As the final blogpost of 2015, the 10 year anniversary of Mouse Guard being published, I decided to collect all ELEVEN of my convention sketchbooks into a single digital collection. You can see the new cover art I did for the collection to the left (my mousey take on St. George & the Dragon) The digital sketchbook collection is available for purchase through my online store: http://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/mouse-guard-digital-sketchbook-collection-2004-2015 I know the past printed sketchbooks have been difficult to come by for fans who missed out on earlier years. In fact, the first Mouse Guard sketchbook (2004) was printed on my home printer and only about 4 copies were made. The following two were black and white, and from 2008 to present, they have all been in color. The digital collection has all the major material found in these 11 sketchbooks (with the exception of preliminary pencil sketches in the 2007 sketchbook which have since been reprinted in the Art of Mouse Guard hardcover). 288 pages of commissions, Free Comic Book Day covers & promotions, odd pieces I did as gifts and more populate this decade+ bundle of work. Each year is delineated with a decorative border on the outer page to keep track of where in chronology the pieces fall. To the left is a sampling of one page per year of what is included in the sketchbook collection In addition to all of that material, I also went back through my folders and found 30 pieces that for one reason or another, didn't make it into various years' sketchbooks. I have colored many of these pieces as well (in the years where the sketchbooks were in color). You can see three sample of these below: Marx Bros. Mice, Lord of the Rings Mice, and Oregon Trail Mice: Again, to purchase the digital pdf Mouse Guard Sketchbook Collection, visit my online store: http://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/mouse-guard-digital-sketchbook-collection-2004-2015 2016 appearance dates coming soon.
As a theme for my next sketchbook (which was going to debut at NYCC...but will have to wait until later this year or early next) I had t...
In the world of Mouse Guard, mice struggle to live safely and prosper amongst harsh conditions and a host of predators. Thus the Mouse Guard was formed: more than just soldiers, they are guides for common mice looking to journey without confrontation from one village to another. They see to their duty with fearless dedication…
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 BAnkur, Second 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 Ankur on copy paper, and unlike much of my work, I did this drawing all in one go--no extra sheets for the background drawing, just a quick digital color blocking pass after drawing. On the Adana Tapestry, Ankur is shown with a scale mail pattern on his clothes--and instead of making regular metal armor, I decided to go with a pinecone seed look––something a rugged outdoors mouse sourced and assembled himself. The stitching on the helm and the eyepatch also suggest an worn existence. The other theme of this piece was to do a Winter scene. 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. Knowing the snow would be atop every branch, I decided to inking in the bottom area with some dense texture to give contrast. I also avoided bringing the background line art right against the flame of the torch or the numeral '2' to help in the next step as well as give some depth of field. 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 The snow, the flame, and the number 2. Most of the colors were either plucked from the Adana Tapestry or established in my rough layout 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. I added the falling snow snow and the torch glow effects on separate layers The entire 10 piece print set is available in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/wielders-of-the-black-axe-print-set
As a theme for my next sketchbook (which was going to debut at NYCC...but will have to wait until later this year or early next) I had t...
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
Welcome to Mouse Guard
David Petersen, coloured by Helen Kuster
Welcome to Mouse Guard
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