“New Blogpost about the process for creating the #MouseGuard artwork titled 'PREVAIL': https://t.co/iftadYvQzC”
Wind in the Willows Chapter 12 The Return
Today we celebrate the brilliance of David Petersen and his epic creation, Mouse Guard. For those of you have yet to discover these graphic novels and games, David brings us into the complex and beautiful world of intelligent mice and their navigations through social, political, and personal upheav
David Petersen went live on Twitch to talk about the death of the Mouse Guard movie project, the future of the comics, and his emotions
First time Con Set-up notes: Last week I received and email from an artist who will be setting up at his first convention in March, and was curious if I had any advice about setting up and exhibiting. Friends of mine suggested that this might be a topic and reply worthy of sharing, so here goes. (And I apologize for the lack of visuals that tie into the text...instead, enjoy spot illustrations from the Mouse Guard RPG) -Pulling the trigger First off, I'd like to start by talking about getting to the step of exhibiting at a convention. I would never be where I am now if I hadn't plucked up the courage and reluctantly parted with some cash and set up at the Motor City Comic Con in October of 2004. If you want a career in illustration or storytelling, I recommend exhibiting in an artist alley at least once if only for the experience. Like anything, you learn by doing (not thinking about doing something someday) and even if you are unsuccessful at your first show, or first several shows, hopefully you will have learned and grown...or perhaps you will be successful right out of the gate! Obviously, if this is your first con, you are going to need to put out a little bit of cash for some supplies like a portfolio some printing, and a table cloth...but I'll get into that stuff as we go along....just keep in mind, you can start small and build your con supplies up with a small budget. And price out a conventions that works for you. There are big expensive shows and smaller shows. There are shows with a comics-only focus and shows that are multi-media extravaganzas or pop-culture themed. Think about your audience and your budget. -What is your goal?: If you are ready to exhibit (or you think you might be) you will want to have a good idea of what you are trying to accomplish. There are lots of different types of jobs in comics: drawing/coloring/inking/writing for a big company & established characters, doing work for hire for private collectors, doing work for hire for several publishers, drawing/coloring/inking/writing your own material, or some combination of all of those. Knowing what your goal in work is can help you direct your attention for what to focus on for your table and conversations with patrons & publishers. The set-up of a creator trying to launch their own book is very different from a creator who is looking to knock out 20 commissions in a weekend, and is also very different from the creator who is selling prints of their own concepts to try and get attention from art directors. -Your best foot forward: Make your booth approachable and nice as possible. You WANT people to come browse your goods and work, so make it easy for them.Gather your BEST work to display in a portfolio or on the table. This is work that shows off who YOU are...not who you can emulate. Just like a good portfolio shows a clear message and focus, so should your table. Some conventions provide a table covering, but it's worth the effort to get your own tablecloth (it can set your table apart and even be a design choice depending on color or material) For the tablecloth, fabric can be cheap at the fabric store if you shop smart, but you can also use a flat bed sheet. And if you can manage have 2 table cloths...one goes on the table under your merchandise, the other is draped over the top of your stuff at the end of the night to prevent things from wandering off while everyone else closes down or before the con opens the next morning. -Vertical display space: Try and make sure your work isn't all just flat on the table surface. Either with signs or racks or frames to display some of your work/books/prints/etc. upright, you will want to have something vertical so someone walking down the middle of the aisle can see what you have to offer without having to be directly over your table. You can buy little book easels or plate racks, but it's also easy to copy their design and make your own out of chipboard or cardboard on a budget. Some conventions also provide a backdrop, but most don't. I think IMPhotographics has the best deal on banners for your table, but if you are budget conscious, you can improvise your own. For my first sign, I took a large B&W dithered bitmap file to Kinkos, printed it out on their blueprint copier and mount it to foamcore and displayed it behind me on an easel ($40 total supplies & printing) -Signage: Make sure every bit of info you want people to have is easy to get. Some kind of sign (or banner) saying who you are is a must. Some conventions provide a cardstock name plaque, but not all do. Everything you plan to sell should be marked. You can price everything individually with tags or little signs, or make up a con-menu sign that covers everything (prints: $10, sketchbooks: $15, commissions: $80...). If the work in your portfolio is for sale, make sure the prices are easy to find. Customers should know what the prices of your items are without having to ask. -Items at several price points: It's a good plan to have several price point opportunities for customers. Not every person who comes up to you has $40 to spend at your table, but they might part with $20 or $5...or...they might be wanting to spend $200...you never know, so try and offer something for everyone. This also helps in making back your table fees...it's hard to make the investment back selling $1 buttons or $3 comics (even if you sell bunches of them) but several $10 prints and a few original art or commission sales can make a big difference. To vary up the price offerings you can play with the sizes of prints. Most print shops will offer a good deal on 11" x 17" prints, so in addition to offering that poster-size, think about printing 4-6 smaller prints on a single sheet of 11x17 and trimming them down. Items like comics & small prints can be in the $3-5 range, with larger prints & sketchbooks going up to $10-15, and commissions and original art being more than that (figuring out what to price your originals for is a whole other conversation) -Freebies At your first con new business cards printed can be your freebie, but if you have