Cover Process - ‘The Rattler’
I’ve been working with writer Jason McNamara on a project called The Rattler for a little while. It’s a horror/thriller, which I can’t wait to get back to work on. I’ve posted some pieces here and there, but never a full page. Well, I’ve just finished up the cover art and decided to share a little bit about the project. I’ve included some notes on the cover process after the jump.
Here’s a synopsis by Jason:
“Stephen Thorn watched helplessly as Catherine, the love of his life, was kidnapped off a country road, never to be seen again. Ten years later, he is a passionate victim’s rights crusader, authoring books and a website devoted to tracking paroled convicts and petitioning for stiffer penalties. He has saved lives and made a name and fortune or himself, but remains a jaded, angry man.
At his father’s deathbed, Stephen is astonished to hear Catherine’s voice call out from the dead man’s lips, lost and pleading. He writes it off as an emotional delusion, but not long after, he is involved in an accidental death and once again hears Catherine’s voice keening for him.
Convincing himself that killing criminals is morally acceptable to save his lost love, Stephen begins a fanatical and deadly search, targeting ex-cons as his means to glean more clues from Catherine’s ghostly voice. Becoming an outlaw himself Stephen is pursued by his own organization as he cuts a swathe of destruction across California, ultimately being led to Catherine and into the trap set in motion years earlier…”
All of the above thumbnails were sent to, and rejected by, Jason. None were strong enough, or had enough punch to ‘em. And I agreed. I was really gettin’ too far away from the idea by that last one. The one with the tentacles… goodness.
Jason helped to rein me in. He reminded me to look at horror movie posters, saying in an email, “In general the characters look in peril, there’s a conflict in their body language that says ‘I’m fucked, help me.’ Stephen looks like he’s stepping off an escalator here. He doesn’t seem to have any problems.”
So I rethought it. And I sent him this.
We were both happy with where it was headed now, so I tightened it up.
Why’s that look so distorted and blotchy? I have a little, tiny scanner. I have to work within the limits of my miniature scanner and my very limited Photoshop-assembling capabilities. I pencilled this on a bristol board, which makes it hard to scan without getting big ol’ shadows. So when we decided to keep this idea moving along I switched back to an old standby, Canson Pro Layout Marker Paper. I use a Pentel Pocket Brush for all my inking needs, and the marker paper keeps bleeding to a minimum, though not as well as a nice bristol board. However, the marker paper is thin enough that the scanner lid can close all the way and helps to eliminate that ugly shadow effect. I’m sure there’s a way to work around this problem, but I haven’t figured it out yet. My Photoshop skills, like I mentioned, leave much to be desired.
The inks!
Done separately, then composited together. This let me play with their size on the page and allow enough room for a header down the road.
Background tests:
We both liked the first one. On to the coloring stage.
I’m pretty dumb when it comes to PS tricks. I don’t use different brushes. I usually color it all on the same layer even. This time I broke it apart into a few different layers, but had a little trouble keeping things in order. Too many layers, too many worries. I can usually keep about 4 or 5 in order. Any more than that and I start getting short with my girlfriend.
You can tell by the amount of layers in the screenshot below how stretched my concentration was at this point.
And yes, I color the whole thing, then go back with the eraser tool and clean up the edges. Despite 6 years in art school, 3 computer arts classes, and multiple online Adobe Tutorials, I can’t, for the life of me, figure out the selection or masking tools. But it’s so easy! Nope. Not for me. I can erase a clean line pretty quick by this point though.
A few quick changes to line color to soften his face up:
And in no time, I’m finished.
The coloring process took me about 8 hours or so. But I was gettin’ up and stretching, fixing coffee, and futzin’ around watching crappy movies on Netflix. I couldn’t really give an accurate estimate on how long the entire process took, since it was over such a drawn out period of time.
Once I touch up the interiors a bit, I’ll see about posting the whole pitch. Hope this wasn’t too boring; I’ve never done a process post before.
