Star Wars: Age of Rebellion Leia, Tarkin, Han and Boba Covers

Our first four covers for the Star Wars: Age of Rebellion are out now in stores from Marvel Comics!

Four more to go!

May the Force be with you!

TD

Star Wars #50 Step by Step Part 3 Color

Our variant cover for Star Wars #50 - out now from Marvel Comics - a family portrait!

Check out how we made it.

PART 3

COLOR

FLATS

The first stage of color is called flats - flatting allows me to choose an area to color at any point throughout the coloring process.

First thing I did was lay an orange color over the whole piece to harmonize the colors and get the "old fashioned movie poster" feel I was going for.

I try to adjust the colors to their medium value or imprimatura - I use this as the starting point for the piece. 

INITIAL COLOR (ROUGH IN)

I colored this on my Cintiq 22 HD using Photoshop CS3 .

I rough in quickly all the medium lights and darks on the figures and cast initial shadows.

Using the Pencil Tool (Hard Round pixel Brush) at 100% to to begin and then switch to lower 30-50% to get the right value of color for the next stages of rendering.

RIM LIGHT

 I added the yellow rim light to Luke using the Pencils tool at 100%

 GRADIENT and ROSY CHEEKS

Used the Gradient tool to fade out the background

I added Rosy cheeks to Leia

Used the Lasso and Gradient tool to define Leia's jaw line.

COLORING THE LINE ART

This is the icing on the cake step of the process.

I colored a lot of the black lines - notice the lips, flesh outline clothes and SFX in the background.

TOUCHES

Adding an extra layer of depth to Luke's eyes to help them POP.

PART 1

PENCILS

PART 2

LINE ART

TD

Star Wars 50 Step by Step Part 2 Inks

Our variant cover for Star Wars #50 - out now from Marvel Comics - a family portrait!

Check out how we made it.

PART 2

LINE ART

Rachel Dodson's initial start on the line art on this cover.

Rachel inks directly over my pencils.

TOOLS

Rachel inks with a Windsor Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable #2 Brush and Royal Talens India Ink.

Love how the strap  by Luke's head turned out.

I  love how she creates "grey".

And notice the details on Luke's ventilator tube.

Check out how Rachel makes the explosion details with Pro White.

I inked the ships with Pigma Micron 02 Pen.

I also fudged her eyes a bit with the pen, to make them a bit more Leia-esque...

FINAL LINE ART

Artwork is scanned into Photoshop at 800dpi Gray full size. I then go in and convert to Bitmap and clean to prepare for...

COLOR

Next time in

PART 3

And

PART 1

PENCILS

TD

Star Wars 50 Step by Step Part 1 Pencils

Our variant cover for Star Wars #50 - out now from Marvel Comics - a family portrait!

Check out how we made it.

COVER SKETCH

The cover concept I sent into Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm for approval.

Roughs were drawn at 2" x 3" in my sketchbook using Warm Grey Copics then colored in Photoshop CS3.

I had a pretty idea of what I wanted to with this one so you can so I set up a pretty simply design with just some editorial tweaks for background figures.

INITIAL PENCILS

Drawn in Light Blue on 12" x 18" Bristol Board 

Quickly roughed in the drawing making sure the composition still help.

I printed out my rough in light blue on the paper to ensure the composition was positioned correctly.

Now that I'm happy with the layout I proceed to penciling - using Staedtler HB lead.

Detail - notice the TRACING PAPER over Leia's face so I don't blur with my hand.

Here I used a Micron Pigma 02 Pen to ink the Tie Fighter

Almost Finished Pencils

And the scan of the pencils....

Next time, 

PART 2

INKS 

TD

Star Wars #38 Step by Step Part 3 Color

Our variant cover for Star Wars #38 - out now from Marvel Comics - a chance to draw Luke and Leia and X-Wings and Jedha!

Check out how we made it.

PART 3

COLOR

FLATS

The first stage of color is called flats - flatting allows me to choose an area to color at any point throughout the coloring process.

I try to adjust the colors to their medium value or imprimatura - I use this as the starting point for the piece. 

INITIAL COLOR (ROUGH IN)

I colored this on my Cintiq 22 HD using Photoshop CS3 .

I rough in quickly all the medium lights and darks on the figures and cast initial shadows.

Using the Pencil Tool (Hard Round pixel Brush) at 100% to to begin and then switch to lower 30-50% to get the right value of color for the next stages of rendering.

RIM LIGHT, GRADIENT, ROSY CHEEKS

On layers above the initial rough in -

LAYER 1 - Used the Gradient tool to fade out the background

LAYER 2 - I added Rosy cheeks to Leia and rounded out her face referencing photos from Empire 

Strikes Back

LAYER 3 - I added the yellow rim light to Luke using the Pencils tool at 100%

COLORING THE LINE ART

This is the icing on the cake step of the process.

I just started working on Luke here...

I colored a lot of the characters black lines, notice the lips, flesh outline and the rocks and clouds in the background.

Fun stuff!

ALMOST FINAL 

The colors I submitted to Marvel, editor Heather Antos had me light the background behind Luke...

FINAL COLOR 

Great suggestion, Heather!

PART 1

PENCILS

PART 2

LINE ART

TD