Barkstone Approach

With the new sketchbook now available, I'm continuing a series of posts about Mouse Guard illustrations I've done that are included in that new release: 'Past Whereabouts' available in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/

Sketchbook illustrations are often a chance to explore corners of Mouse Guard that I haven't gotten to yet. Whether it's certain locations, characters, or just ideas or thematic tones. For this illustration it's Saxon, Kenzie and Lieam approaching Barkstone. In this post I'll break down the steps to creating the illustration

One of the 'Past Whereabouts' I wanted to journey back to was that walkway up to the gates of Barkstone from Fall 1152. The location was based on a real tree behind the antique store I worked for when I started Mouse Guard. I still had reference photos to look at as I drew the tree and rotted root walkway. On another sheet of copy paper I drew the characters, and then in Photoshop assembled them all with some light color blocking while adding in a photo of the door reference from Fall as well as a stained glass window with references to 'strength' and 'home' I felt was appropriate for thiscity on the western edge of the mouse territories.

The digitally assembled layout was printed out and taped to the back of a sheet of Strathmore Bristol and placed on a light pad. With the light shining up, I was able to see through the bristol surface to the printout to use as a guide as I ink the artwork. I used Copic Multiliner SP pens to do the inking (the 0.7 nib mostly)

The inking focus was on all that texture of the tree bark and fallen ground cover and debris. I tried to keep some of the tree bits open as well as to not flood the characters with too much line density so the eye has somewhere to rest.

With the inks scanned, the color flatting (painting areas of flat color to establish all the color areas) started. The colors were based on the colors from Fall, but darkened and muted down a bit. The door is much more red than it was in the Fall book––I wanted it to have a bit more identity and not just blend in as another shade of brown. 

At this stage I also established color holds (areas where I wanted the lineart to be a color other than black) flag/banner design.

The last step was to render the colors with dodge and burn tools and a stock textured brush. Dodge and Burn are tools based on photography terms (and from when Photoshop was a photo retouching program) having to do with purposely over or under exposing areas––or in other words darkening or lightening them.

I use these tools to create shadows and highlights to my base colors while giving a bit of a pebbly texture with that stock brush. 

This illustration, along with many more, is in my NEW sketchbook 'Past Whereabouts' available in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/

Darkheather Weasel & Bat

With the new sketchbook now available, I'm continuing a series of posts about Mouse Guard illustrations I've done that are included in that new release: 'Past Whereabouts' available in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/

Sketchbook illustrations are often a chance to explore corners of Mouse Guard that I haven't gotten to yet. Whether it's certain locations, characters, or just ideas or thematic tones. For this illustration it's A weasel in Darkheather with a bat companion. In this post I'll break down the steps to creating the illustration

In the epilogue for Winter 1152, I included a few panels showing a weasel in a boat in the distance with a candle on their head and a bat hanging from their arm like an upside-down falcon on a falconer's arm. I think I had a clever idea of what that was going to be some day for a future story––but for the life of me I can't remember what it was. No worries, I can still go back to it whenever I have a clever idea of how to tie it in.

The weasel, bat, and room were all drawn separately on sheets of copy paper and then digitally assembled. I was looking at reference for the bat, and certainly am referencing a photo of a Moorish tunnel room for the location (though I flooded it and added a boat)

The digitally assembled layout was printed out and taped to the back of a sheet of Strathmore Bristol and placed on a light pad. With the light shining up, I was able to see through the bristol surface to the printout to use as a guide as I ink the artwork. I used Copic Multiliner SP pens to do the inking (the 0.7 nib mostly)

The inking focus was on the stippling of the stone bricks so the candle offered a bit of halo glow, but also so the tone of the background pushed the more open figures forward.

With the inks scanned, the color flatting (painting areas of flat color to establish all the color areas) started. I went with a very purple base (much like the Darkheather pages in Winter 1152) and shifted base colors of the weasel and bat in that direction too. 

It's also at this stage that I established color holds (areas where I wanted the lineart to be a color other than black) for the cobweb shawl, candle glow, tile symbols on the staff, and the water ripples.

