Not too long ago I had an active Patreon where I posted process documentation for Joe Death and the Graven Image and other random side projects. I’m currently deep in developmental primordial ooze for my next book so I wanted to bring out a few older posts from that Patreon. This will be a four-part series I “aired” between August 2020 and May 2021, called The Past is Pulp. Please enjoy!
Back at it! Instead of running myself dry on Joe Death, I did no artwork on Saturday and then played around with this Planet Stories cover on Sunday, second in the series. Here's that first one if you want to look back on it.
I love how audacious these covers are, ambiguous action and adventure. Who even knows if there's a story attached to them, I kind of doubt it actually. The cover is all about the image and that's pretty freeing for me because I don't have to write or concept a character or idea, I'm just riffing on the pulp of the past.
Of course, I can't help thinking who this character is...is she the protagonist? The small fuzzy creature on her arm suggests yes, but the whip, higher ground position, and cruel features imply otherwise...I guess I had to be there.
Really small thumbnail and thumbnail tracing let me experience the scene quickly, as well as improvise changes to the background and foreground alien.
This cover has 3 planes instead of the first cover, which only had 2, an extreme close up on three characters, and a distance castle backdrop. The tiny man and alien behind the woman was great to see just what can be done with only a small amount of space. Also, the original covers always seem cropped too close for me, so I brought the camera out a little on this one, getting the foreground alien fully in frame.
This issue is the winter issue according to the original markings so I knew I wanted to push the colors cooler. It was very hard not trying to clean up all the overdrawn lines and then keep a loose coloring style but I do love the results better than if it was tightly rendered. I also added a few light sources, one being the laser and the other being the sorceress's magic hand. The relationship of the action is improved I think, implying her stunning the alien who misfires, giving her enough time to use an archaic weapon like that whip. Wham-mo! Also, the guy in the back is struggling as well. The original image of him impaling the alien through the neck felt a little less interesting as the action was concluded with a clear winner.
Hope you all enjoyed this! Please try your hand at something like this if you want to improve without having to concept an entire situation from the ground up. Hope you're having a great week!