Mike Mignola

Mike Mignola, creator of the Hellboy comics, the man, the legend. Recently I've been drawing a lot of his pictures. I really like his rough confident lines. Not only that, but the way he composes his scenes in his comics. He doesn't detail everything in his pictures and can leave a lot of it hidden in jet black. But still, he can create a complete and immersive scene.

Hellboy is all about supernatural mysteries, old folk tales and nazis. His comics are usually influenced by stories he finds in a range of different places and cultures. Like Romania's vampires or voodoo tribes in Africa. It shows that research is an important process of any story. You gotta know your subject matter. And by the amount of detail and variety he has with his architecture and interior design, I'd say he's put the effort in.

So yeah, lately I've been trying to immitate Mignola and hopefully have some of his amazingness rub off on me. It has surely helped thats for sure! I notice that his bold blacks are not only an effective way of lighting a scene but also an integril part to the balance of the image. A lot of his landscape pictures will have the forground white, then midground black, then will finish off with another section of white. Layers of black and white seem to be an important part of his process.

Here's an image I copied from Hellboy: The Corpse.

The rocks/graves in the foreground are black, midground white, and background black. Simple bold and contrasting colours. Its something that I love about his art. His simplicity and clarity is something I really wanna copy.

So here's an original of mine that keeps to my theory of layers of black and white...

When it first came to copying his work it was extremely daunting. There can be so much detail, and most of the time it comes from a couple of loosly drawn shapes of black. With a bit of practice I began to notice a good way to copy his work. I started to simplify his drawings down to sihoettes and from there, look inward to add further detail. Like connecting the lines of Hellboys jacket to his other shoulder, or drawing the individual rocks of a fallen watchtower.

Below is an image I made that looks pretty complicated, but it started with simple shapes which then got filled with more detail. I found myself constantly referring back to Hellboy comics to see how Mignola inks waves and rocks. I copied this image from a photo in a magazine.

And to finish off this Mignola-appreciation-post, i'll put up a link to one of his scenes where Hellboy is fighting some crazy monster. Mignola's Hellboy is an example of how amazing a comic can be. His stylistic approach leaves a lot to the imagination while the shots he chooses are clear and accurate to the tone of the story. The dialog is quick and punchy, and his sharp, electrifying lines help to create some really kickars fightscenes.

http://goodcomics.comicbookresources.com/2009/04/22/a-year-of-cool-comic-book-moments-day-112/

And for all those who would like to know what Mignola uses in terms of pens/pencils, here it is:

WHAT PENCILS, PENS, PAPER DOES MIKE USE?
Pencil – Staedtler Mars Lumograph – 2H, HB
Pen – Staedtler Pigment Liner – 0.1, 0.3
Ink – Higgins Black Magic
Paper – whatever Dark Horse has been sending him for
            years – not too smooth, not too rough

Found on his bio site:
http://www.artofmikemignola.com/faq