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?!