Welcome to Mouse Guard
Last weekend at the San Diego Comic Con I released the 2015 Mouse Guard sketchbook. Like years past, this is a 24 page collection of comm...
In the world of Mouse Guard, mice struggle to live safely and prosper amongst harsh conditions and a host of predators. Thus the Mouse Guard was formed: more than just soldiers, they are guides for common mice looking to journey without confrontation from one village to another. They see to their duty with fearless dedication…
I wanted to share a bit about my process. I am usually bad about saving artwork in-process, but recently I made sure I grabbed a few pieces every few steps. The page I'm going over is page 19 from Winter 1152 #3 (if you haven't read it yet, you may want to wait to read this blog entry!) -------------------------------- Step1: The Outline /Script. For Fall 1152, I worked almost exclusively from an outline. I would finish the art then script the dialogue in-place having a good idea of what I wanted the characters to be saying. Sometimes it worked out great, other times, it proved to be daunting and frustrating. So for Winter 1152, I still start with an outline, but now I also do some scripting before I draw. For Winter I sometimes write out a complete script for certain scenes, or jot quick ideas. Too often had I thought of the structure of the dialogue for the page, and later when the time came to add the words, I'd have forgotten them, so any ideas I have about dialogue I write them as soon as they hit me. For this page the dialogue was quick and idea-oriented. I marked the lines with 'A' and 'B' to note where on the page I thought those would be used. The 'lantern breaking' I originally planned for the next page, but for the final version, it occurs on this page. Step 2: The Sketches & Layout This is the step that feels the most like 'work' for me. It's a balancing act 'of which panel arrangements work best with the secession of actions I need to show on this page?' I tend to divide Mouse Guard pages on the 1/3 lines of the page, so I have a standard 'set' of layouts I can choose from and play with. The trick is to use the right shape panel to match the motion or viewpoint, or grouping of the characters, or at least to not have the two be in conflict. I try and imagine the panel I think is most important on that page (in this case Saxon riding the bat in the first panel was the one I focused on) and then work around that. I sketch everything for a page in a sketchbook or on scrap paper. I try and focus on one panel at a time, sometimes even drawing separate elements from that panel and then composting them together on the computer later. Once I have sketches done for each panel, I scan them in and resize, rotate, and paste them into a page layout that matches the finished page size (12" x 12") Step 3: Pencils. I print out the sketches in the layout and use a light-box to transfer the page onto my Bristol. I clean up the image as I go, being more careful about contours & tangent lines. I like working this way because when I work on a drawing over and over on the same sheet of paper, I tend to get it very smudgy and dirty (which can work well when I'm rendering something in pencil, but not for inked work) This way, I have the minimum of pencil on the final bristol page and was able to work out all my erasing and re-drawing and fixing on the sketch paper or on the computer. Step 4: Inks I ink with Uni-ball Vision pens. They are waterproof and lightfast. For larger fill-in areas or textures like the bats wings, I use a '0' brush and Speedball Superblack ink. This is where the page starts really taking shape. I add the textures at this point, play with line weights, and fill-in the black areas. This part is one of the most enjoyable for me (sometimes overtaken by coloring). It's something I can work on most anywhere, so I can sit with my wife while she watches TV, or I can take it with me to coffee shops, or conventions. Step 5: Colors I color using Photoshop 7. Once I have the colors 'flatted' (establish what areas are what colors using just flat color) I only use the 'drybrush' brush for the dodge, burn, and paintbrush tools. I also found that adding 'color holds' (areas where the linework takes on a color) helped add depth to my work on Mouse Guard and now it's something that I think about as I'm inking the page "What gets 'held' on this page?". Originally I was worried about coloring Mouse Guard, not because I couldn't imagine the world in color, but because I was having trouble meshing my inks from Issue 1 of Fall with the colors. Ever since I found the right 'blend' I have really enjoyed coloring and pushing my work in ways I hadn't seen it going before I started Mouse Guard. Step 6: Dialogue & Sound Effects. Lastly, The dialogue is added. For this page, I went back to the method of writing and tweaking it after the artwork was done. I know Saxon's line in panel 1 was one that I came up with in the shower (where a great many of my better ideas come from). The idea to have the bats 'echo' one another was one that I had from the beginning, but hadn't noted it on the script. I am frugal with sound effects. I think there are a lot of them in comics that are either unnecessary or draw you out of the story because it looks like some clean type slapped on in photoshop. Here I had to have a crashy-hissy-burney-sizzly sound...bat flambe anyone? -------------------------------- So, that's a walkthough page 19 of Winter Issue 3. Hope everyone enjoyed this and it wasn't too boring. At some point I'll try and record more steps in the coloring.
