Finally! Here is the final finished color cover for today’s Sketch of the Day! I don’t know if I can post the title and author since the book is so far out from publication, so you’ll just have to imagine the amazing trade tress I came up with đ
Illustration done mostly in MangaStudio 5, with some Photoshop CS6 work, and said unseen trade dress done in Illustrator CS6.
Today’s update/ Sketch of the Day is of the finished line work and the flat colors for the book cover I’ve been working on all week. This is how all computer coloring starts, and in this case it also sets up my color theory. Everything in the background is done in orange, yellow, and red/orange, while the foreground colors will all be built off of the complimentary color, blue.
This use of complimentary colors should contrast the foreground elements against the background elements and “pop” them off the page. Seems to be doing it so far, so hopefully I don’t goof it up too much when I continue to color!
The next step is to color the figures in the foreground, and my plan is to use the same color theory on their guns and bows and belts and all– Use lighter colors from the other side of the color wheel to contrast them against the darker base color I am using for their clothes.
Till Monday, to see if I can pull it off!
After a bit of a setback yesterday, including a pretty powerful migraine, I was finally able to get back on this cover this morning. Here is today’s update on it- The final remaining figures.
Tonight I have to concentrate on layouts for a comic project, which I had intended to do yesterday as well, so tomorrow’s update on this may not actually be the final as I had hoped. Monday though for sure!
We interrupt our regularly-scheduled cover progress update with this piece I found on my backup drive. Unfortunately I’ve had to do a lot of running around today and haven’t yet put in too much time on that cover, so it’ll be a late night tonight in order to make up the time…
Tomorrow, back to the cover!
Here is day twos progress on this cover. This time I left the blue underdrawing, done on a separate layer (in MangStudio 5), to show why I haven’t completed the 3rd woman’s leg and hand– There’s going to be someone squatting down in front of her!
If you squint you can also see the difference between my layout and the finished drawing. An adjustment of an arm here, a tilt of a head there, li’l things that come up while looking for reference. I tend to “fudge” the main figure, because I like the looseness that you get when making it all up, then when it comes to the head and hands I look for reference to make sure that things are as accurate as possible. If I just draw off the top of my head, eyes tend to get too big out of proportion, or float if the head is turned or tilted.
Of course, now that I’ve said that, you’ll probably never look at one of my drawings the same way again…
Tomorrow, hopefully, will be the rest of the figures, then at least the start of the background!
I can’t believe this is number 36 already, but then again, it is the last day of Feb… Anywho, here is one of the characters from a book cover I am working on. It’s due by the end of the week and has a bunch of bits to it, so I think this week’s posts will be a series of process pics as I bring this one in for a landing– Let’s all hope it doesn’t skid off the runway and explode into a fiery ball of misery.
Today’s Sketch of the Day again comes from our Thursday night figure drawing sessions. This one, from a 20 minute pose, was probably my most successful sketch from the night…
In honor of what would have been his 73rd birthday, here is another sketch of my favorite Beatle, George Harrison.
And, here again is the one I did during “randomly felt like drawing British people” week.
Down to the wire on a couple deadlines so not much time for sketching just for fun, so today’s Sketch of the Day is from a recently-finished children’s book project.
For today’s Sketch of the Day, here is a piece I did when a Krysten Ritter fan page asked for submissions for a gift they were putting together for her on Valentine’s Day.