David Petersen's Blog, page 5

Happy Thanksgiving & a recipe for your feast

Happy Thanksgiving Guardmice!

I'm swamped with coloring on an upcoming Mouse Guard project, so please excuse the re-run of some material here (Harvest Print & Gabcroon Recipe).

I also wanted to say that in addition to the obvious of being thankful for my family, friends, my health, dogs, etc––I need to say that I'm thankful to have the fans who support and appreciate the work I do. Thank you all! 

GABCROON
by Rhomni St. John

A hearty nut, seed, & fruit packed
scone. the Guardmouse staple perfect for travel,
while reading a book, or to share with your patrol. INGREDIENTS: 3/4 cup butter softened 1 cup honey2 eggs1/2 tsp salt2 tsps vanilla 1 tsp baking powder3 cups whole wheat flour1 cup rolled oats1 cup sunflower seeds 1.5-1.75 cups chopped walnuts 1 cup dried blueberries1 cup dried cranberries
INSTRUCTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F
Cream together honey and butter, and then stir in the rest of the wet ingredients.
Slowly add flour, oats and baking powder until well mixed.
Stir in sunflower seeds and dried fruit.
Separate dough if you wish to make nut-free versions.
Add chopped walnuts to taste.
Scoop out tablespoons of dough and place on 1-2 inches apart
on an ungreased non-stick cooking pan.
Bake for 10 minutes or until cookies are slightly golden brown.
Eat with honey.

 

Sandmason Mouse

Earlier this year I did an inked commission of a Mouse from Sandmason on a desert mount.
The plan is that this piece will be included in the next Mouse Guard sketchbook (hopefully out mid-next year).

I've colored it for that eventual sketchbook and in today's blog, I'm going through the process for drawing, inking, and coloring the final image you see here.

The fan's request was a mouse from Sandmason (a location on the map of the Mouse Territories I've never taken readers to in the course of the books––but a style of dress I did show in the extras of the Winter book when delegates from various cities come to Lockhaven for a summit) on some kind of a mount in the desert sand ala Luke on a Tauntaun on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back.
The only lizard in Michigan (and I know you're thinking Michigan isn't a desert––but we do have sand dunes, which to a mouse...) is a Five Lined Skink.

I penciled the lizard and the rock on a sheet of copy paper, the mouse on another, and then on a light pad with a fresh sheet of copy paper over the lizard drawing, I drew the saddle/seat and assembled them all together in Photoshop. I printed out the above pencils/layout and taped it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore Bristol 300 series. On my Huion Lightpad I was able to see through the surface of the bristol down to the layout to use as a guide while I inked the piece. The inks were dong using Copic Multiliner SP pens (the 0.7 nib mainly).

This piece had some tricky textures that had to be subtly managed: the scales, the belly, the sand, the rock...over doing any of those would not just make the piece too cluttered and unreadable, but also would lose the contours of those forms. With the inks finished I started the coloring process. The first part of which is called 'flatting'. It's essentially a professional version of coloring-in-the-lines to establish what each area's flat base color will be (though, you can use colors that aren't in the final palette and adjust them later) no textures or shading.

It's also at this stage I added in color holds (areas where I want the lineart to be a color other than black) and I established those on the sand, the flag emblem, and the goggle glare). The last step was to render the final colors. I do this mainly with the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop, but on this piece I did use the paintbrush a bit too. I also will use the freehand lasso tool with a feather (blurred edge) to select certain areas to adjust the color balance on to make subtle transitions––like the skink's nose area.

Hopefully I'll get past my current deadline crunch and get to a point where I know I'll have enough finished images to combine into a sketchbook collection for 2025.

Plotmasters Project Re-Run

This week is Jesse Glenn's 50th Birthday. My best friend, the Kenzie to my Saxon and a collaborator for decades. Te celebrate, I wanted to go back and promote our video podcast: THE PLOTMASTERS PROJECT where we looked back and revisited our earliest stories and characters together. Below are all 10 episodes for you to enjoy as we share a fraction of our old artwork and ideas going back to the early 90's and then draw updated pieces to see what those ideas would look like today.

