Home
Star Wars
  Star Wars Misc Art
  Star Wars Insider Art
  Star Wars Sketchbook
  Star Wars Comic Book Art


Star Trek
  Star Trek Misc Art
  Star Trek Comic Book Art

Film & Television
  Film and TV Misc Art

Comic Books
  Comic Books Misc Art
  Doctor Who
  X-Files
  Farscape
  GI Joe
  True Blood
  The Phantom
  Spike Vs Dracula

  Star Wars Sketch Cards
  Bounty Hunters
  The Mandalorian Season 2
  The Mandalorian Season 1
  Women of Star Wars
  Star Wars Rebels
  Masterwork
  Return of the Jedi Widevision
  Perspectives
  The Empire Strikes Back Illustrated
  A New Hope Illustrated
  Galactic_Files_Series_2
  Galactic_Files
  Galaxy_Series_8
  Galaxy_Series_7
  Galaxy_Series_6
  Clone Wars Season 2
  TESB_30th_Anniversary
  Galaxy_Series_5
  Clone Wars Season 1
  Galaxy_Series_4
  Clone Wars 08
  ANH_30th_Anniversary
  RotS
  Heritage
  Clone Wars
  Misc

  More Sketch Cards
  The Walking Dead
  The Avengers
  Marvel Beginnings Series II
  DC Comics Women of Legend
  Indiana Jones
  The Hobbit
  The Lord of the Rings
  The X-Files
  Heroes



Become a Patron!

Shop at my official Art Store

Become a fan on Facebook

Follow me on Instagram

Watch my stream on Twitch

Subscribe on Youtube



Lucasfilm Ltd.

Disney.com: The official home for all things Disney

Discover more at Hi-Fi Design.com!



Gentle Giant Ltd.

IDW Publishing - The home of Star Trek, X-Files, GI Joe and more!



My Art on eBay


Comics 101
Art tips and techniques, reviews and interviews from my studio. Archived here and at World Famous Comics.

Comics 101 Archives

Comics 101 for 10/04/2001
White Wolf - Werewolf: Storyteller Cover!

Week One: See it the way it was originally made! Uncut! Every scene intact! The version magazines didn't dare show!

As I write this in October, darkness creeps sooner into daylight, there's a chill in the air and ghosts and goblins will soon be running up and down my block. Run away...'cause now it's Halloween. Shave your head and burn your jeans. Evil could be right next door... or maybe just behind these web pages. What more appropriate to discuss in this month's online feature than my horror art for White Wolf Publishing? Lock the doors, bolt the windows, and check under your bed. There are scarier things out tonight than vampires. Like what you ask? Like this month's Comics 101.

Growing up, I enjoyed reading horror comics. Vault of Horror, Tales from the Crypt, House of Secrets, House of Mystery, Swamp Thing, Ghost Rider , the Unknown Soldier, Weird War Tales... the list goes on. These comics were always stashed away at my grandparents house and were treasures to be found if you knew where to look when searching the right rooms. Being an impressionable little six or seven year old boy I was actually quite surprised my gandma let me read them now that I think about it. It actually might explain alot about what's wrong with me today. Hmmm... I think we might have the makings of a more introspective Comics 101 in the future. But I digress, magazines like Fangoria and Starlog with images from horror and sci-fi movies filled my imagination and left a strong impression on me as well.

These days, when I draw monsters and mayhem, I still look to my comic books and definitive horror artists like Bernie Wrightson and Mike Mignola for inspiration. Often times, a good horror movie like John Carpenter's The Thing, Halloween, Evil Dead 2, Blade, Delamorte Delamore, Fright Night or Aliens can inspire me to create.

Illustrator By Night

I was given the oppurtunity to create a cover illustration for White Wolf, a company I had been freelancing for since 1998. The art direction I received in my notes from my art director, though very descriptive, were actually somewhat flexible and read as follows...
Werewolf Storytellers Companion cover art: To play up the "telling stories" aspect, perhaps it would work well to see a Garou (werewolf) elder of some sort carving the record of a great story into a stone or something -- maybe he's in a small cave, carving the story onto the walls, or maybe there's a large standing stone. Either way, the writing surface should have a lot of glyphs (or runes) on it already as if plenty of stories have been recorded before. And of course, the Garou is carving the glyphs with his claws, not with any tools. The specifics (tribe, setting, whether there are other werewolves in the picture or not) are pretty open ended.
With these art notes in mind and my pencil in hand, I let loose the hounds and attacked my drawing table.

