Poster Job

So during my time off from school, I have been knuckling down and getting to work on a coloring job that I have been putting off with other projects or jobs. This is a sequential comic in poster format that I did for my little brother a while ago, based on his favorite film. The whole poster is 1 foot by 4 feet and this is the first panel in that overall layout, setting the time, place, and mood. Initially, this was going to be just my pencils and I was going to call it good.  But, being curious, and I suppose, a glutton for punishment, I asked him if he would like me to color it for him. Of course he said yes. Coloring has been something that I have been trying to get better at. I’ve been trying to go for more of a naturalistic look with more contrasts in hots and colds, and lights and darks and better values. I have been learning a lot while working on this and so far, am pretty pleased with the results I am getting-for the most part. I have been looking a lot at the work of colorists such as Peter Doherty, Alex Sinclair, and Richmond Lewis and seeing how they work with issues or problems I may be having. In particular, I was very impressed with the way Peter Doherty colored the desert landscapes of The Shaolin Cowboy by Geof Darrow. His work has been a great help and inspiration to me as I try and work through this project.

The original Lines

Here is the colors layer

With the linework added on top

This is my color correction for the work I had done. Going into this, I knew there would be some color manipulation done in post. I really like how warm the previous panel feels, but to more emulate the reference material that this panel is coming from, I decided to desaturate the blues to cause a cooler temperature and the sense of the panel being slightly overcast.


P.S. Bonus points if anyone can guess the movie this shot is from. Good Luck.
   



R.I.P. Moebius

Long time friend and collaborator of Geof Darrow, and easily one of my favorite comic artists, Jean Giraud, better known under the pseudonym, Moebius, has passed away after a long fight with cancer. His work will continue to inspire and influence me as well as countless others, but this is a sad loss indeed. Thanks for the imagination, the dreams, and most of all, thank you for your incredible spirit. You will be, and are deeply, deeply missed.

Been a While

Hey everyone, sorry for the gap in between postings. I am currently trying to finish a coloring piece for my portfolio. I really want to get it done before school starts again in April, so that is really fighting for my attention. But, thanks to a gentle reminder from my girlfriend, I thought I would post something. This is a color piece I did a while ago for an emotion study. This was done with acrylics and sharpie on illustration board. I chose to focus on rage and how I could convey that visually and sort of lyrically. The broken shards are supposed to be ripping or tearing out of the hunched over figure. Much the same way, if one lets it, rage can overpower and consume a person, and usually, that does not get alleviated in the most productive way.  I really wanted high contrast colors to emphasis the emotional state I was trying to convey and naturally, reds and blues came to mind. So here ya go. Please to enjoy.

Method to my Madness AKA” My Process”…..for now……

So for this week’s post, I thought I would take some time to go through my process as I start on a piece, from rough pencils to final coloring. For this example, I am going to go through my work on a piece of concept art for a game or comic book character. So to start, onto the fun part-

1.  Pencils and Cleanup: After I work out my composition and do my best with a good old eraser (a white, a kneaded, and those small pencil toppers for tiny areas-these work a lot better than you would think. Give em a try) to clean up the image. After this I take the image straight to the scanner. I tend to scan at a pretty high resolution at around 700dpi. I can scale this resolution down in Photoshop if I need to, but I like the ability to have a very high quality image at my disposal if I need it. That and I have the room on my computer for them. Once I have the image in the computer, I go into Photoshop and start on the clean up. In here I adjust the contrast to make my lines very clear and very dark. This also cuts down on how much left over unwanted residue is left on the actual drawing itself (smudges, wild lines, eraser marks etc.). Then from here I like to go in with the brush tool and clean up anything that needs it. Maybe an area where I had to erase something and it showed up in the scan, or if there are some lines that need tidying up. Besides that, this step is pretty much done.

