Petersen David - Mouse Guard Fall 1152 Issue 6 Page 4

In the "Art of Mouse Guard" David Petersen explains the genesis of this part of the story.

"I'd drawn two pages of issue 6 and was banging my head against the wall because the story wasn't working for me. Feared I'd backed myself into a corner and was going to let down my publisher and readers. The solution came out of a lunch with Jeremy Bastian. He told me to walk him through the story of the issue: Saxon, Kenzie, and Celanawe arrive at Lockhaven's gates to find Midnight's army already there. My original draft had the reader following Saxon, Kenzie, and Celanawe through secret tunnels to build the suspense of what's happening with Midnight's army. Once the trio makes their way into Lockhaven, they find Midnight's army has already burst through the gates and are threatening the Guard's matriarch Gwendolyn. Showing the aftermath rather than the act was supposed to be suspenseful. Jeremy, however, was flabbergasted as to why I wouldn't show the reader the gates of Lockhaven coming down or follow the army in their conquest as they were moments the series was building towards.

Nervous about drawing an army of mice storming a citadel's gates, I told Jeremy I didn't know if I wanted to draw something so complex. His response was that if I wanted to be a comic book artist, I needed to get over it and draw the thing that was important to show, no matter how hard it was to draw."

In his creator commentary about Fall issue 6 on Youtube David Petersen told (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayS4fDRhGDc&list=PL2uixEc11AdfJuBULri9Yqmkb8a4Bej6S&index=8 12:03):
Page 4 panel 1. "Crash! The very image I was scared to draw I used as a large panel on the very next page after my talk with Jeremy."
Page 4 panel 2 "This moment was to be the visual equivalent of the cover art but a few moments later."
The art of this cover is on 2DG https://www.2dgalleries.com/art/mouse-guard-fall-1152-n-6-cover-94446

Page 4 panel 1: You can see Midnight and his army breaching the gate of Lockhaven. Lieam as prisoner (the red mice in the published page).
Page 4 panel 2: You can see Sadie at the left and Rand at the right.

In this commentary he also refers to a Mouse Guard pinpup Jeremy Bastian did:
https://www.comicartfans.com/gallerypiece.asp?Piece=125004&GSub=0&GCat=9946&UCat=9946


David Petersen on model building:
"Like many artists, I find it easier to draw something, if I have a visual reference for it. Even if you have imagined a wonderful setting or room or style of architecture, it can often be complicated to imagine that same image from a different perspective or under different lighting.
When working on Issue #6 of Mouse Guard Fall 1152, I had a tricky few panels that showed the portcullis at Lockhaven's main gate crashing down. I built a model out of bristol scrap stock I had laying around. Using an x-acto, some rubber cement, tape and a pencil to sketch in some panel details, I had a nice little model of Lockhaven's gate."
http://davidpetersen.blogspot.be/2008/12/model-building-like-many-artists-i-find.html

There's also a Lego recreation of Lockhaven:
http://davidpetersen.blogspot.be/2015/03/mouse-guard-lego-display-eccc.html

Skelton Crew did a replica of Rand's shield (as shown in panel 2): http://davidpetersen.blogspot.com/2013/10/skelton-crew-replica-weapons-update.html

David Petersen did a creator commentary about this issue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ayS4fDRhGDc&index=6&list=PL2uixEc11AdfJuBULri9Yqmkb8a4Bej6S