Muppet Sherlock Holmes Cover Process

Some folks may have already seen cover artwork I did for Boom's upcoming Muppet Sherlock Holmes. However, what I originally drew is different than what you saw. When told the assignment, the casting had Kermit as Sherlock and Fozzie as Watson. I was busy and went radio-silent as I worked on my cover. I turned it in and found out that the casting had changed to Gonzo as Sherlock.

With the artwork already colored I needed to patch in Gonzo without disturbing any more of the colored work than I had to. I went back to my original inkwork and used a lightbox to draw a Gonzo that would cover up as much of Kermit as possible. Because I had to change some of the pose (Gonzo's nose blocked the bubble pipe in it's original position, so I had to move his arm) there were some areas where Kermit would be exposed, so I had to draw new background on my patch.

Scanning the Gonzo patch I placed it in my layered color file. I erased all the layers associated with Kermit as well as the Kermit line art. I colored Gonzo and used the eye dropper to get color matches where I was filling in exposed background and making a new color hold for the patched background. From a casting point of view I think I prefer Kermit as Sherlock (even though Gonzo is my favorite Muppet Show character), but I was able to give the handle of Gonzo's eyeglass a little chicken head motif and anytime I can do that it makes me happy.


Legends of the GuardIssue 4 of the Mouse Guard Anthology is now in previews (order code: JUN10 0748). Here is the full cover for the issue. The covers all have 1 paragraph stories associated with them that are included in each issue. But more importantly, this issue will feature stories by Karl Kerschl, Craig Rousseau, & Mark Smylie!


Fan Art:Martin Kirby sent this in and writes:
My friend, Melanie, and I were perusing around Forbidden Planet in Newcastle where I ended up picking up one of your Mouseguard books...Once I got back home I more or less immediately started sketching out some ideas for mouseguard characters... I couldn't pass up the opportunity to draw us out in all our small-statured glory!

Upcoming Appearances:*
Kids Read Comics: June 12th (Sat. only)

Harper Woods Library reading: June 28 6pm
San Diego (Artist Alley): July 22-25
Baltimore Comic Con: August 28-29
*more 2010 dates may be added

Legends of the Guard Creator Spotlight: Alex Sheikman

David Petersen: You and I have already talked about this subject a bit over the phone, so I know your answer, but will you share how you felt working on your Legends story was different than working on something of your own like Robotika?

Alex Sheikman: There are a couple of nuances that made this very unique for me. First of all, because this is “legends” of Mouse Guard, rather than a story that is part of Mouse Guard continuity, I felt very free when I started thinking of possible storylines. Continuity can be the toughest part of any assignment (even when it’s your own creation), how to bring something new and fresh into an already established storyline…not having that in the mix, gave me all sorts of freedom.

Secondly, the fact that Mouse Guard is so totally different from anything I have ever drawn before (animal based vs. humanoid based universe) made it very exciting. I got to take the principles that I have been studying, of storytelling, design, drawing and rendering and apply them to something new. This was fascinating for me, I saw things from a fresh perspective and that was very inspiring and pushed me even more to experiment with design.

David: I think this is the first time you ever worked in the square format. How did you find it? Did it effect your panel arrangements or your go-to page layouts?

Alex: The format definitely affected my page compositions. I still followed what I believe is good storytelling, but because of the different space allowed, the pages have a very unique look. It was like playing music in a different key, it is similar enough so that if you know how to play you know what to do, but different enough because you have to adjust the whole piece to make it sound right.

I loved doing horizontal panels in this story. They really had a panoramic feel to them that was very cool. That is something that is very hard for me to capture when I work in the rectangular format.

David: I have already seen your artwork for Legends, but I think the question applies to your Robotika work as well. In some panels you draw intricate backgrounds with lots of details. In others you simplify the backgrounds, and in some you omit or use stylized marks. What, as an artist and storyteller gives you cues for when to use which level of detail? Is it simply a graphic decision? Or is the story and dialogue giving you the cues?

