This is arguably my most detailed and best work as an illustrator using traditional mediums and yet it really requires the modern ability to NFT in order to been seen properly

My philosophy on minting an NFT is, by an large, to mint pieces that could only exist specifically as an NFT. Whether it's because of sound, movement, colors or effects that would not transfer to print with as much impact, or perhaps details that would be lost via physical print.

So minting a black and white illustration may SEEM to be at odds with that, but it is NOT.

This was originally, painstakingly drawn then inked by hand with a no.0 brush, if you've never used or even seen one...they come to a point as fine as a needle.

I ink with this because...I hate myself? I love a challenge? It is the only way to give it that old school look?...probably all those reasons. The fact of the matter is that as far a traditional inking, so many of these line could only be done with a brush, that it's pretty much not even worth it to go back and forth between instruments. The long curves...you need a brush for that or the line will be sterile and charmless. The broken window need lines soooo think and crisp that they don't make a pen that can do it. Things that are dented, shipped, broken wavy...all look better with a brush

Keeping in mind that this original illustration needed to be reduced by about 75% to be comic book size, means that there are lines you see here that in print are muddy, less crisp, rasterized...if they even showed up at all. Add color to that and it's even more diminished in physical format. There is no functioning industrial printing press that could capture all these lines and all the detail.

Add to that, it was used as a Comic-Con International Exclusive and as the cover to the limited hardcover variant, so portions of it, got covered by logos, UPC codes, ect...and a black space was left so that fans could get a sketch on the back. Hell, the hardcover version was one sides and didn't even use the right hand side of this.

It is a HEARTBREAKING, when you look over a work that you spend 40 plus hours on, and much of it is not there for anyone to see.

If you're new to my work, you'll understand that I'm being conservative when I say 40 plus hours. Here's a bunch of progress pics.

First the initial sketch...


That will work, I said to myself. I can widen the shot to the right to include as much destruction as I need for it to belong enough to wrap around and fill the front and back cover. I'll want to actually draw this flipped so the monster is facing the other way of course, otherwise he'd be on the back. But...this will work.

Off I go, refining the sketch...

Then you tune it up, refine it, add in the vanishing points, so that everything is in proper perspective (2 point perspective in this case)...

This is where I figure out the horizon line and vanishing points so everything is in perspective while retaining the impact of the composition. That blue arrow points to a guide below that building that helps me figure out how much narrower each window needs to be that the one next to it in order to stay in perspective ...I added that arrow because I was going to explain that, but upon further consideration, it's complicated and boring. Also, you could do the same thing on a computer. I don't because I've done it so many times that using a computer doesn't really save me anytime, but If you haven't been doing it the old fashioned way for ten years, I can't say it's worth learning.

ANYWAYS...onto the final penciled work

The point is you get here...




Then do the whole thing full sized...( 13 inches by...something, I forgot what)

Holy crap my camera sucks. It' could be user error, though. This is 11x17. This stage here I pencil every detail and refine it as much as possible so when I start inking..all I have to worry about it putting the ink down. That's hard enough, I don't want to have to make any creative decisions at that point. So....inking...

It is never a good idea to ink when you are in a hurry, especially with a piece like this. Some days straight lines are easier and curved lines give you trouble, some days it's visa versa. Depending on how much coffee you needed to get going, some days trying to ink the tiny details is not a fantastic idea.






at this point I realized I drew the damn thing backwards. I wanted to the figures facing the opposite way. Computers do come in handy! I never sad they didn't...I just had to flip the image once it was done and I scanned it in.





That's a lot of fine work...and it was a damn shame that in print it looked like the image above for the soft cover, and more of a shame it looked like this on the hardcover...

Those are very good covers, I'm proud of them and would put them up just about any other cover on the shelf...but still...heartbreaking. BUT...as an NFT, every line can be seen, taken in, be as crisp and clear as possible.












This is, so far, arguably my greatest illustrative work. and until the advent of NFT's is was resigned to accepting that much of the detail and impact would be forever lost.

But it's here now. Every line every shard of glass, every dent, every wisp of smoke, to live on in the blockchain. I am profoundly proud of this piece. and extremely happy that, as an NFT, the work is finally all there to been seen.

FULL NFT ON DISPLAY HERE

Aside from all the fun and innovation you can do in the NFT medium, it is also defiantly a medium that outshines print even when you are dealing with something as traditional as a inked drawing.

It'll be at this link on ...and there will only be ONE available
https://makersplace.com/arseniclullaby/