The last step was to render the colors with dodge and burn tools and a stock textured brush. Dodge and Burn are tools based on photography terms (and from when Photoshop was a photo retouching program) having to do with purposely over or under exposing areas––or in other words darkening or lightening them.

I use these tools to create shadows and highlights to my base colors while giving a bit of a pebbly texture with that stock brush. There was a lot of adjustment to color balance wherever the candle light would hit that had to be selected using a lasso tool with a soft feather.

This illustration, along with many more, is in my NEW sketchbook 'Past Whereabouts' available in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/

2026 Bookplate

Every year since 2012 I do a new Mouse Guard bookplate I make available at conventions and in my online store. The idea is that this mini-print can be pasted/taped into your book(s), you can write your name in to identify it as yours to borrowers, and since the bookplates are signed, it means you now have a signed book. I try and make each year's bookplate art some medium the mice would/could use. I've done stained glass, relief printing, stone & wood carving, mosaic, etc in past years––this year I was inspired to revisit embroidery.

The bookplate debut at Emerald City Comic Con and is in my online store now. Below is the process for making the art for the bookplate.

Back in 2014 I'd done an embroidered bookplate––well, I emulated the look of embroidery I should say. And It was one of the artistically crafted mediums I thought I could go back to and do a better job with this time.

I hoarded image examples of medieval embroidery and tapestry before beginning, and narrowed it down to these two as my main inspirations. I liked the dark background with light/metallic figures (Opus Anglicanum) like the Chasuble in the lower right, but I also really likes seeing the individual stitches and that border pattern on the German embroideries with Allegorical Scenes on the top. It reminded me of a Norwegian snow motif I used on the 2019 Teasel print.

I penciled a simplified pencil drawn version of the mouse from the Teasel print, and a moth (based on an owl moth photo I referenced) scanned them into Photoshop and composed an image using the border pattern of the German embroidery I mentioned earlier. Instead of a dark red velvet, I thought it would be nice to do a muted royal blue (which would echo back to the Teasel palette) 

To fill the space I digitally drew in some teasel silhouettes and blocked in color ideas going more for a cream colored embroidery thread rather than the metallic silver I'd originally assumed I'd use. I have to say that at this point, I still wasn't sure HOW I wanted to execute this––pencil rendering, ink, digital painting, traditional paining?...

Go with what you know, I guess, right? I inked the main image still considering doing some kind of pencil rendering for the cloth texture spaces. The digital composite layout was printed out and taped to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol and on a lightpad I inked the main stitching with a Copic Multiliner SP pen (the 0.7 nib). Then, I used a smaller scrap of bristol to ink a 'stitch texture pattern' I could use digitally to mimic the effect of the final piece being embroidery while also still being my own lineart instead of photo-texture.

Scanning in the inks I was still unsure about this method for emulating embroidery and nearly gave up to restart after I blocked in the color. 

This first step of coloring is called 'fatting' because it's just about dropping in flat color with no shading or texture just to establish the color choices and placement. I also added color holds (areas where I wanted the inklines to be a color other than black) to everything except the outer boarder. 

The worry with at this stage was how to get the embroidered look correctly without it looking like a bad trick or painstaikingly digitally painting over this with individual stitch/weave texture.

That's when the hand inked stitch texture pattern came in handy. I lightened it a great deal and set it to layer mode 'multiply' to get it over everything (I had to tile it several times over since I made it small to save on it's tedious creation). That also made a great guide for me to go in and shade individual areas between the texture lines to highlight as stitches standing proud or with a slightly lighter thread. In the end I also added some subtle gradients to the top and bottom to shade and highlight it to look more like a photograph of a real object instead of a drawing of one.

