David Petersen's Blog, page 29

Mouse Guard Covers

In the 15 years I've been doing Mouse Guard, I've drawn 58 published 'covers' for the series––most of these were for the comics and hardcover collections, with a few Free Comic Book Day pieces (some were not used as the cover), and a handfull of game cover/box images. In this blogpost I'm sharing all of those cover pieces sans-logos & text. Enjoy!

FALL 1152 Fall 1152 #1
Fall 1152 #2
Fall 1152 #3
Fall 1152 #4
Fall 1152 #5
Fall 1152 #6
Fall 1152 Hardcover

WINTER 1152 Winter 1152 #1
Winter 1152 #2
Winter 1152 #3
Winter 1152 #4
Winter 1152 #5
Winter 1152 #6
Winter 1152 Hardcover

THE BLACK AXE The Black Axe #1
The Black Axe #2
The Black Axe #3
The Black Axe #4
The Black Axe #5
The Black Axe #6
The Black Axe Hardcover

LEGENDS OF THE GUARD
VOL. 1 Legends of The Guard Vol.1 #1
Legends of The Guard Vol.1 #2
Legends of The Guard Vol.1 #3
Legends of The Guard Vol.1 #4
Legends of The Guard Vol.1 Hardcover

LEGENDS OF THE GUARD
VOL. 2 Legends of The Guard Vol.2 #1
Legends of The Guard Vol.2 #2
Legends of The Guard Vol.2 #3
Legends of The Guard Vol.2 #4
Legends of The Guard Vol.2 Hardcover

LEGENDS OF THE GUARD
VOL. 3 Legends of The Guard Vol.3 #1
Legends of The Guard Vol.3 #2
Legends of The Guard Vol.3 #3
Legends of The Guard Vol.3 #4
Legends of The Guard Vol.3 Hardcover

LEGENDS OF THE GUARD
VOL. 1-3 SLIPCASE Legends of The Guard Vol.1-3 Slipcase Box

FREE COMIC BOOK DAY
Free Comic Book Day 2010
Free Comic Book Day 2011
Free Comic Book Day 2012
Free Comic Book Day 2013
Free Comic Book Day 2014
Free Comic Book Day 2015*(published on the interior)
Free Comic Book Day 2016*(published on the interior)
Free Comic Book Day 2017*(published on the interior)
Oh Day Away*(published on the interior)
Baldwin the Brave and Other Tales

Free Comic Book Day 2015(published cover)



BLACK & WHITE ED. Fall 1152 Black & White Edition

Winter 1152 Black & White Edition

The Black Axe Black & White Edition

MISC.
Art Of Mouse Guard 2005-2015
Mouse Guard Coloring Book

GAMES
Mouse Guard RPG 1st Ed. Hardcover Rulebook
Mouse Guard RPG 1st Ed. Boxed Set Cover

Mouse Guard RPG 2nd Ed. Hardcover Rulebook
Mouse Guard RPG 2nd Ed. Boxed Set Cover
Swords & Strongholds Cover Box Art

Black Axe #1 Creator Commentary

I've made a Creator Commentary video for the first issue/chapter of Mouse Guard: The Black Axe!  Please feel free to follow along in your copy of the story in either issue form of from the hardcover as I talk about the behind the scenes details, art notes, and my head-space as I go page by page and panel by panel. Enjoy!



Direct link to watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/akL3AL_bmAs

Mouse Guard Fall LIVE Reading from 2008

In 2008 at the Flint Public Library, my friends and I did a live reading of the entirety of Fall 1152. Besides myself, providing performances & voices were Real-Life Lieam: Emerson Jones, Real-life Kenzie: Jesse Glenn, and my friend Ann (Glenn) Carlson.

The video had been on my YouTube channel broken into 5 parts (due to upload length/size restrictions at the time) but I have now been able to upload the full version as one video. Enjoy:




Direct link on YouTube:
https://youtu.be/jFkoi4jW5MM

Dark Crystal Roundup

With the Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Mayrin cover I shared last week being my last visit in the world of Thra for a while, I thought now would be a good time to do a roundup of all my past published Dark Crystal work for Henson & Archaia.

The 2009 Dark Crystal poster
I drew to announce that Archaia had partnered with Henson to make comics.

