World of Tiers: From Pencil to Ink

Here is the evolution of a tier of artwork involving Ms. Megaton Man, Preston Percy, Yarn Man, Rex Rigid, and Megaton Man himself. It began in April as a blue pencil sketch in my sketchbook, subsequently tightened with graphite pencil, then expanded with the addition of another panel, then inked and composited digitally. Each step is explained in the images below:

Blue Col-Erase pencil version in my 11" x 14" sketchbook (bonus: the scanner caught a stray piece of paper on Ms. Megaton Man's left lower leg!). Dialogue is added in pencil. In a flashback sequence, Ms. Megaton Man is being tested in the Megatropolis Quartet's laboratory. Judging from Preston Percy's hair, this probably takes place not long after the events depicted in Pteranoman #1 (1989).

Here the blue pencil is tightened with an H or HB graphite pencil.

The figure of Rex Rigid seemed somewhat cramped in the original composition, so I used tracing paper to draw the character independently, and inked it on Clearprint Design Vellum using a Hunt #102 crowquill and India ink.

Here I've lettered (using a 2.5 and 3.5 Rapidograph) and inked the rest of the composition, virtually unchanged from the original sketchbook layout, on Clearprint Design Vellum (actually, I scanned the sketchbook and printed it out at the same size). I used a repositionable gluestick (Elmer's) to adhere the vellum to the printout as I inked, later removing the adhesive with a rubber cement pick-up.

An additional panel suggested itself with Megaton Man entering the scene. Here are the pencil and inked versions.

The final tier is composited digitally. What will the remaining 2/3 of the page look like? Stay tuned!