Stare into these eyes. Discover deep within them the unspeakable terrifying secret of...

...my sketchbook! After drawing a few rough thumbnail illustrations, I felt confident with this rough sketch (Example A) from my sketchbook. I had to design this sketch with the intention of type for the title of the book to be added in above. With the cover to be printed at 8.5 inches by 11 inches, I designed my rough sketch (which I drew at the final printed size) with two inches of 'dead space' near the top to allow room for the type. Also, since this was to be a full color painting, I designed the illustration at this stage with key color decisions in mind. In fact, here's the actual email I sent with the rough sketch to my art director explaining my 'method of madness'....

Example A
Example A
Here's my sketch idea for the cover. This one is abit rough but I'm working on the line drawing right now. I have two Garou inside a cave with three Lupus werewolves. The Garou kneeling is scratching runes onto the cave surface and the werewolf behind him is holding an old lantern. Above the scene I have some imagery of Garou eyes in the cave ceiling. The eyes will be painted an amber color. The overall scene will be pretty graphic with some bold warm colors and some cool highlights in the shadows. I plan on moving the two lupus on the left over to the side just abit more in my line drawing so that we can see the Garou scratching the runes with his right hand more clearly. My goal is to create an eerie glow effect with the lantern as the main light source. As soon as I get the line drawing tightened up I'll send it your way probably Tues.

-Joe
Once the sketch was approved, I began to tighten up the drawing on bristol board using my lightbox. As you can see in the pencil line drawing (Example B), I relied on the art director's notes heavily, which helped me to narrow down my idea and move on to the inking and electronic coloring process quickly.

Example B
Example B

The one thing I added in my original design that wasn't suggested in the art notes were the glowing werewolf eyes imagery in the cave ceiling. I was really trying for something that would be 'eye-catching', would jump off the bookshelf and grab potential buyers' attention by the throat. Not very subtle, eh? Well in this market and medium, pulling out all the stops and grabbing the reader by the jugular usually works in your favor. I also felt with my original design that a third element or accent was needed to pull the illustration together since I already had the dominant imagery of the werewolves with the cave setting being secondary. These haunting werewolf eyes were the right accent I needed. My final line art actually ended up over 9.5 inches by 12 inches to allow for somewhat tighter detail once it gets reduced at the printer.

See ya next week when the India ink runs thick as blood and the illustration becomes more.... graphic. And in the meantime, to avoid fainting keep repeating, 'it's only a web column... only a web column... only a web column...'

-Joe

<< 09/27/2001 | 10/04/2001 | 10/11/2001 >>

Recent Columns:
NEWESTTeeKay-421 Magazine #65: A Star Wars Interview (09/05/2013)
10/28/2010My Top Five Favorite Horror Films, The Horrors of Canada and Movie Review - Dellamorte, Dellamore (a.k.a. Cemetery Man)
09/09/2010Movie Review - Machete
07/08/2010Celebration V: The Empire Strikes Back 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Print Artwork
11/05/2009Star Wars: Clone Wars Season One Widevision Artist Sketch Cards - Step by Step
11/06/2008You Have the Comic, Number One: A Star Trek Interview
10/25/2007Download Zombie Prom for FREE at iTunes, My Top Five Favorite Horror Films and The Horrors of Canada
09/06/2007Movie Review - Rob Zombie's Halloween
06/21/2007Star Wars: Celebration Europe 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Print - Photo Reference, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art and Comic-Con International 2007
05/03/2007Star Wars: Celebration IV 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Print - Photo Reference, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art and Free Comic Book Day 2007
03/08/2007Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between #5 Cover - Rough Sketch, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art
Archives >>

Comics 101 Archives


Home | News | Comics 101 | Stuff to Buy | Bio/Credits


© 2024 - , 153 Sheffield Way, Sandusky, OH 44870
All other ® & © belong to their respective owners.
World Famous Comics Network