Power of the Dark Crystal #1 Variant*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2016/11/power-of-dark-crystal-1-variant-cover.html
Beneath the Dark Crystal #1 Variant*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2018/06/beneath-dark-crystal-varaint-cover-1.html

Beneath the Dark Crystal #2 Variant*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2018/07/beneath-dark-crystal-variant-cover-2.html

Beneath the Dark Crystal #3 Variant*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2018/09/beneath-dark-crystal-variant-cover-3.html

Beneath the Dark Crystal #4 Variant*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2018/10/beneath-dark-crystal-variant-cover-4.html

Beneath the Dark Crystal #5 Variant*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2018/11/beneath-dark-crystal-variant-cover-5.html

Beneath the Dark Crystal #6 Variant*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2018/12/beneath-dark-crystal-variant-cover-6.html

Beneath the Dark Crystal #7 Variant*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2019/01/beneath-dark-crystal-7-cover-process.html
Beneath the Dark Crystal #8 Variant*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2019/02/beneath-dark-crystal-8-cover-process.html

Beneath the Dark Crystal #9 Variant*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2019/03/beneath-dark-crystal-9-cover-process.html

Beneath the Dark Crystal #10 Variant*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2019/04/beneath-dark-crystal-10-cover-process.html

Beneath the Dark Crystal #11 & #12 Variants*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2019/05/beneath-dark-crystal-11-12-cover-process.html

Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance - Ordon Variant Cover*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2019/09/dark-crystal-age-of-resistance-cover.html

Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance - Hup Variant Cover*link to process post*http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2020/01/hup-dark-crystal-age-or-resistance-cover.html

Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance - Mayrin Variant Cover*link to process post*https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2020/04/dark-crystal-age-of-resistance-cover.html

PLANNED 2020 Appearances
Heroes Con: June 19-21 ??
San Diego Comic Con: July 22-26 ??
New York Comic Con: October 8-11 ??
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct 23-25 ??

Dark Crystal Age of Resistance cover: Mayrin process

Archaia is publishing a Dark Crystal comic series that ties in with the Netflix series 'Age of Resistance' and I fortunate enough to be asked to do some variant covers for it!

The series is made up of three 4 issue arcs, and the second arc is all about the All-Maudra Mayrin when she was first crowned.


 To the left you can see my finished Mayrin cover, but below I'll break down all the steps I took to create the cover artwork.



Sketches/Pencils:
I started with several pencil drawings of the characters and elements I knew I was going to feature in the cover: Mayrin herself, a Sifa swashbuckling Gelfling she reluctantly works with, a Sifan ship in a storm, and skekSa the Mariner...a character that had only been depicted for the YA novels by J.M. Lee (and illustrated by my friend Cory Godbey). I was given in-house reference from Archaia of character designs for the gelflings and the ship, puppet reference of Mayrin as she appears in the Netflix show, a Cory Godbey drawing of skekSa, and a tapestry triangle design from the art-of Dark Crystal book by Brian Froud.

Layout:
I scanned all the elements and puzzled them together. Because each character was drawn separately, it made it easy for me to make adjustments to them in scale, placement, rotation--and even to distort the drawing a bit (I always end up needing to use the liquify tool in Photoshop to smush gelfling faces around until they are 'right')

I added a quick color pass to help me visualize where the figures masses were and if tehre were any color tangent issues to worry about. This also helps when I send it off to Archaia and Henson for approval, so they know exactly what I'm planning....


Revision:
...aaaaand for the first time in over 17 pieces for Henson, I was asked to revise a rough. The issue was skekSa. Having limited reference for her, I followed Cory's lead with lots of fur and feather textures--but apparently I went too far.

I was re-sent Cory's reference as well as an image of the Mariner skeksis from the interior artist with the note 'less fur/hair––especially around the mouth'.

So I re-penciled her and added in some of the costume details from the new reference.

With the new pencils drawing closer to being 'on-model', I swapped out the versions of skekSa while also making some minor placement adjustments to the geflings to accommodate.

This version was then sent back off to Archaia and Henson where it met with approval for me to move on to the next step....



Inks:
I printed out the revised layout at about 10" x 15" (on two sheets of copy paper that I aligned and taped together) and then taped that printout to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my Huion light pad, I'm able to see through the surface of the bristol, down to the layout to use as my pencil lines while I ink. I used Copic Multiliner SP pens (the 0.3 & 0.7 nibs are my go-to's).

The lightning was inked on the back of the bristol (using that lightpad to help me see) so that I could easily isolate the lighting for the next step (shown here in grey)

As I inked this I streamed the process on my Twitch Chanel.


Flat Colors:
Archaia and Henson approved the inks and it was time to move on to starting to add digital color. That process starts with painting in all the flat colors, no rendering, no effects, no textures––just flat base colors.

A lot of the color choices had already been made thanks to reference and my color mockup at the layout stage(s).

I added several color holds: to the tapestry linework, the sea, the ship, the webbing on skekSa's hat and the skull design, and the swashbuckling gelfling's scar. Color holds are where I can choose to paint the line art  color other than black.


