Monday 30 September 2013

MAKING A ZOMBIE-RIFIC DOUBLE PAGE SPREAD!

Here's a quick "Making of" post on one of my favourite pieces of recent art: the opening double page spread from this summer's book of "DEFOE: THE DAMNED" published in 2000AD prog 1836!

As always, it begins with a lovely script by LEGENDARY writer Pat Mills.....

EPISODE ONE

PAGES ONE AND TWO - SPREAD

Night.  Opening title spread shows thousands of Zombies besieging the White (inner) Tower of London.  

Feature individual Zombies whose progress we will follow throughout the serial.

As space permits:

   A)an obese Zombie, B)a Zombie in a wedding dress,  C) a wealthy child Zombie who was once beautifully dressed, D) a Zombie whose clothes are intact at the front but have rotted away behind, E) a Zombie with no eyes, F) a hanged Zombie covered in tar – his neck elongated and flopping (as in Book One), G) a Zombie with one arm and his head tilted to one side.H) A Zombie with no ears.

Flies buzzing around them, crows feasting on them. 

Their  leader, the Spiriter, looks up at the Tower.

Some Zombies are clambering up the walls.  The unseen defenders – Defoe and co. -  are firing down on the Zombies and we see some of them dropping but there are so many, we know the defenders’ situation is perilous..


TITLE AND CREDITS.

DEFOE    THE DAMNED


As you can see, it left a lot of interpretation up to myself, but I realised that in order to be able to show all the zombies, I'd have to add panels to identify them all properly.

But first, a day trip to The Tower of London was essential so I could get shots like this:


 And I couldn't help but take some like this....


They were a massive help creating this, first, in pencil, noting that I made sure to add enough panels to feature all the zombies he wanted me to highlight, as well as establish The Brethren on top of the Tower (make with the clicky!)....


Followed by quite a lengthy, but bloody fun process of inking, and we're done!



AWESOME ARTIST'S ANATOMY MODEL!!!



Believe it or not, I don't have an incredible body (I know,you're STUNNED!). Like most comic artists I spend most of my day at the drawing table, not getting much exercise.

When it comes to drawing comic characters I still use myself as reference for whatever body type it is (male/female/donkey/fat/skinny/muscular) and just adjust accordingly.

BUT NO MORE I SAY!!!! I wanted to improve as an artist, and so asked around for recommendations for an artist's model that would also look good on my shelf. My buddy and incredible Marvel Comics artist, Mike Perkins, put me in the direction of artistsanatomy.com and I'm so glad he did!

The muscle definition is exactly what I was after, it's a beautiful sculpture, and at 12 inches tall, looks great on my shelf! I couldn't recommend it more, and will be using it in a few weeks when I start the next book of 2000AD's AQUILA!

L