David Petersen's Blog, page 78

New Print:For conventions this year (see list below). The...

New Print:
For conventions this year (see list below). The print is a convention exclusive and will not be offered through email orders. I'm sorry to the folks that can't make it out to conventions, but I do advise that to avoid ebay scalpers crazy price hikes, find a fellow fan online who is attending a con and is willing to ship it to you. I have a few fans who do this already for UK fans who can't make it to US shows.

Process:
Last summer we encountered some turkey vultures on a family vacation. They stuck in my mind and I drew one recently as part of some Black Axe lore for an upcoming issue. As a poster, I could have more fun with the imagery and treat it more like a Legends cover (this very well may end up being used in Legends vol2). I looked at several photos of buzzards and vultures for reference while I sketched out my bird. I drew the mouse away from the buzzard knowing I would want to adjust his size and rotation.

I scanned that sketchpage and layed the image out in the proper size for the final artwork (8.25" x 16.25"). Because I had not drawn the full bird, I copied and mirrored his wing, yet the buzzards body wasn't full enough. I like manipulating sketches in photoshop for layout for this very reason. I can make adjustments without needing to redraw or erase my sketch. I tinted the various elements to help me see what lines belonged to what element (mouse, sword, bird, or bones).

The color tinted sketch was printed out and I layed bristol board on top of it on my light box. This way, I was able to use the sketch as a guide for my final inks on the bristol. I adjusted the left side of the buzzard as I went. The mirrored wing gave me a good sense of the scale I wanted for it, but was the wrong shape. For this piece I also inked using only Copic Multiliners (mainly the .05 & .08). I really like the lines they give me and I will be switching to them for my final artwork now.

Last step was to scan my inked artwork and color the piece in photoshop. Because I didn't draw much in the background, I went with a more painted sky than I normally do. I added a color hold to the bones to make them retreat a bit into the background. And I tried to get the mouse-rider's garb to mimic his carrion-eating mount.


2011 Appearances
C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
Detroit Fan Fare: Sept. 24-25
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

New Poster:For conventions this year (see list below) I'l...

New Poster:
For conventions this year (see list below) I'll have a new poster available. The poster is a convention exclusive and will not be offered through email orders. I'm sorry to the folks that can't make it out to conventions, but I do advise that to avoid ebay scalpers crazy price hikes, find a fellow fan online who is attending a con and is willing to ship it to you. I have a few fans who do this already for UK fans who can't make it to US shows.

Process:
Last summer we encountered some turkey vultures on a family vacation. They stuck in my mind and I drew one recently as part of some Black Axe lore for an upcoming issue. As a poster, I could have more fun with the imagery and treat it more like a Legends cover (this very well may end up being used in Legends vol2). I looked at several photos of buzzards and vultures for reference while I sketched out my bird. I drew the mouse away from the buzzard knowing I would want to adjust his size and rotation.

I scanned that sketchpage and layed the image out in the proper size for the final artwork (8.25" x 16.25"). Because I had not drawn the full bird, I copied and mirrored his wing, yet the buzzards body wasn't full enough. I like manipulating sketches in photoshop for layout for this very reason. I can make adjustments without needing to redraw or erase my sketch. I tinted the various elements to help me see what lines belonged to what element (mouse, sword, bird, or bones).

The color tinted sketch was printed out and I layed bristol board on top of it on my light box. This way, I was able to use the sketch as a guide for my final inks on the bristol. I adjusted the left side of the buzzard as I went. The mirrored wing gave me a good sense of the scale I wanted for it, but was the wrong shape. For this piece I also inked using only Copic Multiliners (mainly the .05 & .08). I really like the lines they give me and I will be switching to them for my final artwork now.

Last step was to scan my inked artwork and color the piece in photoshop. Because I didn't draw much in the background, I went with a more painted sky than I normally do. I added a color hold to the bones to make them retreat a bit into the background. And I tried to get the mouse-rider's garb to mimic his carrion-eating mount.


2011 Appearances
C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
Detroit Fan Fare: Sept. 24-25
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

Day late and a dollar short...Sorry about the day-delay i...

