Comics Artopsy #9
Unusual Case Studies: The Space Tiger
Hi everyone,
For this month’s Artopsy, I thought I’d answer some frequently asked questions about my painting technique.
You may have noticed I recently did a lot of watercolor sketches for our Founder members. Today I will explain, in detail, my crafting process for this kind of work, using this Space Tiger painting I did yesterday as an example.
Why a space tiger, you might ask? Well, it seems like everyone loves space and everyone also loves tigers. With the potential exception of those who have been physically attacked by a tiger, I guess. Otherwise, Space Tiger should be a crowd-pleasing subject.
First, I need to specify that comics and painting/illustration are two different kinds of professions. While there’s a mandatory need for sequential storytelling in comics with a lot of factors to take into account, painting, on the other hand, can be free—or almost free—of any constraint or requirement. It’s a very liberating exercise where artists can modify and change their initial idea as they go.
I’m talking here about the kind of painting I do on my own, like the painted sketches for our Founder subs. If, for instance, I’m asked to do a cover for Marvel, it’s a different story. There’s a whole set of editorial requirements to consider that makes the overall experience similar to comics work. If you missed it, I previously did an Artopsy entry about cover work.
So, let’s get to the point!
1: Starting the painting.
I usually have a vague idea of what I want to do. This one is a quick one. Although it’s a little bit bigger than the Founder subs’ ones, I’m not looking to overwork the design, I’ll just draw it as it goes and improvise all along the way. I’m keeping some tiger pictures around for reference, but mostly just for the tiger’s head.
Happy Friday, you! BKV here, interrupting Niko’s latest artistic autopsy with our obligatory paywall. But the next FIVE videos Niko has painstakingly created are definitely worth your attention (I learn so much from these!), so I hope you’ll stick around.
While we’ve temporarily closed our Founder offering as our intern Genesis the Exploded Giraffe catches up with mailings (they just sent out another 30 prize packages this morning!), all of our Monthly and Annual paid subscribers get instant membership in The Tower, where you get full access to all of our new and archived bonus content and our private chat threads, PLUS, you’ll be automatically entered in our monthly drawings to win an original page of Niko’s hand-painted Spectators artwork.
We’ll be giving away this doozy next week…
…so thanks so much for considering joining your fellow paid subscribers, and have a fantastic weekend!