The bookplate will be available at all my convention appearances this year and also in my online store

--ALSO--

Here are all the past years Bookplates––many of which are available in my online store as a bundle (http://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/set-of-mouse-guard-bookplates). Below are the blogposts about the process of making each:

Blogposts:
2012 – Lino Print
2013 – Stained Glass
2014 – Embroidery
2015 – Mosaic
2016 – Pencil Rendering
2017 – Engraving
2018 – Wood Painting
2019 – Gouache Painting
2020 – Wood Carving
2021 – Lino Registration Print
2022 –– Stained Glass
2023 –– Gouache Painting on Canvas

2024 –– Encaustic Tile

2025 –– Stone Relief

Marigold Print

Each Year I create a new limited edition signed and numbered 11" x 11" print. The tradition started many years ago when Julia urged me to create a new print for a convention or event that was 'just pretty'. She thought that we had plenty of images of mice wielding swords and threatening snakes and owls––that the audience, especially women, appreciated when I just drew tender moments, or nature, or flowers.  I followed her advice, and for years now fans have proven her right by anticipating and purchasing the new square print I offer annually.

This year the piece is titled 'Marigold'. Below I'll show the step-by-step of creating the art.

The last few years of botanicals have mostly been in the pinky-purple color range and my first inclination was to do a flower with some yellow or orange warmth, some sunshine for all of us mice. Then picked a Matriarch whose robes/cloak was in the blue range (contrasting color to orange) and saw Laria from the stained glass portraits from the Matriarch chamber in Black Axe as a perfect addition. I drew her on one sheet of copy paper, the marigolds (looking at reference) on another (with the shield),  and then the leaves on yet a third.

These were assembled in Photoshop and I did a fast color blocking to help me visualize the final as well as see the different shapes clearer in the next step.

I printed the digitally assembled layout/pencils and taped them to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my Huion lightpad I was able to see through the surface of the bristol to the printout to use as a guide while I inked with a Copic Multiliner SP 0.7 nib pen.

Line weight in the marigold petals and her robes plated a big part in making the inks work and offsetting the areas where I did more fill-in or texture like on her hood, sleeves, cloak, and the rocks. I'd originally envisioned her hood being ringmail, but then decided to ink it more like it's a coarse knit or crochet texture. But in the end, I think it's still ambiguous. 

The inks were scanned and using the layout color blocking to pick from, I layed in flat colors. This first step of coloring is called 'flatting' for that reason, it's simply about establishing color areas with flat (not shaded, not textured) base colors. 

There were still several tweaks I needed to make to all these base colors in terms of hue, value, and saturation before I got to the flat version you see here. At this stage I also establish color holds (areas where I want the inks to be a color other than black) on her knit/mail, the shield design, the darker areas behind her, and the marigolds going off into the distance.

The last step was to render the colors. I used the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop with a stock textured brush to get all the lights and shadows. In a few placed I painted with the paintbrush tool (something I rarely use) to blend in the marigold buds that have not opened yet to have yellow tops.

The Marigold signed and numbered print debut at ECCC and is 

now available in my online store.

As this is the 15th year I've been doing these, here are the past year's 11x11 limited prints (many of which are available in a bundle in my online store) and links to blogposts for these pieces below

2012 Peacock

2013 Raspberry

2014 Moonflower

2015 Lavender

2016 Juniper

2017 Rose

2018 Elderberry

2019 Teasel

2020 Sharon

2021 Yarrow

2022 Pinecone

2023 Clematis
2024 Foxglove

2025 Belladonna

Magic the Gathering: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

 

Magic the Gathering is releasing a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles set this weekend!

https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles

And I was hired to do the artwork for the packaging on the  TURTLE TEAM UP:

Magic players of all skill levels team up with the TMNT to fight bad guys in this exciting new co-operative strategy format for up to four players!  Equip awesome ninja gear, play with your favorite of the four pre-built 60-card hero decks, then crack open the four included Play Boosters for even more ways to get the drop on the pre-built enemies deck featuring Shredder and his cronies!

 

For the artwork I was asked to include all four turtles as well as Shredder, Rocksteady, Bebop, Baxter, Splinter and Krang all in Dimension X by the Technodrome. Each character was on a separate layer so that depending on packaging variations they could remove certain characters or background elements to suit their needs (seen in two variations below)

But I was able to get permission from Wizards of the Coast to share the full approved art I sent them with all the characters and background:

Magic the Gathering: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is already in pre-release and comes out officially March 6th!