more budget or are further on in your exhibiting you can also try bookmarks, postcards, stickers (though some cons ban them) or buttons once you get a feel for your market and what you are willing pay for free items. The items should have a way to contact you (a URL, an email address, your name, or bare minimum: the title of your project). To prevent blowing through too many of these items you paid for, you can offer them only to people who stopped and showed interest instead of just having them on the table marked 'free'. -The right sales approach: Don't be a pushy seller. Everyone's pitch and technique is different and finding your style may come easy or take some trial and error. I advise saying hello and greet everyone who stops by (which also means making eye contact), but don't go too much further pushing unless they show more interest or ask questions. Think of it as having a conversation with the customer rather than a sales pitch. I hate being hit over the head with a full explanation of someone's project & all the prices are & what items are which the minute I walk up to them. You should be proud to talk about your work and to take the opportunity to explain it, but you will turn more people off than you attract doing a hard-sell or carnival barking people over to your table. -Accept credit card payments if possible: A few years ago, you could get by without accepting credit payments, but that has changed. I'm now seeing that I would lose a good number of sales if I didn't accept them. Square is an app and device for android or iOS devices and Paypal offers one too. The benefit about both of these devices is that you can use it on your phone's data plan (not just wifi) and you have no annual/monthly merchant fees. If you don't have a device that can use either the reader or app, but can access your email, you can ask a customer to paypal you the payment on their device and you can confirm the payment was sent by checking your email. -Commissioned work: Figuring out the pros and cons of varied commission policies is a whole post on its own ...but I'd say the best advice I can offer is to plan ahead: What do you charge for them? (Is the amount based on size, a number of figures, media used), What you are willing and not willing to do per commission? (certain subjects/themes off limits? Backgrounds?). As you do more conventions your policies may change, and you may also need to devise a method/order for how/when you accept the requests (first come/first served? limit per customer? new list every day? pre-orders?) You will want to have answers ready (not necessarily written out on a sign) for sizes, options, pricing, etc. when asked and not try to figure it out on-the-spot. Make sure you have materials you want to use to do commissions (paper, the right pens, pencils, color tools). If you are getting more requests than you planned, consider losing a little profit by overbooking yourself and offering to ship the finished art back to a customer after the convention. Commissions are a great way to build up a client base that may not yet be familiar with your work. -Copyrighted characters & ideas: Strictly speaking, you could be in violation of copyright laws by making a profit on any character/concept/or logo you don't own the rights to. A great deal of artists in Artist Alley do sell prints, commissions, and sketchbooks containing characters they don't own, but most do so at the risk that they could be busted. Some may have arrangements with the publishers of those characters because of their work history/contracts with them, others are just too small of a target for a publisher to take legal action. As an artist whose career is based on a creator owned book, I'm more interested in promoting my own ideas than copyrighted characters, so I'm biased...but my rule-of-thumb is that I won't sell printed material of anything that I don't own the rights to; however if someone commissions me to do a one-of original of a copyrighted character, I'll accept. If your goal is to get work drawing for a big publisher and you need to exhibit some of the work showcasing your understanding & skill at drawing those characters, it's fine to show, but I'd avoid selling it. -Dry run table layout: Measure out a place on your dining room table or even on your floor that matches the table space in artist alley. Try a few different table arrangements for all your items. Make sure everything fits and that it's arranged nicely to your liking. Avoid set-ups where your products overlap each other or look cluttered like a second-hand store. Once you have a layout you like, it's easy to snap a photo of it and use the photo as reference during table set-up. -Be yourself Don't try and be someone you are not...and this goes for your artwork too. Offer up information about you or your work or your technique when asked. If someone asks you something you don't have an answer ready for (freelance work, rights questions, price breaks, etc.) It's ok to say "I don't know...let me think about that and get back to you". Don't be self deprecating or apologize for your work...(especially if you are having your work reviewed by an editor/publisher...just listen and answer the questions you are asked) being humble is one thing...coming off like a sad artist who doesn't belong is another. Smile, be nice, and enjoy the con & meeting people. It's a fun experience! Watercolor Wednesday: In case you missed last week's Watercolor Wednesday pieces, here they are for a closer look. First up is a Moon & Sun pairing. I painted the moon first and then decided it would be fun to do a 'day' companion piece. I went back and forth on whether to sell them individually or as a set. I opted in the end for them to be a set. Second up are the Beatles in Sgt. Pepper gear. I struggle with drawing humans anyhow and getting likeness is a tricky task to boot, so in my fear of making this simple watercolor wednesday into more work than pleasure, I abstracted the layout so that the Beatles themselves were absent and only their hair & clothing (and John's glasses) remained. Tomorrow I'll post more paintings in my online store. 2013 Appearances: Emerald City: March 1-3 Fabletown Con: March 22-24 C2E2: April 26-28 Spectrum Live: May 17-19 Heroes Con: June 7-9 Albuquerque Comic Expo June 21-23 San Diego Comic Con: July 17-21 *more 2013 dates coming*
Original Comic Art titled Mr. Toad, located in Mal's David Petersen Comic Art Gallery (953940)
Read "Mouse Guard Vol. 3: The Black Axe" by David Petersen available from Rakuten Kobo. Collects Mouse Guard: The Black Axe #1-6 This prequel set in 1115, fulfils the promise the wise oldfur Celanawe made to ...
