All-Star Superman Family

Both of these pieces were done on the front page of the two hardcover volumes of All-Star Superman. I had done the art in the front of two other books for Joe last month and he was happy enough with those that he asked for these to be done. These two presented some challenges that the other two books didn't. Ink lines would show up unless it was laid down a couple of times and even then I couldn't get a rich black. Even the texture worked differently with the color pencils. The only guess I have is the dyes used on this darker paper affected the texture and absorbency differently than it did on the light blue and the red paper I worked on before. While it was a challenge, I think they turned out good. I have included the pencil roughs from my sketch book for comparison. Because you only get one shot when working in a book, I tried to get the drawing down as tight as I needed it. Because I don't know how the paper will react to erasing, I don't want to be running an eraser all over it if I can avoid it.

Thanks again to Joe for these two commissions. I hope everyone has enjoyed the weekend!