similar stories).

Because the FCBD book is a 'standard' comic format, I had to move and resize a few panels around and re-letter the whole thing so the text was still readable at the new scale. While it took some work, I'm pleased with the alterations to have this story see print for the first time.

The story features a mouse soothsayer who uses bone cards to fortell the future...and while I was working on it, I needed to design a few of those Tarot-like cards to draw into the story...and by the end, I'd already drawn about one-third of the total number of cards in the deck, so I went ahead and drew the rest so that Mouse Guard fans could own a deck of their own, either just-for-fun or to incorporate into their Mouse Guard RPG sessions. These are available to purchase in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/soothsayer-s-deck-of-bone-cards

Past blogpost with more info on the cards: https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2022/10/soothsayer-deck-of-bone-cards.html

I'll be signing and doing doodles and setting up with a mini-con booth at Green Brain Comics in Dearborn, MI. I'll be there from 2pm-6pm (Jeremy Bastian of Cursed Pirate Girl fame will also be there)
So, I hope to see you this Saturday, either in-person at Green Brain -or- posting photos online of what you picked up for FCBD and who in your life you introduced to comics with a free issue of something.

Green Brain Comics

13936 Michigan Ave

Dearborn, MI 48126

Model Grain Cart

It's been a long time since I built a reference model, but on a day this week when the weather had changed for the warmer, I was out picking up sticks the oak drops on our driveway and I got inspired. 

I plan do do a new piece of artwork (probably a print to be released at Motor City Comic Con) that would pay homage to the first ever issue of Mouse Guard where Saxon, Kenzie, & Lieam discover the broken grain cart from the merchant they were tasked with finding. 

The sticks, warm weather, and this upcoming artwork on my mind came together and gave a me a time away from the computer and drawing table while still being creative and using my hands.

Before I started in earnest, I printed out a page from that first issue as well as a re-design of the grain cart I drew in 2017 (and was in that year's sketchbook). I thought it would be handy to have these in sight when at my workbench in the garage.

I wanted to be closer to the original in overall form, but take some of the cues from the latter with some of the details and organic shapes.

Below is more of a series of photos, rather than a step-by-step tutorial, that I managed to take (when I remembered to take photos) while working. Also, please excuse the state of my workbench--it has been a catch all and not tidied since last fall when the weather was still suitable for an unheated garage.

My first pile of fallen sticks gathered from my patio and yard. When I was a kid my Dad had a tall cardboard box full of tree debris like this that had fallen from our maples and elms in Flint, MI that he'd use to get a charcoal fire going for cooking out (no lighter fluid used by Eric Petersen!)

I used a box cutter or a wire brush to remove the loose bark and lichen. This was where I discovered I needed more sticks because so many would break at weak or rotten spots.

Starting to glue up the frame with super glue. I had to make a run to the hardware store because the two bottles of glue I managed to find in my studio and in the garage were only 5%-10% full and both dried solid.

I used popsicle sticks to deck the bottom of the cart. I used pliers to break off the ends rather tan a saw to give them a more rustic look.

Gluing the uprights for the side walls. There were lots of decisions here about placement of these that will effect the way the side walls attach.

I wanted a more robust structure to hold the axles, so I cut out a piece of pine on my scroll saw. (I think this was a really thick pain stirring stick--or if not, something similar.

hacked at the axle mounts to make them looked mouse-carved and them gave them some stain. Also laid in the axle brace, which was a pre-cut piece of doll-house framing.

Back to the cart adding top rails to the walls..still just superglue...

oh, and you can see my bad decision to stain the popsicle sticks. It made it a mess and I don't care for the color, so I didn't do any more after that.

Used braided cotton chord used for snapping chalk lines to lash the corners together. Each knot got a little dab of super glue so it stays put.

Starting on popsicle stick planks for the side walls. Again, just breaking the ends off with a pair of pliers to get them to length.

Done with the side walls and opted to add another stick as framing in the middle of each wall to make it more visually interesting.

I should have showed this wheel process more. I took oak scraps from when I milled some for a gate on our basement stairs, and cut 4 equally long pieces (per wheel). On my belt sander I hacked into them each individually making the surface uneven, divoted, and differing thickness. They were then lined up edge to edge and I traced a circle on them using a can of wood stain as a template. I cut on the pencil line of each piece and then glued them together making sure not to align them perfectly. The hub is a bit of dowel, a washer, and a nail.

