Wednesday 12 June 2013

MAKING OF THE 2000AD PROG 1836 DEFOE COVER!!!!


GOD, I know it's been bloody ages since Defoe's been in 2000AD! Well there's no need to cry into your pillow every night now, as Pat Mills and I are back baby!!!!


Above you can see the cover that I did, that is now on the shelves of all good comic stores, newsagents, and digitally at the 2000AD store, and the Apple app store! Here's how I created it....

I'll admit now that I was thinking of an idea that wasn't too much work as I was, quite frankly, knackered after drawing the first episode (you'll see why soon). My first idea was the silhouette of a zombie hand, with the shadowy figures of Defoe and his Brethren inside.

Unfortunately, before I submitted it to Tharg, I came across a similar design elsewhere online, so scrapped it!


This was my next idea, and approved by my boss Tharg. Notice how from the beginning, I just coloured it red: knackered, remember...? But hey, it also looked cool and designy.... that's my excuse....

Pencils....


 Inks....
 I don't know if you remember from my previous Aquila covers HERE and HERE, that I've become quite partial to doing washes over my inks before I colour to give it a nice  texture. Here it is on a separate layer done over a lightbox.

The washed page added to the inks...

One shade of red added with some extra digital bits falling off, and it was done!

 I tried adding a background, but decided it didn't work...
 Once sent to 2000AD, the talented design bots came up with this cool advert in the back of last weeks prog, then finally put together the cover at the top of this post!

BOOM! ;)

(Next post will feature the making of the opening double page spread!)

4 comments:

Mangamax said...

Fantastic, fantastic stuff - do love it when you do these Leigh and the more the indepth, the merrier.
I've strayed away from the Prog this last year or so, but Defoe back in there will tempt me back.

Anonymous said...

Hi Leigh!

Just finished my reading of this weeks prog and I must say it was an absolute pleasure feasting my eyes over that awesome cover not to mention your magnificent artwork in Defoe! That double page spread at the begining had me lost for words...literally! I am so looking forward to this new series, and if its anything to by on that stonking good opener, then boy will we be in for one helluva ride!

Cheers mate, and keep up the excellent job!

Mabs

Pete Wells said...

I adore this cover Leigh. It's amazing how Defoe's belt n' bits look like they could be worn by the zombie dude. Very clever indeed! Braaaaaaaiiiiins!

I'm pleased someone beat you to the hand design as, in my expert 'GCSE-grade-D-for-art' opinion, the design you went for was much more effective.

Classic!

Leigh G said...

Ahh thanks very much guys. Makes the lack of sleep worth it! And yeah Pete, that belt thing was SO intentional... I didn't only just notice it, honest.....