The new Mouse Guard sketchbook entitled 'Legends' is out and now available in my online store! This 24 page color sketchbook includes my homages to twenty eight of the Legends of the Guard stories told by the talented artists & writers who spanned 3 volumes of the anthology series. Moving forward with my Mouse Guard sketchbooks I'll be not releasing them based on a calendar year, but themed, like this one, whenever I have enough content to do so. (I already have my next theme in-mind) Below you can see some interior pages with my homages to Dustin Nguyen, Hannah Lavender, Mark Buckingham, & Terry Moore: Homage to Dustin Nguyen's tale 'The Fallen' Homage to Hannah Lavender's tale 'The Armor Maker' Homage to Mark Buckingham's tale 'The Gossling & The Ghost" Homage to Terry Moore's tale 'The Shrike & The Toad' In a few past blogposts I've shown other pieces for Sean Rubin & Alex Kain Eric Canete Jemma Salume Charles Paul Wilson III & Alex Sheikman click here to view those: https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2017/10/legends-of-guard-characters-revisited.html And Jeremy Bastian Guy Davis Cory Godbey Nate Pride Christian Slade Jackson Sze Ramon Perez & Ryan Lang click here to view those: https://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2018/10/legends-of-guard-homages-part-2.html ------------------------------------ Several of the original inked pieces are currently available in my online store: mouseguard.bigcartel.com 2019 Convention Appearances Emerald City Comic Con March 14-17 Heroes Con June 14-16 San Diego Comic Con July 17-21 New York Comic Con October 3-6 Baltimore Comic Con October 18-20
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Last weekend at the Emerald City Comic Con, the Seattle based ArchLUG LEGO builder club put together an amazing display of scenes and architecture from the pages of Mouse Guard. The display was populated by minifig LEGO with Mouse Guard heads created by Guy Himber of Crazy Bricks. To the left you can see the group (minus a few who couldn't attend) and I at the display, and below are the photos I grabbed with buildings and scenes from Fall, Winter, Black Axe, and Legends of the Guard. Mouse Guard Sculpture Lockhaven Midnight's Army at the gates of Lockhaven Guardmice on the walls of Lockhaven Celanawe, Kenzie, & Saxon watching Midnight's Army Lockhaven Lieam and the snake Barstone Barkstone Barkstone Inside the June Alley Inn Streets of Barkstone Carpenter squaring off lumber Streets of Barkstone A Mouse Thief? Outside Barkstone's Gates Crab attack on Calogero Crab! Sadie & Conrad against a Crab Crab attack on Calogero Bunny Caravan Bunny Caravan Lieam & Celanawe against the Owl Celanawe falls victim of the owl Matriarch's Chamber Matriarch's Chamber Mice in the reeds Leaf Boat Leaf Boat Celanawe & Em on duckback Lower Port Sumac The Mariner's Bell Lower Port Sumac Upper Port Sumac: The Drupe Shorestone Exterior Shorestone Interior Shorestone main entrance Shorestone Haven Guildroom Shorestone Big thanks to builders Alice Finch, Paul Hetherington, Dave & Kelli Smith, Thomas Garrison, Daniel Fortine, Bob Weiss, RJ Coughlin, Steve Walker, Scott Fowler, Dan Sabath, Sean Edmison, Anu Pehrson, David Frank, Thorin Finch, Shawn Snyder, Jim Edelen, Michael Kuroda, Dave Ingraham, & Guy Himber 2015 Appearances: Trolls and Legends Festival Mons, Belgium April 3-5 C2E2 April 24-26 FCBD: Jetpack Comics NH: May 2nd Motor City May 15-17 Denver Comic Con May 22-25 Heroes Con June 19-21 San Diego Comic Con July 8-12 Long Beach Comic Con: Sept. 12-13 Baltimore Comic Con Sept. 25-27 New York Comic Con Oct. 8-11 Art-Bubble Comics Festival: Copenhagen: Nov. 14-15
In January I was inspired to do a new Mouse Guard piece. I intended it just to be for fun and for my Twitch stream audience. I'll get into...
