Category: Commissions

I received an email from Dean that said, in part, ‘…based on the previous information you had provided me on how you would normally receive a cover image from Dave, I painstakingly went through the commission image that Dave had done (which Dean owns), and removed the tone and the tower in the hopes that you might be interested in redoing the piece as a colour, painted piece. Similar to how you would have done a cover back in the day…’

Here is the end result:

Here’s how I got there:

step 1: the original drawing by Dave

step 2: the image that Dean had created by removing all of the tone and backgrounds

step 3: my rough pencils around the Cerebus figure

step 4: my inks

step 5: my colouring

Here’s a GIF of the process:

An interesting little trip back 31 years to 1986, issue 86.

In a lot of ways, it seems like it was just three days ago…

…not three decades.

***

Update… email from Dean:

‘So I added the logo, issn number and the price to the cover to 86.5…you know…cause I’m a geek.’

I could start a whole series of covers that depict what happened between issues…

…call it, ‘Cerebus: Between the Covers’…

…nah.

I got this email the other day:

“Hi Ger –

Hope you’re all doing well, welcome to 2017!

Don Rosa was in Albuquerque this weekend and I brought in the Yukon $crooge commission,

he was quite taken with how you finished out the background.

Thanks again and I’ll be in touch eventually!

Steve”

Thanks Steve…Way Cool!

Look forward to the next commission.

Here is, in part, the description I received for this commission:

“Perhaps the best way to describe my project is a modern-day Dracula meets Arkham Asylum, but done in a way that represents people with mental illnesses, particularly those who have been found by the courts to be Not Guilty by Reason of Insanity. The main setting of my story is “Monkshood,” a forensic psychiatric hospital complex comprised of neighboring buildings from Dracula lore: Seward Sanitarium and Carfax Abbey, and influenced by real-world Broadmoor Hospital in the UK. Monkshood… should be a character in and of itself.”

So with that in mind I came up with this layout:

This seemed too wide and panoramic, so I cropped it down a bit:

This didn’t look sinister enough, so I changed the angle and moved some buildings around:

Then I did a mock-up on the computer of the shading:

And then it was a matter of drawing it full size:

This is as far as I got before Christmas (so close!):

Here is the completed piece:

Here are some close-ups:

Ta-da!

Okay…what’s next?

Here’s a pencil drawing I did for Mike: Here’s a couple of the shots Dean sent me of his awesome office featuring an impressive array of Cerebus art including the originals of the Regency, Church & State, Jaka scene and Melmoth street that I did for him:

x

This is the cover of an upcoming Penguin Random House book by Mary Gaitskill

that uses the image from Church & State vol II:

x

And finally, just a cool shot looking straight up in the lobby of the hotel in Pittsburgh:

x

To all our American friends, Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

x

I received a commission request to have a family pictured on the patio at Dino’s Cafe from the Melmoth Street Scene.

He even sent me a sketch he had done to help illustrate his idea:

That sketch, along with his rather detailed instructions, helped me to produce this layout:

Which led to this finished inked drawing:

We’re off to Wizard World Pittsburgh on Friday and will be at table B-18:

Our last show of the year!

Come on down!

x

Charles somehow convinced Howard Chaykin and Tom Palmer to re-create their cover for Star Wars #1 published in 1977. Here is an image of that cover:

and here is the original inked version before all the other stuff was added:

Here is Howard Chaykin’s new penciled version:

and Tom Palmer’s inked version:

and here’s my bit (click to enlarge):

This should be a link to a little video of the process:

star wars