CATS TRIO

QUIETUS
BLACKCAT
DRAGONS pt1

DRAGONS pt2

PSYCHO-MANTIS

HERO SQUAD

R-WARS

FEATHER

CLAW

Gallery of updated pieces:
CATS TRIO: David 

CATS TRIO: Jesse

QUIETUS: Jesse

QUIETUS: David

BLACKCAT: David
BLACKCAT: Jesse



DRAGONS: Jesse

DRAGONS: David


DRAGONS: David
DRAGONS: Jesse

HERO SQUAD: Jesse


HERO SQUAD: David

PSYCHO-MANTIS: Jesse

PSYCHO-MANTIS: David

FEATHER: David


FEATHER: Jesse

R-WARS: Jesse

R-WARS: David

CATS TRIO - CLAW: David
CATS TRIO - CLAW: Jesse

VOTE!

vote.gov
For help at the polls, call the non-partisan Election Protection Hotline at 1-866-OUR-VOTE
 

Halloween Trio Decorations

 Happy Halloween! To celebrate, I've provided high-res 8.5" x 11" files you can download, print and cut out to display and decorate. You can also glue the mirrored versions together so your decorations are two-sided.

These characters were from a Baltimore Yearbook and later a silkscreened poster I made to celebrate the spooky holiday. I've isolated them for these printouts as well as included the poem I wrote for the occasion

PUMPKIN SKELETON FIDDLER
(right-click and open in a new window to download full-size)

BELL CAT WITCH
(right-click and open in a new window to download full-size)

PIPE AND TAILS DEVIL
(right-click and open in a new window to download full-size)

Recent Commissions

Here are some Toned Commissions from mostly from SDCC, Baltimore, & NYCC

Lieam in the snow
A mouse with a flower
Mabel Heir to Cragflame
A Mouse rogue
Pet portrait of a cat with a hood
Beta Ray Bill

Another Mabel Heir to Cragflame
SkekSil The Chamberlain Skeksis
A Guardmouse with a rapier
A Guardmouse with Heraldic designs from Milan

Skelton's Keys To The Classics: Jungle Book

Skelton Crew has a line of 'Keys to the Classics' of keys designed by artists to summarize a book in classic literature. As you may remember, Israel Skelton and I did a line of Mouse Guard replica weapons years ago, so it was a pleasure to reunite when he asked if I'd design a Jungle Book themed key: 'The Key to the Ruined City'

I was given technical specifications for the thickness, width, height, etc as well as a caveat that I needed to pull visuals and details only from the original text instead of any popular adaptations.

My goal was to make the key look like a stone or bone carving of a portion of the ruined city itself that also featured Shere Kahn, Bagheera, Baloo, Kaa, and some monkeys (Not King Louie--as he was a Disney invention)

The job started with pencil sketches digitally toned of the key rotation where each side is a bit different (especially the monkeys) This stage took the longest as I had to keep making adjustments so that the silhouette of each side matched the other and that the side edge details wrapped around convincingly enough. 

Because I knew Skelton Crew would like cleaner linework to use as etched/carved lines in the key itself, I then did an inked version using the above pencil version as a guide to ink from on my Huion lightpad. While in some ways I think the stark lines take away from the softer and more subtle pencil version above, it did give me a chance to clean up bits I wanted to refine.


The last step before sending it off was to do a digital render on the inked drawing to help show the relief and form.

The key itself is available for purchase at Skelton Crew's Online Store:
skeltoncrewstudio.bigcartel.com

And I have a few available with signed boxes in my online store:
mouseguard.bigcartel.com


 

Royal Taloned Octopus Dragon

Last week on my Twitch Stream, we did the #DiscoveringDragons Community-Draw-Along! It's a fun event where I welcome all skill levels to push their pencils (or whatever tools they use to make art). It takes place on the first Friday of the month.

I worked on my piece live on my Twitch stream while viewers worked at home and then on the following Monday we shared our finished pieces.

Here is my finished colored Dragon (twenty first in the series). And below are my steps to create it as well as the community submissions.

