MAKING OF KINGMAKER'S BIG ASS SPACESHIP!!!

Me again! Sleep is still alluding me tonight, so here's another Kingmaker process page from 2000AD!

This was an important page with a massive reveal that Ian Edginton wrote for the first episode that I just HAD to get right. Ok, spoilers, but basically we make you think this is a Lord of the Rings-esque tale until you see.... THE BIG ASS SPACESHIP APPEAR ABOVE THE ARMIES!

Ian wanted the ship to look a cross between an oil refinery and a Rococo palace. So I went with that and created these pencils. I always had a clear image of the angle I wanted for this shot.

Next up, inks....

Here's an ink wash I created for the clouds to add to the inks on a separate layer in Photoshop.

Here's the flat colours... you know the drill now....

And here's the final image. When I picture space ships in my head, I always see LIGHTS EVERYWHERE! And you wouldn't belieeeeeeeve how long I AGONIZED over how much to fade out the main ship in the background. Happy with it though.

Ok, hopefully I'll be able to sleep now. See ya!

MAKING OF KINGMAKER'S DOUBLE SPREAD!

Helloooooo.... been a while, so I thought I'd kick off with a little something from Kingmaker which debuted in 2000AD this year! Basically, Kingmaker is a dream project for me. Here's the elevator pitch: It's an alien invasion of Middle Earth. BOOM.

It's gloriously written by my buddy and Grand Wizard Ian Edginton, drawn and coloured by myself, the sexy elfen stable boy, and lettered by the lovely dragon tamer Ellie Deville. 

This is actually the first series that The Mighty Tharg has allowed me to colour myself, so it was a massive undertaking for me but I bloody loved it! Here's how I made the first episode's double page spread....

First up, my rough layout. It's actually more detailed than my usual roughs, probably due to the fact that I was overthinking this opening episode. For this scene I think I had to design the look of around five different armies fighting around the main armoured bad guy, The Wraith King.

Next up, pencils. I made sure to draw this on a single sheet of A2 bristol board instead of taping two A3 sheets together. More of a bugger to scan, but nicer to have as a single sheet in the end. 

 Here's a photo of when I was halfway through the inking process...

 Finished inks....

 After a looooong time, I finally get to colouring, which is made easier now that I have a Ugee 19 inch drawing monitor. Soooooo much easier from the days where I used to colour my covers using just a mouse...... *shudder*..... Here's my flat colours.

 And here we come to the final image, with all my shading, fading, blood splatter, highlights, etc..... Pretty proud with how it turned out in the end, and I think it set a good bench mark for the rest of the series. Hope you like it, and there'll be more Kingmaker process posts coming up!

See ya!