Alex: The backgrounds are the stage for the story and definitely have to serve the story and the storytelling. The reader should never be confused about the setting and the space through which the characters are moving.

Having said that, I will also admit that I am in love with the turn of the century illustration and artist like J.C. Leyendecker and Orson Lowell who were able to describe the backgrounds/environments with just a few suggestive shapes and a couple of pen strokes, are fascinating to me. I want to understand it and I want to practice that.

I have recently also been looking at syndicated strips by Al Williamson and some other great artists from the 60’s and I love how they were able to not only accurately depict the backgrounds, but also arrange everything to make each panel a very cool illustration. I want to understand that and practice that as well.

My goal has been to be mindful of my depiction of backgrounds and to try to create a rhythm from panel to panel of how the environment is presented to the reader…and hope to make it look cool at the same time. So at times when I need to establish a scene, I try very hard to provide enough information to set everything up for the reader to see and if I have done that properly, and maybe want to increase drama/tension a few panels down the line, I might do a close-up of a character with the backgrounds replaced by graphic shapes that draw attention to the character or his/her actions.

David: When you sent your Legends thumbnails over for me to look at, you had written in all the captions/dialogue. Did the words come with the pictures? Or did you figure out the text after thumb-nailing the story?

Alex: As I am doing layouts, I am always thinking of compositions and how they will interact with captions/dialogue. As you and I talked about before, comics are a unique medium that creates a wonderful marriage between pictures and words. As I work on thumbnails, I try to always be aware of both elements, to make sure that the story is being told well, and that I am smoothly transitioning between panels, scenes, and pages.

The text definitely got refined at the later stages, but the basics got put down at the same time as the initial scribbles.
David: Since I didn’t give you a page cap, how did you determine when the story was done in terms of page count?

Alex: This was something that I truly appreciated. With the freedom given, I just told the story the best way I thought it should be told. Turned into an oddball number of 9 pages, but I feel it’s just right.

I don’t think this happens very often, there is usually a page cap that one has to work towards, so this was fun.
David: When you are drawing, what types of materials are you using? Do you draw directly on the final page? If so, how closely do you follow your roughs/thumbnails?

Alex: My approach/technique is always changing. I have, in the past, drawn the different panels on separate pieces of paper and then re-traced everything onto one final board. I have also tried taking the roughs and blowing them up to trace on the final page. But I have felt that my drawings stiffen-up when I go through the tracing stage, so currently I use the roughs as a reference pined to my board and I simply start drawing right on the Bristol board.

Since I ink all of my own work, I don’t have to worry about indicating line weights in my pencils (I implement that when I ink), therefore I enjoy using mechanical pencils for penciling. I move my hand over the drawing area a lot (my penciling is more like doodling a ton of lines and then erasing the “wrong” ones) and with tough leads, mechanical pencils hardly leave anything to smudge.
David: Talk about your inking process. What do you use? (and when)? Do you work on contour lines first? Do you focus on composing your large black areas early or later?

Alex: Inking is a subject dear to me. It is one of the stages of black/white drawing that I truly enjoy. I don’t know if it is because it is very technical and I enjoy the whole “what tool to use for this sort of job” thinking process or because the inking stage is the last step before you can see a complete drawing.

A few years ago, I considered trying out for an inking position, but I found it hard to ink someone else’s pencils…I kept trying to “fix” the drawings (without even realizing it). In the end I learned some very valuable lessons, one of them being that I should stick to inking my own problematic pencils.

As far as my process goes, I try to be very open minded when it comes to tools and techniques. I have a variety of tools near by (brushes, markers, dip pens, tooth brushes, bath sponges, cotton tips…) each one capable of making different marks and based on the desired effect I choose the tool that I feel is right.

