Holidays 2015 Step by Step - part 2 Color

How we made our 2015 Happy Holidays card... and now -

 The color stage

Flats - the first part of coloring. And where I ended up drawing in all the backgrounds - pretty crucial!

Initial Color Rough in

I colored this on my Cintiq 13 HD and used Photoshop after I scanned the original line art.

Screen shot detail

Starting to convert the lineart to color and refining the rendering.

I also used a Custom Brush to add a subtle texture to everything.

Screen shot detail - You can see how I made additional color changes to the lineart....

Finished colors

Details on skater

Fox details...

Happy Holidays!

Terry and Rachel

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TD

Holidays 2015 Step by Step - part 1 Lineart

How we made our 2015 Happy Holidays card!

What should we do... Rachel said how about a girl ice skating? - include some kinda animal....

Ok...

Into the sketchbook I went - Canson Universal Sketchbook 10 x 14 with Col Erase Light Blue Pencil

From Rabbit to Dog, added Pea Coat - Col Erase Scarlet Red Pencil

Scan and finalize in Photoshop

On to the full size original - drawn in Col Erase Light Blue  11 x17 Bristol Board

Decided to add hood and fur to end of sleeves, and singular valkyrie type braid - drawing with HB lead now

Rachel found reference for the jacket in Miracle on 34th Street which really helped with construction

Dog or wolf - not sure, and moved "girl's" legs back to accurately support her legs and empasize being on tip toes

Maybe dog...

Maybe wolf...

Move legs back to original position - better compositionally - and found ref for boots!

Buttons on jacket - accuracy and depth cues

WHOOSH from skates!

One more time with wolf...

Slept on it and changed to Arctic Fox - took about 10 minutes to draw - good decision

Final pencil art

Detail of skater

Detail of Fox

Rachel Dodson's inks over my pencils

Rachel inked this completely with Windsor Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable #2 Brush and Higgins Black Magic Ink 

Detail of fox lineart

Detail of skater - love what Rachel did with the hair!

Next color...

TD

Happy Holidays 2015

Our holiday card for this year - idea by Rachel!

TD

Work in Progress Holiday Card Part 3

Almost there....

our Work in Progress Holiday Card for 2015!

TD

Work in Progress Holiday Card Part 2

Here's another look at our Work in Progress Holiday Card for 2015 - ready for the printer!

TD

Star Wars #16 Cover Art

The cover to Star Wars #16 - by Rachel and me - out in February 2016 from Marvel Comics, Jason Aaron and Leinil Yu!

Drawn by hand and colored in Photoshop.

TD

Work in Progress Holiday Card 2015

Here's a look at our Work in Progress Holiday Card for 2015 - firing away in Photoshop right now!

TD

Star Wars: Vader Down #1 CBLDF Variant Cover - Step 2 Color

Here's the second part of a look at how we created the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Cover for Star Wars: Vader Down #1  out now from Marvel Comics.

The Color Stage 

Colored  in Photoshop CS3 using a Wacom Cintiq 13HD.

Flats

 The first stage of coloring is to have the art "flatted".

Flatting allows me to choose an area to color at any point throughout the coloring process.

At this stage I go and adjust the colors to their medium value or imprimatura - I use this as the starting point for the piece.

Next I roughed in the background - I knew I wanted a Leyendecker style painted background - so I did that using a singly "brushy" looking brush set at about 20% multiply.

I also roughed in the colors on the characters. 

Refining the colors and begin converting Lineart to color.

Pushing the lights and darks plus start using Luke's Lightsaber to influence the lighting. 

The final colors.  

Detail of Leia.

Detail of clothing - I love doing big Leyendecker type strokes on fabric - Struzan did this on his first Star Wars poster! 

LUKE - I am your father! 

The final product - out now! 

TD

Star Wars: Vader Down #1 CBLDF Variant Cover - Step 1 Lineart

Here's a look at how we created the Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Cover for Star Wars: Vader Down #1  out now from Marvel Comics.

My initial sketch was sent to Star Wars Editor Heather Antos at Marvel.

Had a ton of ideas for this - Lucasfilm picked "C".

 The sketches are drawn at 2x3 inches in my sketchbook in pencil and pen and then cleaned up and colored in Photoshop.

My initial pencils drawn in Light Blue and HB lead on 12 x 18 Bristol Board

Finishing Luke

Finishing Leia

Done!

Detail of the pencils!

Rachel's  Inks

Rachel inked this completely Windsor Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable #2 Brush and Higgins Black Magic Ink to ink the covers with.

Details

Next Color

TD