Baltimore Yearbook 2026: Savage Dragon

Every year the Baltimore Comic Con has published a convention art book called 'The Baltimore Yearbook' that features a character or property, where that creator is a guest of the convention. Selected guest artists are asked to contribute a piece of fan art for the book to celebrate the creator and property. It allows us to play in someone's world, and offers a chance for attendees to meet new creators as they go around the show floor collecting autographs in their yearbook.

This year's subject is Erik Larsen's Savage Dragon! To the left you can see my finished art, and below in the blogpost I'll walk through my process.

When I received the invitation email wondered what I'd do with Savage Dragon. I tend not to draw superheroes––but as he's also kinda like drawing a monster, I was up for the challenge. First thought was to have him holding the Black Axe in smoldering ruins in a pile or dead weasels––or holding dead weasels.

I tried drawing over top of a 3D posable bulky life drawing figure (lower left), but didn't care for the result and opted for more action. Looking at some swinging axe poses I thumbnailed the upper left image and then did more complete pencils over top of that (which spilled on to another sheet of paper for his legs).

The tighter pencil drawings were scanned and the upper body and lower body were assembled together into a template for the technical specs of the Yearbook's formatting.

I painted in some color blocking for Savage Dragon himself and added some smoke plumes as well as a 3D model of the Black Axe from Javier Urena's Celanawe sculpt (this was just to get the angle looking more realistic.): https://javier_urena.artstation.com/projects/5XDDz

I printed out the above layout and taped that to the back of a sheet of 14"x 17" Strathmore bristol board. On my Huion lightpad I was able to see through the surface of the bristol down to the printout to use as a guide while I inked the final drawing.

I used a 0.7 Copic Multiliner SP pen  to do all the inkwork. While inking the details for Savage Dragon was important (all that body hair and musculature), the real time consiming part was inking the smoke plumes. I'd done a similar technique in a past Plotmasters piece for the 'Claw' episode: https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2021/05/plotmasters-claw.html

The inks were scanned and I started digitally coloring the piece. This involves blocking in flat colors to establish each color's shape. Most of the color choices had been made by reference the colors from Erik Larsen's comic as well as from my layout.

In this step I also established color holds (areas where I want the inklines to be a color other than black) on the smoke plumes and all the debris.

The sky background does have a bit of rendering at this stage...I dropped in a gradient fill and then used a paintbrush to make some variance in the color and value structure.

The last step was to do the final rendering and lighting effects for the piece. I did some of this using the dodge and burn tools and a stock Photoshop brush, but I also relied heavily on a layer masked off to just the character to add more of that warm light glow

This piece will be published in the Baltimore Yearbook in October. 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.

Past Baltimore Yearbook pieces & blogposts:

2025: Bone:
https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2025/09/baltimore-yearbook-2025-bone.html

2024: The Tick:
https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2024/09/every-year-baltimore-comic-con-has.html

2023: First Comics (American Flagg):
https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2023/07/american-flagg-baltimore-yearbook-2023.html

2022: Scary Godmother:
https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2022/10/scary-godmother-tribute-for-baltimore.html

2021: Halloween:
https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2021/10/happy-halloween-baltimore-yearbook.html

2019: Blacksad:
https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2019/10/blacksad-for-baltimore-yearbook.html

2018: Strangers in Paradise:
https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2018/09/baltimore-yearbook-strangers-in-paradise.html

2017: Tellos:
https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2017/09/tellos-baltimore-comic-con-yearbook.html

2016: Archie:
http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2016/08/baltimore-yearbook-2016-archie-process.html

2015: Mouse Guard:
http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2015/09/baltimore-comic-con-yearbook-cover.html

2014: Grendel:
http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2014/08/baltimore-yearbook-grendel.html

2012: Liberty Meadows:
http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2012/09/baltimore-comic-con-yearbook-2012-this.html

Outlaw's Apprentice pin-up

Chris Schweizer recently kickstarted his new book Outlaw's Apprentice: Broken Blade and once I saw he was collecting some pinups from other artists for a Kickstarter bonus sketchbook, I strongarmed Chris into letting me do one.