I usually try to finish all the penciling and figure out where my positive and negative spaces are, so when I start inking the basic design/composition/light-source is worked out and it is down to the mechanics of making ink marks/lines on paper. Because I am right handed and I try not to smudge wet ink, I almost always start at the upper left hand corner of a page/drawing and ink down diagonally or across to the right. I outline, but don’t fill in the black areas until the while page is done because I don’t want to wait for the ink to dry while I am still working on the page.
　
David: I think that you are a real student of comics and comic storytelling Alex. With Robotika, you played with the medium in ways that, I think even you, considered an experiment (vertical lettering, the 3 parallel narratives in the end or Robotika v.2) talk about your outlook on experimenting in comics for good or bad.

Alex: Thoughtful experimentation is always good. I try to be aware of how I tell stories and why, as a storyteller, I make the choices that I do. Staying aware throughout the whole process of what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how it will be interpreted by your readers (who can’t see inside your head and can only judge the work by what is presented to them) is important AND a challenge.

The principles of storytelling in comics are similar to the storytelling principles in prose, cinema, music, dance, poetry, theater…each one is a unique medium with special needs and strengths. But in all of them, you can’t loose your audience just for the sake of an experiment in media…of course all rules are made to be broken, even that one.
　
David: Where can people find out more about Alex Sheikman and Robotika?

Alex: If anyone is willing to take a risk, I have a blog that I update a couple of times a week with pages from my sketchbook and any other news I might have at sheikman.blogspot.com. Or for Robotika info archaia.com

Alex's Legends story: Oleg the Wise appears in
Legends of the Guard issue #1 in stores June 2nd!

Legends of the Guard Creator Spotlight: Jeremy Bastian

David Petersen: Was working on your Legends story different from how you normally work on Cursed Pirate Girl?

Jeremy Bastian: Not too differently. The only real difference is that with this story I did have a deadline (heh heh). I wrote out a script, then thumbnailed pages, then reworked them into full size roughs, penciled them out, and then put in the other 90% of the work with inking them.
David: When we first started batting around the idea of Legends, you had a story in mind that ended up not being the story you ultimately wrote and drew…talk about that story and why you abandoned it.

Jeremy: Well I had this idea I called the legend of the fire mouse. It was sorta a mission impossible for a team of guardsmice. They were to save a village of mice from a force of weasels that had taken over. In the group of guardsmice two were to insinuate themselves amongst the captives. One to start unchaining them and a second to act as an oracle, telling of terrible things that would befall the weasels if they remained. Whipping them up into a great fearfulness and leading them out of the cave they were held up in.

Meanwhile the other three were outside creating the setting. The leader of this team would be covered with a special bark, treated with a flammable concoction. When the weasels came out of the cave the team leader was set on fire and challenged the weasels. This is what the weasels had been warned about and they knew this supernatural mouse would be their destruction so they all fled.

I liked the story a lot. I pictured the first shot of the fire mouse coming out of a deer skull that had glowing eye sockets (due to captured fireflies). I really wanted to draw that. But when I was thinking it over, it just wasn't a Legend kinda story. There was nothing mythic behind it because it was really about cunning mice. I wanted something a bit more romantic.
David: Where did the inspiration for the final story come from? Were there specific elements you were including just to draw them?

Jeremy: Well I was brainstorming ideas for a new story and the idea came up of a mouse who worked for a hawk. I liked this idea because I like to draw armor and the idea of drawing armor that had hawk embellishments was very enticing. The idea really grabbed me from a design aspect, I would have to design the two warriors and the realms in which they lived. I had a whole bunch of fun with the Hawk's nest design and I think I came up with a good companion piece in the Fox's den.

In the world of your Mouse Guard anyone can see that there are specific details to the individual mouse settlements. Details in dress, architecture, accoutrements, and design. I wanted there to be specific things about the two factions but then make them feel really different from what you'd expect of the influence behind them. The Hawk's realm has some Aztec influences as well as Egyptian, but then mixed with medieval England. The Fox's realm comes from Roman influences mixed with a bit of barbarism. For me the look of a thing starts to tell the story and the words accompanying it finishes the story.
David: I want to share information about your artistic process. Lets start with the story break downs or thumbnails. You were not given a page count, so how did you go about figuring how many pages the story would take to tell and thumbnailing it all out.