Warping popsicle sticks as cross bracing and clamping across the uneven surface while the glue dries

On the back of the cart I wanted to make the structure more interesting so I used a few more oak twigs. Here are my sub assemblies of cart, axle mount, and wheels.

When it came time to plank the back wall, I found I had to bend or slightly break each one in the middle so that I could glue both end touching the corner posts as well as the center post.

And here agin is the final product. Are there things I wish I did differently: YES! I immediately saw all sorts of changes I'd like to make. Some were aesthetic, others were believability of function, and some were just afterthoughts about how I could have made life easier on myself.

However, I'm not going to spend any more time on this. I appreciate the time away from the studio doing work-work and being outside on a nice day. But as this is a reference for a drawing, I can make many of those changes in the drawing as I go. 

Dawn of the Black Axe #3 Petersen cover

Dawn of the Black Axe is a 3 issue mini series written and colored by me and illustrated by the amazingly talented Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key) about Bardrick, the first wielder of the Black Axe!

Issue 3 is up for preorder now in local and online comic shops (APR250931 for my cover) And I wanted to use this post to share a deeper dive into the cover art for cover B (I also have a variant cover and there will be at least one other guest artist for each issue)

To the side you can see the finished cover with logo etc, below I go through the art process to create it.

For my cover I wanted to draw both the Elk and the Matriarch since I hadn't gotten to draw them on either of my past covers. It was a tough composition to get the Elk's head in there as well as a view of the Matriarch and moving around rough drawings in Photoshop was the longest part of the layout stage.

I drew the elk from a reference photo, shile also making some adjustments to make it closer to the anatomy Gabe draws for the interiors. I also found a reference model of a tower roof and used that to trace over and modifu for a balcony/parapet of Lockhaven. The rough was also colored just enough to help me make out the various forms from one another.

With the above layout in a state that I liked, I printed it out on copy paper (two sheets of legal paper trimmed and taped together after printing to fit the whole image) and taped to the back of a sheet of 13" x 13" Strathmore bristol (art size is 12" x 12").

I inked the piece on my Huion lightpad where I can see through the surface of the bristol down to the printout to use as a guide while I inked. I used Copic Multiliner SP pens (the 0.7 & 0.3 nibs).

The inking work on this piece was about managing texture on the elk, the stone, the dead ivy, the moss, etc.

The inks were then scanned in and I started the coloring process. The first step is called flatting, basically a color-in-the-lines for professionals with flat base colors (no shading or textures.)

The Matriarch and the Elk's  colors were already established in the series, but I had to alter them to fit the lighting of this scene. The background is basically 2 values of the same violet. There was also a fair amount of work in establishing color holds (areas where I want the lineart to be a color other than black) to the elk the moon and the background.

To render the color I used Photoshop's dodge and burn tools with a textured brush to get the highlights, shadows and textures. The cool lighting highlights were achieved by using the freehand lasso tool with a feather to select areas and color shift them more cyan. I also painted in a bit of moon (slightly offset) in the elk to make it look more spectral.

Below is the solicitation info for the third and final issue that will be in shops June 18th, 2025

CODE: APR250931 (Petersen cover)

(W) David Petersen (A) Gabriel Rodriguez

Bardrick's quest to protect the Lockhaven and mouse territories from the surrounding serpents comes to a thrilling conclusion! Will the Black Axe's first wielder be able to complete his task before the poison flowing through his veins claims his life? And who shall come to his aid in his hour of need?!

Dawn of the Black Axe #3 Rodriguez Cover

Dawn of the Black Axe is a 3 issue mini series written and colored by me and illustrated by the amazingly talented Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key) about Bardrick, the first wielder of the Black Axe!

Issue 3 is up for preorder now in local and online comic shops (APR250930 for Gabe's cover) And I wanted to use this post to share a deeper dive into the cover art for cover A (I also have a variant cover and there will be at least one other guest artist for each issue)

To the right you can see the finished cover with logo etc, below I go through the art process to create it.

Since we are both doing covers for the series, I tried to avoid us drawing the same scene or have the same emotional tone for the same issue.

For his Issue 3 cover I asked Gabe for a cover that's a bit of a spoiler, with the Matriarch Siobhan tending to Bardrick.