Autor: David Petersen NORMA EDITORIAL REGRESA CON UNA NUEVA AVENTURA DE LA GUARDIA DE LOS RATONES Tras la frustrada revuelta de Midnight, ha llegado el invierno a los territorios ratones. La guardia aún se está recuperando y planea unir a todos los pueblos ratón para poder sobrevivir al duro invierno y tener un futuro próspero. …
The birch tree in the Noel Wein Library in Fairbanks is full of these hand sewn cloth birds by Janlee Irving.
Mouse Guard creator David Petersen and illustrator Serena Malyon talk about the ABCs of their new book from BOOM! Studios
A few months ago Mike Mignola started sharing on Facebook all of his favorite & obscure 'horror' movies, with screen shots and a some context for what and why he liked that particular one. President of BOOM!/Archaia, Ross Richie said to me, I'd like to see YOUR list of what Mignola's doing. I paused and said that it wouldn't be interesting, that I don't have a specific genre of movies, and if I did a long 'favorite' list, it would be populated with no surprises, other than perhaps 'Candleshoe'. To which, Ross cocked his head, smiled and said "see, I don't know that one". So, here is a list. It is not a list of best movies, and I don't know that I'd even say favorite (though a lot of favorites are here). I'd say that this list represents movies that influenced me, that made a deep enough impact that I learned from them as a storyteller, that I've watched repeatedly, and that I own a copy of (which, to be truthful, I do not own many hardcopies of movies these days). While there may be some obvious and cliche entires here, there are also some unusual and lesser known ones, but ultimately, I hope that the sum of the collection is what paints the picture of what is interesting about this list. Candleshoe (1977): Back when we had a Betamax VCR, I'd rent this movie over and over. Ragamuffin kids in English country estate try to uncover a hidden treasure as a long-lost-heiress scheme plays out. David Niven's character in disguise playing multiple roles, Leo McKern (Help, ladyhawke) & Vivian Pickles (Harold & Maude) play the villains. I think it was my pre-Harry Potter fix for kid adventure in English architecture. Fiddler on the Roof (1971): Topol as Tevye! My father had the record of the soundtrack with an illustrated cover that fascinated me. And he would regularly quote Tevye: "If I try and bend that far, I'll break" when my sisters and I would ask him to stray too far from his view of the world. Beyond the story and the music resonating for me, with my sisters in theater in high-school, I was noticing even in elementary school how this stage play was adapted for film differently than another on my list: The Music Man. Cinematography, set design, camera movement, editing, were things I took note of, realizing "there's no way they could do it like THAT on stage.." (As a side note, as an adult, Julia and I were able to see Topal on stage in his farewell tour as Tevye in Detroit in 2009." The Godfather (1972): This is one of a handful of movies in the world that lives up to all of the praise, is not over-hyped, and in a very rare instance, where the film is better than the book. Of course, this film would appear on a lot of people's lists for best or favorite, and I don't think that's for any lowest-common denominator reason. It's just that well filmed, acted, scored, edited, and written. Vito is as honorable a man as the leader of a crime family could ever possibly be. His decision in the opening scene about the difference between 'justice' & 'vengeance' paints the picture of a man who believes in fairness that we see play out in-full with young Vito in Part 2. The saga of Michael going from idealist moral high-ground to criminal, to Don is a compelling and tragic backbone to a great period piece and crime film. Harold & Maude (1971): Hard to imagine much funny about an 18 year old obsessed with death & suicide as he becomes romantically involved with an octogenarian who attends funerals for fun. However, Hal Ashby does it in this cult-classic dark comedy. It's through the quirkiness of the performances & character traits that allows us, even if we are not at all a Harold or a Maude, ready to want to be more like them and less like the 'normal' world around them. The overall uplifting idea of knowing how to truly live constant throughout certainly helps. All that and a Cat Stevens soundtrack! HELP! (1965): First off, The Beatles! My favorite era of their music is the middle period that started with Help and lasts through Magical Mystery Tour. The lads push their comedic chops beyond what they accomplished in Hard Days Night, but here become something that feels like the Marx Brothers time travel from the past to meet Monty Python in the future. Set-piece-wise I really love the seemingly separate row-house exterior that inside is one long open concept flat with each Beatle having their own color/look/theme to their area: Paul's organ rising up from the floor, John's sunken bed, George's lawn & gardener, and Ringo's automat. Monty Python & The Holy Grail (1975): My favorite movie. At the age of 12, this is what introduced me to Monty Python, and I think it changed my life. The troupe has been called "The Beatles of comedy", which, after HELP, feels like a logical next-step. As a kid who loved knights & fantasy, as well as humor that felt safely subversive, this move struck a lot