As with any cover for a comic, the editor wanted to see a rough first, to make sure it had the impact they were looking for. You can see my pencil rough above, and all the notes and suggestions added in blue biro by editor Mark Rodgers. Mark wanted the cover to be less "Whizzery", a reference to the comparatively pedestrian humour of Whizzer and Chips, and suggested the kids piling out of school should be "less cute" and "more punky / revolting". Mark also suggested barbed wire on top of the school wall, and a squashed teacher behind the gate that Tom Thug kicks open.
Bearing Mark's notes in mind, I set to work producing the finished cover, and here it is...
Now, you'll notice that there are a couple of blobs in the sky. This photo is of the art after it was published. What happened was that the Oink! studios had a leaky roof one day and some of the artwork got soaked! My cover was one of the pages that was fortunately salvageable, as the water damage would be covered up by the logo and topline (which were added onto an acetate overlay)...
...and here's the final result in print, 30 years ago...
6 comments:
Love seeing illustration in progress and this is no exception.
So did you use watercolours?
It would have been impossible to do any edits once the coloring was done I assume.
Also didn't know about this blog.
qamar
Welcome to my blog, quamar! Yes, I used Dr.Martins watercolour inks. (I should have mentioned that in the post really.) You're right, mistakes or changes were difficult using such methods. I did actually make a mistake colouring Tom's trousers so I had to use guache to recolour those.
Love working with gouache. With all these blogs can't see how you get any drawings done lol
That's one reason why I'll be cutting back on my Blimey! blog in the New Year. It takes up too much time and after 11 years isn't as much fun as it was so time to prioritise other things.
Can I ask what "guache" is? Haven't heard of that before! Again, thanks for sharing your drafts of Oink! covers Lew, very enjoyable posts.
It's a watercolour paint, Phil, but not transparent like Dr.Martins inks, so I was able to use it to paint over my mistake. I think it's the only time I've ever used it.
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