New Avengers Annual #3 went on sale recently, featuring the dynamic art of Mike Mayhew. If the story alone (featuring Hawkeye in the clutches of the Dark Avengers) isn’t enough to grab you, Mayhew’s art should be reason enough.
Here’s the double page splash to pages 2 and 3, in black and white, from Mayhew’s Deviant Art page. I just love how Mayhew uses the subtle shades of grey tones, combined with the light sources, to make all of these characters seem three dimensional. I’ve no idea anymore what artists use a medium. Pencil? Ink wash? Is it all done on the computer? Please let me know what Mayhew uses.
Here’s the same double page splash after Andy Troy applies the color. It looks wonderful in this form as well. Troy doesn’t obliterate the shadows and tones with over-saturated color.
Personally, I’d love to see both versions printed. A while back Marvel printed black and white versions of Simone Bianchi’s Wolverine issues. It would be cool if they could they same for one of Mayhew’s projects.
For more original New Avengers Annual art, please visit Mike Mayhew’s DeviantArt site. Nuff said!
I'm so out of the current-comics loop that I had never even heard of this Mayhew fellow -- and I therefore know nothing about his working technique. But, based on the largest image you provided, I'd say he uses old-style india ink and ink washes. The page would then be scanned as a grayscale image and colored in Photoshop or Painter -- where it is indeed possible to employ color blend modes so that none of the added colors will obscure the original ink wash work, so glory be to digital paint! Take that, Crayola!