Today Mondo is releasing a Mouse Guard Fall 1152 Silkscreened 24" x 36" poster!!! In the past I've done two posters for MONDO: Brave & The Rescuers (you can click those links to see the process blogposts for those posters), but getting to do a Mondo poster for my own book series, is all the more amazing!!! To the left you can see the final colors for the print, and below I go through the process from sketch to separated color file sent off to the printer: For the Fall 1152 poster I needed to re-create the events of that book in one image that summed everything up. No problem, right? Harder than you think. I started with the idea that I should have the 3 main mouse characters as well as the snake (everyone still remembers that scene from the first issue). So, I sketched on copy paper, Lieam, Saxon and Kenzie with the plan to put Lieam front and center, with the other two either side of him. The snake would loom up over them from behind. I then decided that I needed to show Midnight too...his part of the story was too big to ignore for a poster...and as a way to show this is an image for a graphic novel series, I added a horizontal panel at the bottom for Midnight's army in the rain. (Sorry, I don't have the original pencils of Midnight handy as-of the typing of this post) I composited the sketches (tinted different colors to help me make sense of the line-spaghetti) in Photoshop and added some border treatments, type, and a rough color scheme. The poster is 24" x 36", but to make my life more manageable, I didn't do the artwork at that scale. to make sure I could ink the piece and have it still fit on my scanner (in 2 passes) I worked at 16" x 24". I printed the layout on multiple sheets of letter-sized paper and taped them together (the grid you see in the photo is to help me re-allign the pieces of paper into a single taped-together image). I also dropped out most of the color-scheme to save some ink and to make the lines easier to see. Once the printout was taped to a large sheet of Strathmore 300 series bristol, I started inking the piece on a large lighbox. I used Copic Multiliners (the 0.7 & 0.3 nibs mainly). Below you can see several photos in-process I took as I inked to show my editors & friends: Here are the final inks. I added the rain on the back side of the piece and scanned it separately so that I could easily isolate those marks as they overlapped Midnight & his army. I had to ink this on and off for several days because it was around this time My Mom, who has Parkinson's & Dementia, came to live with us so we could be her caretakers. It made the work go a little slower only being able to ink when she was asleep, resting, or deep into a TV show. As I said above, I scanned the inks at high-res (600) in 2 separate passes on my scanner (I also had the misfortune to need a new scanner just as I was ending this piece and had to install and learn the quirks of the new scanner for this one. For the coloring process I had to limit the palate to under 10 colors. Here was my initial pass, but after the folks at Mondo helped me out getting all the technical specifics worked out with the separations, we ended only needing 8 colors. Below is the final file sent to the printer for silkscreening. Knowing Mondo poster sales, these may allready be gone by the time this post goes live, but check with MONDO to see if they have any left!! 2017 Appearances: New York Comic Con: Oct. 5-8
Autor: David Petersen NORMA EDITORIAL REGRESA CON UNA NUEVA AVENTURA DE LA GUARDIA DE LOS RATONES Tras la frustrada revuelta de Midnight, ha llegado el invierno a los territorios ratones. La guardia aún se está recuperando y planea unir a todos los pueblos ratón para poder sobrevivir al duro invierno y tener un futuro próspero. …
Read 57 reviews from the world’s largest community for readers. Inside the June Alley Inn, located in the Western mouse city of Barkstone, mice from all ov…
Mouse Guard: Legends of the Guard Box Set by David Petersen - The legends of Mouse Guard collected in one collectible box set.Inside the June Alley Inn, loca...
