Lee Bermejo has been in the business for several years starting with various Wildstorm projects such as Resident Evil, Gen 13, Superman/Gen 13, Batman/Deathblow, Wildcats Annual, Covers for Gotham Knights, and many others.

In recent years, Lee has further established his name working with Brian Azzarello on Lex Luthor Man of Steel and The Joker graphic novel. In November 2011 he wrote and drew his take on Charles Dickens A Christmas Carol called Batman Noel. It has met with considerable praise.

We occasionally receive questions on how Lee works, especially on his covers. Here is a recent response he posted on his blog:

1. What is your technique?

Fairly simple. Pencil, ink, graphite, and ink wash. I still do things fairly traditionally. The drawings go from lose pencils to line art form in ink. From there I render on top of the ink with pencil and then go back on top of that with ink wash to darken areas further and blend. In the past few months, I've integrated the CINTIQ into my process, but mainly just for pencils and colors. I've been experimenting with laying out things digitally so that I have more freedom to play around. It's been very liberating, and hopefully will allow the drawings to have more life at the end of the day. I then print them out on board, ink them and finish rendering the same way as before.

2. What tools do you use?

F and B pencils, microns for line work and Da Vinci synthetic brushes (They only last a few pages but I love the way the ink flows). Ink is Windsor Newton. In the computer I use Photoshop and occasionally Painter.

3. Do you use photo reference?

Yes, when I can, though I like to keep things as reference free as possible. Sometimes I'll take a quick photo in photobooth of myself if I need to see how gloves or sleeves fold, and for covers I've taken full on reference when dealing with particularly tricky poses. Generally, though, I'm very lazy when it comes to shooting ref. I like to draw things first and then use a picture after wards to tweak and add little elements of chaos I wouldn't have thought of. This seems to be the best way for me to avoid things looking too overly photographic. Also, it's great ref for your ref. ;) Obviously, there's a lot that you just can't photograph. Batman is a perfect example. He comes from that fucked up place called my head.

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