The making of the cover from hell!
2007-07-20 13:24:10
Here’s a little taste of my weekend.
Saturday:
Rainy day here in ol’ NYC, so I figured I would keep Axel from getting angry with me and try to get his cover done and in before I leave for Charlotte and vacation. It isn't going to be easy with the creative summit beginning this week.
Sometimes you have good days, sometimes you don’t. Today’s been a pretty rough day behind the drawing board. The hardest thing about doing a cover for Wolverine is that there have been so many brilliant covers done by magnificent artists in the past that sometimes I get caught up in trying to come up with trying to create an idea that’s just so unique that it’s completely beyond my grasp and skill level as an artist. So, the entirety of today has been a fruitless struggle of layout after layout with nothing knocking my socks off.
When I come across days like this, I find that the solution is usually one of two things.
1- Do the obvious and call it a day.
2- Step away from the drawing board
The cover I have to do has three characters on it, Wolvie, Omega Red and Maverick. The simplest solution would be to just do a straight on portrait of the three looking at the reader and looking as badass as possible (the obvious). But, I’ve gotten way too caught up in trying to do something other than the first thing that comes to mind. It seems to me that we’ve seen that shot before. That said, I may just have to accept that perhaps that’s the best layout for this particular piece. Let’s face it, it’s the combination of those three characters that’s going to get readers talking.
Some days the pencil and hand just don’t quite get into synch and those are just horrible days. I’ve found that the more I beat my head against a particular piece, the worse everything seems to get and if I walk away and just accept that the day is a complete bust, then I usually come up with the solution by the next day (step away from the board). Sometimes the solution may just be to do the obvious layout and get the job done.
Let’s see what tomorrow brings.
Sunday:
Okay, so what if I told you that neither of my usual two solutions worked ;-)
Today ended up being another mind numbing day, I must have gone through a ream of sketch paper, but I finally got something I could live with. Pulling myself away from the drawing table yesterday, uncharacteristically led to another day of endless sketching today, mostly because I just refused to settle for the obvious solution.
Somewhere around 6PM I came up with a small idea that inspired me to finally get to a point where I was happy with a composition by 9PM. It’s funny how things work, because it was a simple problem that led me to the cover sketch I wanted.
Since the fun of these blogs is to give you an insider’s look into the workings here at Marvel, I’m going to take this opportunity over the next five days to show you a portion of the sketch work I’ve done and my thinking behind it. It may also give you a peek into how artist are prone to going mad.
Keep in mind, this is just a small portion, it would take me hours to scan all of it. All sketches are shown at actual size.
1-When Axel told me who the guests stars were in this issues, I started to think about the composition and how to make it dynamic without making is so cluttered that it wouldn’t read clearly on the stands. The characters were Wolvie, Omega Red and Maverick, the latter two having very busy costume designs that were all the rage in the early nineties. To try to keep the image readable, I decided that I would do it sans a background. My immediate impulse was to have the three characters leaping downward on the cover in an interesting configuration. The real challenge was that each character had odd visual cues that were specific to them and which worked fine on an individual basis, but together on one cover, it was going to be hard to illustrate, a pain in the rump to be exact. Wolverine has his claws, Omega Red has tentacles and Maverick is best known for carrying heavy weaponry. This first doodle gives you an idea of what I was going for originally. Keep in mind that I sketch small and then blow my drawings up from there. Most of these sketches are about 400% from actual workable art size.
2- While the first doodle had energy, it wasn’t practical. I wanted Wolvie to be front and center so I did this small thumbnail of him coming straight at the reader, claws pointed right at our faces. I was hoping this would inspire me, but I’ve seen this image a million times before.
3-Okay, you’re probably wondering what this Captain America doodle is doing here? This was an idea I had for a previous cover I did with Wolverine and Cap. The sketch ending up not working, I jettisoned it in favor of another idea. I kept the doodle because I liked its energy and I always keep unused stuff because you never know when an opportunity may arise to use it again. I figured I could easily convert this Cap into a leaping Omega Red. By the way, if you look to the bottom right corner of this sketch, you can see the idea that I later thumbnailed out became the actual Wolvie/Cap cover.
4-Here’s Cap converted into a generic figure, which I’m hoping will work as Omega Red. The problem here is that his outstretched arms and tentacles are going to require some finagling.
5-Originally, I was considering having them all leaping, but this doodle of Maverick got me thinking otherwise.
Wow, I had no idea so much thought went into making a cover -- I guess sometimes you have to suffer to get something that good.
Posted by RobertR on 2006-06-26 13:10:59
Wow. @_@ I've always appreciated covers, but after seeing what a headache it is, I'm glad that I haven't taken it for granted. Good luck I hope it all flows together soon, it sounds so frustrating.
Posted by TwilghtDragon on 2006-06-26 13:39:52
That's alot of stuff for one cover Joe Q, you really are a hard worker. I was wondering as an artist do you use references when drawing a character? Did you ever copy a pic of a character and just give it your own style or do you think that's really the worst thing to do? I'm just 15 and starting to try to work on my drawing and writing skills so I wanted to ask the pro's on this.
Posted by Bearpod91 on 2006-06-26 14:21:16
Good to know. Joe I know it stinks for you but it's nice to hear that someone as skilled as yourself has those paper road blocks like I do. I really appreciate the insight into your process. Personally I thought even with three characters you'd find a way to pull in really close like you've been doing on your covers over the last year. I think it's really working, especially on your Painkiller Jane covers. But the Wolverine Covers have been really powerful as well.
Posted by Brian Wisniewski on 2006-06-26 15:31:23
Interesting Didn't know drawing was done so scientifically. Are we getting Maverick as Agent Zero or back in the Maverick uniform? Also what is the hold up on a Marvel Adventures X-Men book. I get all the books and love the line. I laugh in peoples faces when they say its just a kids book especially with the goo quality of each issue.
Posted by mre2u on 2006-06-26 15:47:04
That Sounds Familiar "Some days the pencil and hand just don’t quite get into synch and those are just horrible days."
Hmm, where have I heard that before? Oh yeah, from my husband the resident artist. :)
Posted by Elayne Riggs on 2006-06-26 16:55:58
two things... first off I think your a wonderful artist and very good, and I like the drawings in this blog, second off since you are the EIC of marvel I figurred it would be ok if I asked you...I ordered a subscribtion from you guys about 2 weeks ago, and I was wondering how long does it actually take to get a comic book to me. I mean I know it says 6-8 weeks but really come on, and is there anyway to track my comic book? like using ups or something.thanks for your help(if you even read this)
Posted by cain marko on 2006-06-26 17:13:08
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About this blog: Hey there True Believer! Ever wonder what a day in the life of Marvel’s Editor in Chief is like? Well, wonder no more o’ faithful one! Join Joe Quesada as he takes you through the hallowed halls of Marvel in his very own "Cup of Blog!"
About the author: Joe Quesada is Editor in Chief of Marvel comics.
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