Reflection of Constantine

Wednesday, 2nd of May

First of all I had to paint Constantine.  Most of the drawing was ready to go, I just had to touch up the hand a bit.  I didn't pay great attention to accurate colour as I knew these were going to be altered in photoshop anyway when he would become a reflection in Mnemoth's eye.

Once scanned, I added black outlines and extra shading in photoshop.  I had discovered on the fly illustration I did earlier that when I draw the pen outlines on directly they don't scan as black but dark brown due to the reflection.  Brightness/Contrast in photoshop doesn't help as this alters the colour too much by the time the lines are black.

The colours are still pretty scary but I've already explained that.  He definitely looks more sinister in this one that the first version which is good as he is an anti-hero after all. 

The next thing I had to do was digitally go over all the pen lines on the Mnemoth illustration, frustrating but necessary.  Then I added Constantine into the eye.  I just played around with the Layer Settings until I got the right combination.  I tried reflecting Mnemoth in the bottle but it was too much and really didn't look good so I flagged that idea.

Then I had a look at the background.  I roughly painted red over black matching the negative shape around Mnemoth.  I combined this with some different photos to see what effect it would get.  I tried an old graffitied door in Berlin which was interesting but not right; I combined it with Hiëroglyphs from the Berlin Antiquity Museum which was cool but the use of Glyphs was irrelevant to the story.

Not having the right answer yet I had a wee think.  Something occult.... uh yes of course, in the British Museum I saw some of John Dee's Magic Tablet.  I cobined one of my photos and bingo.  Although the item is not recognizable, which is good, it has that occulty kind of feel.  I tried it in red with lots of black and red with less black, and I tried it is green.  Looking at the red one the dark version was too dark but the redder one looked really cool.  The red background combined with the green fly also matched my earlier mood board perfectly.  The green background made the whole thing too green so red it was.

 After that I tidied up the edges a bit, they still need a bit of work and enhanced the colour of the fly.  Mia Mamma also pointed out that the fly's left eye wasn't as shiny as the other one so I fixed that as well (selected the eye, copied it and then adjusted the Layer settings to match the other one.).  I've added the basic text, same as the one I used in an earlier sketch just to have a look, it's certainly not the final text.

 
 So all I need to do now is finish off tidying the edges because some still are a bit rough; add the cigarette smoke, both in the reflection and in the foreground; and add the text and other necessary logos in appropriate colours. I think the whites of Constantine's eyes may need a bit more shading as well, they look a bit flat.  I want to try and complete this cover over the weekend.  Then I'll let it sit for a week so I can preview it.  I will then send it to Godmachine.  He replies pretty quickly and then I'll send it off to Ben Templesmith, scary...