ChronicleChamber is proud to announce that we have an episode of X-Band: The Phantom Podcast featuring an interview with Douglas Klauba coming out very soon. Doug is most famous for the covers he completed for Moonstone between 2003 and 2010.
Doug has popped onto the radar for Phantom phans again recently, with an image surfacing of a planned cover for Lightning Strike Comics (right).
During our process of planning the podcast with him we stumbled upon his procedure of using photographic references for his Moonstone covers. Given that we had just explored the way that Wilson McCoy used photo references, we had to investigate!
Doug was kind enough to send us a couple of the references that have survived after a decade and several moves. The result below is of five (5) of his stunning covers together with the photos of various models posing in cosplay. These helped him paint images that even today arguably rank among some of the best phans have ever seen.
Most of the photos show Doug's good friend Duane Perry modelling as The Phantom. An accomplished artist in his own right, at the time Duane was an officer with the Chicago Police.
"For every cover, there would be multiple shots, angles, poses and lighting effects for a variety of reasons. All poses are first worked out through my initial thumbnail sketches, which determined the cover design and poses," explains Doug.
"Once I choose the thumbnail that is most effective, I rough out the pose a little bit more before scheduling the model. I then match up the poses with the roughs and thumbnails, and shoot full poses, parts of the body, details, face (in a variety of expressions), and always include props / guns. Then it's time for all the photos to be printed and go through them to pull out the useful ones."
Look at the different fist shots for the Moonstone #4 cover (below) for an example of the importance of taking photos in a variety of poses. Similarly, the Moonstone #3 collage (above) shows a variety of facial expressions.
Thank you so much to Doug for the amazing insight into his work with these photographic references. We discuss this process in more detail in the podcast so if you find it interesting, make sure you don't miss it. Subscribe to X-Band: The Phantom Podcast via iTunes or through your favourite podcast app!
