Cannonball: The Breakdown

Transferring this from my website since this is the new, hip place for all this breakdown action!(trying to make that sound more exciting than it is)

I made this piece to sell at the local comic con here in Winnipeg and decided to show you guys a little of my process for how it was done... Here we go!




First, I laid out some simple pencils on the canvas. In the background you can see Cannonball's arm on my computer screen as I was using a screen shot of him in his old costume from the original "New Mutants" days as reference. I wanted to get that costume right. More "Rocketeer" and less spandex.


I begin erasing the pencil juuuust enough that I can still barely make it out and I lay flat colors over top of it in ink. Currently I'm using Daler Rowney Avcrylic Artists Ink for colouring.

With most of the flats laid out, I begin on Cannonball's powers. Here and on parts of the pants I don't erase the pencil but rather allow it to contaminate the ink and give it a "dirty" or "rough" look. Then I add color in a few places and finally take a wet brush and create some explosion lines by running through the not-quite-dry ink.



Now I grab a thin brush and my Speedball Super Black India Ink and begin adding weight. The purpose isn't to outline everything or draw over the lines but rather to add shadows in the right spots to make things stand out. You can start to see it all come together.



Now to complete the illusion of weight I take my Koh-I-Noor White drawing Ink and add some highlights. I need a thicker masking type of ink (maybe paint?) but this is what I have and it serves it's purpose pretty well.

At this point i'm pretty nervous. It's actually coming out kind of nicely but the plan has always been to create the "messy" explosive look with some spraypaint. I'm afraid of making a mistake at this point but there's no turning back now. I cover most of the image with cloths and spray the image from enough of a height to give me a flat coloring but not so thick that it covers everything, Now we're almost done.

It's not ruined!! :) I make the cloud more prominent with a red brush pen and add some generous amounts of white and yellow to shape the rest.  Signature next to his jack and behold... Cannonball is complete.