Last year when I sat down to make the previous laser cell I figured I’d do something with Gabe and Tycho in it. When I posted the image I came up with the response I got was that it was cool but didn’t really seem like “laser cell” material. I guess it felt more like a poster and so that’s what we ended up using it for. I talked to people about it and it seems like since you see Gabe and Tycho pretty much every day any thing they are in just feels sort of common or at the very least not really really special which is the whole point of the laser cells. Since I did Twisp and Catsby the first year, and the CTS last year I tried to think of another side character that I could give some extra attention to via a print. After going through the archives for a while I landed on Dr Raven Darktalon Blood and he just felt right to me. Some people have expressed an interest in seeing how I arrive at a print like this and I’m happy to share some of my process with you.
I start off doing thumbnails. These are just quick little sketches designed to help me think about different compositions. I probably have fifteen or twenty pages of these and it’s honestly not worth posting all of them. Here’s a good run down of how I got to the final piece though.
Starting out the poses are pretty boring. The Good Dr. is just smiling for the camera essentially.
I had the idea to show this elaborate library but the doctor needed to be the star of this print.
Here he’s framed in a doorway looking a little bit more dynamic but not much.
Guns drawn and looking like he’s on the hunt, now at least things are getting interesting.
Finally the bullets start flying. Now we’ve got some action but it needs more.
A few sketches later and now he’s jumping and shooting, that’s much cooler!
Wait, what if he’s falling and shooting…ooh I like that. I was still on my library kick though and so he’s just falling past some crazy book shelf.
Well a book shelf in Hell would probably be a monster so let’s try that.
Eventually I loose the bookshelf stuff and just go with the giant skeleton monster. I felt like all the books were just too busy and I wanted something with a simpler design to make the Doctor really pop out.
Once the pencil sketch has been scanned into Photoshop the rest of the process is 100% digital. I “ink” the drawing using my Wacom tablet. I didn’t save out any of my steps during the coloring process but it’s just Photoshop magics.
So here’s the final image again. Hopefully that gives you a pretty good idea of my thought process.
-Gabe out
