Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Ninja Tribunal

Here is the season 5 Ninja tribunal DVD cover. I figured I'd show you a little of the process that went in to this Piece. When I was asked to do this cover I wanted to make it different than the others seasons on DVD . I had been painting Chaotic cards and I wanted to try something similar. I wanted to keep the hard animation like shadows but still have it look painterly. To sell them on the idea I repainted the tattooed Leo model from season five and Did two thumbnails.
The for this cover I wanted to keep the mystery of what the season was about, Not giving away to much. I figured the visual of four shredders looming over the turtles would make people who hadn't seen the episodes yet be like oh man there fighting Four shreddersthats going to be crazy . I actually second guessed my self when I did my first two thumbnails. I figured they wouldn't go for the four shredder idea. So this is what I came up with. It's the four Shishos out of their Shredder armor. I also included splinter in this cover. I felt he should be on the cover as well. The other thumbnail I came up with had the same composition but instead the Demon Shredder was looming over the turtles. I'm actually glad they didn't select them.
The comment I got for this version is they felt it was a little to similar to the other DVDs. In a meeting after they rejected the first two ideas, I told them my first idea and they seemed to like it . I also worked an idea of the Shredder looming behind the DVDs. This is my Thumbnail after the meeting. They really liked this one but they weren't happy with the placement of Mikey's left leg.
Here are some extra elements I created to populate the DVD. Just some cool action poses for Splinter and The Ancient one. I wanted these old guys to look awesome, asspecially Ancient one.

This is my final sketch. all the characters and elements are separated on to their own pieces of bristol paper. I figured if some element's didn't work for the 4 kids Graphics Department they could adjust it if need be. They could also uses the separated elements to populate the DVDs as well as the menus. I Inked all the images by hand with a brush. When I colored them I redesign all the colors of all the characters I used. I also repainted the tribunal hall to match the painterly style i was using for the turtles.
So there you have it the final cover as it will appear on the DVD cover. There are some elements that were adjusted By the 4 Kids Graphics Department but it still essentially what I intended. All in all I made 12 separate illustrations for this project, all four turtles the four Shisho Shredders, Demon Shredder, Splinter, Ancient one and the Student Amulet. This project was a massive undertaking but well worth the effort. My younger self would be proud.
If you want to find out more of what goes into making the show. I suggest you take a look at the Official TMNT the Animated Series blog Inside The Shells. There you will find a lot of the great production art for the lost season as well as wallpaper of the images I haven't shown here. Its updated every Thursday so check it out.

If your interested here's where you can Pre- Order the DVD http://www.amazon.com/Teenage-Mutant-Ninja-Turtles-Tribunal/dp/B0014567V6

TMNT © Mirage Studios, 4 Kids Entertainment and Playmates

Ilustration: Innocents

This has been in the making for a long time. I actually did the first sketch in Open Caves in 06. I liked the Idea so much I did an alternate version with a more fleshed out character. If you look at the progress sketch you'll see the problem when you work on a small screen and are not able to see the full drawing. I since got a better screen since then, But For the final pass I dint want to do it all digital. I sketched and inked it with real media. The final line art is on a 11 by 14 piece of bristol.For the color I painted it in Painter an did some touch ups in Photoshop.