07) Mark Morales over Wrightson

After receiving my commission from Howard Shum, I asked him if there were any inkers that would like to see do a take. He said "Mark Morales". SO I found and reached out to Mark. He had (has) a pretty full workload and some other commissions in front, but I am a patient guy. So I said I got in line. So after waiting (and waiting a little bit more), it came up to my turn.

Once Mark began, he was SO gracious to send me thumbnails of each character as he completed it. Working with Photoshop, I pieced the images together to get a feeling of the progress. I'll include it as an additional image. This was one of the most fun experiences I've had!

Hopefully you will take a good look at the depth and detail Mark added to this piece. The shading and textures are absolutely amazing. Mark is a master at his craft!

I asked if there was something that made this piece hard or tricky. He replied, "The whole thing was a bit of a challenge. Bernie is one of my favorite comic book artists, so I wanted to do it justice, but also give it my own spin. If the pencils were a bit tighter, I would've tried to ink it more like Bernie would (tried being the operative word....no one inked as well as Bernie). But since they pencils were looser, it gave me more room to do my thing. Some of the faces and anatomy were a bit distorted, so everything had to be smoothed out a bit.

As a inker the job depends on being versatile. I've worked with pencillers that are crazy tight and some that are much looser and the goal is to take what you get and make it look as finished and polished as possible."

If you haven't had the opportunity to engage with Mark, you are missing out. He is not only a stellar inker, but also a stellar person.

I hope you enjoy see this version as much as I do!