Carriers promo/artist banner original art by Ben Ferrari (2013 Pilot Studios)

I actually sort of met Ben in the parking lot of Big Wow, as we and others were trying to determine if it was ok to park there since the lot was "closed." Just a small crowd who eventually went our separate ways to the con. So when he stopped me in Underground Alley, I took the time to look through his stuff when I normally might have passed by. But I do love to support the new and the unknown artists out there so I looked through what he had and picked up a couple pieces. This one was done for a personal project through Ben's self published indy line, Pilot Studios. He sort of reminded me of me in a lot of ways, as a writer/creator who draws about as well as I do. (i.e. not the best artist out there but shows the effort:) He had a lot of passion for his books he created/wrote, so I bought some art.


This title is coming soon from Ben's Pilot Studios with a cover by Cedric Nocon! (see print of the cover below in additional images) This was his first piece drawn up to visualize his idea for the book that follows the life of Carrier pigeons. He also uses the image on his Artist Alley banner, and you can see pics of that below as well.


From what I gather, Ben lays out his art with some blue pencil, then regular pencil, then inks. But where he really "finishes" the art is in the coloring, as you can see by comparing the original to the color banner below.