I recently illustrated a sequence for issue seven of Alan Moore's
comic book series PROMETHEA done entirely in computer manipulated
photography. I had used this method in comics before in my work
for VEILS, the Vertigo graphic novel where I collaborated
with photographer Stephen John Phillips. But PROMETHEA
#7 is the first instance to my knowledge that this technique was
employed in a mainstream comic book.
I have been asked many questions about how I created these pages,
since digital imagery still seems like a great mystery to many
people. I want to explain the process that I used so hopefully
I can shed some light into how it all is done.
Let's
look at one of the panels: the first one on page 20, which is
a splash page. When Moore invited me to contribute to PROMETHEA
he encouraged me to come up with images that I would like to do.
From the start, the obvious one was "Prometheus Bound". Long before
I started doing digital art, I was a fine art photographer. But
even before that I used to be a fine art painter. My interest
in Prometheus dates back to that time, since its one of the most
popular representations of the male figure throughout art history
and I specialized in painting nudes.
I did a painting of Prometheus then as part of a series of large
format oils featuring updated classical themes.
So
given the obvious fact that Promethea's name stems from Prometheus,
I figured that it would be an appropriate image. Moore liked the
idea and wrote Prometheus as a vision in the climax of the story.
Unlike his normal way of writing, where he describes in detail
what he wants in each panel, he left this image fairly open so
I could do "my thing". The only aspect that he specified as different
from the standard iconography of the subject was that he wanted
a "ghostly and transparent" giant vulture, and not an eagle, which
is featured in most paintings of the story. In fact, other than
Gustave Moureau's, I can think of no major artist that has painted
Prometheus with a vulture.
To prepare for the task, the first thing I did was to read Aeschylus'
PROMETHEUS BOUND, the classic play that details the origin of
the myth. I then drew a pencil sketch and I submitted it to Moore
and the editor of the book, Scott Dunbier, for approval, along
with preliminaries for the rest of the pages.
After the layouts were okayed, I went on to cast the story. The
obvious choice for Prometheus was my friend and frequent model
Pawel Pagan-Piskorsky, since he has a classically proportioned
body that fits the heroic ideal of the subject perfectly. Pawel
and I have been working together for many years and have a very
good rapport that makes photo sessions go smoothly.
Instead of the traditional action of Prometheus struggling while
chained, I wanted a Prometheus that was in a dream like state,
almost reminiscent of Bernini's ECSTASY OF SAINT THERESA, or many
of the pictorial representations of St. Sebastian. His punishment
didn't have to be gory or violent, it would be mystical and symbolic.
I went to the hardware store and bought several yards of the
heaviest chain they carried. David Page, the artist who made the
exquisite straight jacket featured in another page of this issue,
loaned me the leather restrains.
I
took several photographs of Pawel in my studio and later composited
them together using Adobe Photoshop, cutting, pasting and resizing
different parts, to give the body the right sense of movement
and clarify the details in certain areas (like the hands and feet).
I then made the image monochromatic and gave a blue cast.
Moore
wanted the background to be "swirling interstellar space", and
I obliged. To make the vulture I used a combination of several
images that I inverted, collaged, distorted and ultimately drew
on to get the desired effect.
I placed the vulture and Pawel's figure on two layers and set
them on the "lighten" mode. I also adjusted their level of transparency.
After that I scanned two photographs I had taken of chains, cut
them from their background and pasted them in the image.
There's
another image in this story that acts as a companion piece to
"Prometheus". It is a spectral vision of a woman dancing with
a snake, and it is based on the iconography of the Tarot card
"The World". The symbol for Promethea, the protagonist of this
series, is a caduceus, the wand carried by Hermes with two snakes
wrapped around it.
The
finished picture that I made for "The World" suggests a caduceus,
since I wrapped the giant snake around the woman. Likewise, I
made Prometheus' chains snake-like, to also recall the idea of
a living caduceus. Most representations of this object feature
wings on the top of the wand.
Prometheus' vulture provided a similar visual effect The rest
of the elements in the page were also photographed separately,
selected, cut, pasted, and resized in the page
And that was all!
Of course, there are lots of little manipulations that I do to
each image to "polish" them: burning, dodging, and adjusting the
color, contrast, intensity, and many other things that are too
numerous to discuss separately. But all that "detail" work goes
into finishing each panel, and each picture presents a different
challenge with different technical solutions.
I am very happy with my image of PROMETHEUS BOUND. To me it is
as substantial as any of my fine art images and to be able to
do that in a commercial medium like comics is truly a dream come
true.
Figure 1: THE TORTURE OF PROMETHEUS oil on canvas by Jean-Louis
Cesar Lair, 1781-1828
Figure 2: PROMETHEUS oil on canvas by José Villarrubia, 1985
Figure 3: Layout. Graphite on paper by Jose Villarrubia.
Figures 4-8: Photographs and digital work in progress by José
Villarrubia
The materials that I used are the following:
Canon EOS 650 with a 50mm.lense
AGFA color film 200 ASA
EPSON ES-1200C Scanner
Power Macintosh 8500 with 210 MB RAM
WACOM tablet
José Villarrubia is an accomplished multi-media artist who has had showings at the Baltimore Museum of Art and the Tom of Finland Foundation. His comics credits include VEILS, an original graphic novel from Vertigo, and Promethea, for ABC Comics. Look for his work on the upcoming hardcover ABC comics collections.
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