IDW Sample Trek Pages

[Titan Designer]

A couple of comments, neither of which have to do with the actual quality of the art.

One: Part of the point of this sequence is to play coy and not reveal the true identities of Mirror Kirk and company until the final splash but you have the "sword-through-the-Earth" mirror Empire symbol right in the first panel. So you've ruined the surprise.

Two: What you've done here is essentially duplicate a sequence from a previously published work. A big part of what ID or any comic company is looking for is not just how well you can draw but how well you can tell a story. What you show here is how well you can copy Tom Sutton's storytelling. If you're going to use previously published works as your plots (and there's nothing wrong with that-gotta get a plot somewhere) then what I suggest is that you look through the book, jot down some rough notes on what happens each page...then PUT THE BOOK AWAY. Don't reference it, do your own thing. And it doesn't have to be Trek work either. What they are looking for is can you draw people, can you put those people in an environment, and can you tell a story.

Good point, I did take that into consideration. I went with more film angles, and even took a couple of panels out that I didn't think would fit
with my style.

As for not having to bee trek, true, but they did on their site to know what they publish. So no superhero work. I was torn between doing some Transformer work or Trek. I was never big into Buffy. Also being known
for the Titan I figured it would get me past the first hurdle.

Which it did. The editor actually really liked my work, but wanted a more
realistic/ film-noir look for future work. He did send me a sample TNG script. So atleast the editor was responsive to my email.

Know I just have to research Film-noir. I have been told to look torwards
SinCity/ Frank Miller feels and to look at the Borg Alien Spot Light.

Film wise someone told me to look at good old Blade Runner.

Who knows maybe I will get in someday.

On Top of that my house sold this weekend, so I have to spend my time packing and less time on my samples. Oh well our new house will have
more space to work on them.

 

[Wingsley]

Neat artwork, with just one thing missing...

I like how you've left the 80's in your drawings of the Enterprise bridge and personnel, especially Kirk, Uhura and Marcus. But Saavik looks a little too Britney Spears, and that's jarring. Ladies dressed provocatively in the '80s, but 80's-derived TREK would've followed the fashion then. Your mirror-Saavik looks out-of-time. I would think a mirror-Saavik would've had big hair, and the midriff reminds me that Madonna started that trend but it was considered graphic then. Maybe a little too graphic for a uniform? Debatable, I agree; especially after Uhura's exposure in the original ep.

 

[Captain Robert April]

I'd suggest studying Frank Miller's Daredevil run. Sin City is a little too stylized to really be useful.

 

[Ryan Thomas Riddle]

For Film Noir, I'd suggest avoiding Miller, who I've felt is overrated in terms of Sin City and his interpretation of Batman. Noir sensibilities play with light and dark to create atmosphere and mood. I'd suggest looking at actually noir films of the 30s and 40s. I'd also suggest looking at the work of Tim Sale, especially The Long Holloween. He has an excellent sense of dark versus white and uses negative space well to convey a noir-like world.

One of the other things to consider is how the characters are set in contrast to the city, which is a character in of itself. In Noir, the city is the most prominent feature and how characters navigate that world is likewise important.

 

[REDBAZ]

For noir in comics, your first stop should be Eisner, who literally wrote the book on graphic storytelling. His Spirit is considered seminal, and a huge influence on Miller. You can get his manuals from most shops or from Amazon.

Also look at Alex Toth, Michael Lark and John Paul Leon. Noir in comics is less about artistic style but rather storytelling style, which are two different things. It'd be interesting how that is applied to STAR TREK.

BTW who was the editor at IDW you dealt with Titan?

cheers

baz

 

[Titan Designer]

For noir in comics, your first stop should be Eisner, who literally wrote the book on graphic storytelling. His Spirit is considered seminal, and a huge influence on Miller. You can get his manuals from most shops or from Amazon.

Also look at Alex Toth, Michael Lark and John Paul Leon. Noir in comics is less about artistic style but rather storytelling style, which are two different things. It'd be interesting how that is applied to STAR TREK.

BTW who was the editor at IDW you dealt with Titan?

cheers

baz

Thanks.


The editor I have been emailing is Andy Schmidt. He actually forwarded me the script from the first issue of TNG Intellegence Gathering.

I am currently trying about 3 pages from that script.

 

[REDBAZ]

Thats cool, best of luck with it.

 

[Andrew Harris]

[

Know I just have to research Film-noir. I have been told to look torwards
SinCity/ Frank Miller feels and to look at the Borg Alien Spot Light.

