Brian Postman's FF Sketch Cards

Here's and interesting story of an artist who has put his storyboarding skills to use in a different way.. Brian postman writes, "Leif asked me to do a short article on working on the X-MEN ARCHIVES,and FANTASTIC FOUR ARCHIVES SKETCH CARDS for Rittenhouse Archives..."


"Generally, I approached doing these cards much like I do storyboards.... I generally take on about 300 at a time, and usually have three months to complete them."


"I start by printing out references on all the costumes.... in this case everyone who ever appeared in an X-Men comic. I have the dvd-rom of the "Complete X-Men" comics -- that's where I found all the reference I needed. I usually start by doing some rough thumbnail compositions of the cards.... then I jump right into the pencilling. I don't stop until I've pencilled all 300 cards."

"This can usually take a month to a month and a half. Once they're pencilled, I take a break for a few days, and jump into inking all 300 cards. That usually takes about a month as well."


"Finally, I start coloring them. I do all the flat color with A.D. markers (you all remember these!) Again, I do all 300 cards in FLAT color."


"The final step is using Pelikan water-colors for all the modeling, shadows, etc."
"Sketch cards don't pay as well as storyboards, but I do get lots of enjoyment out of doing them. Also, I am my own "art director" ... all of the compositions are mine."


"Generally there's no interference, so there's lots of freedom in that sense."


"I've included some pictures of my paints and markers, the cards after they were inked, and many of the finished Fantastic Four cards."


* See more of Brian's work at Brian Postman.com