ROSE CITY now in SHOP

Our ROSE CITY print is available in the 

SHOP

until Sept 29.

Signed by Rachel and Me.

Sketch Versions Available.

SHIPS 

WORLDWIDE

TD

Exclusive Official Show Print for Emerald City Comic Con 2015

Here's a look at the Official Show Print I created for Emerald City Comic Con 2015.

 It will be a limited edition of 250 available only at the ECCC Merchandise Booth at the Con. It's will be 11 x17 inches and $20.

For more details- 

http://emeraldcitycomicon.com/current-exclusives/

I will sign it at my booth  C-19.

I will be doing a making of on this soon!

TD

Rose City Step by Step

A little behind the scenes look at how I made the Rose City artwork.

My initial sketches - knew in general EXACTLY what I was going for - but not SPECIFICS. I would let the drawing dictate!

 

I started off working full-size, 12 x 18 2 ply Bristol Board, using Light Blue and HB Lead. Nailed the figure and personality, knowing everything was there to set her up.

I roughed in the roses for compositon and design puroposed then found tons of Rose pics to make sure they were accurate. Went for a Heavy Mucha Dead Line on the roses with a thin interior line so they are more decorative than realistic.

Roughed in the rest of the BG details then found reference for the iconic Portland images that existed in the early 20th century - Mt Hood, the Steel Bridge, and Union Station.

The final pencil art

Face detail.

Rachel Dodson's inked the art using #2 Windsor Newton Series 7 Sable Brush and Higgins Black Magic ink. Rachel always starts with face when it is at it's highest level of clarity/.

Face detail.

She then works backwards in depth - all brush.

Detail

Know the flowers.

Final inked line art.

First step in color is to create a flat layer - this is saved as a separate channel that I can select any area later on that I want to recolor or change.

Quick first stab at coloring - went with a muted old travel poster look. Used simple tools in Photoshop at this point just Pencil tool and a few gradients on the sky and foreground for a variety.

Next layer of depth in coloring and I begin to alter the lineart into color.

Face detail.

Final colors!

Here's my hand lettering I did on tracing paper... print size with a B pitt pen.

and then scan and drop over the print template.

I color and clean the lettering and then drop on top of the art and adjust as necessary.

This print debuts at Rose City Comic Con, Portland, OR, September 21 and 22.

 I will be at Flesk Publications Booth 733 both Saturday and Sunday.

TD

Songes Tome 2 Page 10 Step by Step

Here's how I made Songes Tome 2 Page 10. 

 The first step is alway the storyboard - to ease any problems in the translation - and  for the writer, Denis-Pierre Filippi, to approve before I draw the pages.The storyboards are done at 3 x 4 " on 8.5 x 11" paper with Blue and HB Pencil, Pitt Pens and Copic Markers.

Here's the beginning stage of the pencils.

Here's the scan of the pencils.

 Drawn on 13 x 19" 2 ply Bristol Board with Blue and HB Lead and borders ruled with .80 tech pen. So I shoot from these the pencils so they are very tight (for me)!

The lineart is darkened and cleaned in Photoshop and turned into a Bitmap.

The colors were done by Rebecca Rendon and me in Photoshop. The art was colored in Channels - a method I learned from Alex Sinclair.

TD 

Songes Tome 2 Page 29 Step by Step

Here's how I made Songes Tome 2 Page 29. 

To ease any problems in the translation, I do storyboards for the writer, Denis-Pierre Filippi to approve before I draw the pages. This is the storyboard for Songes Tome 2 Page 29. The storyboards are done at 3 x 4 " on 8.5 x 11" paper with Blue and HB Pencil, Pitt Pens and Copic Markers.

Here's the lineart - into the Aladdin, 1001 Nights, etc - fun stuff to draw and create.

 Drawn on 13 x 19" 2 ply Bristol Board with Blue and HB Lead and borders ruled with .80 tech pen. So I shoot from these the pencils so they are very tight (for me)! I actually had to draw the FULL BLEED in the  Top LEft on an additional piece of paper.

The lineart is darkened and cleaned in Photoshop and turned into a Bitmap.

The colors were done by Rebecca Rendon and me in Photoshop. The art was colored in Channels - a method I learned from Alex Sinclair.

Pretty layed a warm orange over the entire page and then added and subtracted to that to get that "harem" feel.

