Almighty Zeus
Friday, April 25, 2008
Labels: Color Studies / Covers / Digital Color / Penciled / Photoshop / Technique
Here's the cover to The Iliad #8 that I showed on Monday, but the actual painting doesn't look like this. I gave him dark brown hair in the real version, but my editors wanted the top god to look a little older. So I simply printed out the head on matte photo paper and repainted the silver hair on top of that. I scanned it in and stitched it all back together again in Photoshop. Easy!
This is the actual painting on 11" x 17" bristol board.
I went through a little phase a couple weeks ago where I started using charcoal again. I needed something looser for my bigger images (like covers) because I don't like my technical pencil mark-making at that large a scale. The phase didn't last, however — it's just not tight enough for what I need. Since then, I've picked up my lead holder once again, which seems to be doing the trick.
This is my typical digital color study. Most of the information is there, just less refined. As usual, I like this stage better.
And I've been doing this for almost every color study now. I start with a grayscale painting where I get almost everything figured out compositionally. Then, I come back with a brush set to "color" mode, allowing me to change the hue and saturation without altering the brightness. I really got a handle on this technique when coloring my black and white Hulk paintings. Now, however, it's just a great way to divide and conquer my image-making problems.
In Mythos: Cap news, I'm on page 15! I'll be painting D-Day all day today.
Wonderful process, you seem to have nailed it. I dig the charcoal drawing - even though it doesn't work as a step in your process, it still makes for a beautiful study.
ReplyDeleteI like seeing the process. Thanks for posting.
ReplyDeleteI like the brown haired Zeus painting better.
ReplyDelete:) He was the youngest of Kronos' children and so shouldn't have grey hair!
Thanks, guys! My editor said he is prematurely gray.
ReplyDelete