|
|
|
DECLARATIONS
A biweekly newsletter by artist/writer Declan Shalvey.
|
|
I've finally CLEARED my cover commitments. Felt pretty good to clear them all from my whiteboard. I'm now concentrating on PROJECT ABBEY for the rest of the year, with the odd cover here and there.
I've also tried another crack at an outline for the first issue of PROJECT ORBITAL. Getting closer...
I did an interview for David Harper's wonderful comics website SKTCHD. I took a decent shot of my workspace for the piece as seen below. I describe it in more detail in the piece, but I'll try do something more in depth here in future. Check out the interview here. It's behind a paywall, but highly recommend subscribing to the site.
|
|
Have a few coming up in the next couple of weeks. First, I'm taking part in a Careers Day at the National Gallery, Dublin on Thursday 14th of November. I'll be one of 10 speakers talking to Transition Year/Senior Secondary students who may be considering a creative career. So, I may encourage them, or end up scaring them off!
Right after that I'll be at Thought Bubble! You can catch me in what is looking like the 'Irish Quarter', or 'Irish and Irish-friendly Quarter' at least, at Table 5 in the Comixology Originals Hall.
|
|
The following weekend I'll be at BD de Valenciennes in France, which will be the last convention of the year that I'm travelling to for a while. It being a European style show, I assume I'll be doing headsketch sessions at various times.
Speaking of Thought Bubble, I have a VERY SPECIAL SURPRISE in store for the show...
|
|
I'll be debuting a special preview ashcan of BOG BODIES at Thought Bubble, while the artist Gavin Fullerton also debuts it at Valkyrie con in Smithfield, Dublin.
We're only printed 150 of them, once they're gone, they're gone. The ashcan contains the first 20 story pages from the graphic novel in black and white. Nothing from the book has been shown online so far so anyone who picks up a copy at either show will be first to get a proper sampling of the book. So come to Table 5 in the Comixology Hall and get a copy while you can (or find Gavin at Valkyrie Con)!
|
|
|
It's time for another Tape Dec! This month, it's Mike Perkins, the artist of the excellent LOIS LANE for DC Comics. Mike is a wonderful artist, a real pleasure to talk to. We were both at a show in Luxembourg a few months ago and managed to find the time to chat about his career. Go check it out! The link is private for today, so only you guys can listen, I'll post it publicly tomorrow.
|
|
|
|
I got a couple of questions! Here they are with a couple of answers.
How come you haven't seen Evangelion? It's available on Netflix but I recommend the older translations. You're in for a weird, emotional trip!
-Diogo Campos
I have to admit, I'm pretty anime-illiterate, for lack of a better phrase. I've seen the original Ghost In The Shell, and the old Street Fighter Movie, and that's about it...? I saw an episode of Cowboy Bebop once and it seemed cool, and an ex tried to get me to watch... some insane thing that I hated so much I've managed to wipe from my memory. Oh, I've watched Castlevania too, because I fear Warren's wrath.
Hello! Seeing as you both write and draw, what’s the best way for a writer to go about finding an artist with whom to collaborate on a comic? I write but my artistic skills are basically awful. How do you approach an artist? Should you come with a completed script or just a concept? Anyway, enjoy your work! Thanks.
-Tyler Tarlton
This gets asked a lot, and I have friends who are writers and this is what I say to them...
Put aside some money and offer to pay them. That's the best way to secure an artist that is as close to a professional level and also produce pages that will look as good as possible therefore make your script read better and look better. As to where to find them, well really, it's never been easier... there's twitter, DeviantArt, faceboook, Instagram, there's fan boards (I think they're still around), etc... the problem really is finding someone who's reliable and will deliver. That's where the money comes in and a little bit of diligent research.
When approaching an artist you can have a rough outline, or a full script, it depends on who you approach. If you want them to take you seriously, then you'd probably want to have a whole completed script for them to read, to get a better idea it is works for them. The more prepared you are, the more seriously they're likely to take it, and considering you have no proven credits, that would factor heavily in their decision.
|
|
|
Since the signed packs from the last newsletter sold out, I'm offering a pack of STAR TREK DISCOVERY SUCCESSION #1-4. Just 3 packs available, so order now if you'd like some signed covers of pretty starships.
|
|
So they new (and it seems hit!) series from Image Comics, UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY is out tomorrow! As such, I thought I'd share the process of making my variant cover for the issue.
UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY by Scott Snyder, Charles Soule, Guiseppe Camuncoli, Daniele Orlandini and Matt Wilson is out tomorrow and I've provided a retailer variant for the book. It's exclusive to Big Bang Comics, Forbidden Planet London and Jetpack comics, so if you want a copy, get onto those fine retailers.
