Mal Jones is an illustrator & designer in Alexandria, VA.

Ode to Thriller: Process

Posted in Prints on November 15, 2009 at 10:57 AM

On Facebook, my friend Brian asked me:

Would you be willing to share with me your process? From initial sketch/idea to sending it to the printer.

And I said:

Sure man, I'll do a blog post about the whole kit and caboodle.

Three weeks later, here we go.

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Even before working with inPRNT on the Balloon Boy print, I realized we could be timely with the Print a Week project.

I decided to do a Halloween print and was originally focusing on horror movies in a similar way I focused on Sci Fi movies for I Love Sci Fi (I enjoy creating sets of illustrations and prints). From Horror Movies, I started to gravitate towards Nosferatu but I couldn't get a kick ass drawing Becky Cloonan (which I can't find online currently... trust me it's awesome.) did out of my head. After letting it sit in my head for a day or two, I ended up thinking about how much Thriller scared me when I was a kid. Then I thought about some dinner. And then the idea for the print popped in my head.

Some where in that paragraph is the answer to "Where do you get your ideas?" My co-workers say I'm "Staring at the Stage" at this point. I just take in ideas, stare a bit, and then get to work.

In the Beginning

So: Subject decided! Time to start drawing! I'm a big fan of dyptich style setups, which I knew figured worked well with Thriller anyway. Thriller has it's John Landis Werewolf/Zombie Horror moments, combined with the sheer ridiculousness of dancing zombies and that neon red jacket.

Reference art, all found via Google image searches.

I've just cleaned my entire apartment, which means my concept sketches are gone. I tend to sketch on anything I have at hand. I do have a sketchbook, but this time I think the sketch was on the back of an old meeting agenda.

Pencils

I pencilled the piece on two pieces of Strathmore Vellum 300 series 100lb bristol board. Jackson and the zombies were on one 14 x 17 piece, and the dancers on a scrap I had laying around.

I knew I wanted to do the dancers, but I didn't quite know how I wanted to repeat them, so I drew just the male and female zombie.

Pencils to the top portion of the print. I didn't scan pencils of the dancers.

Inking. The fun part.

After I wait a day (I always do this. And by always I mean, if I have time. It's a huge part of my process.) I ink the two pieces with my Pentel Pocket Brush Pens, Sharpies, a Micron 0.5mm, and Pilot Razor Point marker pens. After that, I fire up the trusty Mustek, and scan them in at 600 dpi:

Those are what I call raw inks. It's what I call my inks before I clean them up in Photoshop and get them ready for coloring.

I convert the raw inks in to line art using a few Photoshop actions I've picked up around the Web and the book DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics. It's a bit complicated, so I'm not going to go in to details here.

Coloring. The other fun part.

Looking at Thriller shots online, I notice the choices Landis made in makeup and set colors. Everything but Jackson is set in blues, browns, greys, and blacks. Only Jackson is a dominant color with that crazy red get-up.

All coloring done in Photoshop:

Something was missing though, and that thing was the Vincent Price Rap. A quick Google search for lyrics and a few bits of pixel pushing (literally... I probably spent a half an hour moving this text five pixels in one direction, and then five pixels in the other direction) later, it was all wrapped up. You can see how I continued to play with the dancers all the way till the end:

I uploaded it to inPRNT's FTP site, Josh did a test print and now you can go buy the print.

The End

Why is this such a long post? I think because it show that a process is just that: A Process. It takes time (the entire print from concept to completion took about a week), it's work, it's boring, it's spontaneous, it's ridiculous. The process works for me, it probably won't work for you, but there it is all laid out.

Hope you dig the answer Brian.