Sorry about the delay in new posts. Took a trip down to Tuscany with Carlos D'Anda and his lovely lady, Cindy. Anyone unfamiliar with Carlos' work should go out and buy the new Batman-Arkham Asylum game. Carlos is responsible for most of the character design work and the whole thing looks INCREDIBLE!!!!! At any rate, the guy is a monster and his work continues to impress, as does his ability to create interesting characters like The Terrible Tea-bagger. Citizens of small Tuscan towns beware!
Getting back to Wednesday Comics, we have officially reached the end of the experiment. The last issue hits the stands today as does the last installment of the Superman story on USAToday.com. Gotta say I will miss seeing a new issue every week. Kudos once again go out to Mark Chiarello for setting this whole thing up!!! Hope they do it again next year with totally new creative teams. Now that the precedent has been set, it's time for some new blood to come in and really explore the format. For now, here is the pencils for page 11. Since I've had some questions about what materials I use and my technique, this might be a good time to break it down. It's fairly simple: I draw with a drafting pencil, generally using an F lead or occassionally a B lead. Most of the line work is done with Microns and the washes are done using watered down Windsor & Newton inks. It should be noted that I do most of my value work in the pencil stage, coming back in with washes mainly to pump up the contrast a bit. I draw everything I do on the back of the standard DC illustration boards. I just like the surface better.
Notice the excessive ass shots of Superman here... that's for the nipple nazis. See, I'm an equal opportunity kinda guy.....
Loved D'Anda's art for the character bios. His designs particularly for Firefly and Mr. Freeze made me wish even more that they would've been included in the game.
ReplyDeletePicked up all twelve issues of Wednesday Comics and that finale page was pretty as always. Nice nod to a friend giving Supes an assist with one of those aliens.
Oddly I really like Superman's ripped costume in the third panel. It's not something you see. And the expression in the last is priceless.
ReplyDeleteAs for your ink work -- I'm going to have to try that. Since i use my pencil for values too and then feel that i ruin it when i apply my ink. *shrugs* trial and error makes us better artist right?
i get you jeannie! i have ruined many a piece of artwork by not thinking through my nxt step, although im lovin the detail and accuracy lee goe into.
ReplyDeleteJeannie and Andy, the only piece of advice I can offer, if I may, is that sometimes it helps to lay down a very watered down layer of ink (almost no ink mixed in the water so it's the lightest of greys) over the pencil rendering before you try and lay in darker shades. This seems to be the best way to avoid the ink wash getting 'splotchy'. Not sure if that helps but.....Needless to say all this stuff requires trial and error. Looking back at the originals now, I think I could have gone even darker in some areas, despite the fact that I was avoiding an overly contrasty look. It's just hard to achieve that perfect tonal balance that turns the form without looking 'heavy'.
ReplyDelete