Give Tintin the fables treatment

Nimit Malavia combines traditional and digital media as he develops an engaging Tintin cover, painting the familiar while finding his own voice

Nimit Malavia combines trad and digital media.

Developing artwork for a cover is rarely simple. You must maintain the fundamentals of a standalone image, such as a strong composition with an interesting palette. But the cover also has to engage the reader so that it’s not only appealing to look at, but also brings them into the story. Having seen some of my covers for Vertigo’s Fables series, the ImagineFX team suggested we take a swing at another established character: Tintin. Working on famed properties such as this is exciting, but it brings a challenge of interpreting the figure in a way that enables me to paint an image that satisfies my creative needs, while also remaining true to the character’s original spirit.

This workshop will focus on showing the choices I make in conceptualising the piece. It will give you a full process breakdown of the technical aspects of creating this image: touching on the different stages of roughs and approval; working up the image with traditional media; building the colours and values using an excessive amount of layers in Photoshop; title design; plus some personal techniques I use to re-inject some mystery into the final art.