Jeremy: When coming up with a page count I knew I couldn't go overboard. One- I would never finish it in time and two- there were other storytellers that needed room. When I write out a story I take a look after I'm done and just sorta mark off what I can imagine in a page. With this story I could take a slightly different approach, I could fit more into a page because it was a narrated tale and didn't have to be a complete panel to panel storytelling where you have to explain more visually. So once the story had been written I took the images I knew I had to have and thumbnailed the story around those.
David: Once you have those thumbnails, how do you get from rough drawing to pencil on your final page.

Jeremy: To get to the finished page I draw up a full size page rough. I write out the dialog and narration first and place it in the panels so I know what kind of room I have to deal with for the image. I always draw the word balloons to be a part of the page. This helps with managing time - I don't have to draw more than what is necessary- and design- I sometimes create balloons that almost interact with the art. Then I work on the business of the panel, the figures and action. When I've worked those up to what I want (and sometimes that can take a while) I can light box it onto bristol. I work at the printed page size so what you see is just how big I drew it. So a lot of the time the details I've come up with don't make it through the lightboxing stage and I need to do a bit of touch up. I like to do a lot of penciling before I start inking so that I can really sit down and ink for long periods of time.

David: I'm also am lucky enough to have seen you ink a page with a brush, but I know you used to use a pen, why did you switch to brush?

Jeremy: When I was using my good ol Microns they never really gave me the fine line I really longed for. I know Rapidographs can make a finer line but, I could never get one of those to work properly for me. I was working in an art supply store and thought I'd try as many different tools as possible to get interesting ink effects. When I picked up a 2/0 Escoda Sable round brush and tried it, I was overjoyed by the result. I've never gone back, except to use a Micron now and again for panel gutters and word balloons.

David: Do you think a lot of your drawing is really done in the inking stage?

Jeremy: Yes! I like to really cover a panel with texture and detail and almost all of that is freehand with the brush.
David: When I ink a page, I think about spotting blacks (placing large dark areas around the page to help composition) and making sure different parts of a panel have some depth through texture. I can only imagine how much more must be running through your mind as you ink. What artistic decisions are you making?

Jeremy: Ha, err well when I am laying out a page sometimes I just get carried away with wanting to do textural things. This is partly bad I know. It isn't exactly artistic as it might be considered obsessive. It does give a different experience to the reader though. I like the idea of creating a page that you can come back to and keep seeing things in it. I have (as of lately) been trying to guide the eye to the important things first with different value changes. I almost never use solid black. Why use black when you could use that space for cool wood grain... right??

David: Cursed Pirate Girl is the most detailed comic I have ever seen artistically, and while the story isn’t ‘simple’ it isn’t overly complex, so that anyone can enjoy it. I think it has multiple levels, so that an adult can read more into it and find the subtlety but a younger reader can just appreciate it as a straight forward adventure story. Was this something you aimed to do and how do you maintain that balance?

Jeremy: Yeah I really wanted to do a story for me. Something I would want to read and drawn the way I would want to see something drawn. The only consideration I had for anybody else was to make it all ages, and in doing so made it even more a piece of me. As anyone of the dozen or so people who know me can atest I am a bit of a kid at heart. It just happened that there are some other people out there who seem to like the same kind of stuff. Maintaining that balance in [Cursed Pirate Girl] is really easy, I just try to write funny stuff and draw creepy stuff. It is for all ages but I put it right on the edge of "this might give your kid nightmares", cause that's what I liked when I was shorter.
David: Where can we find out more about Cursed Pirate Girl?

Jeremy: You can always order the book online at Olympianpublishing.com if you are having problems getting it through your LCBS. Or you can ask your LCBS to order it through Haven distributors instead of Previews magazine. I do have a website jeremybastian.com and I believe that will be getting some more work done on it in the near future.