Final Colors:Below you can see the final colors again. to render the image I use the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop to add highlights and shadows as well as texture. I streamed a lot of this process on my Twitch Chanel also.


And that's my last Dark Crystal cover for a while. This is the last freelance work I had on my plate. And I hope to be able to focus a lot more attention on Mouse Guard again.Thanks for going to Thra with me. Working on Dark Crystal comic covers has been an absolute joy. A bucket-list treat that younger me wouldn't believe he gets to do now. I hope to come back and visit Thra again--but for now, I'm headed back to the Mouse Territories.

PLANNED 2020 Appearances
Heroes Con: June 19-21 ??
San Diego Comic Con: July 22-26 ??
New York Comic Con: October 8-11 ??
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct 23-25 ??

World Building Lecture Video

In 2018 I gave a Worldbuilding lecture at the Fantastic Workshop put on by 1FW and then last year I updated the talk and streamed it on my Twitch channel.

In the video I go over my use of Costume & Character, Culture & History, and Locations & Architecture to make the world of Mouse Guard a believable place

I have now made it available on my YouTube channel as well. Enjoy:


Direct Link on YouTube:https://youtu.be/Fy5RrHbP-4k




PLANNED 2020 Appearances
Heroes Con: June 19-21 ??
San Diego Comic Con: July 22-26 ??
New York Comic Con: October 8-11 ??
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct 23-25 ??

Recent Commissions

Last I finished up the toned paper commissions from #ONLINECON. Normally I only do these 9x12 toned paper commissions at conventions, but with ECCC and other conventions being canceled, I opted to open a list for a short time in my online store and make commissions available to everyone. Here are the results of those (most of which I streamed on Twitch) as well as a few from C2E2.

A Guardmouse
Midnight with the Black Axe

A Norse Guardmouse
Mouse in a Kimono
Guardmouse with ink & quill to record surroundings

Marauder mouse (based on CPWIII's Legends story)

Usagi Yojimbo
A Guardmouse with a firefly as a light
A Dracolitch
Guarmoyse with Mandalorian-inspired armor
TMNT: Michelangelo
Fox McCloud
'The Child'
A fan's original character: a Pooka wearing Turkish Armor

A Mouse Puppeteer

The Boy Who Lived:Harry Potter
Hellboy

Mouse with a Rolleiflex Camera

Artist Mouse


'Beckett' a Black Border Collie & Australian Shepherd
'Waffle' a royal kitty
Cedric a Guardmouse
Battleworn Raphael of the TMNT

Erwynn a Guardmouse
Guardmouse w/ Sword & Shield
TMNT: Donatello
Mouse-Dream
Guardmouse: Cerise
Matriarch: Siobhan 
Guardmouse w/ Furr Cloak
Guardmouse: Lieam
Flower Mouse
TMNT: Leonardo
A Gentleman Cat named Max
TMNT: Raphael
TMNT: Michelangelo 
Dark Crystal: Garthim

PLANNED 2020 Appearances
Heroes Con: June 19-21 ??
San Diego Comic Con: July 22-26 ??
New York Comic Con: October 8-11 ??
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct 23-25 ??

Limited Edition Print: 'SHARON'

The 2020 Mouse Guard 11" x 11" limited ed. print is titled 'Sharon' in honor of my mother who passed away in January. The prints are signed and numbered (to an edition of 300) and are meant to depict something 'pretty' from the world of Mouse Guard (an edict Julia gave me in 2012 that I've listened to ever since.) I tend to name the print not after the mouse depicted, but of the flora that makes up the background, but this year I made an exception for my Mother.

I'll be releasing this print at Emerald City Comic Con and and in my online store soon-after (I'll have it at my other convention appearances throughout the year too). Below are the steps I took to create the piece.


I came up with the idea for the piece the day she died. We were still at the hospital and knew in my heart that the print would have to be about her, and I just saw in my head a mouse looking through stacks of intricately detailed fabrics. I sketched a version a few weeks later (seen in the lower left of this image), and then digitally colored it to block in the forms (upper left) before printing that out larger and doing a proper penciled version on a clean sheet of paper using a lightpad to reference the printout.


My mom was a very accomplished sewer and aspiring quilter. She'd made clothes for every member of our family, paraments and stoles for our church, and handmade Halloween costumes for me in school. She also was a hoarder of fabric. She had more than she ever could have used––even if the Parkinson's hadn't taken away her ability to sew. It took 6 SUV loads to get her collection donated to a local community theater last summer.

I wanted to find some beauty in that idea, and was inspired by Edmund Dulac's Princess and the Pea illustration for the various patterns, quiltings, and embroidery to embellish the material and also make each layer of it different than the surrounding cloth.


