[PROCESS] SINGURAIL - PART 2

Artist Peter Krause visits to discuss his approach to the Ordo-based [MAPS] story.

Our latest release from the upcoming [MAPS] Graphic Novel Sourcebook is SINGURAIL, drawn by Peter Krause and colored by Ellie Wright. Today we have the privilege of welcoming Peter for a behind-the-scenes look at his approach to the story. If you haven’t checked out PART 1 from Mike Huddleston, be sure to read that as well.

[PROCESS] SINGURAIL - PART 1

SINGURAIL and 11 other comics will be included in [MAPS] along with plenty of world-building and behind-the-scenes material. If you want to read more killer comics (including everything we’ve released thus far), all you have to do is subscribe:

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With that, we’ll let artist Peter Krause take it away…

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Peter Krause: Tom Petty sang that “the waiting is the hardest part.” For me, it’s the starting.

Beginning a new art project means crawling into a different world and it’s always a bit daunting. With experience, the question has changed from “Am I going to be able to draw this?” to “HOW am I going to draw this?” Fortunately, the 3W/3M crew did much of the heavy lifting with designing the trains and train stations. A tip of the hat to the artists who preceded me with their depictions of Ordo – their work was invaluable.

Main characters needed to be designed. Phineo is the aging scientist at the center of our tale whose singular vision has not helped him in his career. His younger self is also shown; looking at the story THE LAB was a great help in drawing the scientist’s garb.

The PA – the mysterious granters of wishes – were open to my interpretation. The PA were referred to as “they” and while that can certainly apply to a single person my old-fashioned mind went to the plural. A trio (odd numbers always being more interesting) of shadowy figures fit the bill.

A confession – I usually do not sit down and thumbnail the story before I begin drawing. My general impatience goads me into jumping right in. I know I’m going to change those layouts anyway, and no one is paying me for that layout time! The deadline is fast approaching – get on with it, man!

With SINGURAIL it was important to do those initial roughs, and I’m glad I did. Thinking it through allowed me to use some techniques I’d long thought about. Maybe you’ll be able to discern a few of those tricks, but as always good storytelling is the aim.

For the final line work, I decided on a rough digital brush. I’ve been using Clip Studio Paint as my drawing program for most of the last decade, and the brush here is from the FRENDEN collection – the Severe Revere. The result is more spontaneous and less precious. It will be up to the reader to infer some visual details. I really enjoyed this approach.

We were able to get rising star Ellie Wright to color the tale, and she lends her flair while respecting the line art. Beautiful!

Colors by Ellie Wright

There you go – a bit of insight into the process behind SINGURAIL. Please enjoy our story of the less-than-perfect world of Ordo. It’s a fascinating place to visit – I hope to be back one day.

--P.K.

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