Cover #3 and beyond.

I have a concept in mind for my next cover piece. The odd thing is, these covers are based on unfinished story concepts I have in mind. I’ve slowed down a tad on the art side these last few days as I have been writing a lot more lately and ideas have actually been coming out. I need to continue to work to focus my efforts and get out finished product(s) whether it be art or writing. I hope to have something to show by the end of this week.

The other version

This is the other revised version with the larger figures.

The Revised Version

I made some revisions to the piece; First off I extended the staircase in the foreground to encompass the entire width of the illustration. It makes it easier on the eye and gives the piece more depth. I also shrunk the two combatants so the sword can be seen in its entirety. I have another version where I simply fixed the stairs and left the characters in their original scale. However I think I am leaning towards the version where they are scaled down. I will discuss it with Juan and come to a decision before the coloring process gets underway or if anyone else has feedback feel free to leave a message. On a side note he started working out the flats on the Issue #1 cover so look out for that in the future.

Revisions, revisions, revisions....

After discussing the piece with Juan I will take his advice and make some revisions to the background. I think it will make things more clear and help the perspective also, once it's done I'll be sure to post it up.

The Completed Piece

Well, I spent my entire weekend working on this bad boy! I was so locked in I didn't even bother with incremental updates. I haven't been this focused on a serious art project in about two years (which is good). I think it might be a tad busy but I really wanted to try and add a background to really give the characters the feeling of actually dueling in a convincing setting. I think if colored properly it will really come alive and have nice clarity (I'm looking at you Juan *grin*). I struggled with elements of the composition, in particular the sword placement. I feel it needed to have the entire blade within the piece. Like I said on several occasions, careful planning ahead of time will avoid conflicts like this. I do feel good about this one regardless and hope the next pieces (and sequentials) will be even better.

It's getting there.

So far I am pretty pleased with the piece, I'm trying not to nitpick and get caught up on too many small aspects of it. Like I said before next time I will plan it out thoroghly before hand, as it stands now I am basically creating this in a "freehand" fashion. I also passed the first cover off to Juan for coloring, here's hoping he finds the time to finish it with a fairly decent turn around.

Cover #2

This is the first stage of my second project. It's going to be done with an issue #2 cover in mind. I won't give away what the final piece will look like, I'm just gonna keep plugging away at it and see where it takes me. I'm using a thumbnail sketch that I am working from but it's extremely loose. I scanned it in high rez and blew it up to use as my road map for the illustration. I am still working things out in my mind but I need to start planning my work out in more detail. That way I don't waste a lot of time fidgeting with elements of the work when I am trying to create the final product.