2.  Light Sources and Shading Study: From here I really like to print myself out a copy of the newly cleaned up lines, and hit them with some Prismacolor Markers. I do this to help myself really. I am able to work out the light source for the composition and I get to see things in pure value, to see if things are working and being dynamic and dimensional and if your eye is moving around the image or if it is getting stuck on one thing. It also helps when I finally go to color, because I have a piece that I can turn to for reference. The hard part really gets done in this step. I tend to scan these as well just so I have a copy if the paper version gets boiling hot mashed potatoes and gravy on it…..which….may or may not happen pretty often….

3.  Color, Final Touches, and Composition: This step I break the image up into CMYK in Photoshop and start coloring. This is something I am relatively new at and trying to improve upon all the time. I actually learned how to color in Photoshop by checking out videos on Youtube (it really is a great and free way to learn this stuff, if you are on the cheap or have a quick question about anything). Like I said, I try to follow the light and dark areas I have established in my previous step, working from dark to light. I am really trying to have more contrast in my coloring (turning on the lights as it were) in between light and darks and is something I am getting more and more comfortable with as I do more of this type of work. After all of my colors are done, I do one last check, adjusting levels, hues, and saturation, on things if need be. That is what is so nice about doing this digitally, is that all of that stuff is so liquid, even at this late in the process that everything can be adjusted still, without much hassle. I then make the line work permanent and do any very small touch ups to anything that needs it. Maybe straightening a line or removing any last stragglers of black static that may still be there. For the very final phase of this process, I arrange the image compositionally to make it really pop and look finished. In this instance, I decided that I would compose this as though I were showing it for review by an art director and included a simple contrasting background. And that’s pretty much it. Rinse, and repeat.

P.S. If you are interested in knowing a little bit more about my coloring method, or just need a good place to start if you don’t know how. Here is the link to where I learned how to do this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUllhU2WoCk

Oh, and this...

This is the image I used for the old blog banner at the top. I did this for an Art Appreciation class at Pikes Peak Community College. I love The Matrix films and the work of Geof Darrow. I just think the level of insane detail that he is willing and able to achieve in his work is staggering. That man ALWAYS brings the Awesome Sauce. I remember seeing some of the concept work he did for the third film in that series and how he illustrated Agent Smith getting punched in the face. So much was going on and the impact itself looked devastating, and kinetic, and visceral, and amazing. I tried very hard to convey those same elements that he used, and then ratchet them up to the almost ridiculous level. I mean, teeth are shattering, an ear canal is collapsed; I assume there is some type of skull trauma-so on and so forth. Originally, I wanted the guy (me by the way. I am not a narcissist, I promise) to be eating a bacon cheeseburger, (which I plan on putting in at a later time) hence the little pieces of brown beefy stuff coming out of his mouth. Soooo….yeah…there ya go.

Examples of Evolution aka Live and Learn

This illustration was done a couple of years ago for my brother as a Christmas gift. At the time, it was beyond my knowledge to properly color the image digitally. I didn’t know anything about channels or levels, or how to isolate colors within the computer. Now, after the experience and brief instruction that I have had with Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator I felt as though I could come back and revisit this piece. My real intentions were to fix the colors first and foremost, and then noodle a bit with things to create a stronger composition. Originally, I think Spiderman was too pinkish for my liking, and having been able to look  back and think a little about  it, I felt the lenses in the claws of Dr. Octopus (yeah that’s supposed to be me) should be a different color besides that red. That way there is more contrast between the characters and more emphasis on Spiderman himself, and less to draw the eye away from him. The version I have now is much much closer to what I had originally intended. I still have some issues with it though (anatomy mainly) and I will probably have another crack at it one day. Maybe another Christmas some time…

First of Many

Hi everyone! And welcome to my blog!!! Sean Fowler here and this is my very first foray into the world of blogging. I am going to be using this site mainly for posting my work. Any feedback or thoughts would be greatly appreciated. That’s why this is here, so I can learn from all of you, to become better, and improve my craft. This will also act as my digital portfolio of sorts, I suppose, as I am currently going to school to get a BFA in illustration. Hope you all enjoy, and thanks for visiting.


Happy (belated) Holidays to everyone!!

SANTA GOOOOOOD!!!