of chords with me. At that age, my friends and I liked making movies, and there was something about the way this is filmed (and watching the making-of enforces this) that felt like a group of kids making a movie...though the final product isn't at all diminished for it. In fact, the authenticity of the setting and photography is what makes the comedy work at such a high level. That grounding of realism makes the absurd all the more potent. It's the same grounding I use in Mouse Guard with the natural world & worldbuilding being as precise as I can make it, while the mice themselves are a little off-model from nature. The Music Man (1962): My parents, and to some degree my sisters, loved musicals. For whatever reason, as a kid, I couldn't get into Oklahoma, West Side Story, or My Fair Lady (though they were on heavy repeat in the Petersen house)...but the first one that landed with me was Music Man. I'm not sure what resonates the most with me, the tale of a swindler with a heart of gold who just needed the right reson to stop swindling? or the music, performed by Robert Preston & Shirley Jones. Can't entirely say, but Julia and I did have 'Till There Was You' sung at our wedding. My Side of the Mountain (1969): On an overnight visit to my paternal Grandparent's house, my Grandfather told me to "come in to the living room and see this movie with a boy living in a tree". He got me. I loved wandering off in the woods and building forts when I was as young as 5. This adaptation of the book of the same name (another case where I think the film fixes problems the book has) has a boy named Sam Gribley moving out into the wild to make his own way in the world. A self-sufficient 12 year-old who builds his home into a tree hollow, makes his own fireplace & pottery out of river clay, and befriends wild animals as pets/companions. Everything young David Petersen wanted to do. In fact, when I was Sam's age, I did have a fort in the woods with a fireplace inside where I'd cook eggs, sausage, potatoes, and warm up frozen burritos. I think this movie also influenced the way I looked at how the mice make their way in the world, how do they do pottery, how to they kiln bake it? how do they preserve food? what materials do they make clothes out of? Thanks Grandpa. Nightmare Before Christmas (1993): I'd grown up on the Rankin/Bass stop-motion Christmas/holiday specials, but Nightmare was the first time I saw really compelling stop-motion, especially of this length. Before this movie came out, in middle-school, I'd played around with our home camera and clay or toys to animate. Nightmare Before Christmas came out when I was in high school, it renewed my desire to animate, and even go so-far as to scratch-build my own stop-motion puppets. The design of this movie is also so special, not just the characters and the art direction for the obvious Tim Burton-isms, but all of the structures and props. Everything that appears on film was hand made....for this film. Every character, garment, object, tree, gravestone...you name it, fabricated for the movie. The Wizard of Oz (1939): A classic. In 2nd grade, in art class, Rebecca Holm told me that she was putting on a play of Wizard of Oz, and that if I wanted to be in it, I had to watch the movie when it aired on TV that night. Done. I was the Tin Woodsman. The production turned out to be something us kids put so much work into that even when our teacher Ms. Polly said 'no' we couldn't perform it as a class project (at this point 1/2 the class was in it) a few of our parents called her privately to explain how much work we'd all put in and how meaningful it would be. I drove my family crazy by watching and rewatching to 'learn my lines', and by the time of the play, I could recite 3/4 of the movie by heart...not just my part, but all the parts. Return to Oz (1985): As I mentioned earlier, we had a Betamax...and at a time when that format was going extinct. When I'd get the chance to rent something, and it wasn't Candleshoe, it was Return to OZ. The movie led me to know OZ outside of the 1939 musical adaptation and to the original books (which I didn't read many of, but did flip through exhaustively at the library). The darker tone didn't scare me, which was a popular complaint when the movie was released. And the production design was so interesting to me...even then I felt a sense of authenticity to the look of the characters and settings. I was lead to discover how much was influenced by my now favorite OZ illustrator John R. Neill. Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988): My parents didn't take me to many movies in the theaters. They had become soured on all the talking, sticky floors, and previews (they called "ads") so this is the only entry on the list my parents took me to see in the theater. I was 11, and what kid doesn't love cartoons? I also, it turns out, love period films...so this blend made me happy. I wanted to be Roger. I mimicked Roger (I still do a decent impression), but most importantly, I drew Roger. This movie made me want to draw more. Before this I was interested in art, but it was an occasional hobby. Drawing Roger and the other toons is what tipped the balance over to art being my primary leisure activity, and paved the way for me getting into more art classes in middle-school. IT - TV Mini Series (1990): Tim Curry as Pennywise...hard act to follow. Though I