Guest Blog: Anatomy of the Cover of Criminal Macabre: Final Night #3 by Justin Erickson

Criminal Macabre: Final Night - The 30 Days of Night Crossover Issue #1 is coming on December 12th, but we're already looking ahead to Issue #3 and have another guest blog from artist Justin Erickson on the process he used to create the cover.

Some of writer Steve Niles’ greatest characters come together in a final showdown in the four-part Criminal Macabre: Final Night - The 30 Days of Night Crossover, which features artwork by Christopher Mitten. Look for Issue #2 on January 30, 2013, and Issue #3 on February 27, 2013 (click the highlighted text to pre-order your copies from TFAW).

Here's how Erickson, a Toronto-based illustrator and graphic designer, describes the Issue #3 cover's creation:

IDEAS:
- By this point in the project, I was given a rough outline of the series plot-line and wanted to play with Eben's newly turned rabble of vampires overwhelming Cal. Fun fact: This particular concept was originally pitched as a cover for Book 2 in the series but was chosen as the Book 3 cover instead.

SKETCH:
- As with the first cover in the series, once a concept is approved, a rough drawing is produced to act as the framework for the illustration. I literally use the rough thumbnail sketch, blow it up in Photoshop and redraw it to preserve the composition.

ILLUSTRATION #1:
- I decided to carry most of the same colour scheme throughout each cover in the series to create a sense of unity in the series, so I again used blues and mute greens for Cal the ghoul and red to portray the fire-starting vampires.

ILLUSTRATION #2:
- Once Cal is completed, then I begin work on each individual vampire face. All the while I'm tweaking specific colours and revisiting areas to improve them.

FINAL COVER:
- Now that I'm happy with the final illustration, I apply the final textures and typography, and we're done!

Our thanks to Justin for sharing his craft with us. For more info visit the official Justin Erickson website, and follow @jericksonartist on Twitter.

Issue #3 Synopsis:
Eben Olemaun is on the hunt, and he'll rip both human and vampire limb from limb to get to the person who took everything from him--Federal Agent Alice Blood. Can Cal fight off the hordes of new vampires in time to save her?