And now the final product!  Done with a combination of Copic marker, watercolor, and a bit of acryllic.

I like how it turned out, and hope you do as well.

Thanks for dropping by!

-B

I’m a little late posting this up, but these are the inks for the commission.  I’ll have the finals posted tomorrow.  But in the meantime, this is all fairly straightforward–Copic Multiliners over the pencils.  I made some minor changes as I went, but the pencils were tight enough that I could ink this without a great deal of effort.

Thanks for stopping by!

-B

The next step in the process.  I print out and  lightbox the piece I worked up in Photoshop.  This is generally a very easy process of simply following the lines, adding detail and tightening-up lines when necessary.  However, in this case, since I was working in a treasured art book (with loads of amazing art done before), I had to take a bit more care in holding it while I was penciling.  My left hand is still cramped from holding that book so as to not damage the spine. 🙂

In any case, here are the pencils.  Inks are next, and I’ll post them as soon as I can get to them.

As always, thanks for looking!

-B

As promised, this is the second stage, the further refinement of the piece.  At this stage in the process I’m wanting to get the piece looking generally like I want it to look.  It’s more about the details at this point, trying to work the proper amount of detailing in the proper places.  A piece like this is very different from sequential art, or another form of illustration accompanying text.  For a personal commission piece like this,I set out to keep the eye in the piece for as long as possible, and I attempt to recreate the world, the setting, and the ambiance of the source material in order to make it an enjoyable stay.  🙂

All Photoshop again, and same brush as the last.  I’ll post the next stage tomorrow.

Thanks for dropping by,

-B

I’ve had to put off updating the site to try to catch up with some work.  I’m currently working on a really cool personal commission–a sword fight between Afro Samurai and Kill Bill’s The Bride.  Understandably I was very excited for the opportunity to explore this scene.  I’ve been asked in the past, a number of times, if I’m every going to get back to Afro Samurai stuff.  I finally get the chance here.

I thought I’d post process images to give a general idea of how I work.  These days, virtually everything I do is digital.  I bought a tablet after talking with Scott Mccloud (https://scottmccloud.com/) a few years back at the NYCC.  So, all of these are done in Photoshop.  I use a brush I downloaded from Scott Robertson(https://drawthrough.blogspot.com/).  I highly recommend subscribing to his You Tube channel here:  https://www.youtube.com/user/scottrobertsondesign

This is the first pass.  I rough-in the characters, and try to set the scene and portray the characters as truly as possible, in a general, gestural way.  I want the characters posed and expressive in a way that is true to them.  So a lot of thought goes in to this stage.

I’ll post the next stage tomorrow.

As always, thanks for dropping by!

-B