did REALLY like the 2017 film, I am impressed by how accurate the TV mini-series is to the book. This came on TV when I was in middle-school. I was not really into horror or scary movies, but something about the ads leading up to broadcast compelling (my older sister, who was married & out of the house by 1990, was a Stephen King fan...and perhaps I wanted to impress her). I'm sure this is by desing, but I could relate to the Losers. I was one of them, and so were my friends. My childhood felt like a lot of King's books with kid protagonists, but without the supernatural clowns, dead bodies, or really horrible stuff...I explored the Flint, MI storm drains, had forts in the woods, hung around the train tracks, and explored the abandoned 'haunted house' at the end of my street. This was my first introduction to King's work, and is still my favorite book of his. Shawshank Redemption (1994): In some ways, this is on my list because of the 'Shawshank Effect': That if flipping through channels, if you discover it's on, you will watch it again for the umpteenth time, no matter how far along it it...but I think that effect has a compelling reason...The movie is really good! I mentioned above that IT lead me to become a Stephen King fan, and this story so wonderfully shows his ability to write and not just scare. The movie is a terrific adaptation. The pacing, use of narration, and how it treats its revelas and twists is a great example lesson in storytelling. Yet another period piece on my list... Dark Crystal (1982): Worldbuilding is important to me as a storyteller. And I think seeing The Dark Crystal was the first time I became so aware of it, I realized it was something intentional and a craft to be honed. Like I mentioned with Nightmare, the fabrication of that world was so important, nothing was found, everything was created. It should be no surprise that I am a big fan of Jim Henson's work. And I love that this movie, unlike Labyrinth, never has a visible human...every performance is through some form of puppetry or costume. As a young artist who enjoyed creature design, seeing Brian Froud's drawings realized as physical puppets with detailed costuming, textures and movement, was, and is, a treat to this day. I know the story is a bit slow, but I forgive that for the blessings of design, craftsmanship, and mood The Dark Crystal gives in return. The Village (2004): By the time The Village came out, audiences had gotten used to the 'twist' endings in M. Night Shyamalan's movies and were prepared to look for them and therefore be underwhelmed when they arrived. But I think the photography, 'period' worldcraft, and performances aren't the only reason the twist isn't what this movie hinges on. See, I think, this is one of the rare movies where knowing the twist, enriches the viewing, enriches understanding the character motivations, and enriches the central relationships. I also enjoy using the scene of Ivy & Lucius on the porch as one of the best love scenes with two characters that never physically become amorous or say the word 'love'. Plus, the color symbology and the creature design are right up my alley. Walk Hard: The Dewy Cox Story (2005): A period comedy musical...it's like many of my movie tendencies merged into one. Walk Hard delivers on a lot of levels, cast, type of humor, but I think most importantly, authenticity. Not only do the in-jokes and phases of Dewy's musical career dovetail into a multi-decade understanding of real musical and cultural paradigm shifts, but the music itself, though parody, is so well done, much of it stands on its own (I recommend the 30 track soundtrack with songs not in the film). The care and songcraft that went into those songs that span musical styles and artists-cliche's through the years shows a level of worldbuilding comedy movies can't generally do. "It's about make a little music every day 'till you die; it's a beautiful ride." Wind in the Willows - Cosgrove Hall (1983): Though released when I was in elementary school, it wasn't until I was in college that I was able to get my hands on a VHS boxed set of this series and watch it in-full. From the list already you can see my appreciation for stop-motion, handcrafted elements, and lovingly built worlds. As much as E.H. Shephard, Inga Moore, and Arthur Rackham were influences on my illustrated adaptation of Wind in the Willows, so was the Cosgrove Hall animated version. Wind in the Willows is one of my favorite books, and this is my favorite movie adaptation of it. It's A Wonderful Life (1946): A Holiday classic! Jimmy Stewart, Donna Reed, and Lionel Barrymore star in my favorite Christmas movie. It's full of 1940's black and white film goodness, a little over-the-top character acting in bits, but also really meaningful subtle moments. One of the things I enjoy the most about It's A Wonderful Life is its playing with darker ideas: suicide, never existing, addiction, extreme loss, & the butterfly effect; being woven into an ultimately uplifting story at Christmas time in the grand tradition of Christmas ghost stories like Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Also, the opening bit with the angels talking to each other depicted as twinkling stars feels to me like a Mignola handling how to story-tell an etherial being conversation. Doctor Zhivago (1965): Another film I learned to love thanks to my Father. It's a period