For #DiscoveringDragons, I post two or three prompt words for everyone to make into a dragon. It's a nice framework for artists of any skill level to focus some time on an 'assignment' to shake the rust off or get the pencil moving again––all while also being loose enough that there's plenty of room for individual expression and interpretation.

This month the prompt was three words: Octopus, Talon, & Royal

I opened several tabs of google image searches of octopus species, bird talons, and crowns.

I started on copy paper with the body form of a Blue Ringed Octopus and then added on a taller dragon head and a bit of a hood like a King Cobra (adding to the Royal prompt).  That loose sketch was taken into Photoshop where I added blocky colors to help refine and define the overall shape and silhouette. I also put in a pale green to be the underbelly so I could keep track of where a tentacle would have suckers or not. With that  rougher version bolstered with color shape design, I printed it out and did a tighter pencil drawing over it on a clean sheet of paper on my Huion lightpad. 
With the tighter pencil drawing done, I wend back into Photoshop and blocked in some flat colors to again help me see which parts were which (negative space, underbelly, top skin, shin pattern, etc. but also to just get me closer to envisioning what my goal was for the final image.

In some ways, this step was unnecessary and superfluous––I did a good enough job with the pencils that I could tell where the underbelly and suckers were to get the ink texture right in the next step...but I really do like trusting in this process of mine. It did make me think harder about how I was going to ink the skin pattern knowing what the final color issues would be. 

With the above design printed out at full scale and taped that onto the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol, it was time to start inking. Using a lightpad, I was able to see through the surface of the bristol as I inked the dragon. I used Copic Multiliner 0.7 pen to ink the art.

The inking on this piece was about balancing the lighter hand I needed to not overwork the underbelly and to get the details on the suckers looking fleshy, and then being more textured and heavy-handed when it came to the skin pattern.

I wasn't able to finish my inks on stream before having to sign off an wish every one success over the weekend with their Dragons. Later that same night after some dinner I finished inking the last few tentacles and then scanned the inks and started the flatting process. In addition to the basics of color flatting–basically professional coloring-in-the-lines, I also established color holds (an area where I want the ink to be a color other than black)––the overall lines became a dark brown, the skin pattern got two different color holds and the pupil got one as well.

Most of of the color selections were already established in the rough, but I played with the final value/hue choices for a while before getting to this point.

For the final colors I used a bit of the paintbrush to add some color variance to each area before using the dodge and burn tools to do the final rendering.
Below you can again see the final Dragon...

But, as this is a community event, I wanted to share all the other entries posted in the Discord. 

Capt.Nemo

Nathan Pride

Nuvalo



Nuvalo

RedSkwrl

Jonathan Towry

88UncleErnie

Usagi Yojimbo 40th Anniversary

The Usagi Yojimbo Dojo will be publishing a 40th Anniversary Usagi Yojimbo Tribute book this November. It will be by fans and for fans of Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo. Limited to 500 copies, available upon request for free (just pay postage) while supplies last. Since this will be a non-profit labor of love, any and all contributions to help cover the costs of printing are appreciated GoFundMe: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-40th-anniversary-usagi-yojimbo-tribute-project

To request a copy email Steve Hubbell: usagiyojimbodojo@yahoo.com
with subject line "Usagi Yojimbo 40th Anniversary book"

To the left you can see my finished pinup for the book, and below I go through the process of creating it.
This piece started long before I knew about the 40th anniversary tribute book with a commission request by a fan who wanted a Mouse Guard Usagi crossover piece. I drew Usagi on copy paper, scanned him and placed him into a Photoshop template for the size of the commission, and then printed that out to use as reference to draw the branches and Guardmouse.
These drawings were scanned back into Photoshop and given a quick color blocking to help me see the difference between the leaves and the ground and the branches, etc.


I printed that above layout and taped it to a back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol.  On my Huion Lightpad I could se ethrough the bristol surface down to the printout to use as a guide while I inked. The pen I used were Copic Multiliner SP 0.7 & 0.3 nibs.