Day late and a dollar short...Sorry about the day-delay in getting this post up. I'm also sorry that it's not a very content-filled post, but a preview of something I'm hoping to be able to share with Mouse Guard fans soon: 2011 Appearances
C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
Detroit Fan Fare: Sept. 24-25
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

Gem Awards:I am very happy to announce that Mouse Guard L...

Gem Awards:
I am very happy to announce that Mouse Guard Legends of the Guard vol. 1 has won the Gem Award for Best 2010 Anthology! So I offer a huge thank you & congratulations to the contibutors: Jeremy Bastian, Ted Naifeh, Alex Sheikman, Sean Rubin, Alex Kain, Terry Moore, Gene Ha, Lowell Francis, Nate Pride, Guy Davis, Katie Cook, Jason Shawn Alexander, Craig Rousseau, Karl Kerschl, and Mark Smylie.

click here for Newsarama's coverage of the award announcement

June Alley Inn Model:
Seeing the Gem announcement for Legends, I felt it would be a good time to share photos of my June Alley Inn model. I have shared a few photos of it before, but decided to make a gallery on my Facebook page* showing lots of angles of the model and with its various walls removed (click here for album). I made this model because I knew how important it was to make the setting for Legends as real as I could. I was introducing fifteen mouse characters the readers had never seen before and I needed their clothing, mugs, and even where they sat, as cues to which mouse they were. Seeing the mouse by the fire or the mouse under the painting of the ghost or the mouse near the stairs, would help identify the characters. With Legends of the Guard vol. 2 announced to be published after the Black Axe hardcover, I am very glad I made this model so durable, I'll be needing it again...
*Even without a Facebook account, you can view the album of photos

In future posts I plan to add to the Facebook gallery and show more angles of my other models.

Fan Art:
Ryan Horvath sent this fan art to me titled "Lieam with Totems". He wrote in the email:

Big fan of your work, both as an artist and a reader. I was out on some trails a
few months ago, spotted a tree I liked, came back to draw it and it eventually
turned into this. Hope you enjoy it.

I do! Thanks Ryan!

2011 Appearances
C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
Detroit Fan Fare: Sept. 24-25
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

Rendered PencilI don't often get a chance to do rendered ...

Rendered Pencil
I don't often get a chance to do rendered pencil drawings these days. Mouse Guard keeps me inking away. but after I finished my Free Comic book Day story, I took an evening to just draw for fun, with no story or subject in mind. This pencil drawing was the result (well, I got 70% done that night and finished the other 30 a few weeks later). After finishing, I decided to try splashing some color on it in photoshop. I'm pleased with the result and wanted to share it with you.


Materials Unlimited
For several years I worked at an architectural salvage and antiques store in Ypsilanti, MI called Materials Unlimited. I left to work on Mouse Guard full-time, but after a recent visit, I realized how much I missed the constant aesthetic bombardment of the past. The shop is full of the craftsmanship of people long since gone, but I loved pouring over the details of materials and techniques, and patterns, and color on all the mantels, light fixtures, fencing, furniture, stained glass and other oddities. It is and will remain one of my favorite places to become inspired and find motifs and visual cues for the world of Mouse Guard.
(click the link above to browse the store virtually...unless you live in south-east Michigan, in which case it's worth the trip!)

2011 Appearances
C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
Detroit Fan Fare: Sept. 24-25
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

Rest in Peace Mr. JacquesToday's blogpost comes a day ear...

