Wacky Reference Wednesdays, No. 284

Wednesday, May 13, 2015

THE VALIANT #1 p18. 2014. Photoshop, 2750 × 4175 px.

Did I say this week? What I meant was that The Valiant trade paperback will be out May 27. But in keeping with the spirit, here's another page with its accompanying reference. This page was made completely in Photoshop, with a major assist from Kyle T. Webster's brushes, specifically Rough Inker, Ink Wash 1, Bone Dry, and Deliciously Dry. This allowed me to keep working on the book, even when I was traveling.


RAAaaauaaauAAuUUUgh! Google!


digital inks with wash tone

When the project first began, I was going to "save time" by keeping the colors flat, albeit modulated with an "ink wash" layer. By the second issue, I was already back to my old habit of two-tone coloring, but this technique was nice while it lasted. Because I was inking digitally, I couldn't help myself from adding the tone as I went along. I just love that look for black and white comics, something akin to Blazing Combat.


digital pencils

You can see that I made a change between the "pencils" (above) and layouts (below). This was one of the first digital pages that I did, and was very early on in the process. So early, in fact, that I was still figuring out what Bloodshot's powers were, how strong he was, etc. In the original panel 4, I had him leap 20 feet or so in air, but my editor wanted to power him down a bit. Of course, he still punched through what I imagine would be an aircraft-grade cockpit window.

digital layouts

6 comments :

  1. I know I say this almost every time but seriously... thank you for posting your WIP and the thought process behind it.

    In a related story, you should collect all of these and submit them as a how-to book to a publisher. You know... in all the spare time you have. ;P

    Seriously though thanks again for these types of posts.

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    1. Always my pleasure, Jason. I would consider it... except that there are already so many great resources out there. That's basically what James Gurney did with his blog and subsequent books.

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  2. I always love seeing your process. It's really helped me in forming my own workflow!

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    1. Thanks, Jason! (What is this, a Jason convention?)

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  3. Why yes... yes it is and now this guy is invited. Muwhahahaha!

    http://media.comicbook.com/uploads1/2015/02/jason-friday-the-13th-122763.jpg

    Okay, I have that out of my system now, so back to work.

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