Black Axe B&W Edition cover art

The Black Axe Black and White Edition is coming! This is a 12" x 12" (original art size) hardcover printing of the Black Axe issues (which is as close as you will ever get to holding all the original art for Black Axe at once) with vellum overlays included where I inked weather effects separately all packaged together into a lovely slipcase. This edition of 1,000 will be signed and numbered.

This book is currently being solicited by Diamond for a May release with ORDER CODE: JAN181333




For the cover art (which is debossed into the cloth cover) I sketched up Celanawe flanked by Conrad & Em encircled in a briar wreath with King Luthebon looming over them. I drew the characters all separately on copy paper and then scanned them into Photoshop. Each character (and the wreath) were on different layers and tinted differently to help me move, resize, and compose the image.


Once I had the layout done, I printed it out and taped that to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. Using a lightpad (I use a Huion) I could see through the surface of the bristol to the printout and use it as a guide to ink. I use Copic Multiliners for the inkwork (the 0.7 & 0.3 nibs mainly). Because this image was going to be debossed in cloth, I couldn't go too crazy with details, textures, and cross-hatching...but the wreath still got a little dense with linework despite my best efforts.
Luckily, the artwork will also be reproduced on paper inside the book itself.


Speaking of the book, here is a sample of a few of the pages as they appear in the Black Axe: Black and White Edition:





2018 Appearances announced soon...