by David Petersen with: Stan Sakai, Nick Tapalansky, Alex Eckman-Lawn, Ben Caldwell, Christian Slade, Rick Geary, Jemma Salume, Eric Canete, C.P. Wilson III, Cory Godbey, Bill Willingham, Jackson Sze, Cliff Monear, Justin Gerard, Dirk Shearer Digital Edition - Read December 8, 2013 Expected Release Date: December 17, 2013 Length: 144 pages Official Description: Inside the June…
https://www.instagram.com/darekzabrocki/ Another Mouse Guard (cancelled movie) art dump. These are the keyframes showing harvesting of the mice from both ground and up in the air level.
I've released a new Mouse Guard sketchbook titled 'Dawn, Daye, & Dusk'. It can be found in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.c...
This year I'm releasing a Mouse Guard 2023 Calendar. I'll be taking copies with me to Baltimore and selling them through my Online Store. I created seven new pieces of artwork specifically for the calendar (even numbered months mainly). The new pieces were all drawn at 12" x 12" (the size of the Calendar itself) To the left you can see the final art piece for October. I didn't want to do a spooky October piece, but I did think it should have a pumpkin in it, so I came up with a lantern-lit pumpkin-cider booth...inside a pumpkin Below in this blogpost I'll walk through the steps to creating it. Reference: This istock photo is one of many many many pumpkin photos I looked at for reference before starting the piece. This photo helped me more with the look of the ground cover and the pumpkin leaf greenery behind the pumpkin booth. So while I did look at this image, I didn't directly reference it (or any of the other dozens of wild growing pumpkins I found photos of), but looked at it for inspiration. Layout: The first step was the pumpkin booth. I wanted there to be a bit of an up-angle for our view so that we could see the wall thickness of the pumpkin rather than it being obscured by the canopy. Once I had the pumpkin, bar, barrels, and leaves drawn I scanned them into Photoshop and figured out where in the frame it would fit. The placement I chose meant I had to draw more greenery on top as well as all the mouse characters on a separate sheet of copy paper (using a small prinout of what I already had on a lightpad). I added in the rope lines for the lanterns digitally and drew the lanterns themselves on the same sheet as the mice. Inks: With the above layout all set, I printed out the image (onto two sheets of legal paper that had to be registered and taped back together). I inked this piece on my Twitch stream on a Huion lightpad. Using the lightpad I could see through the 12" x 12" Strathmore bristol to the printout below so I could use it as a pencil guide. I used Copic Multiliner SP pens. There was a lot of density of texture on the floor and in the background, so I tried to be simple with any tones I added to the barrels, mouse clothes, or pumpkin. Flats: When the inks were done I scanned them into Photoshop and started the coloring process. In this step I am filling in each area with a flat color (no rendering, no textures)–it's like a professional version of coloring-in-the-lines. Many of the colors were obvious from nature for the scene, but it still took some time to dial in specific hues and tones for them. How light or dark, how saturated, how warm, how cool, etc. I fiddled with for a bit before starting the actual coloring At this stage I also establish the color holds (areas where I want the lineart to be a color other than black) on the lanterns and cider. Final: I rendered the piece using dodge and burn tools as well as a stock texture brush to add all the light, shadow, and texture. There was a play of light in this piece (the light coming from inside the pumpkin as well as from the lanterns) that was a hard thing to render without also over-rendering and overworking the piece. I hope that I found the balance so that it just feels like a fun crisp air evening where there's plenty of warmth from the setting and company. The Calendar is available in my online store: https://mouseguard.bigcartel.com/product/mouse-guard-2023-calendar
The Tabletop Spotlight is on The Mouse Guard RPG Boxed Set!
https://www.instagram.com/darekzabrocki/ Another Mouse Guard (cancelled movie) art dump. Here is a collection of some environment vistas for key locations I worked on.