piece, an epic, sweeping drama, with big picturesque set pieces and establishing shots. I really appreciate the framing of the narrative both sandwiched between Zhivago's brother searching for the lost love child of his late brother and mistress Lara, and narrated by that brother as played by Alec Guinness. I wanted Mouse Guard to be square format so I could do wide panels with impact on the page like a David Lean movie. Yellow Submarine (1968): Discovered this movie when I was in middle school while taking an animation class at the Flint Institute of Arts. While we were making flat-paper-cutout animation in the style of Terry Gilliam, The teacher wanted to share this with us to show how effective stylized two dimensional shapes can be even with simple movements. And while the Beatles had no real involvement with the creative decisions, the humor feels like a logical growth from HELP!. It's a really fun narrative that promotes Love. This was a staple replayed in high school as I drew things from my imagination and tried to realize them on paper. Bonus points for getting turned on to artists Heinz Edelmann & Peter Max because of Yellow Submarine. Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996): "Morning in Paris, the city awakes to the bells of Notre Dame..." That opening sequence...I mean, wow! And while Beauty and the Beast ranks higher for me overall as a modern Disney animated movie, the parts of Hunchback that work, work so well, that it gets the spot on the list. This is also my favorite Disney musical soundtrack, and I have very fond memories of taking parts and singing it aloud with Jesse Glenn in early college, as well as in the attic of my hometown church as I painted a new outdoor sign for the building. No surprise that a piece of medieval architecture plays such a strong part in a movie on my list. Not to mention that Quasimodo is a model builder with a scale set of the world he longs to be a part of is a big part of my professional job (and I love the look of the carved pieces.) Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban (2004): I love the Harry Potter books. Rowling did such a fantastic job of crafting a modern classic fairy/folktale...and one that perfectly handles the loophole-problematic concept of magic. Azkaban is not only my favorite of the Potter books, but I think the most innovative of the films. Part of that is due to the length of the source material not needing to be as condensed to fit a run-time as the later volumes, but Alfonzo Cuaron played with style at exactly the right point in this series to tackle the shifting tone of the narrative as well as become something more than the slightly safe/pedestrian takes on the first two books. His transitions from scene to scene really impressed me, and gave some nice breathing room that allowed us some time to be at Hogwarts without a running narrative. This is where the film series turns a corner that informs the rest of the series look and cinematic mood. Raiders of the Lost Arc (1981): This one's on most people's lists I'd assume. I can't help but think of it as a near-perfect movie. George Lucas & Stephen Spielberg played up their love of radio & movie serials with the larger-than-life adventure hero constantly cliffhanging out of the fat and into the fire. The story structure and character introductions are so clean and efficient that nothing could/should be added or removed that would improve this movie. And while that opening scene, seems hard to top, the rest of the movie does the near impossible and lives up to that spectacular start. Indy being irrelevant to the plot (an old analysis made popular on The Big Bang Theory) I think is irrelevant. Even IF Indy played no role in shaping the outcome, there is still value in the ride...it's not the destination but the journey. Disney's Robin Hood (1973): Medieval folk hero, adventure story, with talking animals...I think this movie is responsible for some things in my creative life. As a kid, for some reason, I called it "Robin Hood: The Animal". Before Mouse Guard was Mouse Guard, it was called 1149, and had a variety of animal species as main characters...including a fox and a bear. Disney's Robin Hood was not only an influence for my love of these types of stories, but a blueprint that the prototype version of Mouse Guard was based on. The Empire Strikes Back (1980): Star Wars is such a cultural and universal experience, I'm sure no one is surprised to see one of the entries on my list. Empire being my shining example, is also a cliche. But, I think for great reasons. The 2nd act of most plays is where things heat up and get really interesting, and Star Wars is no exception. I love how different Empire sets out to play the Star Wars narrative. The tone shifts, it becomes more character driven, the locations and design are different, but it's still familiar. The ante is upped with both in-atmosphere pilot battles & spaceship dogfights. And that epic showdown/reveal with Luke & Vader tops nearly everything before and since in a Star Wars movie. Joseph Campbell's concept of the Monomyth is on full display in the original Star Wars trilogy. And as a storyteller, my working vocabulary of those concepts isn't from The Epic of Gilgamesh, Sinbad, or The Odessy...it's in Star Wars, and it certainly informed my story structure in Mouse Guard. 2018 Convention Appearance Dates coming soon...
