Smashed it!

Go big or go home

Usually I rough in my cover sketch on a 5x7-inch sheet. In this case, I started the sketch directly on the full-size 11x17-inch DC Comics Strathmore board. If it’s working at this size, I get right to work as soon as I receive the art director’s approval. I begin light with a 2H pencil and then switch to a softer, darker 2B lead. I use 0.5mm mechanical pencils to draw all of my details. My Pink Pearl erasers are my best friends at this stage.

Brushing over Batman

Next I break out the brushes. I use watercolour brushes of various sizes and fill in the large black areas. In this image I diluted the ink with water and used grey tones for an ink wash. I usually don’t do washes with my work because my colourist is so damned good. God, I love what Tomeu Morey delivers. In this case, I just felt like adding some extra dimension for fun.

A heroic team effort

Now the image is scanned from my home office using a Epson Expression 10000XL Graphic Arts Scanner and uploaded to the DC Comics servers, where colouring genius Tomeu Morey grabs it and gets to work using Photoshop. Tomeu really brings my work to life and gives the image a great sense of power and atmosphere.

Making comics is truly a team effort and finding the right collaborators is half the battle. Tomeu and I have been working with each other for around nine years and together have formed a special creative bond and friendship that you can only find when creating comics together.

Make way for nibs

Although I can work with a range of tools on a single image, using a bit of multi-liners or Micron Pens along with nibs and brush, I’ve become more comfortable with nibs. I find I’m using those tools much more and liking the results as I improve by repetition.