As research for this project I recently re-read the entire collection of Ben Templesmith’s Wormwood: Gentlemen Corpse. As I was reading through them I found stashed away at the back of the comic’s one or two pages in which he explains the process of his artwork.
Image: Ben Templesmith Watercolour & Photoshop
Image: Ben Templesmith Traditional Ink & Photoshop
Ben Templesmith appears to prefer working with more traditional media and only using Photoshop to add layers, depth and manipulate the final images.
In a Recent Interview with Ain’t it cool news Ben Templesmith had this to say:
‘@: Your distinctive art technique seems to involve quite a few steps utilizing a number of different mediums. Can you take us through your process from initial idea to finished product?
BT:In a nutshell, or a colostomy bag if you will, the art is all hand drawn, on tonal paper, then I ink it, lay in some grey tones and white highlights using paint and markers and anything that comes to hand. Then I scan them in and add photographic layers, be it textures of cracked walls, collages I’ve made and bits of faces, before adding colour, all in Photoshop. At the end of the day it’s still about 80% drawn and 20% computer. But I don’t actually draw on it, I just use Photoshop as a composition and layering tool really.
@: Do you see computer art as the next logical step in comic book art evolution? Will the old pencil and ink format ever become obsolete?
BT:I used to be one of the young punks, but now many, many people have surpassed me, and actually do all their work on the computer literally. I still like the hand drawn aspect. I like the object at the end (not least because you can sell or exhibit it!). I still use a mouse myself. Never bothered to get into the Wacom tablets everyone now uses…though I will be getting a Cintiq (the next phase of that sort of tech really) and will probably get more into the computer side of things…but there’ll always be some people that prefer the feel of real media on paper, even if they know how to do it all on computer too. The medium evolves due to budgets and deadline constraints. So the computer wins. But the original art market will never die, and I think collectors and fans will always make sure there’s at least some pencil and ink real world pages out there to be had. I’m not swapping to computer only work myself. I’ll just keep using it to enhance.‘
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