Illustrator of the fantastic. △
My final TMNT Macro Series cover for IDW is Raphael. This marks my 17th Turtles cover for IDW, and it has been a pleasure to do them all. My first TMNT cover was of Raphael, so to end this round with him feels a bit full-circle. To see my past TMNT covers click here. The finished art for the Raphael cover is on the left, but below I'll walk through the steps to create this cover piece. Layouts/Pencils: As with the other Macro Series covers, editor Bobby Curnow provided me an outline of the events of the issue, but also gave me free reign to do something 'classic'. Part of the Raph story takes place in Central Park. And since the other 3 covers in this series have their locations as a main element in the composition, picking the right Central Park monument was key. I toyed with The Dairy, The Carousel, Belvedere Castle, and Columbus Circle monument...but opted for the juxtaposition of the Angel of the Waters atop the Bethesda Fountain. Raph was drawn on copy paper (2 sheets, I redrew one arm and his sai) and the Angel of the Waters was drawn from a reference photo. All of these drawings were scanned into photoshop composited (with some digital pigeons, & ninja stars along with some stock photo trees) and then quickly painted to help me 'see' the final composition and to make it easier for the editor and Nickelodeon understand what I was doing. Inks: I printed out the above layout and taped it to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my light pad, I was able to see through the bristol surface to the printout, and I used that as a guide to ink from. I used Copic Multiliner pens...mostly the 0.7 nib. Translating the texture of the shading on the statue was the tough part. Knowing how far to go. I like the soft nature of my pencil version more than the inked one...but sometimes, that happens. Color Flats: Once the inks were finished I scanned the original artwork to start the coloring process. This step is called 'flatting' where you digitally paint in the colors (could be the final palate, could be made up colors) to establish what areas are different colors from one another. Raph's skin is different from his front shell, and that's different from the sky, or the pigeons, or the statue, or his pads or arm wraps. In this step I also added color holds (areas I wanted the ink work to be a color and not black) to the moon's outline, the stars, and the trees. Color: The final step was to render all the color. I did this step live over on my Twitch channel. I do all of the highlighting, shading and texture using the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop and a stock brush. I did add some more color holds on Raph's cuts and also some glowy bits on the edges of the statue & pigeons in front of the moon. ...oh...and I just found out, I'm doing another cover for this series...the trade! 2019 Appearances TBA
Earlier in the month I found that I was headed into C2E2 and the rest of my conventions with only a few copies of a limited edition print on-hand. So, I started work on a new print that I debut at C2E2, but have in my online store and will take to the rest of my conventions until they run out (edition of 300). I Ustreamed the process as I worked, but thought I'd post the process here on my blog as well, which will include new info not covered in the ustream because I continued to work on the piece long after the stream ended. Julia liked how my last limited edition print was something the female Mouse Guard fans would find "pretty" while also not being too feminine for the male fans. So I set out with the same goal in mind. I swapped out the flowering branches with raspberry vines and the feathers for an actual bird. I did a rough sketch in my sketchbook and then scanned it. The image to the right is a photoshop corrected version where I had already made some adjustments in the distance between the mouse & the bird's head. Julia also likes the Dark Eyed Junco birds that hop around our back yard, so I used that bird as this mouse's mount. With the above photoshopped sketch printed out to actual size (11" x 11" so it will fit onto a 12" x 12" sheet of bristol with a nice 0.5" border all around), I taped the printout to the back of a sheet of strathmore 300 series bristol. On a lightbox, I was able to see the printout to use as a guide as I inked. There wasn't a lot of black areas in this piece, I knew I would rely on color to help move the eye throughout my rather even-weighted lines. The background is also rather sparse, but I wasn't yet aware how that was a problem...I thought the lighter background would allow for a nice amount of breathing room. As I colored the scanned inks, I started realizing that the composition wasn't working. There wasn't enough in the background to weight the figures to anything spatially. It was too two dimensional and designey. I was struggling with the color choices too. My original plan was a dark grey mouse with a blue dress, and with a traditionally toned junco. But the grey and blue and more grey and, blue-grey that plan involved was too cool, and led me to this rendering to the right. As I signed off on my Ustream I said that I wanted to add more to the background, and I was sure that would also push the colors in a different direction. Back on the original