Workshops

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 In depth Drawn of the dead

DRAWN OF
THE DEAD
Aly Fell
COUNTRY: England
CLIENTS: Eurocom, Core
Design, Cosgrove Hall
Films, Warner Bros

Aly’s worked
in the video
games Aly Fell c
creates a vintage horror pulp
industry for
five years. fiction cover in the style of EC Comics
Previously he was a
freelance 2D animator
and character artist, cience fiction comics, pulp do it easily with Photoshop. Here I’ll take your inspiration, and an understanding of
primarily working for
Cosgrove Hall.
www.alyfell.com
S fiction and horror have always
appealed to me. Growing up in
the 70s reading comics such as
you through my process. I won’t be
concentrating on the technique as much
as explaining the choices you make when
what the covers were trying to achieve. I’ll
start with the basic production of the
image for the cover, from sketching
DVD Assets Nightmare and Psycho and watching choosing text, colour and mood, because through to final image.
The files you need Christopher Lee flashing his teeth as these comics were all about mood. Then I’ll show the techniques for
are on your DVD
in the folder called Aly Dracula gave me a taste for the macabre. A good idea before starting something ageing and presenting the finished cover
Fell in the Workshops When I got the desire to recreate the like this is to look around the internet for as a complete image. This is a dark and
section. mood and feel of these wonderful stories comics and covers that inspire you. scary workshop, so only continue if you’re
SOFTWARE: Photoshop
CS3 (demo)
that dominated newsstands from the 30s Creating a convincing look for something prepared to find out what made that
though to the 60s and 70s, I found I could like this requires a degree of research into scraping noise in the attic…

Getting started Sketching Initial colouring

1 I normally start with a few 2 I rough out using the Conte Pencil 3 My first colouring is often fairly
thumbnails,
hum but in this case I had an idea in Photoshop
Pho with Shape Dynamics on, messy! I create a new level and set the
of what I wanted to do from the as this gives you some nice, sketchy layer mode to Multiply. I don’t worry
beginning, so I sketched the rough out ‘thicks and thins’. I’m going for a fairly about detailing yet, just where I want the
straight away. I create a new document in straight-on composition, with a simple light sources and how I want colour to set
Photoshop, usually A4 at 150DPI. It’s easy background. The covers of old detective the mood. I use a custom brush to blob
to upsize later to 300DPI doing this, as novels used to concentrate on the in colour, which is easy to make: Hard
you just double it. If the composition figures and lighting for feel, and kept the Round, with Spacing set to 10, Wet Edges
seems to be growing as you draw, you can background simple, as text would usually on, and a Dual Brush option with a heavy
always stretch it out using the Crop tool. cover much of it. texture such as Plastic Wrap Light.

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 Workshops
Body colour Flatten the layers
4 From here on it’s a basic process 6 At some point, I flatten the layers –
off building
bui up the colour. I work my usually after I’ve laid down the body
image up by starting with the faces and colour to avoid focusing too much on the Enlarging
working out from there, painting skin original drawing, but this is personal images
The Crop tool isn’t just
and textural information to build up tone preference. You can carry on making there for making the
and shading. It’s better to work out of decisions on new layers – if they work, canvas smaller. Drag
dark into light, with the final painting flatten them. This keeps the working file the Crop tool over the
whole image, and using
stage being highlights. Because I’m after size down too, and speeds up Photoshop. the little boxes on the
a fairly cartoony image, my detailing sides and corners you
will be very selective; concentrating on Changing your mind can stretch the canvas
7 out to a larger desired
faces and accessories, leaving brushmarks
to provide a suggestion of detail in the
As the image develops, certain
things don’t always work. Don’t be afraid
size. Make sure your
background colour is
0 Shadow
10 I often leave my final lighting till
other areas. to change your mind. For example, the what you want, or the end.
d If, like me, you end up always
matches your existing
axe in the sketch was hanging at the working a little toward lighter rather than
one, otherwise you’ll be
zombie’s side. I decided to bring it up to undoing it straight away! dark, a good way to achieve dark shadows
head height, giving him more intent. I and moodiness is to flatten the image and
brought out the girl’s hand holding the duplicate the layer. Set the top one to
zombie’s finger to make it clearer what Multiply and desaturate it a little. The
she was doing. I lassoed the original hand whole thing will now look too dark.
then cut and pasted it into a new position. Select the Eraser with a fairly soft-edged
brush and maybe a Dual Brush option for
Character design Transform a bit of texture (once again Plastic Wrap or
8 Deciding how your characters will Ctrl/Cmd+T
or
a similar brush will do for this), and start
Need to adjust the size
look can date them specifically. If you’re This to erase the areas you wish to stand out
shape of a selection?
setting them in the 60s, make sure they at takes you straight to
the from the shadow. The characters will start
least have a 60s look: researching outfits option to do so! to appear out of the darkness and you can
can be very important. The zombie wears control the areas of shadow with the
a generic shirt and trousers so could fit pressure you apply.
almost anywhere, but the girl’s clothes
Flip the image and hair are essential to the period. She’s
5 A good tip to make sure there are dressed in a pencil skirt and tight blouse
no
o gla
glaring errors in the drawing/painting that put her in the right time.
process is to constantly flip the image,
giving you a new perspective on how Highlighting
Hi
you are working. I’ve set up a personal 9 Particularly with the zombie,
shortcut for this which you can do highlighting
ghli is very important. I want
yourself in the Keyboard Shortcuts in him to look rotten and glistening. With
the Edit menu. This way I can flip as the main colour on him fairly subdued
part of my work flow and it becomes with desaturated tones, it’s satisfying to
intuitive as I work, constantly switching select a hard-edged brush with Shape
back and forth. It also eases brush making Dynamics on and add highlights. A dab
when working against your natural left- of bright colour on areas such as the
or right-handedness. eyeballs and guts makes them appear wet.

