Happy 2024!

Happy New Year everyone! I wish you all a safe and prosperous and rewarding 2024. I know we all want for that (along with self-promises to curtail certain vices, engage in better behaviors, & accomplish more) every year––though we rarely live up to those hopes. So, are we delusional to focus on our own pie-in-the-sky once every 365 days? No!––we are engaging in optimism of the highest order. To wish for a world or self better than what might be possible. Much like the mice of Mouse Guard reaching above their station as prey to not merely survive, but thrive. 

I've been struggling with getting the next Mouse Guard book (Weasel War) drawn for years. And again on New Years' Eve, I said my heart's wish aloud––that I may slay that snake in 2024. (Below are the steps to create the artwork seen here)

It all started with seeing a photo a friend took of a mushroom took on a hike. I decided it would be good to have a mouse sitting atop it for a Happy 2024 image (and possibly a new Tee for con season). I drew a rough shape for a banner/ribbon to display the Happy New Year/2024 bit and realized it kinda looked like a snake––so, on another sheet of paper I drew a snake to fill the space. It's a grass snake and while I did use photo reference to get the head right, I drew the rest and the scales without any guides.

Then I digitally put the drawings together and darkened in certain scales (like pixels) to display 2024.

I printed out the above layout of scanned pencil drawings and taped that to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my Huion A3 lightpad I was able to see through the surface of the bristol down to the prinout to use it as a guide to ink from. I used Copic Multiliner SP pens (the 0.7 & 0.3 nibs). 

The last day of 2023 I spent a few hours inking the piece. Knowing I wanted to to be also used as a tee shirt design, I didn't go overboard on texture and tried to make sure the outer contours were strong. I also opted not to darken in the 2024 scales so that this piece could be reused more easily for other things (tee, sketchbook, etc).

After the inks were complete, I scanned the original art to begin the digital coloring process. This starts with laying in flat colors to establish each areas: the mouse's fur is brown, his cloak is red, the snake is a dark grey-green, the snake's belly is a lighter grey-green, etc. Even if these aren't the final color choices, having everything easily isolated to grab for adjustments or rendering is the key.

This step is also where I'd normally establish color holds (areas where I want the inks to be a color other than black), but this piece didn't have any. I did use color to put in the 2024––but in lighter scales rather than darker ones because the snake we so dark already.

The last step was to do the final coloring and rendering. I used Photoshop's Dodge (lighten) and Burn (darken) tools with a stock texture brush to finish the piece.

So, if you didn't accomplish everything you wanted to in 2023 and it disappoints you and makes 2024 seem like an uphill battle where you're starting from behind––Know that I'm there with you...and hopefully we'll slay the snake this year.