superman

Ever wonder what process a comic book artist goes through when creating the images in a comic book? Well, it's nothing like what I'm going to show here. Cause I'm not a comic book artist. I'm a very big fan of superheroes (mostly DC characters, though I enjoy Marvel, too), but I've actually read very few comic books in my life (which is still more than most people could say). But the artwork intrigues me.

Very few comic book artists see the image all the way through to the end. Usually, one or several artists pencil the images, and then they turn their work over to the inker(s), who then in turn hand off the images to the colorists. That's an extreme oversimplification of the process, but you get the idea.

I, however, do not have the luxury nor the trust necessary to have three separate artists work on my whim-inspired drawings, so I'm going to cover each of the bases myself.

I've penciled this image of Superman yelling menacingly at Lex Luthor for something that he's done (plotting to sink California into the ocean, becoming president of the United States, creating a giant genetically-enhanced apricot that's threatening to squash all of Metropolis, take your pick). As you may or may not be able to tell, due to the size of the original image (8.5" x 14"), I had to scan the image as two parts and then put them together in Photoshop (you can see the line where the two images were joined running through Superman's left arm).

Now I'm working on inking it in Photoshop using the pen tool, which I've only recently learned how to use well enough to make this possible. I know that I'm still not using it as effectively as I could be, but, hey, I'm an amateur, alright?

After I'm done with the inking, then I will attempt to color the image in Photoshop. This is the step about which I worry most, since I've colored things in Photoshop before, but never at this level of difficulty.

Stay tuned for more as the image progresses, and let's see how this goes....