With Edmund Dulac's imagery as a guiding point (and color palette), I digitally blocked in the colors for the piece, adding hints about the patterns on the fabrics

Also something I didn't mention earlier is her broach. It's a rose of Sharon done in a Charles Rene Mackintosh stylization. Julia and I have two stained glass windows in our home that have this same design.




I didn't feel like my quick digital color blocking was enough reference for the embroidery for the cloth though––so I did some google image searching to find examples of fabrics I wanted to emulate. The lower center pattern I designed using some shapes from a medieval tile I photographed in Ireland, which I wanted for the piece she was holding.





With the layout printed out (and some of the textures digitally dropped in and warped to match the drape or perspective of the drawing) I taped that printout to the back of a sheet of Strathmore Bristol 300 series 12" x 12" board. 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 the piece with Copic Multiliner SP pens (the 0.7 nib mainly).




I scanned the inked piece once it was finished and started the color flats. This is when, in Photoshop, I add flat colors to the piece to establish what areas are what colors: her fur is brown, her clothes are a grey-blue, the trim is a darker blue, her exposed skin are peachy, the fabric she's holding is muted red and gold, etc. At this stage, I also established all the color holds. These are areas where I want the lineart to be a color other than black like the markings on the feather in her hat, the lenses of her glasses, and the pattern on almost every piece of fabric.




The last step was to render all the color using the dodge and burn tools (tools in Photoshop for lightening or darkening areas). I use a stock textured brush when I do this process so that my finished piece has some texture to it.





2020 Appearances
FACTS-Ghent Belgium: April 4-5
Heroes Con: June 19-21
San Diego Comic Con: July 22-26
New York Comic Con: October 8-11
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct 23-25

#ONLINECON

With Emerald City Comic Con being postponed until the Summer due to responsible COVID-19 prevention plans, I've decided to do my own #ONLINECON! 

The entire event will take place between my Twitch channel & my online store:



twitch.tv/davidpetersen
mouseguard.bigcartel.com

In addition to streaming 6-8 hours per-day Wed-Sunday (when I'd have been in Seattle otherwise), I'll have all my brand new prints that were set to debut at ECCC as well as my existing items like tee-shirts, tote bags, enamel pins, and more.


Below I go into more detail about what kind of promotions, content, & fun we'll have at
#ONLINECON:


Toned Paper Commissions:
I normally only offer Toned Paper Commissions at conventions––BUT, for #ONLINECON, I've made them available to purchase in my online store! AND, I'll be drawing them LIVE on my Twitch stream. They are single figure, torso/bust with minimal background on Strathmore 9x12 toned tan paper for $250.



New Mouse Guard Prints:
I have five new prints that were set to release at ECCC: The new 11" x 11" Limited Ed. Print titled 'Sharon', the new Bookplate (with the image of my relief woodcarving), as well as 3 new 9"x12" Mouse Guard prints. AND if you were unable to get to C2E2, I still have copies of the WANTED: 'Mortimer' tea stained print.



New Mouse Guard Originals:
The original inked artwork for the 9x12 print 'Hornblower', the 11" x 11" 'Sharon' piece, & Mortimer print are all available for sale! I've also included my pencils I used for my Dark Crystal Skeksis & Mystics covers, AND the inks for my last Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance cover: Mayrin.



20% OFF Most Items:
On the top menu of my online store is a tab called 'SALE'. Every item listed there is 20% OFF with ordercode: ONLINECON. (a few items like the newest original art, and the toned paper commissions are not included in the discount)




Free US Shipping on $100+ Orders:
Spend $100 in the store AND live in the US--FREE SHIPPING during #ONLINECON! However, we can't offer 2 discounts that can both be applied at checkout in our online store (technical limitations). So use the 20% OFF code, and we will refund the shipping cost if the order is $100 or more. This is for domestic orders only. Sorry to all of those abroad.


Lots of Giveaways:
In my Twitch stream, I've started doing giveaways at least once per broadcast. Things like signed comics, Art of Bricks Hardcovers, and some sketchbooks have been given away in the past...but for #ONLINECON, I'm bringing out some more goodies: Giant Papercraft mice, Mouse Guard coffee mugs, signed books and more! I'll be doing several each day.



