| pencils:
LeSean Thomas |
| inks:
Rob Stull |
| colors:
Chris Walker |
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| The
deal peoples, LeS back again and
welcome to another WPB update. i
mentioned last update that I'd go
through my process of putting pages
together for this crazy story, but
other callings demanded for that
unnecessarily cool Triple Gatefold
Cover for issue #1 that's been starting
all sorts of trouble/buzz in the
DW boards before issue 1 dropped.
this cover was actually the first
pic that was done for the series
and was the one (out of various
thumbnails of ideas for issue 1)
that Pat handpicked to be his favorite.
here's how it went down. |
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| This
cover took me about 3 days to do,
1) because it was so big, three11x17
pages 2) it was the FIRST time I'd
touched 11x17 Bristol board in over
3-4 years (damn i was rusty!) and
3) i needed to get sleep and i'm
indecisive sometimes, heh.... so
getting it to translate from these
thumbs were a challenge in the beginning. |
Thumb
#1: my initial idea when
Adam asked me to do a triple gatefold
cover was to approach it in a more
graphic sense, not necessarily all
out in your face action. but after
a couple thumbs even i decided that
"these characters are too cool
to be on some incognito-design approach"
so decided on the classic anime
OVA promo adds you'd see in NEW
TYPE magazine or ANIMATION mag.
This is the first thumb idea i had: |
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Thumb
#2: after seeing
that, i decided to give it
another approach, more along
those OVA lines of approaching
an epic new series. this one
was just a I'll cluttered
to me though, i felt i needed
to pull back so we can see
the characters more: |
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Thumb
#3: Look familiar?
you damned right it does,
ha! this was the pic that
Pat loved. I kinda liked it
too, the characters all visible,
full shots of the cool ones,
a nice lil montage of the
city, it worked somewhat for
me too so we decided to do
this one up: |
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| Pencils:
this is my process as usual.
after I've decided on the thumbs,
i enlarge then to 11X17 size and
get to workin' molding , shifting
and changing things as i go, adding
minute details where ever necessary.
this was the initial design. but
halfway into it, i had issues with
Rowan and Shing's poses and their
looks. they looked to realistic
compared to the other characters
and their poses i thought, looked
ambiguous. So i phoned Pat like
"i wanna change Rowan and Shing's
poses" he was like " well
i think what you got is dope so
far, but if you wanna make it better
, go ahead" so i did: |
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Pencils
final: Ahh, better. before
i changed their poses, Pat wanted
to see what i was talking about,
so i did Rowan and Shing's poses
separately and sent them over, He
flipped" Do these up man! do
these up!"so there ya have
it. the rest was up to the magicians,
Houdini inker Rob Stull and the
"Black Merlin"(HA!), Colorist
Chris Walker. hehe: |
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There
is a reason why Rob Stull
is a veteran inker for the
past 15 years. this guy took
my pencils and transformed
them into something better.
i almost didn't recognize
my own work after he was done.
he added just the amount of
"accents" and personality
to my lines, it was the perfect
set up for Mr. Walker to dig
in and go crazy: |
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Chris
is a nut job. he told me he
wanted to do something different
for the look of Arkanium.
since it's a "dark book"
he wanted to do up a feel
that would define the series'
entire attitude. when he sent
me the flats i didn't understand
it at all at first. i thought
he was using colors i never
thought would work together,
at least i didn't use (heh
me not being a colorist and
all who am i tell?). but i
was blown away by the finished
look. |
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When
he sent me some of the minor
details he was adding, i just
left him alone. speechless.
haha!: |
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Well,
here's our combined efforts. the
Triple Gatefold cover in all its
glory. It was a real learning experience
for me and was a bit of a revelation
towards how much fun we'd have and
what we were going to be doing in
this series at the time. there were
actually a bunch of other thumbnail
ideas for the triple gatefold cover
i didn't show you, i just wanna
keep that for the TPBs! heh! anyways,
keep the led burnin' and I'll get
at you cats next update with new
scribbles (FINALLY!) and another
step by step addition, to some of
my thought process on page layouts
from Arkanium issue 1: |
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