GRAPHIC VIOLENCE: ARTIST “GHOULISH” GARY PULLIN ON PAINTING DEICIDE

Hello, kids. Josh Bernstein here, Revolver's Art Director. Each month, we try to bring you new work from the most cutting-edge and underground painters, illustrators, and designers in the world. When I started here at Revolver a few years back, I made it my personal goal to inject more artwork into the magazine, especially after realizing how many bands still go for the generic shot of five dudes looking angry against a brick wall. Looking at most magazines, you would think that all bands are always angry, and hang out exclusively in warehouses and abandoned buildings! Metal—you’ve been put on notice! Embrace your uniqueness and differences. We have enough My Chems and Hatebreeds.

Many artists in our magazine have later contacted us with the overjoyed news that they had been illustrated, and whether it’s from Scott Ian, Clutch, Mastodon, Sammy Hagar, or the devil himself, the feedback has always been great. In this blog, I want to show our readers and young aspiring artists out there the behind-the-scenes processes of Revolver‘s ever growing collection of art. With talents like Ed Repka, Paul Romano, Seldon Hunt, Tara McPherson, Wes Benscoter, Simon Bisley, Danny Hellman, Steve Chanks, EGR, and, of course, myself, we’ll show you step by step how to take your artwork from silly idea to thumbnail sketch to printed masterpiece! So without further ado, here’s “Ghoulish” Gary Pullin…

Revolver‘s art director, Josh Bernstein, asked me to put together a tutorial on how I created the illustration of Glen Benton of Deicide for their “Going Postal” section in the current issue [August, 2008]. So, I’ll do my best to show you the process I went through for this particular piece. I should mention that I work both traditionally and digitally, finalizing most of the work I do on my trusty Mac. Please bear with me, I’m still feeling the aftershock of the one too many pints of Guinness I drank this weekend.

Step 1
Reference and research. I admit I don’t know much about Deicide, other than spotting metal dudes wearing T-shirts at various metal shows, so I looked further into the band. I found some reference photos via their website and asked Josh to provide some shots of Glen. I remember thinking, Oh yeah... he’s the guy who burned the upside-down cross on his head. Cool! After listening to the infamous song “Fuck Your God,” which has been used to torture terror suspects by the U.S. Army, I was immediately inspired.

Step 2
Josh mentioned he wanted Glen sitting in a chair, burning fan mail in a fireplace in a home library. I quickly drew up some sketches, and Figure 1(a) represents my first attempt.

But after reevaluating the sketch and getting Josh’s feedback, we decided Figure 1(b), which showed more of the room and Glen tossing letters into a fireplace, was the way to go.

Step 3
Normally, I’ll redraw the piece by tracing over my rough concept. I’ll tighten up the line work, finalize a black-and-white illustration with pen and ink or pencil, scan it in, clean it up, and then start the coloring process in Adobe Photoshop.

But in this case, I started drawing right on the computer using a Wacom Tablet*. I created a new high-resolution file in Corel Painter IX (a new painting and drawing program I’ve recently been experimenting with. It totally blows Photoshop away with its realistic brush and paint effects). I created a layer on top of the rough drawing and started on the outline. This is where you can refine the illustration more, taking your time and adding details here and there. After a bit of experimenting, I ended up using the acrylic paint option to create the outline. This step can take hours of drawing and tweaking. There are a hundreds of ways you can create effects in Painter IX. I can’t even begin to explain how it all works, so check out this link if you’re interested in the program.

When working with any new medium, it takes time to explore and learn through a series of trials and errors. Every artist works differently, finding their way to the end result. I just try and do what works best for me in the amount of time I have on a project.

*NOTE: I now use a Wacom Tablet to draw digitally. I can’t express how much this tool kicks ass. The tablet pen acts just like a real pen or paintbrush. You can draw more fluidly and control the pressure by how soft or hard you touch the pad. I hardly use a mouse now.

Tablet

Step 4
After the black outline is more or less done, I delete the rough sketch and start playing around with the brush and paint options to color the piece. Again, I’m going through the color palettes, paint options, and brushes, constantly exploring the different effects.

I paint on a layer beneath the black outline, building up the layers of colour. Figure 3(a) looks really crude at this point, but I toggle the outline layer on and off a lot during this stage, adding and subtracting things and to see how it’s shaping up, as shown in Figure 3(b).

Step 5
Once most of the coloring is done in Corel Painter, I open the illustration in Adobe Photoshop. The great thing about Corel Painter is that you can save the file as a .tif file and open it back up in Photoshop without losing any of the layers (it won’t flatten the file) and play with it some more. You can create the backgrounds, add lighting effects, or what ever else you think it may need.

I needed to add some wallpaper to Glen’s den, and I was not really thrilled with the fire I drew, so I decided to search for some wallpaper and fire photographs. When I’m in a pinch and I need textures, backgrounds, or anything else, I go to iStock.com. I can buy some credits, search through their image library, and download what I need. There are also a lot of royalty-free stock sites out there where you can find just about any texture or image you need. Google is your friend.

I added the wallpaper by clipping out the areas I need and changing the color of the stock image to red, and then placed the fireplace pic, which I manipulated a bit in Photoshop, playing with the contrast of the fire. Then on to the next step.

There’s still Glen’s tattoos and some coloring to deal with, so I worked on that next. For the tattoo, I found a pic of the one on his right forearm, redrew it separately, scanned it in, and placed it on the file. I also added a Deicide logo on Glen’s jersey, for further recognition.

Step 6
Almost done! I’ve decided to finish the piece in Photoshop. The fireplace is the source of light, so I wanted to add a warm, glowing feeling to it. I brushed in more of the yellowish cast of light, keeping in mind the strong light source from the fire.

I also brushed in a layer of black around the corners of the piece to darken the room, therefore drawing your eye into the center of the piece. One final layer, an antiqued paper texture, is added for a more textured overall look and also gives the illustration a warmer feel.

So after a few late nights and more than a few cigarettes, there’s the final product. Hope you enjoyed the tutorial, and thanks for reading.

Ghoulishly yours,
Gary

ghoulishgary.com
Design. Illustration. Monsters!

gary@ghoulishgary.com