The Bombshellter: February 2017

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Cyclops Inhumans Vs X-Men #4 Cover Step by Step Part 3 Color

Inhumans Vs X-Men #4 Variant Covers featuring Scott Summers Cyclops.

By Rachel Dodson and Me.

Out now from Marvel Comics.

Now for Part 3 of the Step by Step -

COLOR

FLATS

The first stage of color is called flats - flatting allows me to choose an area to color at any point throughout the coloring process.

I try to adjust the colors to their medium value or imprimatura - I use this as the starting point for the piece.

BACKGROUND

First thing I did was to get the background figured out - notice the right side is not completely done but the PATTERN is figured out.

INITIAL COLOR (ROUGH IN)

I colored this on my Cintiq 22 HD using Photoshop CS3 .

Here I rough in quickly all the medium lights and darks on the figures and cast initial shadows.

Using the Pencil Tool at 100% to knock those in.

Now, that background is looking better, I used this pattern to do it.

Adding the RED from his beam.

COLORING LINE ART

This is the icing on the cake step of the process.

Fun stuff!

Almost done...

nailing down the SFX.

FINAL COLOR

And to review-

PART 1

PENCILS

PART 2

LINE ART

Sunday, February 26, 2017

Generation X #2 Cover Work in Progress

Here's the work in progress colors - the issue ships in May from Christina Strain, Amilcar Pinna and Marvel Comics!

Thursday, February 23, 2017

Cyclops Inhumans Vs X-Men #4 Cover Step by Step Part 2 Scanning Line Art and Preparing for Color

Rachel Dodson inks the pencil drawing with a Windsor Newton Series 7 Kolinsky Sable #2 Brush and Dr. Martens Hi Carb Ink.

Now, time to scan - Rachel's art is full of very fine lines and grays and details that may get lost in a traditional scan, so this is how we do it - mucho gracias to Alex Sinclair for telling me about this!

Step 1

I set the art on my full size Epson 11000XL scanner and using the Epson scanning software in Photoshop, scan the art full size at 800dpi in the gray scale setting.

Step 2

It will look something like this. Now Crop the art and Save as FILE_800ms.tif

Step 3

I then go through and Lasso the whites, thin whites, white out corrections, little tiny greys formed by crosshatching and use Tolerance set to about 90 to "save" those white areas from disappearing into blacks.

Step 4

I then use the Burn set to 100%...

and darken up the light lines-

especially feather lines of Rachel's brushes.

Step 5

Once I am satisfied I'm saved my white lines/areas and the lightest lines, I set the Tolerance of the entire artwork at 128 - I double check by hitting undo/redo a couple of times.

Step 6

Then I convert from Grayscale to Bitmap.

and Save.

Step 7

I then clean the art at 25% as I color myself -

if this is for someone else to color, then 50%.

I use the Pencil tool and/or the Line tool set to WHITE at 100%.

Step 8

Save.

Step 9

Now, I convert the art to the size I will color it at, the print size so the actual size of the printing (for a comic book cover 7" x 10.6") and 600dpi.

with the "Nearest Neighbor" Setting opted.

Step 10

Save with new file name FILE_LINEART.tif and ...

with these boxes checked!

VOILA, time to color (or set up for coloring more appropriately).

Comprende?

NOW - you don't need to do this - you can save A LOT of time by scanning in Black and White (Bitmap) - however, Rachel has so many fine lines these simply get lost. So if you have a clean graphic line - don't go to all this trouble... it ain't worth it.

In Part 3,

COLORS

Wednesday, February 22, 2017

Emerald City Comicon March 2-5, 2017

Rachel and I will be attending Emerald City again this year.

The official ECCC site -

www.emeraldcitycomicon.com

WHERE/WHEN

Rachel and I will be seated in Artist's Alley Table A 1 and A2

We will be at the table at most of the show but I will update via Twitter more exact schedule.

twitter.com/TerryDodsonArt

@TerryDodsonArt

SIGNING

I will be signing books/comics/statues/etc at my table the whole show and for free for the first 10 items. Then $1 a signature after that.

PANEL

I will be part of the MILKFED CRIMINAL MASTERMINDS panel Friday 4:00 PM to 5:30 PM Room WSCC 6111 where we will discuss the launch of my new book and have a BRAND NEW PRINT giveaway!

Specific details soon!

COMMISSION SKETCHES

I will take sketch requests all day Thursday and first part of Friday.

I will write down all names however I will be choosing myself who's sketch I'm drawing and if you had a sketch recently I won't be doing you a sketch so I can try to get sketches down for fans who I haven't done sketches for.

ECCC is a VERY busy con so I will only be producing about 5-10 sketches.

Sketches are $300 for 9" x 12" and $200 for Blank Sketch Covers.

ORIGINAL ART

I will be selling original art from RED ONE, Star Wars: Princess Leia #, X-Men, Catwoman, Songes/Muse, Avengers, Avenging Spider-Man, The Defenders, Uncanny X-Men, Wonder Woman and selected covers, pinups and sketches including some BRAND NEW covers like IVX, Star Wars and more!

PRINTS/POSTCARDS

I will have my ECCC print, SD 2015, Red One, Masquerade, Rose City, Down Under, New York, San Diego Gaslamp Quarter, Paris and Seattle prints and postcards for sale.