Wednesday January 26th 2011, 8:57 pm
Here is the breakdown and process notes…
Rough sketch for editorial approval…
Black and white version, done with ink and copic greytones, and a little ink wash. Then some touch-ups with black color pencil and white color pencil.
Color version using photoshop. Since I wanted the ghostly image of the new Villain to be a part of the physical artwork I had to carefully separate that digitally before coloring the piece. I felt this was necessary to better mix the elements afterward using various fx. Also I made a compositional change by adding another fish skeleton, using one of the ones I had already drawn through selection and duplication tools. This really improved the compositional balance. I also made a slight digital change to the cape near Batwoman’s face. This was important to do because the color of the untouched version looked a little awkward. I also smoothed the textures on her skin so it would have a different feel than the wash tones elsewhere. I also added some green mist to enhance the ghostly otherworldly quality of the villain’s presence to finish it off.
Wednesday January 19th 2011, 10:06 pm
Okay, as some places on web have determined, Batwoman has been pushed back to April. I feel I should comment on this and get some facts straight. Some think that this book was to launch last July, this was never the case, this was speculation on the part of some. The book was also never to launch in November either. The zero issue which came out at that time was never in the original plans, but was done as a bit of a reminder as requested by DC, and to set the stage, this of course took out time of the work already in progress. February had been decided on the launch date by the company with reservations about that from me. I felt that was a bit too soon in a realistic look at work progression. One of the reasons for this was that I had been seriously committed to making appearances around the world over this past year. I think maybe 3 months or more of work loss occurred during that time. I kept trying to point this out whenever discussions about schedule came up. When first discussing the launch date earlier last year we had originally wanted April 2011, and now ironically that is what we have. Only after solicits stating otherwise, causing some unnecessary frustrations. Added to this mix I was being asked to do covers for Batman Inc., which I was concerned about considering the schedule for Batwoman, this quickly added to the problem of not being able to launch in February. So I thought it best to bow out of the Batman Inc. project. Even though there has been issues raised in the scheduling and plans being jumped the gun on, DC acknowledges for the greater good of the project we need more time. I’m glad that they saw this was a good idea, this will help maintain a certain standard that we’ve already set in place. The work has been very intense on this so far. Haden and I have put a lot of time and detail into the plot to make it as strong as we can, going well beyond the first 2 arcs. We know where we want to ultimately take this, we know what we’d like to see happening in 2 years for this character, and have thought a lot about it. Things we are doing in the plot now will impact and have meaning for what is to come later. Same goes for the art, I want this to be at least as good as what came before. So in the daily grind of work, in terms of writing, the process of the script creation gets in the way of drawing quite often. I’m just sorry that solicits took place when they clearly shouldn’t have. I hope this gives more clarity to what has been going on.
Okay now that I’ve said what needed to be said, onto some visuals. Below are my 5 only covers for Batman Inc., without any of the fuss of the logo and text treatments…
Next up will be Batwoman covers in detail, sometime next week.
Sunday January 02nd 2011, 8:49 pm
From me to all of you, wishing you a better 2011 than 2010.
Below are the Slipcase and Cover images to Absolute Promethea Volume 3. I hope you enjoy them. These were done close to a year ago and I’ve had to hold onto them for this long before revealing. But now that the final volume is available for pre-order at finer shops and book outlets everywhere, I figured it’s time to show them. The cover image was way too complicated to break down into steps for this one. The next post will feature some of that sort of thing for the Batman Incorporated covers I’ve been doing (issue 5 being my last). And then onto the new Batwoman covers. I had been meaning to post images sooner for the new projects but energy around the holidays tends to go in other directions.
Absolute Promethea Volume 3 Slipcase…
Absolute Promethea Volume 3 Cover…
