TERRANOVA47: WORKING WITH ARTISTS

Having been in art school with future illustrators and having commissioned work over the years as a Graphic Designer for various projects I had to think about your question: what is it like to work with an artist?

In the case of the Godzilla art and story I storyboarded from a rough draft of the plot, where I wanted spot illustrations of a talking head and where I wanted a full page illustration. 

With artist Carmen Cerra it was nice that he worked in traditional materials. He liked to do both loose line art with a pen and tight drawings with pen and wash. He would also do brush and ink illustrations. Each style was a different rate as the calculation is on the time it takes. A brush and ink drawing might take just minutes, a detailed drawing an hour or more.

For reference Carmen was familiar with the Wind in the Willows characters, I sent him recent photos of Miles as he was nearly three years older than in the first book and photos of a Thames Skiff which he would not be familiar with.

Things are so much faster than when I was working, email has eliminated weeks of production time wasted waiting for snail mail. Carmen sent scans of pencil layouts for approval, then created the finished art. He scanned them, emailed them and mailed the original art to me. Having worked freelance myself the delay in receiving a cheque after 30 days or more was always a hassle. Now I can send instant PAYPAL payment, something I was never the beneficiary of.

Carmen as unusual in that he is an American familiar with British story books and artists. He recently illustrated a sequel to Winnie the Poo in the original style once the original copyright to the character had expired.

For the first Mileosaurus story I wanted a Beano style illustrator so went to PeoplePerHour.com which is mostly British artists available to hire Freelance. The rates are very competitive and the artists very talented. They are also young and have grown up drawing with computer programs rather than pen and ink. For me it was a new learning experience as colours and size could quickly be altered which in the past would be expensive changes to make as new art had to be drawn.

You blogged the first story I did for Spaceship Away [2023] with Dan Dare and Dennis the Menace. 

A second story was just published in the latest issue, 64.

Artist Dave Windett was found through PeoplePerHour in the UK. I again story boarded the page, sent dialog and reference pictures to Dave and he did the rest. The editor made many changes in colours which would have been prohibitive in traditional art but simple in software based drawings.

This story is for fans of the original Dan Dare stories from 1950-59. The punchline is in knowing the reference of who the Deputy Prime Minister is.

I quote from the HAYNES Space Fleet Operations Manual for the Deputy's father:

Dr Blasco. A brilliant scientist who discovered a way to stabilise and use monatomic hydrogen as a rocket fuel. He designed the Valiant battlecraft for the run to Saturn, but had his own power agenda. Secretly in league with Rootha forces on Saturn, on his return he planned to take over the Earth. Foiled at the last moment, he lost his life when his space helmet came off in a struggle aboard the Kroopak command craft.

So the Deputy Prime Minister is the son of a megalomaniac that wanted to enslave Earth but whose plans were thwarted by Dan Dare..

Terranova47

NYC