Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Process

I know it's been forever since I've posted, but I've been working on lots of exciting stuff that I can finally start sharing. One of said things is the coloring duties for Joshua Williamson & Mike Henderson's NAILBITER! Issue 1 hits stands tomorrow (May 7th), I'm really proud of this one so if  a comic that's one part True Detective and one part Twin Peaks sounds like your jam, check it out.

People are often confused as to what exactly I do when I tell them I color comics, so I figured this was a good as time as any to break it down:
After reading the script and looking over the line art, the first step it to get a general idea of the tone of the scene/page that I'm about to do. After that's been determined I break the page up into flat color. Making the jacket blue, the car red, etc.


Next, I start on lighting - adding shadows and highlights. Because of the dark gritty tone of Nailbiter, I add a layer of texture over the whole page to give things a dirty feel. Think David Fincher's, Seven.


Everything I've done up to this point has been behind the line work. Next I add effects over Mike's art: rain, headlights, graffiti, the windshield, along with a few other things. In short, I'm responsible for anything that isn't black on the page. Here's the final page along side everything I've done with out the line art over top.