_________Kev Ferrara___________

[kev ferrara]

Thanks, D@niel, Quike Garcia, Valderia, Alien Ape Star, 1986, Prsrsweeny, Serpian, a big bat, syk3...

Serps, just as I was about to hand in the finals on Maquiladora, I noticed that the kid's face in panel 1 wasn't right. It looked the right age, but the drawing was wonky. So I fixed it so it looked like a good kid's face, but the age slightly changed and I didn't have time to figure out what I had done wrong. Good eye.

Here's a panel from the last scene of the graphic novel...

[Quigleyer]

This ^ is how you End Up. Great stuff, man- did a real laugh out loud when I saw that. The whole thing just felt like a horror movie treasure. This is something I can't get enough of.

I'm glad every time you update. Working on the last scene... are you coming to an end or working everywhere at once?

[kizer]

Fantastic stuff! Love the Ink work on your pencils a hell of a lot.

[Sidharth Chaturvedi]

Kev, I picked up Creepy #3 earlier today (couldn't resist that Chuck Pyle cover) and was really delighted to find your story in it (for some reason I thought it would've been in an earlier issue, since you posted about it a while ago). Really stunning work as always! Hope to see more of your stories in it in the future... and of course I'm STILL constantly asking the comic shops about Dead Rider . The 2 issues that I have are getting lonely.

By the way, this panel from Creepy is just pure joy for me. Love it. If that were the cover to something, I'd jump on it.

[drd]

Quick question, Kev; at what size do you normally do ink work in? I know that most people ink larger and downsize for publication, but how dos that apply to your process?

Im thinking the ink work im doing is too small

[kev ferrara]

Quigleyer, Kizer, Sidharth, and Drd.

Yeah, I'm slowly bringing the Dead Rider graphic novel to finish. I've been tied up with a lot of outside work, including another story for the upcoming issue of Creepy which I just finished. We're not sure yet whether issues 3 and 4 of Dead Rider will come out as "floppies" or whether they will go directly to graphic novel format. I'll keep everybody posted.

Drd, on my graphic novel I generally work at an image area of 10x15. But on the creepy stuff which I've been doing lately I've increased the image size to around 12.5x19 which is very unusual for comics these days. But was common back prior to 1960 or so.

Here's the finished color version of panel shown being colored earlier. Plus two other randomly selected panels from ish 3.

kev

[-D_art-]

love the old school style, dont know if the question has been asked already, but how much digital/analog do you use for an image?

[kev ferrara]

Pencil and ink is IRL. Color is digital. The pages are laid onto the brownish paper background in photoshop. On the Creepy stuff, its all analog.

[orionlesc]

You remeber me the best american ilustrators! You have an amazing work. Is not esay your style, and you do it perfectlly!

[kev ferrara]

Here's a few panels from the 10 page story I illustrated in this month's issue of Creepy (#4) from Dark Horse. On sale now.

Ink, opaque gouache, various design markers, pencil, etc. on 3 ply illustration board at 14 x 19 or so.

[artmessiah]

I swear you and this guy make me want to break out my old Savage Sword of Conan, Creepy mags and a bottle of india ink and go to town. Love looking at your work sir. Glad you updated.

[kev ferrara]

Here's another discarded panel from the graphic novel...

[Slothboy3000]

Beautiful stuff! I love how organic your inking is. I also love the natural panel borders at the top of the page from Creepy #4.

[FrankForte]

Kev,

you do great work! what ever happened to the Dead Rider--did that series ever finish?

Frank F

[Aaron Stockwell]

Awesome ink work, love the style, the rendering and the genre. Fntastic work!

[Phaxan]

I can only agree with everyone else, it looks very damn good!

[kev ferrara]

Happy Thanksgiving!

And thanks to everyone for stopping in and for giving your appreciation and criticism.

Best,
kev

[Jason Ross]

Here's another discarded panel from the graphic novel...

This would be an awesome shirt or book cover.

[Bruce Pluto]

Soooooooo………good!

Your art looks fantastic as always Kev! Kinda reminds me of “Red Dead Redemption”…but I know that I was seeing your artwork before that game came out.

Enjoying your posts as always!

BP

[kev ferrara]

Title page to X-Change part II which I did for creepy 4 from Dark Horse. Probably still in comic shops if you want to pick it up.

I had fun designing the logo in particular, trying to get the swastika to "read" as both an X and a swastika underneath the electricity.

Happy Holidays Everyone!

[kev ferrara]

Here's the inked version of the penciled panels that I posted above. I always regret that a great deal of the power of inking necessarily abrogates the subtlety of the penciling... when the penciling had been done as art in its own right. It is kind of a bad habit of mine to treat every stage as art, even though the pencils get covered over by the inks. Luckily the coloring stage can be used to add back in subtlety lost in the inking. So each image, if I draw it with integrity, ink it to have broadcasting power, and then color it to be both subtle and powerful, can have a strong aesthetic effect.

That's the theory anyway. As I color this, I'll post up the stages...

kev

[Bruce Pluto]

I am in full agreement with you Kev about the inking process. I always enjoy your soft subtle shading in your pencil toned work, yet the inking adds another dimension of power to the art. The last several pieces of work you’ve put up look great as always!

I really don’t ink much artwork myself ( just haven’t tried to lately) but I do like seeing the end result when other artists do. I do want to say that I feel you are right when you say that each step of an art creation seems like a separate piece of art all by itself.

Also, inking a piece can also show the way an artist approaches their work. I can defiantly trace ink styles to certain artists, it sometimes is that definable.

BP

[dpaint]

Great stuff as always, thanks for posting.

[rzicko]

Thanks for the update! love your work

[Serpian]

Always nice to see new stuff from you, Kev. The pencil version of this last panel really struck me. It was, as you said, the subtlety that did it - especially in the shadow side of the Dead Rider's face, the extremely subtle modeling of his far eye socket in what at least looks like very quick pencil work. That was a nice long sentence for you, by the way. Thanks for the art!

[Heavens]

Amazing stuff. Loving the ink drawings.

[Dope Fiend]

not only has your linework, and rendering improver, but your concepts are so much more evolved, and evoke more thought, or atleast for me they did.

no critique from me, just some support, and a returning fan

keep it up!

and the funny thing..that panel you tossed..only 1 eye visible - i love it

[patrick j jones]

Just did these in the last two weeks from the model. About an hour and a half on each. A totally exhausting sprint and not enough time to finish! Digital photos don't quite look right either, but you get the idea. (whine, whine, whine...)

Thanks to everybody who's commented so far!

Brilliant, Kev, especially the first piece!
www.pjartworks.com

[kev ferrara]

So here's an old painting I pulled out of the closet and reworked for fun, now named Cloud Dragger. The digicam shot was sorta crooked and random and really not close to the original at all, messing up the values as usual. (I have learned to never buy a camera meant for the mass market. An artist needs artist's tools, not playthings for the public. I don't care how well known the brand name is.)

So, anyway, I played with it in PS to get back some of the values and did some alterations too. The great problem with the picture is that I don't know why his hand has come down in that yard. I assume it must have something to do with his ability/interest in dragging around clouds, or something to do with the weather. I thought maybe he was putting out a barbecue fire or something.

Thoughts on this problem, anybody?

[Bruce Pluto]

Kev, very nice pic!

Actually I got the idea that pounding the ground , open fisted gives him the result of “thunder” close by. Just as people hear a “clap” of thunder in the near/distance, this is much more frightening because it is quaking & window rattling.

Just my take on it, Bruce.