inked piece, I sketched out new raspberries and leaves and vines. I wanted them to overlap and have a bigger sense of depth. It took a few ties in sketching to get a composition that felt like what I was going for without being too heavy handed and cluttered. Even with that concern, the inks look busier than how I knew the final piece would look with all the color and adjusted palate. After a new scan of these inks, I patched in just the new lines (so I didn't need to be as fussy about trying to line up the new scan with the original inks). The final image palette came together with a lot of help from Julia. She really didn't like the unconventional coloring on the Junco in my first pass...even though I could show her online reference for similar coloration in juncos, she thought the markings our backyard variety had were superior. After adjusting those colors and the background to something more pale and sky-like, the rest of the adjustments cascaded into easier and easier choices. As I said at the start of the post, the new print (edition of 300) is now available in the online store Free Comic Book Day Plans: This Saturday I'll be making two local (MI) appearances. From 10-12:30 I'll be at Detroit Comics in Ferndale. From 1pm on I'll be at Green Brain Comics in Dearborn. Both stores will have the Mouse Guard/Rust Free Comic Book Day from Archaia and I'll be signing them (plus brining a few of my convention prints and original art). The artwork from this year's 8 page story will be available in the online store sometime that day. And check back on the blog on Saturday night for a video of me reading the FCBD story. Watercolor Wednesday: Last week's set of 4 watercolors (which I insisted on breaking up and sending off across the world in different directions) was the result of a visual idea from my past. In 2007-8 I collaborated with glass artist Gary Bolt to make a glass casting of this group of skeleton characters: The King, Knight, Fool, & Villain. The group seemed like they would be fun subjects to watercolor and re-explore. Tomorrow I'll post more paintings in my online store. 2013 Appearances: Spectrum Live: May 17-19 Heroes Con: June 7-9 Albuquerque Comic Expo June 21-23 San Diego Comic Con: July 17-21 *more 2013 dates coming*
Maurizio Quarello illustrator website
Happy Thanksgiving!
For a new 10 piece print set, I illustrated all of the past wielders of the Black Axe from Bardrick to Celanawe. I'd shown and listed the wielders in the Black Axe book--but they were only ever visualized as embroidery details on the Adana Tapestry––and I wanted to give them a more solid design existence. The set of ten 4.75" x 4.75" prints is available for sale in my online store and comes in a vellum envelope: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/wielders-of-the-black-axe-print-set To the left you can see the finished art for the Bardrick, First of the Black Axes print in the set. Below I'm going to go through the process to create the art. Layout: I started with a pencil drawing of Bardrick himself on copy paper, and then added another sheet of paper on top of it on a light box for the snake skeleton environment. I scanned both sheets into Photoshop (tinted them to make viewing them easier) and added some basic color blocking as well as a quick medieval tent. With Bardrick being the fist I wanted him to be battle worn, so he has a tattered cloak which is stitched together in places. The helmet is the one I'd shown in the illuminated illustrations from Fall. And since one of the Black Axe's first mythic deeds was to have 'slain the five serpents who surrounded all that was' I though the snake bones as well as a tent that I thought implied a arduous campaign against the serpents. Inks: I printed out the above layout when I was happy with the arrangement and taped that printout to the back of a sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol. On my Huion Lightpad I'm able to see through the bristol to the the printout to use it as a guide to ink from. I ink with Copic Multiliner SP pens, and I used the 0.7 & 0.3 nibs for this piece. I had to be careful with the density of the ground covering so that the snake skeleton could still be seen. I also made sure I left a little white gap between the background details and Bardrick--this helps me coloring in the next step, but also gives some visual separation in the planes of depth. Color Flats: When the inks were done, I scanned the art and brought it back into Photoshop to start the coloring process. This is the step where I 'm basically just filling in each area with flat color. In this step I also establish the color holds, areas where I want the ink work to be a color other than black. In this piece that consists of all the tent lineart and the numeral '1'. That 1 is a runic numbering I stole from artist Jeremy Treece which is a large 1 with a smaller roman numerals coming off the right side--in this case, just another 1. Final Colors: The final colors were rendered by using the dodge and burn tools in Photoshop (and a textured brush) to add shadows, highlights, and textures. I select areas and play with the color balance to shift colors in some areas. The entire 10 piece print set is available in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/wielders-of-the-black-axe-print-set
