UY 156 cover process
The pencils for UY 156 cover was done with a 3mm 2H mechanical pencil, then reinforced with a 5mm HB lead on 2-ply 500 series Strathmore bristol board. The paper size is 11×17 inches, with a 10×15.5 image area. This is part 2 of the 3-part Secret of the Hell Screen story. It is an Inspector Ishida Mystery, so I wanted an image that provokes questions but does not give way any plot elements. This scene does not occur in the story at all, but it does convey the mood of the story.
The first stage of inking was done with a broken in Koh-i-Noor ArtPen filled with Badger Black Opaque ink (old formula). The older pen has a more flexible nib and so lays down a wider line with a greater variation in weights.
The finished piece. The foreground textures were drawn with the same older pen, but the backgrounds were done with a newer ArtPen that has a more rigid and thinner line. As this pen gets broken in, it will replace the older one. The blacks were spotted with a Pentel Brush Pen filled with the Badger ink. The rain drops over the blacks were added with a white Uni-Ball Signo pigment pen. The storm that hit in UY 151 is still going strong, and will be for the next couple of issues.