Film wise someone told me to look at good old Blade Runner.

The Borg Alien Spotlight that I wrote for Sean Murphy wasn't really noir, but I asked him for a darker, more desperate tone than you might ordinarily see in Trek. He went with a lot of gray washes, which worked perfectly, but which I should caution you can wreak havoc on the palette of an inexperienced colorist (which, thankfully, wasn't a problem for us).

And, don't forget, you're not just drawing for comics, you're drawing for Trek; fans can be exceedingly particular about likenesses, so simply relying on an anime style that you've grown up with just won't punch the ticket. (And, unless it's marketed as manga--which IDW books are not--it won't get past CBS/Paramount, either.)

Just as an example, readers were remarkably difficult to please when it came to the likenesses in the New Frontier series that I edited, even though most of these characters (including the captain, who received the most scrutiny) had never even been officially played by an actor onscreen.

Don't be afraid to lightbox or to work from photo references when practicing on preliminary design sketches of the characters, to get a sense of the actor's facial structure and muscle posture, before you move on to your actual pages. In fact, I think artists should practice this countless times before even considering an actual page, to the point that it's second nature to the work; and then you can concentrate on the other (equally important) aspects of rendering and storytelling without having to distract yourself with whether Kirk's chin looks right.

I'd also concentrate on a different set of sample pages than the ones you've got going; I'm not immediately familiar with the original story, but if you're required to hide the characters' faces and keep their idetifying traits off-panel, then they're not a good page choice for shopping your work around. Editors will want to see how well you showcase the characters, not how skillfully you don't.

And, a quick note on eyes: for humans, eyes are set about one-eye-length apart. That means you should be able to draw a third eye right between them and have it fit perfectly. Your ships, on the other hand, look outstanding--great rendering, very confident choices of camera (though again I'm not sure if that part's from the original work; either way, they look good).

Anyway, hope all of this helps.

 

[Maurice]

I have to agree that there doesn't seem to be any underlying structure to the characters. For instance, in the last panel, Scotty's pose isn't actually posed, and Kirk's hands are differing sizes, which is a pretty dead giveaway that there wasn't an underlying sketch where the anatomy and proportions were worked out. As to the ships, they appear to closely match existing angles I've seen on photos of the models, and look like copies of those rather than drawn-from-scratch angles on the objects. There's weirdness to the saucer geometry that reinforces this feeling.

 

[THE CHEBB]

For noir in comics, your first stop should be Eisner, who literally wrote the book on graphic storytelling. His Spirit is considered seminal, and a huge influence on Miller. You can get his manuals from most shops or from Amazon.

Also look at Alex Toth, Michael Lark and John Paul Leon. Noir in comics is less about artistic style but rather storytelling style, which are two different things. It'd be interesting how that is applied to STAR TREK.
cheers

baz

Triples props on Eisner, Alex Toth, throw in some Noel Sickles for good measure.

 

[Captain Robert April]

The Neal Adams Batman stuff would be worth a peek, too.

 

[Titan Designer]

As most you know , I have been trying to get in with the folks over at IDW. They have given me
a sample script to work with, but since I recently moved from one house to another, I haven't
really had the time to work on the new samples.

But I had an idea, so I came up with this. I wanted to see
what A Titan Comic Cover might look like so I drew this up.
I wanted it to have the same kind of feel as that of the novels that are out.
Ellery was kind enough to send me
a few shots of the Titan with out any background to work with. So here is what I
came up with. I may do a few more
with different crew members as the focus.

Illustration & layout by Sean Tourangeau
U.S.S. Titan Designed by Sean Tourangeau
U.S.S. Titan Mesh by Ellery Connell

 

[Herkimer Jitty]

Aww man, that is so awesome. I love the Titan series, and this is just too cool.

 

[RoJoHen]

I think the ship looks too realistic compared to the very cartoony Riker. Try to find a happier medium between the two.

 

[Titan Designer]

Ellery is trying to get me a toon shaded render of her, but he hasn't figured out the correct settings yet.

 

[sojourner]

turn off the azteking?

 

[Maurice]

Why not just DRAW the ship instead of rendering it?

 

[Titan Designer]

I may do that later, but for now that is what I came up with.


I will also pass on to Ellery to get me a version minus the Aztecing.

 

[fleetcaptain]

I saw this on your myspace alittle awhile ago Sean and didn't realize you had posted it on here too. Can't wait to see the other covers w/ the crew on them.