redrage wrote:Have to say i love it. Though feel very deficient now when i see the skills of those here that i am unable to match. However at least i can admire them.
A
I think the look of the comic book is sleight of hand. I used reference material and tracing of outlines for some of the work, and all the backdrops were photoshopped. It probably looks like it took more time and skill than it did (by a long way). Pages 2 and 4, for example, have no art done by me whatsoever!
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PAGE ONE
Panel One
Young boy was drawn on top of a traced outline of a picture of a woman crouched from an edition of Previews. The thug behind drawn freehand. The backdrop was a photo of an alleyway.
Panel Two
Hoodie Shadow was freehand and cloned. The backdrop was a B+W photo, the contrast enhanced and then coloured over with a red brush set on ‘darken’ mode (which makes lighter colours ie the white, darker, but no the darker colours ie the black, which are left unaltered.
PAGE TWO
The Roboskull and Big Ben are from photos, whilst the Shadow is from the datafiles. I think this page shows how you can get an effective panel just using photoshop.
PAGE THREE
The outline of Ironblood was traced from a photo. If you have a games magazine there’s an advert for Rachet and Clank with someone dressed as a secret agent. I traced the head outline, eye positions and the cut of the suit. The face was heavily redrawn from the guide lines. I wanted a hollow cheeked look – Cushing-esque – and greyer hair (he’s not quite the Baron yet)
PAGE FOUR
All from the archives. The process was…
Picture > increase contrast > remove colour > filter: invert > red brush on ‘darken’ mode. The various layers were then orientated and drop shadows used.
Again, no art from me whatsoever on this page.
PAGE FIVE
The two figures were handdrawn without reference or tracing, but all the backdrops were photoshopped from photos.
PAGE SIX
The SAS man was outlined from a picture in Marvel Previews of Spiderman noir – the head shape (which was expanded for the hood) and the shape/location of the lenses, and the line of the back. The Ironblood picture was also traced in it’s shape (except the left arm). This page is, more than the others, adapted from traced outlines. It was one of the first pages done.
PAGE SEVEN
All drawn by freehand, but the reference material used for the furrowed brow was from a photo of a wrestler from a games magazine, with the rest just hand drawn. The middle split between the mouth grills was too far towards the viewer and was altered in photoshop.
‘Realistic’ drawn pictures from photographs (AKA how to cheat at backdrops!)
Get a suitable picture. Alter the contrast (the process works better on clear divisions between light and dark lines)
Then, Filter > Artistic > Poster edges. Use low line thickness and line intensity, and high posterization to get a drawn effect. Big Ben looks like it should be in a drawn comic book, but took about 2 minutes to do.
3d textures from flat coloured pictures
Use the ‘Dodge’ tool set on highlights and or midtones. Set at a low 33% or less. This over exposes anywhere you rub using the base colours. So you can rub it across different colours with no bleed. Use it on where the light will catch. It leaves black lines and dark colours untouched (unless you use it on ‘shadows’)
Use the ‘burn’ tool set of shadows. Again at 33% or less and rub over the darker areas. The shadow on page 2 is done this way and it increases the 3d look very quickly without using different colours.