Thank you very much Mister Petersen. Even if I didn't already know you and hadn't been bewitched by Julia's lemon chicken I would still love Mouse Guard and hope to have been a part of it. So I guess it's good that I do so I can make you put me in it, Hah!

Jeremy's story The Battle of the Hawk's Mouse and the Fox's Mouse appears in Legends of the Guard #1 in stores June 2nd

Muppet Snow White #4 Cover Process

Muppet Snow White #4 cover process:
The story for issue 4 spins away from the traditional telling of Snow White and leads to the Wicked Queen kidnapping Prince Charming and forcing him to marry her. While in the shower (where I get all my best ideas) I was thinking about how to layout the cover showing a tied up Kermit marring Wicked Queen Piggy. This is the rough that I came up with in the shower using my shower crayons. I snapped the photo with my phone before wiping the tub clean.

The next step was to sketch the key players in the scene in my sketchbook. I wasn't trying to draw the cover yet, just the characters. It's freeing to not draw the characters in relation to one another, but purely to get their pose, likeness, and expression. I drew a 'replacement' eye for Piggy, because the first one wasn't to my liking. Knowing that Uncle Deadly would be performing the ceremony I made a doodle of the Jim puppet to hide as a carving in the pulpit or lectern Deadly would be behind.


I also wanted to feature a stained glass window in the castle/church the scene would take place in. I have long admired and even dabbled in stained glass work, so I always want the windows I draw to be physically possible and believable (some tight cuts were not possible to make in glass until modern glass-jigsaws were available). Using a photo of some glass pieces at a local antique shop, I was able to distort, cut, paste, and draw new parts for a fully round window.

Putting the sketches and photo collage window into place in photoshop I came up with my final layout. I was able to resize characters, swap out the bad Piggy eye for the good one, and tint everything so that it was easier to see what every line belonged to. I printed the layout at full size (which involves printing in 2 parts on legal paper and taping them together) and moved over to the lightbox.

On the lightbox I was able to see the layout print through my bristol board (the stock I use to make the final art). Because the pencils were fairly tight on the characters and the design was solid on the window, I was able to ink directly without penciling at all while at the lightbox. The stone and steps were easy to pencil in as I worked as they are just simple lines showing where the mortar lines fall or a step ends. The real work in the background is all the stippling and rendering, but no amount of pencil can help we with that step.

Lastly the cover art is scanned and colored. I use photoshop 7 and do most of my rendering with the dodge and burn tools using a stock brush that comes with the program. As always it was a trick to make the background push back behind the characters. That depth of field is something I try very hard to create in all my work, and often most of it happens in this coloring stage.


Legends of the Guard signing:
Next week Legends of the Guard #1 comes out in stores. To celebrate, Jeremy Bastian (who has a 7 page story in Issue 1) and I will be signing at Detroit Comics in Ferndale on Wed. the 26th from 5-8pm.* So if you are in the area, stop by and see us, and pick up the first issue in the Mouse Guard anthology series. Also look out next Tuesday for a Legends of the Guard spotlight blogpost interview with Jeremy. (* LotG Will be delayed by a week due to an issue at the printer. However we do plan on having advance copies at the Detroit Comics signing)


Jim Henson: 1936-1990

Joe at Tough Pigs.com asked me to be a part of a tribute to the anniversary of Jim's death of 20 years ago. I am a very big Henson fan, and really admire what Jim was able to do in his lifetime. He was a real visionary and his creativity inspired me. I am lucky enough to be a fan who has the privilege of working on Muppet related artwork as part of my living. I am grateful and still in awe of Jim.

Motor City Comic Con:
It was good to be back on home turf for a con at the Motor City Comic Con. Sat in an aisle with a bunch of my favorite people: Jeremy Bastian, Katie Cook, Jay Fosgitt, & Eric Lynch. It was also a pleasure to reconnect with talented folks like Guy Davis, Vince Locke, Andy & Alice Price, Stan Sakai, Sergio Aragones, and Jake, Kevin, & Matt Minor. But enough namedropping & linking.

