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After a week like this one, it's nice to spend a good chunk of time diving into things that you love. For my boyfriend and I, that means playing the
Posted in: Comics | Tagged: Brian Churilla, Comics, cullen bunn, dave stewart, entertainment, Hellbreak, oni press
Hellbreak Artist Brian Churilla Shares His Creative Process For New Oni Book
Releasing this March, From Oni Press, is Hellbreak, written by Cullen Bunn, with art by Brian Churilla and colors by Dave Stewart. The story adopts the idea that there are thousands of Hells consisting of empires where the most evil characters are well respected-complete with prehistoric monstrosities. A forbidden technology has been created by Project Kerberos that allows an extraction team to rescue lost souls from the dark realm. With the proper tools, they can infiltrate Hell alive, and also know how to escape.
A few weeks ago I had the honor of interviewing writer, Cullen Bunn about Hellbreak. Today, we are lucky enough to get a sneak peak into the artistic world of artist Brian Churilla. He shares his process with us below:
Brian Churilla (Artist on Hellbreak):
I miss drawing on paper.
Working digitally has definitely helped streamline my workflow and enabled me open my schedule up for, well, more work, but I really miss the tactile experience of drawing traditionally. The texture of the bristol, the subtle play of the graphite with the tooth of the paper, the sublime sinuous lines of a seasoned Kolinsky sable… Ahem. Whether you are using a digital or analog means to produce art, at the end of the day, they are just tools.
Here is an art process walkthrough that shows how I produce the artwork for my forthcoming creator owned comic book series, #HELLBREAK.
Hardware: iMac
Software: Manga Studio 5 EX
Phase One Ruffs: These images were all produced to be used as teaser images for the series. The idea was to show that this is much more than a high concept action book. We wanted to show that it's a character driven high concept action book. So I set out to design a biographical image for the four main characters.
For this stage, I use a brush that simulates a red pencil (designed by Ray Frenden frenden.com). I usually have an idea in my head, but sometimes I just start sketching random things to get warmed up and POP! The image will suddenly appear in my mind.
Phase Two: "Inks" I try not to emulate my traditional style with digital tools, and the style slowly evolved into it's own thing. I designed this brush after some of the chisel tipped marker. I used to try to keep my inks super tight, but after a while I discovered that when I try to ink tightly, or cleanly, the image looks very static, which is the last thing you want as a comic artist. I also do this in several layers so because I want Dave, our colorist, to "knockout" that line art to a color. This helps create a sense of depth.
Phase Three : (Dave Stewart) I receive Brian's line art and digitally add color . In the book the real world is approached in naturalistic tones, while the hell realms are given a more fantastical approach. The intent is to take the reader from a familiar palette to something more unsettling hopefully creating tension. That's what I attempted on these pieces, the main character remains in a naturalistic palette while the surrounding montage frames them with intense color.
Phase Four: Jared Fletcher works his magic on design and copy.
Be sure to pre-order Hellbreak #1 from your favorite retailer! It releases on March 11th.
Christine Marie is a Staff Writer at Bleeding Cool, and bibliomaniac with a love for all things creative. She hopes to one day be a Superhero/Disney Princess/Novelist. You can find her on Twitter and Instagram @AWritersWay or on her blog writerchristinemarie.wordpress.com.
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