Joe Quesada’s Hyper-Detailed Fantastic Four 50th Anniversary Artwork Tutorial
Marvel Entertainment Chief Creative Officer Joe Quesada just gave us a fascinating glimpse of his artwork development process step by step on twitter, featuring how he created a piece for the upcoming Fantastic Four 50th anniversary:
So, a couple of months ago, Marvel Exec Editor @ asked me if I'd like to do a promo piece for the 50 Anniversary of the FF.
The rules were simple, do any incarnation of the FF that you want from the 50 year history and design the piece for multiple usage.
In other words, it could end up being a poster, and ad or a cover.
So my first thought was to do a large wrap around cover piece, but then I started to think about time, so maybe simple might be best.


It's at this point that I realized couldn't stand this layout, it reminded of the kind of covers you would see in the 90s. Stagnant /boring.

Yes, even though I didn't have a lot of time, I still felt the pull of a double page layout.
I tried a variation on the theme, perhaps with the characters a bit more in 3/4 view leaning into the camera http://yfrog.com/kjjkmhej

Hate it! Finally I succumbed to my natural impulse and decided to start designing for a double page spread.


Here's what I liked about it, if it was a wrap cover, the side facing the customer had the right composition. http://yfrog.com/kjbc0wwj

The viewers eye, led right to left and top to bottom.

Yes, for those of you thinking it, I sweat this stuff A LOT! FYI, all these sketches drawn digitally on a Cintiq with Sketchbook Pro.
I can't recommend Sketchbook Pro enough, just an AMAZING pencil tool that feels and looks pretty darn real.
Okay, now I switched over to Photoshop, time to get into the details. Ben Grimm is the anchor to the piece http://yfrog.com/ke44dtbj




Notice I pushed Johnny up in the layoutt, this was a result of how Ben ended up sitting on the page after I blocked him in.

Flame effects, keep in mind we're still in the layout stage and I'm now cursing myself for going double page http://yfrog.com/h23w3fxej


You may be asking, why go to all the trouble of drawing every character in layers? It's my process but also it serves a purpose here..
More on that later, in the meantime, it's time for Sue Richards. Notice Sue has moved as well in the layout http://yfrog.com/kfcmxlyj


And now for Reed, he's important as his power as it allows me to use him as a design element. He's also shifted http://yfrog.com/h07ytcmj



Now, what you're looking at, is my final layout before I got to pencil on board. Notice that you can see Ben, and Johnny through Sue.
The slight invisibility aspect of Sue is something that I'll work on with the colorist.
This layout done in Photoshop was done at actual art board size and 400 dpi resolution using the pencil tool.
Now, I take this layout and print it at actual art board size. I then take those printouts and tape them to the back of the art board.
Once taped and ready, I break out the old lightbox and start penciling. I use a very hard 4H lead
Here's the final penciled piece. BWS is old school comics shorthand for the inker, it means black with stars. http://yfrog.com/kj5tsnzj

Now comes the waiting game, like a kid on Christmas I have to wait a few days for the brilliant Danny Miki to ink it

One thing I noticed was that I had some really awkward tangents around the area where Ben, Johnny and Sue intersected.
The colorist may have a problem seeing what's what so I did a quick color guide. Noticed the circled area http://yfrog.com/gy3ayrmj

That's where the bad tangents were. Keep in mind, this was not to indicate what color things should be, but rather what was what
Then I got the bad news, legendary colorist and my long time collaborator Richard Isanove was on vacation and couldn't color the piece :^(
Luckilly at Marvel we have an embarrassment of Riches when it comes to creators and the amazing Laura Martin was available to color it.
I was floored and flattered that Laura was going to color it. I e-mailed Richard and told him this could be his Wally Pip moment :^)
So now here is the never before seen final colored piece and remember it's just between us folk here on Twitter http://yfrog.com/kejrkzuj

Oh, and the reason I drew all those characters through in the layout was to be able to get Sue's invisibility power done in the color stage
Thanks to all those of you who were interested in the process and put up with my massive Tweetyness... that may have come out wrong.