Fan Art:
This comes from one of my niece's friend's Riley. I met her while we were visiting the nieces earlier this month. Riley came over and drew with Emma and I set up a still life for us all to draw. Before she went home, Riley gave me a piece of Mouse Guard fan art. Thanks Riley!

Upcoming Appearances:*
Detroit Comics signing: May 26th
Kids Read Comics: June 12th (Sat. only)
San Diego (Artist Alley): July 22-25
Baltimore Comic Con: August 28-29
*more 2010 dates may be added

Muppet Snow White #3 Cover process

Muppet Snow White #3 process:
With the popularity of showing the Piggy Snow White cover process. I decided to show the same for cover 3. As before, it started with a small thumbnail sketch in my sketchbook (upper right corner). The potential cast list was pretty big for the funeral scene, so I focused on just sketching out mourning Muppets, not worrying about who went next to whom. Some character sketches I didn't like and redrew, others I passed over due to lack of space.

The sketches were scanned and sliced up in Photoshop. I had each character on a separate layer (the background trees were also on their own layer). Tinting the characters helps me know what lines are associated with which Muppet. This is the stage where I try and resize things or characters that are out of proportion. I can rotate heads or arms, re-center eyes, basically any minor changes. The order of the grouping was done mostly by height and what direction I had them facing in my initial sketch. If the arrangement wasn't pleasing to the eye, I could have mirrored characters to try and reorganize them.

The layout above was printed out at full size and taped to my final bristol board. I inked the cover on my light box using the printed layout as a guide. With the character's positions and faces, I followed my layout very closely. Other areas like the flowers as the base of the casket-platform, I inked as I went, just drawing variations of the few flowers I had sketched in on the layout. The leafs on the trees were also something I spent time on in the inking stage that were rather undefined in the sketch. It's that kind of varied repetition that I like doing in ink (rocks, leafs, water droplets...)

Last step was the color. I used a palette close to what I would have used for the Muppets anyhow, but I gave it a little yellow boost at the end to give the feeling of light coming through the canopy of that dark forest. With Spamela being the focal point I played with the lighting to make her some of the lighting source. The other trick was to push the background back behind the characters and not lose it in a muddy clump.


Motor City & Ink & Stein:
This Friday, Saturday, & Sunday I will be at the Motor City comic con in Novi MI. I'll be in artist alley selling books, buttons, posters, & original art. I'll also be signing anything I worked on, and doing commissions (7" x 7" square fully inked $100). They are 1st come, 1st serve. I start a new list every day and cap it with what I can get done at the show for that day.

This weekend is also Ink & Stein, but with Motor City, we decided to move the location for this week out to the Double Tree in Novi. This will allow any of our regular artists and writers attending or exhibiting at the con to come to Ink & Stein without driving all over Southeastern MI. It also opens the door for non-regulars who are out-of-town guests of the show and may be staying nearby to attend. Meeting time is still 7pm, so feel free to grab a bite after the show or just relax at the Double Tree until 7.

Bare Chin Deal:
This weekend I will look a bit different. Some may recall I took this photo a while back after thinking it was funny to shave my chin only. Julia didn't think it was funny and so the look only lasted long enough to grab this photo. Katie Cook thinks this shaved look is hilarious and has been pushing me to do it again. Well Katie, Julia, & I struck a bargain. For Motor City I have to have my chin shaved like so...but for San Diego, Katie will wear custom made Mouse Guard Shirts (of her own design) all 5 days. I couldn't pass up the advertising space and rate.



Fan Art:Kyle Ferrin tweeted some of his fan art to me. This piece is of he and his wife as Guard Mice. Kyle has a Deviant Art page set up just for his Mouse Guard Fan Art.