The kickstarter campaign was close to ending when I offered to do the art, and so it was a race to get it done so it could offer any boost/promotion/incentive for some final backers before the campaign closed.

To the left you can see the final colored artwork, and in this post, I'll break down the art process it took to get me there.

I've long admired Chris Schweizer, not only as a comic artist, but also as a craftsman, designer, teacher, and human. He is truly a renaissance man and I advise following him on social media: Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/schweizercomics.bsky.social & IG: https://www.instagram.com/schweizercomics/ as well as his patreon: https://www.patreon.com/c/ChrisSchweizer.

His latest series is about an apprentice glassmaker who finds himself along with the mercenary he's apprenticed to in trouble with the law while standing up for what's morally right. The series is free to read on Webtoon or Chris' Patreon: https://outlawsapprentice.com/

I started by drawing the main character Otis on a a sheet of copy paper. My original idea was for him to be walking balance-beam-style on a fallen tree as his outlawed companion Erska walked along side. But after I scanned in my Otis drawing, I realized Erska wouldn't fit, where I planned without blocking some part of Otis' silhouette.

I drew a few loose poses for Erska before settling on this one of her. Each drawing was tinted in Photoshop to help me see them better as forms and I blocked in color for each also to help me understand what the forms all were.

I quickly digitally drew in some background shapes before calling this layout done and ready to ink.

The layout was printed out and taped to the back of a sheet of 300 series Strathmore bristol 9"x12". On my Huion lightpad I was able to see through the surface of the bristol to use the printout as a guide while I inked.

I used Copic Multiliner SP pens for the inking, mostly the 0.7 nib, but I switched off to a 0.3 for the eyes since they were smaller and required more finesse.

Chris told me that the book's dimensions were going to be a smaller mass-market paperback size, and so I was careful to not over detail the inks so they's reduce well without becoming muddy. Because of that, I focused on good contour lines for the characters without much texture, and bolder black shapes for the background.

The inked drawing was then scanned into Photoshop. Worried I wouldn't be giving Chris enough time to promote with my art, I sent him the inked version as I worked on the colors. That first step of coloring is called color flatting. It's basically a digital coloring-in-the-lines on a professional level using only flat colors (no rendering, no textures, etc). 

I started with the color palette in Chris's comics, but then altered some of the hues and values to meet up with my own coloring preferences and to compliment the background colors. 

At this stage I also established color holds (areas where I want the linework to be a color other than black) on the tree, the plants and grass, the character's pupils, and Erska's upper lip.

Here again is the final colored piece. I used the Dodge and Burn tools mostly to add highlights and shadows all while using a stock textured brush to get some nice natural variance to the colors.

Outlaw's Apprentice: Broken Blade is available to read free online now: https://outlawsapprentice.com/ with printed books being available hopefully early next year from Chris. And I know this is the first book in a long series and that he plans to start on book 2 very soon. 

Recent Commissions

A few recent 9" x 12" brush pen commissions from SDCC

A Guardmouse on a tree root

Leonardo: a TMNT

Godzilla

Frankenstein's Monster

Bride of Frankenstein

Creator Commentary: The Wise Weaver

I've recorded Creator Commentary for all the short stories that appear in Baldwin the Brave and other Tales hardcover.

Many of these short stories were released for Free Comic Book Days and are short morality tales where the lesson of the story is being learned by a mouse we know as an adult in the main Mouse Guard series...what childhood story made Saxon Saxon or Kenzie Kenzie?

Here is the first video of that series with behind the scenes info, writing notes, and art details for: The Wise Weaver

Watch on YouTube:

https://youtu.be/FlTVSO3RtF0

A live reading of this story is available here: Mouse Guard: The Tale of the Wise Weaver  

Watch on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/aXXhVQcY250

Gwendolyn, Sadie, & Sienna Trio Print

For SDCC last week I decided to create a new 20" x 14" print featuring the Matriarch Gwendolyn and two of her Guardmice: Sadie & Sienna. It was a last minute decision, and a crazy rush to draw, ink, & color it in time to get off to the printer and arrive at the hotel in San Diego. But I managed to get it done in time. Here is the finished 20" x 14" print and below I'll go through the steps to create it.

