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 Art tips and techniques, reviews and interviews from my studio. Archived here and at World Famous Comics. Comics 101 for 04/20/2006 Spike Vs. Dracula #2 Cover - Rough Sketch, Finished Pencil Art and Final Colors 
Here's a look at my process of creating the cover art for IDW Publishing's Spike Vs. Dracula #2 (written by Peter David) from my rough sketch and pencil art to final colors.My sketch for the second issue cover features Spike and Drusilla in full-on vamp mode with Bela Lugosi as Dracula behind them hiding behind his cloak in his classic pose from Todd Browing's original film. There's Dracula's castle on the left, which is really just a set facade with some 2x4's visible holding it up, and a few spotlights to the right to clue you in on the Hollywood movie set theme. I thought about putting strings on the bats but that might've been too much. I was hoping to do something totally different and maybe try and top the first cover, which I was really happy with so it would have been a challenge. I wanted to go for full on horror for the second cover, even something pulpy. Especially since the first cover was kind of romantic and and little more designy. But after watching Spike on the Buffy and Angel DVDs I thought it would be fun to tap into that dry sarcasm so prevalent in his character and the humorous wit of Peter's writing. So I'm playing Bela's pose as fearful being in the presence of two real scary looking vampires and undermining the realism of the background elements with the movie stage aspect for a horror/comedy effect (which I'm hoping works as well here as it does on the TV series). The color and focus will be on Dru and Spike with Dracula and the background more subdued, not strictly black and white and grey, though I thought about playing with that idea. I decided to go with the subdued colors to give it an old film or dated look. Have a look below.  Final Pencils  Final Cover   Spike Vs. Dracula #2 Page 2  Spike Vs. Dracula #2 Page 8  Spike Vs. Dracula #2 Page 14  I've added some more of the artwork from this issue to my website in my new Spike Vs. Dracula gallery. ********** Vote for Dustin Roberts as President of the Official Star Wars Fan Club My good pal, Dustin Roberts (along with his campaign partner, R2-D2), is currently in the running for President of the Official Star Wars Fan Club as part of the Hyperspace membership recruitment contest. Dustin not only brings fans (like myself) their daily Star Wars news as part of the Rebelscum.com and TheForce.Net team but is also a fellow member of the OSWCC, one of the best Star Wars fan clubs and collecting communities operating today! Here's more from the man himself - Hello Star Wars fans!Best of luck to you, Dustin! I hope you enjoyed this look behind the scenes of creating art for this comic book and don't forget to sign up for Hyperspace today and vote for Dustin Roberts! See you next week for another Comics 101 feature! -Joe Recent Columns:
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