Issue two cover came from a happy accident. I was experimenting with the airbrush on photo shop trying to learn new skills and half way through I felt I was on the right track for a cover.
using the thumbnails i started to create my cover, i decided to create thsi digitally, i used my own taste in comics to influance the media for this. i like to see a nice polished looking cover that is more realistic to the pages inside. after a while of playing around with brushes and colour i was realy happy with this at this point belive it or not.. i saw this as a step forward with my work. however i started to find it dificult to make the colours less basic and child like, when asking for advic from peers and reletives thay said this wasnt my strongest drawing and my nice pages shouldnt be ruined with a half decent cover. AGRIED so i stopped and moved on.
i was advised to create the cover like i create most of my illustrations analog. draw the images separate and then layer them on photoshop and make it illustration happen on there.so i drew them all separate -using my new best friend the air brush pen i made this gradient for my deep water effect.
there was a few tries at getting the gradient right. not all was successful as this one. getting used to a new tool was exciting but kinda annoying also. i was letting too much ink out and not keeping a steady smooth consistant motion that made it patchy.
i drew this pretty big for the actual size that it was going to be seemed silly but i wanted to get some detail in their and not be seen as a cop out.
yet again a failed attempt at my cover, the only thing i like about this is the gradiant. the drawinsg are weak, these was a very poor attempt if im honest i wanted the drawings to be different from the inside. i like the layout though i think the illustration is translated well, it defo says horror and shows the time period. the problem is getting the right drawing style for the cover for what i want it to do, and this aint it. finding an analog way to make the gradiant for the back and a way for that and the realistc elements to work together is the main problem... im finding drawing this cover very hard, the gradient works well with the analog airbrush but then the drawing on top of that dont work, i dont think i have the skills to make images fade in and out on top on the grey spray. this is a difficult challenge for me..but im going to experiment with different media and one mix media to make this work, then if not ill have to use a different thumbnail that will work for the comic book and leave me happy with the end result.
so i decided to go at it again, fully analog, i was using a back wash at this point and i could see for sure that this picture was going nowhere its heading in the direction that i was scared of..looking like amiture cover that looks like a 15 year old has created whilst watching towi or something. its obvious that im struggling with this cover for sure. and the problem is making the creatures head look faded into the deep water. iv got one more idea that should work...mix media. water colour wash, pastel gradient then work into it with gauche and ink. if that fails ill have to work on another thumbnail. accept defite isnt an option for me but if it means having a weak cover for a nice page comic book then ill accept it.
After a long discusstion with in my crit, my peers advised me on my cover problem and said that I should show the monster on the cover it should be shown later with in the pages.i should suggest a monster so eyes or a hand. In my thumbnails I drew a clawed hand that was reaching to the viking boat so I decided to use that and push that forwards. I was told that the more simple cover desisgns was my stronger ideas so back to the drawimg for me.
First ideas for the cover was been held back by my ability’s on photoshop, hours or colouring around object because I didnt know how to delete certain areas.
Playing around with the colour and lay outs changing the back ground to give the cover a little more pop. I think its going the right way but this almost feels too much.
Finished. This is my final cover. Im happy with the end results. It took a long time to get to this result due to my photoshop skills been at a lower level but