The goal was to create a companion print to the Saxon, Kenzie, Rand trio print I did a few years ago. But instead feature some of the female characters like Gwendolyn, Sadie, and (though she hasn't had much page time––she is a playable pre-generated character in the Mouse Guard RPG)

Julia and I agreed that the mice should face the opposite direction to the previous print and I worked on sketches for each character before doing separate tight drawings of each on copy paper. Those were all scanned in and assembled in Photoshop with some blocked in color for the characters. I painted in rough shapes for the landscape before printing that out and on a light pad drawing a penciled version of the rocks, moss, and plants.

And for the blue bird...I looked at several photos for reference to be able to accurately draw the one seen here. Julia and I were looking at Sarah Suplina's work on Instagram and enjoyed the blue orange contrast of her bluebirds. 

The plants are referenced from the Astilbe and Azalea growing in the garden beds in front of our house, which is very handy to be able to just walk out the front door if I wanted more reference that was closer or from other angles. 

The plant life ended up getting stylized a bit, and I went with the coloring of late summer early fall when the Azalea goes more red in the leaves.

When I was happy with the digitally assembled and color-blocked layout, I printed that out (over the course of 4 sheets of copy paper I had to trim and align into one big piece) and taped it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series 14" x  20" bristol. 

I inked the whole piece on a light pad with my Copic Multiliner SP pen––I used the 0.7 nib exclusively. Because it was a big piece, it took a long time to ink and I spread it out over two days. Getting the density of stippling on the rocks correct (enough but not too much) was the thing I fussed over the most on this piece, but there certainly was a lot to concentrate over with the delicate moss, feather patterns, and mouse details.

The inks were then scanned in two passes and re-assembled in Photoshop to begin the coloring process. This early coloring stage is known as flatting because it's all about painting in flat colors to mark out the color areas (what parts are what base colors).

At this stage I also established the color holds (areas where I want the ink lines to be a color other than black) for the background plants, the veins on the leaves, and some of the mouse clothes.

The last step was a long process of rendering a bit with the paintbrush tool for the sky, but mainly using the dodge and burn tools with a textured brush to give all the forms light and shadow. The 20" x 14" print was available at SDCC and now in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/bluebird-trio-print-20-x-14

SDCC 2026

San Diego Comic Con is this weekend! I'll have a 10' x 10' booth #4606 full of Mouse Guard Hardcovers, RPGs, Sketchbooks, Prints, Tees, Totes, Stickers, Original Art and more! 2026 marks the 20 year anniversary of my first time ever exhibiting at SDCC with Mark Smlie at the Archaia Booth right after the first few issues of Fall were published nationally*.

Signatures are always free (other than on MtG cards–which are $5 per card) on anything you buy from me -or- brought from home.

Julia and I will be joined by my best friend Jesse (real-life Kenzie) to help with transactions and keeping the booth stocked. 

Below is more info about where to find me and some special things I'll have at the show.

SDCC floorplan:
Booth 4606 Inside lobby F

New Items Debuting at SDCC:

A new 20" x 14" Mouse Guard print of Gwendolyn, Sadie, & Sienna with a bluebird

New Tote with a Guardmouse archer in black and green––handy for carrying books around SDCC or back home when running errands.

Items new to SDCC:

Mouse Guard coloring book with 90+ illustrations and lay-flat binding

Saxon, Kenzie, & Rand Mouse Guard playmat/deskmat 24" x 13.5"

Limited edition 11" x 11" 'Marigold' print

2026 Bookplate

Discordant Fellowship tees (in green and blue)

Mouse Guard character stickers:

Sadie, Lieam, Celanawe, Rand, Saxon, & Kenzie

17" x 11" print of the 1149 Map of the Territories

for your collection or your RPG table

The latest Mouse Guard hardcover collecting the limited series with Gabriel Rodriguez & myself teaming up to tell the story of the first mouse to ever wield the Black Axe.

Latest Sketchbook 'Past Whereabouts'

The original inked artwork (among other originals) for the new Trio print.

And while this is a photo from last year,

I suspect the booth setup to look similar to this for you to keep an eye open for:

*Bonus fun photo---here I am in the Archaia booth in 2006 with Mark Smylie, Aki Liao, & Alex Sheikman