Coloring Between the Lines
Sep. 27th, 2011 08:12 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kybearfuzzAfter yesterday's rainy morning, I was very happy to see the sun had dried most of the concrete surfaces by the end of my work day. I went for shirtless run at the track, but had to cut it off at 3 miles when the grade school girls showed up. I think it's some afterschool program, they get stickers for doing so many laps. The teachers offered me stickers as I completed my last lap.
So I settled in after a shower and dinner to color more pages. I never liked coloring as a kid. While crayons in coloring books was fun, I often never got an even coloring, often jumped outside the lines, and regretted the choice of colors after the fact. In coloring a page, you only got one shot at it and any screw-up was noticable.
Photoshop and computers changed a lot of that. Now I use the paint bucket tool and drop an even coat in an area and if I don't like it, I simply undo it. For a former Crayola-coloring challenged kid, this is wonderful. Color does make a dramatic difference in the way a cartoon looks. Here's the rough sketch for page one of the upcoming "Grizzly & The Bear Patrol #6," and the color copy (after inking) I finished over the weekend. They are too funny.
Happy Tuesday all...
So I settled in after a shower and dinner to color more pages. I never liked coloring as a kid. While crayons in coloring books was fun, I often never got an even coloring, often jumped outside the lines, and regretted the choice of colors after the fact. In coloring a page, you only got one shot at it and any screw-up was noticable.
Photoshop and computers changed a lot of that. Now I use the paint bucket tool and drop an even coat in an area and if I don't like it, I simply undo it. For a former Crayola-coloring challenged kid, this is wonderful. Color does make a dramatic difference in the way a cartoon looks. Here's the rough sketch for page one of the upcoming "Grizzly & The Bear Patrol #6," and the color copy (after inking) I finished over the weekend. They are too funny.
Happy Tuesday all...
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no subject
Date: 2011-09-28 08:59 am (UTC)And I am completely envious of your coloring skills. The way you blend colors is amazing. Everything is so vivid, almost like watercolors. I would love to be able to do that.
no subject
Date: 2011-09-28 06:11 pm (UTC)the vividness comes from the iphoto editing app, which I've learned to manipulate fairly well. The app has an "enhance" button which ups contrast and saturation. There's also a whole "adjustment" array that tunes exposure, definition, contrast, saturation, highlights, shadows, grain, and 'noise'.
The birthday posts are mostly done in pencil and Berol colored pencils ... which allows for a range of gradations. I have to watch some of the colors because of the way they react with digital scanning: oranges can turn brown easily, and reds and turquoises sometimes tend to go neon.
When I'n doing renderings of stage scenes I tend to use watercolor washes along with pencil on top for definition and detail. Sometimes I'll use a colored board or paper rather than white as the base. Also I may use acrylic gesso or Titanium white acrylic for super highlights.
You've certainly got the skill to handle any of these media.