Upcoming Appearances:*
Motor City Con: May 14-16
Kids Read Comics: June 12th (Sat. only)
San Diego (Artist Alley): July 22-25
Baltimore Comic Con: August 28-29
*more 2010 dates may be added

Muppet Snow White #1 Cover Process

Muppet Cover Process:
Since last week's Snow White cover #2 post was popular, I'm going back to show you the cover to #1 with my rough sketches and inks. I stared with sketching out all the characters that needed to appear: Spamela, Zoot, Dr. Teeth, Janice, Floyd Pepper, Animal, & Lips. Knowing this was a jammed packed cover, I planned on mashing these sketches together to try and find a way to do the layout where everyone would be seen and the cover still make sense.

My first attempt at this wasn't working for me. I planned on having Spamela sitting on the piano surrounded by the 'dwarves', but it was too bottom heavy. Before going back to sketching again, I tried a different layout with the characters larger and on a hill outside the cottage. I sketched a cottage to drop in after I liked the placement of the characters. I tend to tint the characters so that it's easy to tell where one ends and the next begins. having every character on their own layer also allows me to scootch them, rezise them, rotate them etc until I like the layout.

I print out the layout at scale with the final cover art size and use a lightbox to pencil & ink on the final bristol. The inks is where I feel I do a lot of the heavy lifting. I focus on line texture and weight. The materials the Muppets were made from are important to who they are, so I try and make the hair act like it's made of feathers or cord. I pay attention to stitching and sequins on the costumes. I want my drawing to feel as Muppetish as I can and the inks are a big part of that.

The other important part of making them feel Muppet-ey is in the coloring. Again it goes back to the fleece and feathers and foam that the Muppets were made of. I try and render them that way. Placing color holds on the various stitching and clothing details also helps add to the feel that these characters are made out of real stuff and not just ink on paper. For all of my covers I tend to lean the overall palette towards a classic fairy tale look and the tones from the late 70's Muppet Show episodes.


Legends of the GuardIssue 3 of the Mouse Guard Anthology is now in previews (order code: MAY10 0747). Here is the full cover for the issue. The covers all have 1 paragraph stories associated with them that are included in each issue. But more importantly, this issue will feature stories by Katie Cook, Guy Davis, Jason Shawn Alexander, & Nate Pride!




Fan Art:
Tessa e-mailed me this fan art of characters from her Mouse Guard RPG group. I really like the hummingbird & the pommel details on the sword and dagger. Thanks Tessa!

Upcoming Appearances:*
Motor City Con: May 14-16
Kids Read Comics: June 12th (Sat. only)
San Diego (Artist Alley): July 22-25
Baltimore Comic Con: August 28-29
*more 2010 dates may be added

Muppet Snow White #2 Cover Process

Here is my cover for Muppet Snow White #2. This cover was not used for solicitation (one of those instances where I was not able to get the cover completed by the solicitation date) but it will be printed as cover A on issue 2. On this one I was able to get the sketch, pencils, and inks done quickly and without much pain, but the colors were an endless tweaking job. At one point it was much more blue overall with a green (poison) apple. Julia suggested a different palette and to make the apple red. I think the cover is better for it.

Piggy Sketch:

As I said above, the sketch and drawing for Snow White #2 was fairly straight forward. I started with a thumbnail (lower right corner) and then started drawing a more finished version. You may notice that I did not draw the right eye or hand. Since I was going to scan this and resize it to fit the final art size, I could just copy and mirror those features from the right side. The trick when mirroring these things is to alter them slightly. If a drawing is too symmetrical, it doesn't look right. This is also a rare instance of me doing rendering on a drawing intended for ink, but I wanted to plan out some of the lighting at this stage that I would ultimately realize in color. I used my late 70s Fisher Price Piggy puppet as a lighting reference.

Free Comic Book Day!

This Saturday from 11am-3pm I'll be at Graham Crackers in Chicago (loop location) for Free Comic Book Day! I'll be signing books, chatting with fans, and I'll also be tweeting ways to get some other free Mouse Guard goodies at Graham Crackers

I got a few advance copies of the Mouse Guard/Fraggle Rock book, so I was able to take a sneak peak and it looks great! I am honored that Archaia included me in a Free Comic Book Day offering and I hope fans enjoy it as well.