Chat With Me & Other Fans:
Part of the joy of conventions is getting to interact with fans and creators. I know that as an artist that does my work alone in a studio, it's really nice to get out to a con and meet with fans and get feedback. And I've found that while at my table several fans who were previously strangers have become friends with one another. Well, as I stream on Twitch, you can chat with me, ask questions about what I'm working on, or what my favorite ice cream flavor is. All you'll need is a Twitch login (free)



Watch Me Work:
Fans who already tune in to my Twitch streams get to do this––but fans at conventions don't normally get to watch the process as I work on a piece. I'll be doing the Toned Commissions on stream, so you can see the full process from a blank sheet of paper, to pencils, to the inks & tone work until it's done and I start on the next one. And, of course, you can join in the chat and ask questions



Coloring Tutorials:
To switch up the kind of artwork I'm doing, I plan to also do some coloring on a piece from the Mouse Guard Coloring Book so that I can include it in my next sketchbook. I'll do my best to narrate my process through that digital coloring process, and I'll answer questions as I go so that if you've ever wondered how I render colors with a mouse––now's your chance.



And More!
I still don't know what all I'll do to fill the broadcast time. I may have some invited guests to join us for a chat, I may run through one of my past slideshows, demo the Mouse Guard board game, do a live reading of a Mouse Guard story––I'm not sure! But we'll find out together at #ONLINECON





2020 Appearances
FACTS-Ghent Belgium: April 4-5
Heroes Con: June 19-21
San Diego Comic Con: July 22-26
New York Comic Con: October 8-11
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct 23-25

2020 Bookplate

For the last eight years, I've been releasing a yearly bookplate. (Click here for a look at last years as well as a rundown of the previous ones) The purpose of my bookplates it to offer an interesting mini-print that also serves a purpose. Since the final versions are signed and numbered, even if you can't bring me your physical copy of a Mouse Guard book, this bookplate can be glued in to your book making your copy signed.

I'll have the bookplate at my 2020 conventions and in my online store soon after Emerald City Comic Con. For this blogpost, I wanted to go through the process to create the bookplate image.



For the bookplate art I'm often inspired by the craft of artistic endeavors the mice in my books would do to beautify their world. In the past I've done (or emulated) stained glass, a woodcut print, embroidery, engraving, mosaic, and painted wood. This year I wanted to do a relief carving in wood.

I'd gathered a few images in a Mouse Guard reference folder on my computer for inspiration for future drawings––but when getting ready for the 2020 bookplate, I couldn't help put want to try my paw at making a carving for real.



But before wood could be carved, I needed an image. My mother had just passed away and I had death imagery on my mind, so I looked back to the card art for the Mouse Guard Roleplaying condition cards that had stylized Día de Muertos-like skeletal mice on the borders. I printed out an enlarged one for reference, and then in the open space, did a rendered pencil drawing of a skeleton mouse holding a sword surrounded by acanthus-leaf designs and with a flower overlapping the skull in place of an ear shape. I only drew half of it, because I wanted it to be roughly symmetrical. I scanned the drawing into Photoshop and mirrored it so I had a full version of the art I wanted to carve.




I resized the art printout to match a piece of oak I had in my workshop.

I transferred the art to the wood by rubbing graphite on the back of my printout and then taping it to the block and tracing over the important shapes with a ball-point pen. Here I've already stared removing all the deepest areas.


To do the carving, I almost exclusively relied on some engraving bits and a few sanding drums for my dremel tool. While I got a little excited to start adding shape and relief on the flower and skull, I found that removing all the deepest areas first was the best place to start.

Once the deep areas were gone, I could start removing bits of elevation to the acanthus and the mouse's stole so the arm bones looked like they were in front of them.

I used the left side as a testing ground for how and when to shape forms and add details.

Here I've started to cut in the deep parts of the right flower and add depth to the acanthus background on the right side.
more progress on getting those background bits deeper into the image.

While I'd push and fine-tune the depth levels of everything more as I'd go on, here all the main elements are carved to their proper heights and it's detail work and shaping from here out.
I quickly drew back in the lines for the acanthus designs I'd lost when carving them to their proper depth.
Carving part done!
Then came sanding...LOTS of sanding with little bits of folded fine-grit sandpaper to get down into the crevices. 
A dark stain was added uniformly over the whole piece and left to dry.
To really get the shadows to look dark, I carefully pooled up more dark stain in the deeper parts of the carving using a cotton swab (and rubbed away any excess that got onto any other bits)

Last step was to VERY lightly sand the highlights with 0000 steel wool and super fine sandpaper to remove a bit of the stain from the highest points. When I was done, I sealed the piece with a few coats of paste wax.

The final piece photographed in natural light and then dropped into the bookplate template.



2020 Appearances
Emerald City Comic Con: March 12-15
FACTS-Ghent Belgium: April 4-5
Heroes Con: June 19-21
San Diego Comic Con: July 22-26
New York Comic Con: October 8-11
Baltimore Comic Con: Oct 23-25