There was a lot going on in terms of depth on this piece and I wanted it not to get too busy, but still have bursts of texture and value so the viewer's eye could clearly see all the forms. 

The original was then sent off to the fan who commissioned it.

Then Steve Hubbell reached out about the tribute book asking if I could contribute something. I was so slammed with freelance work, commissions, and Convention prep, I didn't have time to create something new, so I made a plan to take the square commission and get it tall enough to fit a standard comic size. To do this I drew two birds and photoshopped in a cobbled together background pattern based on some Japanese patterns to become top and bottom border designs. Once the pencils and patterns were digitally assembled, I inked the two bird pieces in the same process as the main commission piece described above.

The original inks for these birds are available for sale in my online store:
mouseguard.bigcartel.com


With all the inked drawings scanned, I started the process of color flatting the piece.

This is the first step of coloring that is essentially a professional version of coloring-in-the-lines. It's all about establishing color areas, that the fur is a different color than the clothes, or the leaves, or the branches, etc.
In this step I also established color holds (areas where I want the linework to be a color other than black) on the leaf veins, Usagi's scar, the ground texture, and two on the decorative pattern behind the birds.

The final step was to render the image which I did mostly with the dodge and burn tools, but also a paintbrush and some special layers to created the dappled shadows on the scene.
Again, to request a FREE copy of the tribute book email Steve Hubbell: usagiyojimbodojo@yahoo.com
with subject line "Usagi Yojimbo 40th Anniversary book" and cover shipping. You can also charitably donate to the GoFundMe to help him with the costs: https://www.gofundme.com/f/the-40th-anniversary-usagi-yojimbo-tribute-project

Magic the Gathering: Azure Beastbinder

Last year I was asked by Wizards of the Coast to do some Magic the Gathering card art for their upcoming animal set Bloomburrow (https://magic.wizards.com/en/products/bloomburrow). I played a lot of MtG back in the mid/late 90's, so it was an honor and thrill to become a part of the fraternity of MtG illustrators.

The final card of mine from Bloomburrow that was revealed is Azure Beastbinder.

 The set was released in early August, and I'm happy to share the artwork and process for creating it.

The process started with the brief from my art director asking for a Ratfolk rogue sliding underneath a Calamity Beast slicing its underbelly with a dagger that turns the wound into blue smoke or vapor. WotC provided me with an enormous PDF with reference for the rats and their clothing (In this case they asked specifically for japanese Aizome triangular patches) and weaponry for Bloomburrow, as well as reference for the Calamity Beast. 

I started with a rough version of the rat in a power slide pose and did a few versions before I put it on a lightpad to draw it out more tightly and add in all the clothing details as well as the dagger. Before I drew the Calamity beast in pencil, I think I scanned in the rat, then painted a blocky mass where I wanted the creature, then printed that out to do the drawing seen here.

The pencil roughs were all assembled and combined digitally in Photoshop. For the magic vapor wound I painted with a cyan color in Photoshop and had a stroke applied to that layer to give me an outline.

At this stage, I also like to do a preliminary digital color blocking, to make sure I have the color and value tangents worked out, and also to show my art director at WotC so they are on the same page as I am (no one likes surprises in the later stages of a commissioned art piece). This is the stage where I can also easily make adjustments moving a character or resizing something.

With the pencils/layouts approved by my art director, Aliana Rood,  I moved on to inks. I printed the digital composite out and taped it 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 use the printout as a guide as I inked with Copic Multiliner SP pens. I did more texture on this card than any of my others, but I think it works in the end with color.

The inks were then scanned back into Photoshop where I could start the coloring process. This stage. called flatting' is the professional version of coloring-in-the-lines. Just flat color is placed in to establish everything's base colors. the art director also liked when my linework was softer in my Mouse Guard work, and wanted everything to have a dark brown color hold (ink lines colored to be something other than black). I also established other color holds on the vapor wound and the rocky background.
Here are the final rendered colors for the art (sans card borders). I did the light and shadow and texture by using the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop with a stock textured brush.

I have prints of this piece available for sale: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/category/magic