More playing in Clip Studio Paint using Frenden’s brushes.

One of the things I’ll do on the patreon is revist work and see if I can, using a minimal of editing tools push and pull it to improve the storytelling. There’s a surprising amount of improvements can be made by resizing things and finding a better balance of a composition.

Usually, I’ll try and do this before a thing sees print, but, of course, the nature of print means once it’s printed it’s done.

Here’s a reprise on the Dredd Wolf pic. The original and edit…

So, the only real difference is a punched up the size of Dredd. He’s bloody massive now, but the flat, dark red colouring keeps him recessed – he’s not as front and centre as a b&w image would be. He better frames the wolves behind him and we’re more engaged with what’s happening – we’re pulled much much closer to the action, and the threat feels more real.

Basically we’ve turbo injected the original idea.

Not sure why I didn’t spot that easy of a fix, I suspect I was still thinking of it in B&W rather than colour. I’ve created a mock up of how the b&w might have looked, and it’s clear in b&w at least, your focus is drawn ENTIRELY to dredd. The wolves in the bg get a secondary glance. The big block of pure b&w draws your eye, and the many lines of the wolf merge to a grey in your vision.

Story telling is about figuring out where the focus needs to be for the image, and how to balance the various elements to tell that story. The b&w fails on that count, I think, but succeeds in the colour.

Something to file away for the next pin up I think.

When John McCrea told me he was writing a sequel to the Judge Dredd white werewolf story, I pretty much forced him to accept a pin up for it. 

The Cry of the Werewolf was one of those defining moments in comics for me, even now it tingles my spin thinking about it. Steve Dillon, werewolves, Dredd? A perfect blend of awesome stuff.

I was lucky enough to meet Steve a few times, the first when I was in my early 20s or so, in Belfast. He was a guest at The Talisman comic shop (later to become Forbidden Planet) and because I knew all the guys they invited me out for a drink. We went to the Empire in Belfast.

Steve, was, Steve. A funny, warm guy with lots of great stories. He told us about drawing the wolves in that story one hot summer in London (later on I found out he was living with Jerry Paris at the time, famous for C&VG and Bug Hunters).

I told Steve I wasn’t much of a drinker. “Oh” he said “You’ll have to learn if you want to be a comic artist”.

Second time I met Steve was in New York, decades later and only a few years ago. He was drinking with Garth. I’d everything with me to head off to my flight that was due to depart in a few hours.

“Hey”, Steve leaned in, “he’s trying to get you drunk, you better make your excuses and head off!”

Steve’s untimely death, came I think, when his artwork was actually reaching new heights. For an artist as naturally gifted as Steve (working professionally from the age of 16!) it would have been easy to sit back and let your experience drift you along, but the recent punisher work he’d been doing felt like an artist pushing themselves further.

John’s story and my pin up offer happened before Steve’s death. Work went on and Steve left a hole in comics, and it felt more important to me personally to contribute a pin up.

Here’s some of the background stuff to that. 

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Hey, hope you liked this post. Posts like this will only be available to Patroens with Back Stage Passes from Thursday, if you’re one of the early birds you can get a back stage pass for $5 – first 25 people only! After that it’s $10 for the same thing. I’ll be posting about story telling, using Clip Studio Paint as well as layouts and thumbnails for lots of projects. Come join me! (And if you’re already signed up – you crafty bugger!)

The excellent Tom Rainey drew a picture of Modok and like a thieving weasel I downloaded it and coloured it.

A quick Clip Studio Paint Sketch (15-20minutes?) drawn using some of Frenden’s natural media tools. Sort of Bruce Timm/Kirby inspired.

This is from Hunted Series 2, episode 4 

Inks were a frustration for me, popping between digital and pencil. I think they look better than I felt about them at the time, but that’s sometimes the way it goes.

I tend to pencil multiple pages before I start inking them, a habit picked up a few years ago doing a Garth Ennis Battlefields book that required approvals on the pencils and then inks, before then I’d’ve inked panel by panel (I should probably go back to that, it feels like you’re more intimately involved in the drawing process, pencils then inks pushes you further away from the feel of drawing a page).

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Starting next week, these sorts of backstage things will be behind the patreon paywall! If you’d like to see them for the ultra low price of $5 per month, sign up quick!