Rest in Peace Mr. JacquesToday's blogpost comes a day early to mark the passing of Brian Jacques, author of the wonderful children's series of Redwall novels. The series focuses on the medieval goings on of generations of animals who live in and around Redwall Abbey. Mr. Jacques was the lead torch holder in keeping anthropomorphic characters alive and prospering after such other greats as Aesop, Rudyard Kipling, & Kenneth Grahame.
Redwall was as much an influence on Mouse Guard as it was an anti-influence. It was while I was developing the ideas for my own group of mouse rangers I was handed the first book in the series. I thoroughly enjoyed Brian's writing, and his gift for including vocal accents into the text. It charged in me even more desire to pursue my love of animal stories and medieval cultures. However, I knew instantly that I could never top what Mr. Jacques was doing. So when I say his books were a counter influence, I only mean that I had to set out in a different path from what he was already master of.
In honor of a great and prolific author who scouted the road and opened the doors of the modern market for tales of mouse heroes, I humbly thank him and wish his family peace.
above: the trio from Mr. Jacques' 2nd book Mossflower mourning their creator

Em of Appleloft:The character of Em is loosely based on m...

Em of Appleloft:
The character of Em is loosely based on my friend Emily Bastian (married to Jeremy Bastian). Emily loves raising animals & currently has in her care: 2 dogs, 1 cat, 2 sheep, several horses, and 5 ducks. It was the trait of instinctive animal husbandry that I gave to the mouse character Em. (this photo is of Emily last fall encouraging her duck Fleur to flap her wings so I had photo reference for the duck in Black Axe #1)

I started the layout of her home with a top-down cutaway of the apple tree she lives in. I figured a hollowed out knot hole right at the junction of a few branches would give her enough room in a fairly narrow trunked twisty tree. I initially had her bookcase inset in one of the branches...but it looks like I didn't draw it that way in the final version. The other branch nook becomes a sleeping area, with an open knothole in the back of the tree providing a nice window.

I thought about making a quick model of this room before I drew it, but changed my mind, feeling that it wasn't a location I planned on reusing too much, and my top-down sketch mapped out a floor plan for the items I knew I wanted to include. Also I knew I wouldn't make little models of all the furniture, so the model's only real use would be for the room's geometry, which was for the most part, round. Any imperfections I had with the geometry in not making all those concentric circles accurate and in perspective, would only add to the charm of Em's small, quaint, mouse hollowed, home.
I tried to give Em's home the feel of a place Emily herself would live, and filled it with things that relate to Emily's real life interests (taxidermy, gardening, dried flowers, textiles, old books, etc.) which at the same time would start to establish some of Em's character. I also wanted to show Em's love of birds in particular (which I equate to Emily's horses) So Em's bed is less like a bed and more like a nest, she has an unhatched egg in her bookcase, & she has a bird skull (perhaps she studies it for Phrenology)


2011 Appearances
C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
Detroit Fan Fare: Sept. 24-25
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

Free Comic Book Day:I am still nailing down my plans for ...

Free Comic Book Day:I am still nailing down my plans for a Free Comic Book Day (FCBD) appearance, but I do know for certain that Archaia is doing another FCBD flip-book. Last year they published a Fraggle Rock/Mouse Guard issue...This year it will be a Dark Crystal/Mouse Guard issue! The Mouse Guard story is 6 pages long and to the left is the cover for my side (the other side will feature a Brian Froud Dark Crystal cover!) Free Comic Book Day is May 7th this year, and I encourage you to go try some books you wouldn't otherwise try & try and get some of your non-comics-reading friends to tag along too.
More Fraggle Fun:To celebrate the release of Fraggle Rock Vol.2 Issue 1 (Cover B has my artwork which I featured last week on the blog showing my process), Just for fun I drew a Fraggle excited about the new issue and tweeted it. I was honored when the folks at Archaia & Henson retweeted it. The plan was for me to do a Fraggle story in Volume 2 of the series, but because of my Black Axe schedule, it wasn't possible, so fingers crossed sales of Fraggle books warrant a third volume!
The Fraggle I drew for the promo is my finished concept for a Fraggle puppet I started building last spring. His name is Gib (my paternal Grandfather's nickname). The hair, goatee and glasses are all just placed on with no adhesive at the moment (in fact the glasses are my every day glasses) After Black Axe is finished I hope to be able to finish the Gib puppet with the finished features and clothing shown in the drawing.


2011 Appearances
C2E2: March 18-20
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 25-26
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
Detroit Fan Fare: Sept. 24-25
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

Fraggle Rock Cover Process: The first Issue of Fraggle Ro...

