For his latest “One Minute later”-themed commission Michael recruited artists at the 2012 Pittsburgh Comicon, in this case Jim Balent and Darryl Banks. The source comic book cover is from Eclipse’ Airboy#5 by the late and great Dave Stevens. From Jim the client got a Valkyrie convention sketch and from Darryl he got pencil art for Airboy. My job was to both ink the figures as well as add in the background he wanted which was meant to match the one from the Stevens cover. He also needed me to adjust Val’s arm to aim down at her target.

I believe this is my 2nd commission over Jim, the previous one being a Tomb Raider, and this is my 14th time inking Darryl. The characters were all firsts for me. This is my 8th OML-themed commissions for the client and ninth overall.

Inking Jim’s sketch meant doing some editing with the art. I worked on the clothing folds, boots and anatomy/muscular details a little bit although to be honest, her right leg is still not quite working for me and the pose is a little wonky. I used micronmarkers, Pitt markers, Pitt brush marker, Raphael Kolinsky 8404 brush size 3, and some zip outside the window for the night sky. I tried using an x-acto blade for a glint of light shining on Val’s gun but I’m not happy with that effect here. I think I tried using a Hunt 102 somewhere on this board and there was some bleeding so I was limited to using markers for such lines. I finished the 11X17 job on 1-ply board on Independence Day, July 4, 2012.

Darryl Banks’ CAF gallery: http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerydetail.asp?gcat=11377
Jim Balent Studios: http://www.jimbalentstudios.com/studio.htm

Michael’s CAF gallery: http://www.comicartfans.com/GalleryPiece.asp?Piece=912299&GSub=132875

The original drawings

Bob’s background pencil sketch

Finished inks by Bob

The client’s CAF gallery comparison with logo