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 In depth Drawn of the dead

13 Choosing text
One of the most important parts of
a comic’s cover is the text. Strong dynamic 14 Using paths
To get the logo text to go round the
typefaces, often totally bespoke to the Hue/Saturation central
entra circle, I use Paths. Firstly, bring up
cover, are integral to the final look. Ctrl/Cmd+U the Paths window from the dropdown
A useful shortcut for
Horror comics usually use fonts that are n, menu. Using the Elliptical Marquee tool
adjusting the saturatio
‘alive’ with dripping blood and bold hue and lightness of any and holding down Shift, select a circle. In
colour. A quick search for free horror fonts selected area. the Paths window create a new path and
on the internet will bring back a copious make it a ‘work path’. Select the Type tool
choice, and I’ve selected a couple, Creeper and click on the edge of the circle. The
and Wet Paint, from a website called text cursor appears and all text you type
http://simplythebest.net/fonts/horror_ will follow the edge of the circle. When
Texture overlay fonts.html. I’ll use these with old you’ve done this, click Commit Edit, and
11 Before I finish this section, I
B favourites like Abadi MT Condensed, you can now Transform this to fit.
want a bbit of texture on the walls to break which is sans serif and easy to read.
up some of the flatness of the colour. I decide to emulate the EC look and
What I use is a personal texture that’s have about a third of the image devoted
basically a photograph of damaged to the text, which is usually on a coloured
plaster with a green hue, broken with background. I cut and paste my image
white. I drag this over my image and about a third down the canvas and on a
stretch it to cover the whole area. Set this new level fill in the empty area with a
layer to Overlay at about 55 per cent mute burgundy colour, and at the side a
Opacity. I erase the areas I don’t want to cream strip for the vertical text. I select
have texture on, in this case leaving the Creeper as the main font for ‘TOMB’ and
walls. It breaks up the colour and gives ‘HORROR’ and Wet Paint as the
more depth to the image. Texture overlay secondary one for ‘TALES of the...’
is fun and can bring some interesting ‘TOMB’ is set to 190 points, and I scale
results, but shouldn’t really be overused ‘TALES of the’ using the Transform tool.
as it can distracting, and is only there to I put a drop shadow on TOMB and start
enhance your existing mark-making. on the logo for Awesome Fear Comics.

12 Upsize image
As I said earlier, I tend to start
working on an image at a relatively low
resolution, so before I start adding text
and graphics, I enlarge the image by
about 50 per cent purely to add a few
details and tighten up some of the edges
that could look a bit blurry at a lower
resolution. With a flat image it’s now time
to start adding the final touches.

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 Workshops

17 Creased up
Add more creases along the binding
A
side as this is where any comic gets its
main beating, and perhaps a fold or two
on the corners. This requires a degree of
research, so look at how old comics crease.
The final tweak to ageing is a decent
texture overlay with random marks,

15 Fina
Final text
Once I’ve completed the graphical
O
stains, folds and tears. Using one I’ve
adapted from various sources, I enlarge it
elements on the title area, including the to fit the canvas and set it to Overlay in the
text, I merge these layers, making sure the layer modes and take the Opacity to about
main image of the characters is still 60 per cent, erasing certain areas to give a
separate and underneath. I can then erase randomness to the marks. Finally, I flatten
the area where I want the top of the the image, reduce the saturation a little
Transforming
zombie’s head to go over in to the title text and the picture’s done.
area; a common feature of comic covers. Once you’ve typed
Now those layers have been merged your text you can scale
it and transform it with
I can erase the drop shadow, a vector the Transform tool and
element, with no problems. it’s still editable as text.
However, I still need to produce the Only when you rasterise
the type (Layer>
title of the story, a strapline and invent a Rasterise>Type)
fictional author for it. Once I’ve decided can you no longer
on these elements it’s a case of choosing change what you’ve
written. Rasterising
a typeface and where they’ll sit in the
essentially converts
composition, which really decides itself vector-based artwork,
with the darker area at the base of the such as text and layer
effects, into pixels that
image. When I’ve positioned these, I
you can edit.
flatten the image.

16 Ag
Ageing
To age the cover, create a duplicate
layer
yer of
o the image so you have two the
same. Fill the bottom one, the
background, with white, and make the
canvas fractionally larger than the
painted area. You should now have a
white border to the image. On the top
layer, choose Select>Load Selection. Old
worn paper has a cream faded look, so
make sure your background colour is set
accordingly, and using a heavily textured
eraser brush, (hard round with a texture
such as Plastic Wrap), start to gently erase
the edges of the image, occasionally
cutting in a bit as though the paper’s torn.

74 September 2007

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