Monday 19 October 2015

Cover Art: Cerebus #187

The original art for Mars by Gerhard

The black and white illustration of Cerebus and Cirin
Art by Dave Sim & Gerhard

The assembled coloured cover art to Cerebus #187
Art by Dave Sim & Gerhard

The final printed version of Cerebus #187 (October 1994)
Art by Dave Sim & Gerhard

GERHARD:
I can't be 100% certain of anything about this cover without holding it in my hands or without some really good high resolution photos but here is what I think is the most probable scenario:

-Dave pencilled and inked the figures on a piece of Bainbridge 172 illustration board.
-then, on the same board, I pencilled and inked the throne and chunk of granite and carpet but NOT the background stars.
-this is piece #1

-I copied piece #1 onto a sheet of high quality copy paper using A-V's high quality photocopier.
-I adhered that copy with a high quality spray adhesive onto another piece of 172 board.
-I coloured the characters and throne, etc. with W&N watercolour dyes
-I blacked in the background and added stars
-this is piece #2 and is the one you have

-I painted mars on a separate piece of 172 board
-this is piece #3 and is the other one you have."

Watch for IDW's Cerebus: Cover Art Treasury
On sale soon!

4 comments:

Jeff Seiler said...

WOW! WOW!! WOW!!!

In the immortal words of Liz Lemon, "I want to go to there!"

Anonymous said...

Each element by itself is pretty impressive.

- Reginald P.

D Parker said...

It's awesome in person. :-)

Here's a link to my gallery over at Comic Art Fans that incldues some notes from Gerhard:

http://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?piece=773735

Sean R said...

Fantastic Dan! Love that you got Gerhard to supply you with such a thorough explanation. And man, I bet this is great to have displayed!