Meanwhile, on Facebook.....

[Steve Hubbell]

April 6, 2015

And now the beautiful paperback edition of UY Saga Book 3 by Stan Sakai!

[Steve Hubbell]

April 6th, 2015

Happy Easter ^^

[Steve Hubbell]

April 10, 2015

I received advance copies of the Usagi Yojimbo Saga volume 3 hardcover and trade, another 600+ pages of story and art. This one is as nice as the other volumes, and they certainly look good together on a bookshelf.

[Steve Hubbell]

April 15, 2015

Here is a sequence of drawings that I will have in the portfolio that I bring to conventions like Big Wow in San Jose this weekend. I have a bunch of these black and white drawings as well as watercolor art.













I usually just sell these at conventions, however this sequence will be in the next UY Sketchbook.

[maichan]

LOL, I love the Usagi Sushi one!

[Maka]

With Roy Chang, Devin Oishi, Jon J Murakami and Bert Shibuya.

Jon (or anyone else), which one are you? I hope that's not to creepy.

I've always enjoyed your art tributes to Stan.

Peace, maka

[Steve Hubbell]

With Roy Chang, Devin Oishi, Jon J Murakami and Bert Shibuya.

Jon (or anyone else), which one are you? I hope that's not to creepy.

I've always enjoyed your art tributes to Stan.

Peace, maka

Middle, in the dark blue t-shirt....

[Gaffey]

AWESOME!!!

[Steve Hubbell]

April 18, 201

We got some really great photos of Robin meeting Stan Sakai which we'll post soon. Robin cosplayed as his favorite superhero, too, so I'll have to warn you that those photos might be cute enough to break the Internet.

April 19, 2015

Had a GREAT time at Big Wow Comic Fest. One of the highlights was meeting one of the artists who inspired me to want to draw comics - Stan Sakai! Such a warmhearted human being.

April 22, 2015

One of the real highlights of Big Wow! ComicFest was introducing Robin to Stan Sakai, one of our favorite people in comics. Robin's normally scared of beards, but he knew that he was in good hands.

[Steve Hubbell]

April 30, 2015

Stan Sakai recently did a breakdown on how he drew the cover to Usagi Yojimbo #149, and someone suggested that I likewise do a breakdown of the coloring of this image. Okie Doke, here goes

March 28, 2015

The cover for Usagi #149, The Distant Mountain, a story about suiseki, the art of stone appreciation. Koh-i-noor ArtPen (discontinued) with Badger Black Opaque ink (old formula) on 2-ply 500 series cold press Strathmore bristol. 11x17 inches with an 10x15.5 image area.

STEP ONE — On many jobs, there is a stage prior to starting coloring, which would be clean up of the line art. If I receive the original grayscale scan, this would involve removing pencils marks that are not fully erased, random specs that pick up during scanning, sometimes inked areas that have broken up, and need to be darkened to not drop out, etc. And then, adjust the art to be only black and white, with no tones of gray in-between. In this case, and usually when the art comes from Dark Horse, this step is done in-house, before sending to me, so I have clean art to start with. So, this will be my Step One, the clean line art.



Step Two, I prepare the file to color. This means copying the grayscale line art into a new channel, converting the file to CMYK (Cyan, Magenta Yellow, Black - the ink colors for printing), filling the image with white, and setting the new channel to view only. This lets me see the line art, but allows me to paint freely, without concern of painting over lines, etc. The black line art will be added back to the main image in the final step.



Step Three, I begin to color. I work from broad to small, starting by filling the entire image one solid color. While it doesn't matter what color I use at this stage, as I can change it easily while still a solid flat color, I like to have a color that suggests where I might be headed. The previous issue had a sunset yellow sky, so I am going for a deep Prussian Blue to near white blend for the sky, and I fill the entire image with the deep blue.



Step Four, I start to break the image down into smaller shapes. Again, starting large to small, I break the sky from the foreground, in this example. I may go about this differently by selecting the figures first, but the end result is the same. Colors are not important, at this point. I will continue to sub-divide.



Step Five and Six, I continue breaking the shapes down. At this stage, the figures are all separated, and the larger background shapes are generally separated. When having a flatter do my flats for me, they will generally break the segements further, separating flesh/fur from clothing, eyes, teeth, parts of clothing, etc. When doing my own, I often stop short and begin coloring, or alternate flatting and coloring.





Step Seven, I add a little more detail, and add color to the rocks. The colors are far too intense on the rocks, but provide a range of colors to work with. I will soften the colors, add textures and lightly shade.



Step Eight, I have lightened the sky and added a texture. A few minor details added to foreground.



Step Nine, I have added shading to the leaves, texture and details to the rocks, subduing the colors slightly in the rocks. Shading is added in water. I am adding more colors and details to the figures.



Step Ten, I continue adding details to the figures where needed.



Step Eleven, final shading is added, minor tweaks,signature added, and image is trapped for printing.

[Eltanin]

It's very interesting to see all the steps in the making of the cover. Thanks for sharing.

[Spam Musubi #7]

Thanks for all the updates. Especially for those of us who aren't on Facebook.... Long live Friendster !!!

[Steve Hubbell]

May 26, 2015

Thank you for the birthday wishes, everybody! I have been off FaceBook for awhile because of deadlines and personal events which include my son's graduations from college, my daughter's wedding, and an upcoming trip to Hawaii to inurn Sharon's ashes.



I am desperately behind on my work, and here is the cover to the next UY Sketchbook. I like these sketchbooks because they can be as wacky as I want.

[Steve Hubbell]

This is just too cool!

May 25, 2015

Happy Birthday Sensei! Ever since I first discovered an Usagi trade paperback in my library when I was 11 or so, I have been a fan. I figured there'd be a lot of Usagi drawings coming your way for your birthday, so I decided to do one of my favorite additions to your universe, Inspector Ishida. I've long been a sucker for mystery stories, and mystery stories in the Usagi universe... well!
I hope your birthday is full of all the best things you could wish for.

and....

May 25, 2015

Today is the birthday of my all-time favorite comics artist, Stan Sakai. He's been my biggest influence since I was around eleven or so. Without him, there'd likely be no Catbeard the Pirate. He's the nicest guy in comics. I did this to commemorate his birthday, and I hope he has many more.

[Steve Hubbell]

June 24, 2015

I have a new FaceBook page and website!