This was an interesting cover for me to do, so I thought I'd share the process. When initially asked, I got a read of #1, where there was a lot of cool imagery. I really liked the big border wall that's featured in the issue, and liked how the flag was placed. so I kinda re-interpreted the image, similar to what I did with the HOX/OX covers. Was really happy with this image.
|
|
|
However, it was pointed out to me that some of the other variant artwork the team had received went with that wall imagery and they were concerned it was too similar. It's frustrating when that happens, as you know you're on to a good thing visually, but someone else has beaten you to it :P
|
|
|
As it turned out, the cover needed to be in sooner than I thought, so I was in a bit of a bind. I had been going with a more illustrative approach, but time dictated that I didn't have that luxury anymore. At times like these, it forces me to think outside the box more, which I like. So, I thought about what I liked about the regular cover, the limited palette, the way it evoked imagery related to the American flag, and realised that tied into what I liked about my previous layout, so decided to lean into that more. In the comic, the USA is vary different to what we now know, more isolationist, so I tried to use the imagery to show something more oppressive. The image came to me of a map of the USA, but the red bars of the flag were restricting/imprisoning it. The blue in the trade dress was already leaning into the blue of the flag, so I thought red bars below it would work to make it look like the US flag. I didn't have time to do a layout so I jumped right in.
|
|
|
I started off by finding a decent map of the USA and lightboxing it onto my artboard, then inking over it, to keep that hand-drawn line. I knew I'd want to have some grit to the image and didn't want to rely solely on digital effects so I took a pages and put down a wash texture.
|
|
|
I've been meaning to do some original wash effects so I can integrate them into my covers more, so this was a good chance to try. Next, I took my map drawing, scanned it, cleaned it up and placed it so that the map fit comfortably withing the comic trade dress.
|
|
|
Next, I counted how many red stripes there were in the American flag (there's seven!) and in Photoshop, I spaced out the stripes in red and other colours, so I could get a sense of spacing them all out evenly. I removed the dress at this stage as I didn't need to see it anymore, everything was placed where I needed it to be.
|
|
|
Then, I switched off the stripes and concentrated on the map for a while. I added in the previous wash scan and colourized it. I wanted the image to look worn, faded, a little like an old Western map, so I went with a tanned brown.
|
|
|
I'm not sure how noticeable it is below, but I also went in and painted some texture in on photoshop. I like messing with PS brushes, but I don't want any image to look too digital, especially when this one is more computer-involved than any other cover I've really done, it was important to have much of a hand-drawn quality as possible, so I wanted the wash scan to be the foundation of the texture effect, with any PS brushed used to enhance it, not replace it.
|
|
|
I knew I'd fade the map more, but I didn't want the map to look totally flat, so I went in and selected various states with the polygonal lasso tool in PS. I decided to make sure they all stood out from each other, trying to keep the states within a spectrum of three tones of brown/beige.
|
|
|
Note: I also lowered the opacity on that layer so that the textures still bled through.
|
|
|
A simple colour hold makes all the difference.
|
|
|
I then added in the red bars from earlier. Was happy with the effect but as I mentioned, I'm conscious of the image looking too 'digital'. So using those bars as selection areas I went in and painted two layers of red in PS, a pure red like this and a darker blood-ish red.
|
|
|
There we go. I painted them so that they fade away, or 'dry out' near the bottom, to keep up that worn-down effect. I nudged the darker layer to the side a bit, for a mis-registered effect. I also added in some scratches on the map layer, again to rough up the image slightly.
|
|
|
And then dropped in the dress for the finished image! Was really happy with how this come out, especially with it being such an experiment. It's good to get out of your comfort zone now and then, and I like leaning into graphic design sensibilities when i can. This would never fly on a Batman cover, for example, but the great thing about an Image book is that you can really test yourself, as long as everyone is cool with it.
So anyway, hope that was interesting. Go pick up Undiscovered Country #1, looks like it's got 'smash hit' written all over it.
|
|
NOTE: PLEASE DO NOT SHARE ONLINE! Peeks are for Declaration subscribers only.
Here's a peek for a cover out next month. It's a 'Venom Island' variant cover for AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #36. I rarely ever get to draw Spider professionally (this is my sixth time, I think...?) so whenever I do, I jump at the chance.
|
|
|
November 6th
DAREDEVIL #13 SHALVEY 2099 VAR (VC)
November 13th
HIT-GIRL SEASON TWO #10 CVR A SHALVEY (C)
HIT-GIRL SEASON TWO #10 CVR B SHALVEY (C)
November 20th
BLOODSHOT #3 CVR A SHALVEY (C)
|
|
|
|
Okay, that's all from me this week. I'll be back again in a couple of weeks. Feel free to share the subscribe link between now and then.
|
|
|
|
|