In the order of events, I'd described idea for the cover before I had a finished script off to Gabe (due to how early covers need to be done and turned in). It meant that when Gabe sent over pencils, he'd drawn a different setting, and I had to quickly ask for the change (which Gabe accomplished with little impact to the figures.) Later this amazingly clean and detailed inked art arrived in my inbox.

When coloring these Dawn of the Black Axe pieces of Gabe's I start with establishing the color holds (areas I want the inkwork to be a color other than black) like the glow of the lantern and the details on Siobhan's garments, and then start laying in flat colors to establish all the shapes. Anywhere Gabe didn't close off his linework I needed to smudge out my hard line of color in the gaps.

I wanted this scene have a color scheme with muted colors of the tent Bardrick erects in issue 2, but then the lantern to cast directional warm light that was done in the next step.

To render the colors, I used the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop with a stock textured brush. I then lasso areas and color shift them to warm them or cool them. Getting that lantern light was very time consuming––and I had to do it again and again for several pages in the issue itself and I used this cover as my guide.

Below is the solicitation info for the third and final issue that will be in shops June 18th, 2025

CODE: APR250930 (Rodriguez cover)

(W) David Petersen (A) Gabriel Rodriguez

Bardrick's quest to protect the Lockhaven and mouse territories from the surrounding serpents comes to a thrilling conclusion! Will the Black Axe's first wielder be able to complete his task before the poison flowing through his veins claims his life? And who shall come to his aid in his hour of need?!

 

Recent Commissions

No April Fools---Here are some Toned Commissions from ECCC

Saxon on a rock with lichen

Samurai Mouse

Kenzie

A mouse version of an excited young fan

Wood collecting Guardmouse

A Fan's D&D character

Dawn of the Black Axe #2 Kevin Eastman cover

For Issue 2 of Dawn of the Black Axe (mini series written and colored by me and illustrated by Gabriel Rodriguez (Locke & Key) about the first wielder of the Black Axe!), I asked Kevin Eastman to collaborate with me on a variant cover (Cover C: FEB250075)

TMNT is a HUGE part of my comics DNA, and the first comic I saw that made me understand 'people make this stuff up and draw it––I want that job!' I knew Kevin and Peter had swapped pages of the early issues back and forth and that Kevin had recently done some of that with Freddie Williams on some of the IDW TMNT series. 11 year old me wouldn't believe me if I told him I was going to collaborate with Kevin on a cover for Mouse Guard.

Already knowing Gabe's cover for issue 2 was emotional and featured the elk, and mine was all about anticipation with snakes in a cave, I penciled another scene from the series for the collaboration with Kevin. I drew the snake, Bardrick, and the ground on separate sheets of copy paper and scanned them and assembled them in Photoshop (tinting them different colors just to help see the elements).

These pencils were probably a bit unfair to Kevin since there's a lot going on with the sliced blades of grass, all those snake scales, and the textured ground cover.

I sent it off to Kevin and he lightboxed and inked the cover. At this point I also realized I hadn't made design accommodations for the logo, and called my editors were we made the dcecision to have the C covers be logo-free.

I couldn't tell you what pens Kevin used to ink this piece, but it sure 'feels' like Kevin, all that texture and grit. Seeing the file show up in my inbox made me feel like looking over the old balck and white TMNT work in the comics and RPG--except it was Mouse Guard this time.

I started the coloring process by adding flat color to every area––basically a professional version of coloring-in-the-lines to establish the shape and base color of things like Bardrick's fur, the soil, the snake scales, the grass, Bardrick's cloak, etc.

This step is also where I established color holds (areas where I want the lineart to be a color other than black) on the snake's eyes, the texture in the sky, and a faded one on the snake to help add some depth.

The last step was to render all the color with the dodge and burn tools and shift colors and values around until the piece worked as a whole.

I've found that I need to be more subtle with my choices when coloring Gabe's work than with my own and with Kevins I needed to be more bold.

Lastly, I moved Kevin's signature (that was outside the live area of the art) into the piece as a color hold. He said the only way he was comfortable with that was if I added my signature in with his. A boyhood dream come true.

Below is the solicitation info for the second issue that will be in shops April 23rd, 2025

CODE: FEB250075 (Eastman Cover)
(W) David Petersen (A) Gabriel Rodriguez

The origin story of the Black Axe continues!
Bardrick, the first wielder of the Axe, continues his campaign against the serpents surrounding the mouse territories, but even he can't be everywhere at once...The legendary weapon-bearer must serve his duty, but can he truly manage it all on his lonesome?!