ROOT AND BRANCH: PART 2 PAGE 1

A HUGE FAVOUR: Ok, I've never really thrown this out to everyone, but I need some help. I just got shown the latest copy of Previews. Previews is the book from which all comic book stores order their comics. Now, obviously most of you are going to be very happy to hear that the second HEROES hard cover has been solicited, which means you can order it and get your little hands on it in October. Now, there's one more thing I'd like you to order. On page 172 is the solicitation or ad for my first comic: ZERO G! I'm asking all of you to please go to your local comic book store and ask them to order in a copy for you. It's only US$3. I don't see a cent, I just want it to do well. So what you need to know is:

- Zero G on page 172 of Previews
- Where your local comic book store is

Thank you! Now returning you to your regularly scheduled blogging...

Apologies I haven't been blogging. I have very little time to myself during the day. On Monday I had to pick my fellow artist and art director on Zero G, Chris Moreno from LAX and it felt like I drove him all over LA to get him home. I looked at my journey on a map after and noticed that I had indeed driven all over LA. I went from the south to the far north and then back south. I was exhausted. Three hours in the car got me a nasty case of driver's tan on my arm.

Yesterday was more fun. I was invited by Top Cow to go see their premiere for WANTED at 2pm at a private cinema at Universal Studios. I sat between a good friend of mine, inker Rick Basaldua and superstar penciller Joe Benitez (Titans).

WANTED is off the charts. I thought they took the graphic novel, toned down the gratuity and the super-heroics and created a really fun, smart movie with a new twist and a great, satisfying ending. It has an excellent structure and the performances are fantastic. I heartily recommend this as I guarantee you will see stuff that you've NEVER seen before as the special effects are off the chart.

Continuing my brush with Hollywood, I met a guy by the name of MARC SAMSON who is a fantastic matte painter and concept artist who worked on Superman Returns, I am Legend and a bunch of other big Hollywood productions. He invited me down to his studio today so I can watch him work. I was really excited, but I had to cancel to because I had to redraw a cover for HERESY (also solicited in previews - yeah, when it rains it pours.) I had already drawn a cover, but I had an epiphany and realised that it was so similar to what the other artist did. Inspired I attacked it again, and with the help of the Spacedog team I put together a cover that I think is stunning. I can't wait to show you. Anyway, I had til the end of the day to get it done, and I finished it at 630pm on the dot. Close call.

As if that wasn't enough, tomorrow I'm heading off to meet Ollie Grigsby and Zach Craley on the HEROES set! I'm so damn excited. I have no idea what they're shooting, but I can't wait to see. I wonder if I'm allowed to bring a camera. It would be a crying shame if I'm not.

My second week in LA and I've gone to a movie premiere, met an elite special effects artist and heading down to the HEROES studio. Surely I can't keep up this pace?!






Anyway, Root & Branch part 3!

<- I can't remember this guys' name, but I met him at the Alan Moore signing. He really put the pressure on with a flying Nathan on the inside book jacket! I'm quite happy with how this one turned out.

I really do love this second part. We had some scripting issues but Zach and I turned problems into challenges and cranked up the pressure and quality. I think part 2 is my favourite part. Part 1 warmed me up, and I was so rushed for part 3, but I got to really take my time and enjoy part 2.


<- This guy was a designer who did these t-shirts in England. He asked me to do the HEROES logo and sign the tshirt. I was honoured. I then whipped him up a smart little Hiro.

As you can see, page 1 is largely a digital painting. That means there's no linework. I've included the line work layer here so you can see what I just painted. There is no way I could do something like this with Annette. It's too much of an overlap of both our jobs. So flying solo it was fun to do this. Actually it was arrogant and terrifying. I was fueled with confidence from the digital painting I did of the backgrounds on part 1. Feeling like the big man, I thought I'd have a smack at the title again. Thank god it turned out well! I'm so proud of how it looks.


<- Another Peter. Poor Milo, got a great haircut and worked out and no one wants season 2 Peter.

It really came alive at the final stage where I placed shadows and blurs on the final layer to create a sense of lighting and movement (it's so hard to make a car look like it's moving when it's not racing along at a million miles an hour - but with some dust and subtle blur effects it really works).

I remember being so happy I called my sister over to have a look. She just smiled not quite sure what I was talking about. What I was talking about was the lighting in the car down the bottom - I love how convincing it looks.

Now where my sister did help me was on Sabine's makeup. She taught me how to do makeup on asian girls. Here's a closeup so you can see my sister's magic (without the lighting I love). On the upper lid she suggested a deep dark purple blending out gently towards the eyebrow. Then she said I should work a silver/grey from under the eyebrow towards the upper lid. The silver also ran around the inner part of the eye towards the nose (but I kept forgetting this bit later) A light gloss for the lips and a slight rouge to the lips and Sabine was ready to kill some clones. I normally just fudge makeup, but given my sister is Eurasian like Sabine she was the perfect person to ask. I really felt it brought Sabine to life and my sister and I were both very happy with the result. From this point onward I really felt like I got a handle on drawing Sabine. I think she looks really consistent and convincing from here until the end of part 3.

<- A flying Nathan from a different angle.

As a final thing they asked me to add the licence plate code. Luckily I just copied and pasted it as it's actually a password for some file on some site. Those whacky HEROES kids!

I will post when I can, but with all this galavanting around LA, I'm a little behind on my pages this week. Redrawing the cover (losing a day) didn't help. But as I always say, the pain is fleeting, the pages are forever.

Don't forget! Please order a copy of Zero G. If you really love me, you will grab all four issues and watch it get better and better and better. You can take that to the bank!