The first was to draw the cover for issue 17 of Wolverine: First Class. I was given a fairly open cover concept by my editor - it was to feature Wolverine as "Patch," his suave, James Bond-ish alias, and Kitty Pryde, accompanying him on a spy mission. I was instructed to draw Kitty attempting to look "bad-ass."
This was the first sketch I submitted, placing Patch and Kitty in Monaco, or similar exotic locale:
Most illustrators will tell you that you should never go with your first concept. My editor rejected this sketch immediately, citing a few major problems - Wolverine wasn't placed prominently enough in the composition, Kitty looked too confident and cool, and he also felt that she also was a little too sexy (Kitty is only 13 in this series - eep!).
So I revised it, this time placing them on a Moroccan-style balcony, and adding an eyepatch to Kitty to indicate that she is trying to unconvincingly emulate Wolverine:
My editor liked this one but still had a few notes - he thought Kitty's pigeon-toed stance was too awkward, and she needed to look slightly more confident, but Wolverine's body language should suggest that he finds her bravado amusing. A few more tweaks:
Success! This sketch was approved and I was given the go-ahead to proceed to final. I did a tighter, more detailed drawing over the rough, in Photoshop using my Wacom Cintiq tablet. The latticework in the background and the tile pattern on the floor were quickly made in Illustrator and dropped into the sketch:
And then I printed this off in light blue on artboard and did the final inked drawing. I inked the lattice and tile by hand (tedious!), using the Illustrator patterns as a guide:
Once the inks were complete I added colour. This is not usually my strongest suit and so I consulted some friends and ended up with a nighttime palette, based on suggestions from my friends Brian McLachlan and J. Bone:
All that was left to do was send it to Marvel!
Wolverine: First Class #17 is out in July.
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