Underpainting, CONAN AND THE SONGS OF THE DEAD

This is a look at the preliminary underpainting for the cover for the CONAN AND THE SONGS OF THE DEAD graphic album collection from Dark Horse Comics-- the basic foundation over which final colors will be applied. The main Conan figure was outlined in ink and then gray tones were added using some special pencils that I recently discovered and have come to love. Intended for use on tracing film, the pencils give a nice, dense matte black tone and are resistant to smudging. The ghouls in the background were done with washes of a mixture of black and gray liquid acrylic color and brown "Calli" waterproof calligraphy ink. (Conan TM & copyright 2006 Conan Properties LLC and Dark Horse Comics. All rights reserved.)