TD 

Fantastic Four #4 Cover - Step by Step

This is process of how I/we created the Variant Cover for February 2013's Fantastic Four #4 comic book. I was given pretty free reign on this one - the general scope was a sense of "far out adventure". So I thought of one my absolute favorite comics, John Byrne's "sideways" issue of Fantastic Four #252 and that's what I went for with a touch of Moebius and Steampunk - what a combination ;-)

 Here are the sketches I submitted to Marvel - drawn at 2x3 inches in my sketchbook in pencil and pen and then cleaned up and colored in Photoshop - fortunately, Marvel chose "A".

The pencils were drawn with light blue and HB lead on 13 x19 " Bristol Board.

 Rachel Dodson inked over my pencils with Windsor Newton Series 7 size #2 Sable Brush and FW Acrylic Black ink.

 I ran out of time to color the piece, fortunately Laura Martin had time to color this and she knocked it out of the park! Can't wait to see this one in print!

TD

Peace on Earth Step by Step "Color to Print"

After scan is completed, I did all the coloring in Photoshop CS3 using a Wacom Intuos Graphic Tablet circa 2000.

The initial stage of colors - "Flats" - done by me to make it easy to select and change my coloring as I go. I usually hire a "flatter" to do this for me.

Boom! Done! - lay down a light medium orange to harmonize the whole piece

Quickly drop in the local colors - keeping everything very orangey-Muchaesque

Start on the next layer of finish - adding lights and darks for volume and depth - I actually did a couple of "balls" a little bluish and greenish.

I also began turning the lineart to a Muchaesque dark red/brown and making the interior lineart even lighter.

A couple more tweaks - tried the dress in green but didn't like it.

Added more shadows and volume especially to the main "Ball" and Ribbon".

I kept the coloring very simple as I printed this out on my home printer for speed...

Here's my template for my Holiday Card.

Et voila - the finished product - this is why I didn't get too crazy with the coloring as I've yet to get my printer to match my on screen coloring but I think it has it's own charm.

I will end up doing prints or postcards of some sort of this image so I can have a more accurate coloring  but this was fun to do!

Happy Holidays!

Terry and Rachel

Peace on Earth Step by Step "Lettering"

So here's I how I did the lettering for this. 

I knew exactly the drawing I was doing and I knew I wanted lettering on the big ornament in the foreground. I thought something along the lines of "Happy Holidays" but after the events after the last week here in the US, I thought "Peace on Earth" might be most appropriate.

 I printed out a full size version of the area I was lettering while Rachel inked the original. I knew I wanted a flowy-nouveau-y style of lettering and so just roughed it in quickly - thinking more about compostion than the actually letters.

 I elongated the "P" and moved the "on".

I had the lettering figured out more so I began unifying all the letters into a similar style and borrowing from the more successful ones. Really pushed the "P". Found the "E" in the Mucha Art Nouveau style guide.

So, traced over this version with a Pigma Micron 08 black Pen.

Scanned and cleaned up in Photoshop.

Dropped into the finished lineart in Photoshop.

Next, the colors.

TD

Peace on Earth Step by Step "The Lineart"

This is the process for how Rachel and I came up with our Holiday card. We talked about a number of ideas  for a while and finally Rachel mentioned "wings" and then I just ran with it.

 Initial sketch drawn with Red Col Erase and Copic Mulitliner in my sketchbook. About 8 x 12". If you look to the left of the big drawing you will see a little sketch - about 2 x 3"- that is the initial sketch. The circle is drawn in Photoshop onto the scanned artwork.

 I enlarged the drawing in Photoshop to print out in blue on 11 x 17 " Bristol Board. Then using a light blue col erase pencil and HB lead proceeded to nail down the drawing. Once I was happy with the basic drawing, I nailed down the face as that was the key to the piece.

 Now I proceeded to work out all the rest of the anatomy and begin the clothing. I also reduced some of the hair and flowers/foliage.

 Finished the hands and started finishing the fabric.

 Finalized the balls and added the ribbon to the ornament and the gown for some extra movement, dynamics and depth and this is the artwork I gave to Rachel to ink.

Here is Rachel's inks over my pencils, she used a Windsor Newton Series 7 #2 Sable Brush and FW Acrylic Black, except for the balls and border with a tech pen.

More to come...

TD