Sometimes the commission pieces can be a bit frustrating. They are intended to be the finished product, which means they have to look good standing on their own, not as a final printed work. For this reason I have to deny myself some of the most basic tools and techniques. Take FLAVIO'S PIECE of Batman fighting villains in a rainstorm. If that had been for a splash page, or a cover, I would have used an X-Acto blade to scratch "rain" into the foreground, which would have added a layer of depth to the printed piece. Or consider JEFF'S PIECE of the Silver Surfer encountering Dark Phoenix. I knew little dots of white-out would look crappy (learned this with an earlier piece, unfortunately), so, as with other images featuring a starry sky, I drew little circles and blacked in around them. Tedious and time consuming, but the end result looks better than what would be completely acceptable in a page intended for publication.

Thanks for sharing, JB. This whole idea of different visual requirements for a piece of art for publication vs. piece of art as original art is something I wouldn't even have considered if you hadn't brought it up. Somehow, I would just have assumed that one had to have a "perfect" original to get a "perfect" published piece, basically.

Incidentally, are there ever any instances when a nice looking commission-style piece would not turn out well in publication because of this same issue? Or is it just working one way, and for the rest being a means of unnecessary work?

JB,

Thank you for making the pencils available to us.  I've been inking these and it's been a blast! 

Tony Johnson

COOL piece, JB.  I must admit that I love seeing the "layouts" before the inking process begins.  As a student of your work, it allows a little bit more of a peek behing the curtain as to the "process" and the decisions that get made during both the layout and inking stages.

Thanks for showing BOTH.

AND--I'd like to add that I've always been a DC boy, but YOUR versions of the MARVEL characters make me want to read their adventures (but only if done by YOU).

MPH