As if entering the world of Hellboy and working with Mike Mignola on one of his books wasn’t exhilarating enough for me, halfway through the issue of The Transformation of J. H. O’Donnell, the editor asked me if I wanted to have a go at the cover. Betcha I said YES!
I drew a couple of sketches with the starring characters in mind. Of course, I couldn’t wait to draw a big Hellboy on the cover, but this book is more O’Donnell’s year-one story, featuring Hellboy as an important supporting character, so I focused on O’Donnell and his strange, spooky tale.
Mike and Scott liked the first sketch better. I guess it is more iconic, and the images are stronger and clearer. Also the composition plays better with the new B.P.R.D. Hell on Earth logo.
A note from Scott let me see that there was something wrong with Hellboy’s right hand. The wrist looked weird, that joint didn’t look right, and I needed to forget the pressure of drawing Hellboy and learn how to draw that awesome hand!
Here is the cover with the fixed hand. I generally work this stage with a blue pencil. It makes it easy for me to clear the blue line in Photoshop, without doing much erasing on the art board after inking.
The inks! This stage is probably the best one for me, as I enjoy working with brushes and ink. I can play around more freely than with a pencil.
Here is the cover without the blue line and with the proper adjustments done in Photoshop.
And finally the cover after the amazing Dave Stewart did the colors. The tones are handled perfectly; the levels of strangeness and spookiness gain a lot with the addition of these colors.
This is the first time I ever saw Dave coloring my work. I’m a big fan of his, and I had always wanted to work with him. This book was totally a dream come true!