PRE-COVER
So, Marcos suggested that the image posted in this post would make for a good cover. Timing is everything, though, and I had just finished inking the image I planned to use for the cover when I read his comment. Oops.
Here's the inked cover with the new logo:
As you can see, I decided to go with a much more exciting image...
So, a couple things of note. First of all, this is a photoreferenced background. Back when I was working on EMAW #8, I had gone out around my neighborhood and taken some pictures and this was one that I don't think I used. Then I blew it up and cropped the left out of it. That's one of the reasons the perspective is a bit wonky.
The other reason was that I totally free-handed her all the way (well, except for the border and the front-most railing — I used toys for those). I figured that with a solid base in the photo and no real variation in line-weight, I could get away with it. Once again, I have to damn Marcos for putting both those thoughts in my head (for the record, he told me he was doing something without line weight/shadows and that he envied people like Al Williamson and the Hernandez brothers for their ability to free-hand straighness).
But the lack of line-weight is something I probably should've anticipated anyway, because there's almost no line variation on the cover for #8. I just stripped even more out of it one time. The reasons are two-fold. 1. I want as much room for color as posible. 2. I want Stanley to really pop with the only black in the image.
Of course, I have no idea how to color this. I want to keep the same limited palette I used on the last issue, but there's a lot more going on here. Oh well, I still have a month before SPX, the new deadline!
Anything else? The original is HUGE. 13 x 11 on two sheets of paper. So, it's a bit narrower and a bit taller than a two-page spread. That's another reason I felt comfortable free-handing. I figured some of the irregularities would be hidden at a much smaller size.
The hardest part was actually figuring out the figures (touché!). They were much larger on my first go-around, and it took some work to get them so that the railing was at hand-level instead of shin-level. I guess those stairs are REALLY wide.
Oh, and everything was pencilled very loose. The worst thing I see with people that use and abuse photoref is that stiff, lifeless, overly rendered, detail-obsessive garbage. Noe of that here! I light-tabled the photos in less than an hour (maybe even a half hour), just dashing off the lines I wanted. Then I did the figures very loose (twice to avoid a Valley of the Giants look). And then I did the free-hand with speed. Once you take the ruler out of the equation, everything goes a LOT faster.
Here's the inked cover with the new logo:
As you can see, I decided to go with a much more exciting image...
So, a couple things of note. First of all, this is a photoreferenced background. Back when I was working on EMAW #8, I had gone out around my neighborhood and taken some pictures and this was one that I don't think I used. Then I blew it up and cropped the left out of it. That's one of the reasons the perspective is a bit wonky.
The other reason was that I totally free-handed her all the way (well, except for the border and the front-most railing — I used toys for those). I figured that with a solid base in the photo and no real variation in line-weight, I could get away with it. Once again, I have to damn Marcos for putting both those thoughts in my head (for the record, he told me he was doing something without line weight/shadows and that he envied people like Al Williamson and the Hernandez brothers for their ability to free-hand straighness).
But the lack of line-weight is something I probably should've anticipated anyway, because there's almost no line variation on the cover for #8. I just stripped even more out of it one time. The reasons are two-fold. 1. I want as much room for color as posible. 2. I want Stanley to really pop with the only black in the image.
Of course, I have no idea how to color this. I want to keep the same limited palette I used on the last issue, but there's a lot more going on here. Oh well, I still have a month before SPX, the new deadline!
Anything else? The original is HUGE. 13 x 11 on two sheets of paper. So, it's a bit narrower and a bit taller than a two-page spread. That's another reason I felt comfortable free-handing. I figured some of the irregularities would be hidden at a much smaller size.
The hardest part was actually figuring out the figures (touché!). They were much larger on my first go-around, and it took some work to get them so that the railing was at hand-level instead of shin-level. I guess those stairs are REALLY wide.
Oh, and everything was pencilled very loose. The worst thing I see with people that use and abuse photoref is that stiff, lifeless, overly rendered, detail-obsessive garbage. Noe of that here! I light-tabled the photos in less than an hour (maybe even a half hour), just dashing off the lines I wanted. Then I did the figures very loose (twice to avoid a Valley of the Giants look). And then I did the free-hand with speed. Once you take the ruler out of the equation, everything goes a LOT faster.
posted by Justin Fox at Friday, September 14, 2007
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