Building a cover
Been a while since I posted anything really substantial as far as art goes, so I figured now would be a good time.
Last week, the fine fellows at Marvel asked me to do the cover for Amazing Fantasy #15. For those of you not aware, the ORIGINAL Amazing Fantasy #15 featured the introduction of a new hero named Spider-Man. You may have heard of him. The original cover looks like this-
Marvel is introducing a variety of new characters and creators in the new Amazing Fantasy #15 and naturally wanted to feature them on the cover. They also wanted the design to be similar to the original cover. We call that "spoofing", incidentally. I got the call on Friday afternoon and the cover needed to be to our mild-manered colorist Brad Anderson first thing Tuesday morning so he could have it colored and to Marvel first thing Wednesday. Not a schedule anyone likes when trying to come up with a quality cover.
After receiving the required reference for the characters that needed to be featured, I set about sketching various versions of the cover. Going by the original idea of "spoofing" the original, here's what I came up with-
--I know, not very inspired.
After looking at the sketches, the Editors realized they had neglected to share an important piece of information- Spider-man isn't actually in this issue. He needs to be featured much less prominently and the new characters more-so. They asked me to move Spider-man back and bring the other characters forward.
Going by that information I came up with a couple of sketches I liked much better-
No good- too different from the original. They asked me to go with the first sketch I did, but move Spidey back so he's on the same plane with the other characters. As we're now into Sunday we'll forego any more sketches and I can just jump into drawing.
Here's the layout I came up with-
I started in on the cover Sunday night and had the entire right side inked by the time I went to bed. When I got up on Monday the editors asked to see my pencils to make sure we were on the right track. As I don't pencil traditionally- I just loosely layout in pencil and then draw in ink- I had to send them the layout I posted above. The liked it, but they wanted the Heartbreak Kid (the guy standing on the left) sitting on the ledge like in the original sketch. Fortunately I hadn't inked him yet as I was waiting on reference from the inimitable Jeff Parker.
Here's the final layout. I had to take a photo of myself in the pose as I can never get that angle right.
From this I sprinted to to Monday evening finish line.
Here's the final line art.
Twenty-four hours later, here's what i got from Brad Anderson-
Yay!
When putting together a cover the most important thing to consider is simplicity and grace of design. Spidey and his unwilling buddy will be breaking the logo- catching the viewers eye. Using a simple triangular design, I attempt to pull the viewers eye through the relevant characters and to the bottom right corner- tempting them to open the book.
Incidentally, this isn't the first time I've spoofed this cover. Here's the last time I tried- back in 1997-
Last week, the fine fellows at Marvel asked me to do the cover for Amazing Fantasy #15. For those of you not aware, the ORIGINAL Amazing Fantasy #15 featured the introduction of a new hero named Spider-Man. You may have heard of him. The original cover looks like this-
Marvel is introducing a variety of new characters and creators in the new Amazing Fantasy #15 and naturally wanted to feature them on the cover. They also wanted the design to be similar to the original cover. We call that "spoofing", incidentally. I got the call on Friday afternoon and the cover needed to be to our mild-manered colorist Brad Anderson first thing Tuesday morning so he could have it colored and to Marvel first thing Wednesday. Not a schedule anyone likes when trying to come up with a quality cover.
After receiving the required reference for the characters that needed to be featured, I set about sketching various versions of the cover. Going by the original idea of "spoofing" the original, here's what I came up with-
--I know, not very inspired.
After looking at the sketches, the Editors realized they had neglected to share an important piece of information- Spider-man isn't actually in this issue. He needs to be featured much less prominently and the new characters more-so. They asked me to move Spider-man back and bring the other characters forward.
Going by that information I came up with a couple of sketches I liked much better-
No good- too different from the original. They asked me to go with the first sketch I did, but move Spidey back so he's on the same plane with the other characters. As we're now into Sunday we'll forego any more sketches and I can just jump into drawing.
Here's the layout I came up with-
I started in on the cover Sunday night and had the entire right side inked by the time I went to bed. When I got up on Monday the editors asked to see my pencils to make sure we were on the right track. As I don't pencil traditionally- I just loosely layout in pencil and then draw in ink- I had to send them the layout I posted above. The liked it, but they wanted the Heartbreak Kid (the guy standing on the left) sitting on the ledge like in the original sketch. Fortunately I hadn't inked him yet as I was waiting on reference from the inimitable Jeff Parker.
Here's the final layout. I had to take a photo of myself in the pose as I can never get that angle right.
From this I sprinted to to Monday evening finish line.
Here's the final line art.
Twenty-four hours later, here's what i got from Brad Anderson-
Yay!
When putting together a cover the most important thing to consider is simplicity and grace of design. Spidey and his unwilling buddy will be breaking the logo- catching the viewers eye. Using a simple triangular design, I attempt to pull the viewers eye through the relevant characters and to the bottom right corner- tempting them to open the book.
Incidentally, this isn't the first time I've spoofed this cover. Here's the last time I tried- back in 1997-
posted by Pete at 6:40 PM
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