Lots of questions about what inspired my work on Human Target. Here's a thread on the creative genealogy of the book. Hope it helps.
It all starts with Fantastic Four. In 2019, I attempted to draw an FF one-shot (written by Gerry Duggan) in the style of 101 Dalmatians and Darwyn Cooke. Wasn't clicking (and I ran out of time) so I abandoned the approach and redrew what I could of the issue. Still liked it, tho.
Not long after that, Alex Ross asked me to be a part of his MARVEL anthology. I pitched him a Steranko Nick Fury story and he hit me back with a ton of reference to inspire me. He encouraged me to explore bright poppy colors and day-glo coloring.
This was at the beginning of the pandemic when the industry was grinding to a halt so I had MONTHS to work out the kinks for my approach to the story. Some of the techniques I had been struggling with for years finally clicked into place during this time.
Flash forward to Human Target. The term "superhero noir" was thrown around a lot so I had SLEEPER by Brubaker and Phillips in my head when I started. Here are some early roughs for the book. Lots of shadows and muted colors.
Soon after starting issue one, Tom's scripts for the rest of the series started rolling in and I quickly realized that my approach was all wrong. The tone was wrong, the inking style was wrong, my Christopher Chance was wrong...all of it clashed with Tom's words.
I needed a different take. First place I looked was neon noir. JLI, neon 80s...felt like a good match.
Hotel Artemis by Drew Pearce combined different aesthetics in a way that clicked with me. Neon 80s, mid century modern, 40s noir, 60s hardboiled, 70s crime...it was all there in one package. That got me thinking back to my Nick Fury story and my original FF pages.
I took everything and mashed it together. 101 Dalmatians, Steranko, neon noir, mid century illustration....all of it went in the blender.
Moral of the story - steal from one artist and you look like a copycat; steal from several artists and you start to look original.
And because you made it to the end, here's a sneak peak of issue 6 of Human Target. The cover and two of my favorite panels from the issue.
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My covers for the EC Comics/Oni Press anthology, CRUEL UNIVERSE (with amazing trade dress by @rianhughes ). Process thread incoming!
The issue 2 cover seems to be everyone's favorite so I'm going to breakdown how I did it. Hope it helps with your future artistic endeavours.
First, I need to explain my formula for a good EC Comics cover. My initial approach to the issue one cover was fine but it didn't feel EC enough to me. Here's the sketch and the final.
With the new issue of Human Target hitting stands next week, I thought it would be a good time for another process thread. This one concerns what I consider the most important element of my work on HT - contrast.
I've experimented a lot with the traditional forms of contrast - color, shape, texture, etc but after really studying mid century illustration, I realized that there was a very powerful contrast technique that I wasn't taking advantage of - style contrast.
Since I've discussed it before, let's start with 101 Dalmations. Notice the precision of these line drawings for the backgrounds of the film? If we were tasked with coloring them, our first instinct would probably be to match that precision and detail.
Here's my variant cover for issue 14 of THAT TEXAS BLOOD (out this week!) by @ChristophCondon & @jacobr_phillips . For you digital artists out there, I thought I'd share a few things in Photoshop that I used to make this cover.
I usually start my cover paintings at 200 DPI because A) it helps reduce lag on a lot of the big brushes but also, B) many brushes look better when you're using them at a smaller resolution. Compare these two examples using @kyletwebster brushes.
Simply enlarging the brushes won't work in most cases. Once I've blocked in the big shapes and textures, I raise the DPI to 400 or 600 and get to work on the details.
There is still a persistent myth out there that you can achieve photo realism in art without the use of photo reference. If your goal is realism, here's a thread to remind you that the best artists used reference so you can, too.
Let's start with comics. Here's the creator of the Rocketeer, Dave Stevens posing for Cliff Secord himself. Fellow comics artist Doug Wildey was Dave's model for Peavey.
Richard Corben used a lot of models (fellow creator Bruce Jones is recognizable in some of Corben's work) but he also went the extra mile and sculpted stylized heads for realistic lighting ref.
Here's my cover for Tales of the Human Target, an anthology one-shot that drops Aug 23. I handle a lot of design for the HT series but I had no formal training so everything I've learned is thanks to the amazing resources that are available out there. Here's a thread about them.
My #1 resource for logo design is Logo-a-gogo by @rianhughes . Rian covers it all, from a general approach to design all the way down to how he handled kerning on a specific logo. Amazing book.
Rian also put together an amazing series of books that compile custom lettering over the decades. Custom Lettering of the 40s and 50s is my favorite. These books are out of print so I recommend you set up an eBay alert and keep your eyes out.
I thought it would be a good time for a process thread about the Photoshop brushes I use for Human Target.
I'm not sure anyone has noticed but the cover art solicited for 5 is different than the printed cover. I had no idea how to approach Emra's coat in time for the catalog so I turned it in as is. I also hadn't figured out her hair yet.
Shortly thereafter, @kyletwebster came out with his Concept Brush Soft in the Fall 2021 update and I immediately fell in love with the lines it laid down. The brush and I are inseparable now and I look for any excuse to use it. Went back and redrew Emra's coat with it.