David Petersen's Blog, page 84

Pencil Drawings (now in color)Though I don't get to do it...

Pencil Drawings (now in color)
Though I don't get to do it much these days because of the inked style of Mouse Guard, I also like to do rendered drawings in pencil. Frequently I would also color or tint these drawings in photoshop.
In this example of Fafhrd & the Grey Mouser, I merely tinted the linework on my greyscale drawing using the color balance tool. I also adjusted the levels (the control over what pixes are black, white, and middle tone) and cleaned up or enhanced the highlights.

On...

Colored Page:On Ustream last Saturday night, I colored th...

Colored Page:
On Ustream last Saturday night, I colored this page while fans were able to watch online and ask questions. I recorded the process in two parts. The first part is me going through the process of 'flatting' the page. The second part is where I get into rendering a panel and talking about photoshop brushes, shading, and texturing. Both parts are available to watch anytime: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/davidpetersen (though they are both long and don't expect many folks to sit...

Cover Process:Muppet Peter Pan #4 will be out later this...

Cover Process:
Muppet Peter Pan #4 will be out later this week (Thursday the 21st due to the holiday). I wanted to share the process steps in this cover (I have doe this with other pieces, for the blog, so the steps should be familiar). I had been given an outline of what happens in each issue from Boom with a note from editor Aaron Sparrow saying "Captain Gonzo kidnaps the children would make a good 4th cover".

I sketched out ideas in my sketchbook. In the upper right you can see my rough thu...

Printmaking:I have my degree in printmaking, and I feel t...

Printmaking:
I have my degree in printmaking, and I feel that the process and techniques I learned from printmaking really influences how I draw today. I wanted to show how one of my favorite processes: etching, is done and how the quality of line and tone influenced Mouse Guard.
I'll be using this etching I did in college of Jim Henson as an example along with diagrams that represent cross-sections of the process at a microscopic level.


Line: (A): Etching is done by taking a metal plate (I...

Muppets!!Joe over at Toughpigs.com a Muppet fan-site was ...

Muppets!!
Joe over at Toughpigs.com a Muppet fan-site was kind enough to do an interview with me about my Muppet Covers for Boom. You can read the interview here. I'm really glad to have the privilege to do these covers and having the fans enjoying them makes me happy. Muppet fans are not the easiest to please, so I'm glad that the response to my work has been positive.


I also got word from Boom that I can now share all 4 Muppet King Arthur covers! I know I had shown two of them before, but tho...

Color Tutorial: Color Hold:A color hold is a technique wh...

Color Tutorial: Color Hold:
A color hold is a technique where the linework becomes a color rather than black (or different from the rest of the linework in color). Here is the way I prepare my files for color holds. In 'A' I have my scanned artwork (greyscale) and I have made a duplicate layer of it that I named 'masterhold'. Using the 'select color' tool, I select white. There is a sensitivity adjustment that I found works well for me at '150'. Then I'll clear (delete) the white. In step 'B' ...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!For our first Christma...

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
For our first Christmas as a married couple, I made a nativity set for Julia. I have loved nativity sets since I was a kid. This set I made mainly out of wooden frame stock for stained glass windows that I had left over. The textures were achieved through wood carving tools, branding the wood with various tools, and a dremmel. I also made use of 5-6 different wood stains and assembled the pieces after the stain had dried. I wasn't able to handmake a gift...

Color Tutorial:I get asked about my coloring techniques i...

Color Tutorial:
I get asked about my coloring techniques in e-mails and at conventions, so I wanted to start posting some basics. I am a self-taught photoshop user, and that there may be better ways, or other ways to meet the same end, but these are the steps I take. I also want to mention that while I'm using Photoshop 7, what I'm showing will apply to any version of Photoshop older than 5.0.

When I started, learning to color, I read a tutorial on coloring (here). However, I found the method o...

Model Building:While working on a cover for Legends of th...

Model Building:
While working on a cover for Legends of the Guard (which I can't show yet), I wanted to feature an architectural library setting. I looked through my reference photos and found this one that I took in Ireland at the Trinity college library (where photography was prohibited, so excuse the out-of-the-coat-quick-shot blurriness). However, I wanted to go beyond this photo and make something more Mouse-Guardish.

I hate figuring out these things in perspective. It takes me forever to...

Free Comic Book Day 2010:Archaia will be releasing a Free...

Free Comic Book Day 2010:
Archaia will be releasing a Free Comic Book day 'flip' book that features a new Mouse Guard story from me and a Fraggle Rock story and cover on the other side. Here is my cover for the Mouse Guard side of the issue. The white box is for comic retailers to stamp or label their logo/address in hopes to attract new readership to comics to their store. The story I'm doing will be 10 pages and will take place in Spring 1153 (as an homage to everyone who asks when 'Spring...