Fraggle Rock Cover Process: The first Issue of Fraggle Rock Volume 2 will be out tomorrow. My artwork is featured on the 'B' cover, and though I had posted the final cover art a while back, I thought I'd share the process. I had a different idea for the cover originally, with Boober and Junior and one Doozer being the only characters, but due to some similatrities in concept of a cover already turned in, I had to alter my plan.
I think one of the great things about Fraggle Rock is the three different species and their understanding and relationships to one another, so I really wanted my cover to have Fraggles, Doozers, and at least 1 Gorg with the size relationships being exploited. Unfortunately, there is no good way to show a Gorg at full height with a Fraggle AND a Doozer without the latter two being diminished and too tiny to draw well.
Forcing the perspective by showing the Gorg castle with Junior standing by it helped show that even though he is about the same height on the page as the Fraggles in the final piece, the scale to the castle and garden growth and tools we understand that he is a giant to them.

After I had sketches of all the components I would need, I scanned them and tinted them to assemble in a layout template for the covers's specs. This is a stage where I can play with proportion, nudge the characters closer together or further apart, rotate character's arms or legs, or the character altogether. I tint the different characters and elements differently so I don't get lost in the mess of sketchy lines.
The final layout was approved by Archaia and Henson, so I printed it out and used it as a guide while I inked on strathmore 300 bristol on a lightbox. This cover had so much going on, that I worried about how congested the inks were and without a lot of line weight variation, but for Fraggles, I didn't want to go too heavy on the inks and shadows, I wanted a lighter feeling to them than that and planned to fix the lack of focus in color.

While coloring I noticed that several of the overlapping characters and background/foreground elements had a similar color or value. I kept flatting the piece (establishing color areas, not necessarily final color choices) planning to deal with the depth of field issues once I got into rendering.
Here again is the final cover. In this rendering stage I did a few things to make sure that things popped off one another, I added a color hold and muted things in the background (relative to the Fraggles) I used a color hold on the grass to tone down the 'noise' on my inked grass lines. I altered some colors slightly pushing them to the ends of what makes them that color (the radish leaves are more blue green while the Doozers are yellow green...The Radishes themselves became more of a muted Red violet to pop them away from the more middle of the road reds on the Fraggles).

The issue is due out tomorrow, but you can check out a preview of the interiors here
2011 Appearances
MSU Comics Forum: Jan. 22
C2E2: March 18-22
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
Detroit Fan Fare: Sept. 24-25
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16

Up too late coloring for a long post this week...Gronk Gu...

Up too late coloring for a long post this week...

Gronk Guest Art:
Last week Katie Cook featured a pinup piece I did for her webcomic Gronk. Katie and her husband Ryan just brought home their first baby and Katie asked for a Guest piece to post for her strip while she is on self-employment-maternity-leave. Wished I had time to do a full strip for her...

Art about Art:
An Art History professor I had did an assignment on the concept of "Art about Art" where you were asked to do some piece of artwork based on another artists' work, or specifically one of their pieces. I made a variable puzzle based on the work of Piet Mondrian. The pieces were all wood, and two sided (sometimes with different colors) and they could be arranged to fit in the frame in a variety of ways. I cut a channel into the frame so that a sheet of plexiglass could be slid in once you had an arrangement you liked for display. I did all this, even though I never had the particular class with that professor that this assignment was given...but I heard him talking about it, and wanted to try my hand at it. The result (these two Mondrian puzzles) were Christmas gifts for my two sisters that year.



Mouse Guard Fan Art:
Denver Brubaker, cartoonist of the webstrip The Checkered Man sent me this great drawing of Kenzie. I really like the feet on Kenzie and also the watercolor background. Thanks Denver!



2011 Appearances
MSU Comics Forum: Jan. 22
C2E2: March 18-22
Phoenix Comic Con: May 26-29
Cherry Capital Con: June 12-13
San Diego Comic Con: July 20-24
Baltimore Comic Con: Aug. 20-21
Detroit Fan Fare: Sept. 24-25
New York Comic Con: Oct. 14-16