Friday, July 24, 2009

Another Marvel Card: Black Bolt

I don't know if this one was ever published but there's a fair amount going on in the background so it's worth seeing at a larger size. The sketch and layout were really tight but I made a few changes when I did the final drawing. I also finished it as a tall rectangle even though the card image is more or less a square. So if it was published, the dead space at the top and bottom were most likely cropped out.

I couldn't find a pencil scan but you can see that there weren't many changes between the layout and the inks

A Photoshop note: When I colored the shadows on the little Inhumans I created a separate layer which saved me a ton of work.

You know, I can never ink moon craters without thinking of Wally Wood.









Posted by Kevin Nowlan at 5:05 AM
Labels: , , , ,

11 comments:

  1. HiroshiJuly 24, 2009 at 8:02 AM

    Cool! This is how I think of Black Bolt, all somber and regal. And I counted, what? Like 30 Inhumans in the background-! You realy punched the clock on this one. What made you drop the Steranko-esque bit of tech in the background? Man, I'd really love it if someone were to publish all of your VS CCG artwork in a decent sized format, including all available prelims. But that might never happen so I guess what I'm "really" saying is, "Thanks for posting this beauty, Kevin!"

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  2. Kevin NowlanJuly 24, 2009 at 8:08 AM

    Thanks, Hiroshi! I can't believe you really counted all those Inhumans...

    I dropped that awkward tech stuff because it looked really out of place. The more sparse background works better for me.

    ReplyDelete
  3. HiroshiJuly 24, 2009 at 8:23 AM

    Sheesh-! It was the "least" I could do. "Counting" 'em is a lot easier than "drawing" 'em-! ;-) (Har. "Oh, my sides...") You haven't drawn anything I don't like but "this" one I "love".

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  4. Tom RaneyJuly 24, 2009 at 8:51 AM

    I love the variety in the Inhumans here! What a fun group of characters!

    Y'know... there are worse guys to be thinking of than Wally Wood... he really had it down.

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  5. Jun Bob KimJuly 24, 2009 at 9:20 AM

    Thank you for sharing yet another fantastic piece, Mr. Nowlan. Your art serves as a constant inspiration to me and my aspirations as a comic book artist. I have poured over hours and hours of how you use the complex lighting. I've been scouring for your work in both printed form and online... and cannot thank you enough you are sharing them on your own blog with your commentaries.

    Thank you for being an inspiration!

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  6. Kevin NowlanJuly 24, 2009 at 10:05 AM

    You're welcome!

    And Hiroshi, thanks for counting them so I don't have to.

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  7. PatrickWedgeJuly 24, 2009 at 11:42 AM

    I was thinking the Steranko vibe as well. First thing I thought was that if it was a bigger piece, the ledge Black Bolt was standing on could have been a capital I starting the word Inhumans.

    Either way, this captures BB struggle to be regal while requiring to be silent at the same time. Cool stuff.

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  8. dogboy443July 24, 2009 at 6:34 PM

    In my mind, The Inhumans should also be considered as the next big super-hero movie. Clad Black Bolt in that X-Men black leather, maybe drop the masks, but what a wonderfully rich movie it could be.

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  9. Javier cuevasJuly 24, 2009 at 6:37 PM

    Hiroshi is a hero, but you´re God!hehe.
    Great work!!
    In this piece I love composition and the way you work the colors, enhancing Black Bolt from the background.

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  10. azharJuly 31, 2009 at 1:44 PM

    a lil question sir..

    how did you make the background look blurry depth look?

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  11. Kevin NowlanJuly 31, 2009 at 6:13 PM

    It's not really blurry, I just removed the black lines and replaced them with a dark color.

    ReplyDelete

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