Comic Artist - Volume 3 2016

PLANNING A

SUPERHERO COVER

Julian Totino Tedesco walks us through the process of creating an

image that’s both appealing as an illustration and functional as a cover.

C

reating a cover, whether it’s

for a book, a magazine or a

comic book, involves much

more than just picking a

nice image. A cover serves

a purpose, and therefore there’s a lot of

things you need to have in mind before

starting to draw. In this case, I’ll show

you how I design and create an effective

comic-book cover – a superhero comic-

book cover, to be more specific.

There are a few things you have to keep

in mind when it comes to superheroes,

and the first is that they’re usually all

about dynamism and power. You’ll find

a few exceptions out there, of course, but

most times, that’s what an editor seeks on

covers of this genre (and I assume that’s

what the audience wants, as well).

Another thing you should have in mind

is that there are hundreds of issues being

released every week, and they’re all

displayed next to each other, whether

on the shelves or in a catalogue, so your

image should have a clear and readable

composition. It must be eye-catching,

Julian Totino

Tedesco

LOCATION: Argentina

Julian is

a freelance

illustrator

working

mainly doing

comic book covers for

clients such as Marvel,

Dark Horse and DC.

http://ifxm.ag/j-tedesco

even from a distance or in a small

thumbnail, so it can stand out and

grab the potential buyers’ interest.

All of these things can be achieved

through thoughtful use of composition,

tone and colour. I’ll show you how I use

these elements in my work.

I’m not saying this is the only way to

do a superhero cover – and I encourage

you to play and experiment with other

ways – but this is a formula that has

proven to be successful for years, and

that we’ll explore in this workshop.

1

Searching for references

The first thing I do when I get my assignment – in

this case, a powerful image of a female Thor – is to search

for references of the subject. Google is the obvious tool

for this. These images help me understand what she looks

like, what’s her attitude, her weapons, her powers, etc.

This way I can do an accurate portrait of her that can

reflect her world and personality.

2

Doodling ideas

Once I’m familiarised with the subject I begin

noting ideas in my sketchbook. Every cover I’ve ever done

has started here. I draw everything I think could work. This

is the time to let the ideas flow, the more the better. This

way I can see which would work better – or won’t work at

all. Doodling has this retroactive effect, in which the more

I draw, the more ideas and concepts come to my mind.

All images © Marvel

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