These are the various stages I went through for the first of 3 covers I've done for this year. Originally I approached my editor Tharg with a rough drawing of an Indiana Jones type composition with our heroes Defoe and his sidekick the largest images, the main villian known as The Queen of Zombies looking suitably evil above them, and below, an action scene in silhouette of Defoe and his Brethren fighting zombies. But Tharg, quite rightly, but still dissapointingly, pointed out that there wouldn't be any room for a tagline with the figures at the bottom of the page...
So I had another crack at it, keeping the central figures, making the Queen's skull more central, and completely removed the figures at the bottom, instead adding flames around them, and he went for it!
Next up is the pencils. No problems at this stage, though I still wasn't sure whether or not to add pupils to the skull's eyes. Also, I still had no idea how I was gonna colour the flames at this point.
So here's the inks. Wasn't too keen on how it turned out at this stage. Something didn't seem right. So I sent it to a few friends who pointed out that Defoe's hand didn't seem quite right--it looked like his other hand should be holding the gun, so I redrew that whole section and pasted it on. Also, I could tell it was a mistake adding pupils to the skull's eyes, and the fire just looked too cluttered....
And here's the final colour piece with all the changes! This is actually the second attempt at colouring the image as in the first attempt I kept in alot of the line work for the fire and it just looked amatuerish to be honest. So I scrapped it and started again, completely painting over the fire, though it took a LOOOONG time to get to a point where I could let it go...
Finally, here's a scan of the advert in the latest Judge Dredd Megazine that I discovered today and had a big grin on my face when I saw it. It's great to finally see it with some text.
Right, hopefully this'll make up for the absence of blog posts recently. Catch you soon!L
11 comments:
Great stuff as always Leigh
Wiiiiilllll, thanks buddy. I'll return your dog safely now...
Great process post. The final image looks cool - all the improvements spot on - especially the flame which looked great. Worth all the work
Glad you like it Alan.
The next cover process went alot smoother--I'll put that up whenever I get clearance from Tharg.
The cover process for the graphic novel cover will be very in depth as there were alot of elements to bring together. Once again, i'll post that as soon as I'm allowed!
L
Jesus! That is one Hell of a cover! Nice work mate!
Oh wait, it's an Ad. It should be the cover though :)
Cheers Ed! yeah it was a bit too early for me to get the official cover text version. Only one week to go though!
Hi Leigh,
ooh lovely... very cool to see the process too.
All the best,
Kevin
Hey Kevin, cheers man! I actually saw your fantastic Dredd homage on the 2000ad boards recently--you're a talented dude!
Thanks Leigh... you're too kind. Looking forward to Defoe's (and your) return to the prog!
Oh so it will be a cover? Nice! I thought it was a bit snazy just to be an ad :D
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