Friday, March 20, 2009

Savage Land Rogue WIP

[jimlee]

After the layout sat on my desk for a couple of days, I went back in and tightened up areas that didn't look right (it's good to have some time to gain perspective) and then I take a lead stick holder and use the side of it to lay down my black areas. To add form, shadow, indicate texture but most importantly, to create depth and a feeling of light and 3-dimensionality. I squint a lot during this process to make sure the black areas are forming the basic shapes I want to create.

After I chunk in the blacks and squint to make sure the shapes actually form different planes and essentially look well balanced and composed aesthetically, I go in with a .5mm mechanical pencil, HB lead, and start capturing and better defining shadows and add detail and rendering. I work left to right sometimes so that I don't smudge any of the final pencils.

9 comments:

Tom said...

What type of lead do you use for the leadholder?

Anonymous said...

Jim - You rock.

Anonymous said...

Wow! I'm blown away by your work and detail on this! This is definitely my favorite art of all time and the greatest art ever! It's also great being able to get an insight into how you are creating it and to see the different stages of your work on it. I can't thank you enough!

steve9000 said...

After finding you on Twitter and deviant art and here....I went to the Fantasy Shop in St. Louis, Mo yesterday and bought HUSH, Vol. 1 & 2. I haven't bought a comic in 15 years... I grew up on your Xmen and punished war journal stuff. Thanks for being such an inspiration, Jim.

@stevesimmons

trejos-comics said...

... :) very good! work!!!!!!!!!!!!!
www.trejoscomics.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

That's amazing!!! Just out of curiosity, what are your thoughts on composition and design and how much reference do you use when it comes to completing these type of pages. Also how long does it take?

Thanks for the insight and inspiration!

Tony.
Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Anonymous said...

Are we going to get to see it finished and inked?

Markus Freise said...

@Tom: Wikipedia says Jim uses an F-Lead. After nearly 20 years I switched from my loved B-Lead to F-Lead due to this post and it was a great experience. Never want to use one of those soft pencils again.

Ibraim said...

This drawing made me remember a lot of things when I was just a kid reading Xmen. Now I´m a old kid, and I´m still reading Xmen. But it´s not like the old times with Jim Lee on the pencils... oh man, good times.