Fan Art:Mikaël Morin-Hamelin is an animation student in Quebec who emailed his fan art to me. It's a 3D rendering of Kenzie in his Winter gear. Great job Mikaël!

Upcoming Appearances:*
Graham Crackers Comics Chicago, IL May 1st (FCBD)
Motor City Con: May 14-16
Kids Read Comics: June 12th (Sat. only)
San Diego (Artist Alley): July 22-25
Baltimore Comic Con: August 28-29
*more 2010 dates may be added

Mouse Guard trailer:The good folks at Archaia & Kunoichi put together a trailer for Mouse Guard which debut at C2E2.



Harvey Nomination Ballots:The Harvey Awards are accepting nominations no through April 23rd. Nominations are made by creators - those who write, draw, ink, letter, color, design, edit or are otherwise involved in a creative capacity in the comics field. So if you fall in to that category and enjoy Mouse Guard, Archaia and I would love your support with nominations in the following categories:

BEST CARTOONIST : David Petersen/Mouse Guard
BEST COLORIST : David Petersen/Mouse Guard

BEST GRAPHIC ALBUM – PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED : Mouse Guard Winter 1152 & M0use Guard Fall 1152 Black & White limited ed.
SPECIAL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN PRESENTATION : Mouse Guard Winter 1152 & M0use Guard Fall 1152 Black & White limited ed.

The Harvey's are nominated and voted on by popular vote, so every vote counts. Click Here to start voting.
Upcoming Appearances:*
Graham Crackers Comics Chicago, IL May 1st (FCBD)
Motor City Con: May 14-16
Kids Read Comics: June 12th (Sat. only)
San Diego (Artist Alley): July 22-25
Baltimore Comic Con: August 28-29
*more 2010 dates may be added

Legends of the Guard
Issue 2 of the Mouse Guard Anthology is now in previews (order code: APR10 0733). Here is the full cover for the issue (perhaps my favorite for the series). This issue will feature stories by Gene Ha & Lowell Francis, Sean Rubin & Alex Kain, and Terry Moore!


Colored Work:
I had a great time coloring this one because of the lighting of the sabers & the stairs.

C2E2:
This weekend I'll be at C2E2. I'll be set up at the Archaia booth (#545). Archaia will have Mouse Guard books for sale, I'll be signing and meeting fans. Hope to see you in Chicago!


Upcoming Appearances:*
C2E2 (Archaia Booth): April 16-18
Graham Crackers Comics Chicago, IL May 1st (FCBD)
Motor City Con: May 14-16
Kids Read Comics: June 12th (Sat. only)
San Diego (Artist Alley): July 22-25
Baltimore Comic Con: August 28-29

*more 2010 dates may be added

Shorter posts:

For a while it looks like I'll be doing shorter blogposts. With a current lack of ready-to-go material I can share, coupled with months of impending deadlines, I don't have as much to contribute on a weekly basis. I still plan on some doing some special, topical, and unique posts (like interviews with all the Legends of the Guard creators!).

Muppets vs Sesame Street:

At the Comic Geek Speak Supershow there was a fan who had a sketchbook of all Muppets vs Sesame Street characters. There were a lot of really clever ones (Piggy vs The Count in a Buffy homage, Pigs in Space vs the Yip Yip aliens, Kermit from the Muppet Show vs Sesame Street News reporter Kermit...) I opted for a bizarre match of rock, paper, scissors between the Great Gonzo and Forgetful Jones.

Fan Art:

This week's fan art is from gamer Donnie Chase who has done a number of character portraits for his Mouse Guard RPG group. This one is named Hudson.

If you would like your fan art to be shown here, please email it to ericebon (at) hotmail (dot) com

Upcoming Appearances:*
C2E2 (Archaia Booth): April 16-18
Graham Crackers Comics Chicago, IL May 1st (FCBD)
Motor City Con: May 14-16
San Diego (Artist Alley): July 22-25
Baltimore Comic Con: August 28-29

*more 2010 dates may be added