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Comics 101
Art tips and techniques, reviews and interviews from my studio. Archived here and at World Famous Comics.

Comics 101 Archives

Comics 101 for 04/15/2004
Star Wars Gamer #9 - Wraith Squadron: The Art of Infiltration -- Week Five: The Color Final Part Three

While using Photoshop for the majority of coloring this illustration, I flatten the artwork, save it as a TIFF file then open it in Painter. It's in Painter that I add my values, lights and darks, to my middle ground and foreground figures.

Using my Watercolor brush at an opacity of about 40 percent and using my Eyedropper tool to select the base color of the stormtroopers, I begin to add shading on my forms to round them out. The nature of the Watercolor brush in Painter usually allows me to easily paint a darker tone version of the base color I selected. In this instance though I shift the grey-ish white color of the trooper armor that I selected into more of the blue field of my color wheel to establish abit more of a cool lighting look on them.

Color Step Eight

Once the stormtroopers are rendered I use the same Watercolor brush techniques on Wedge and Tyria. Using the graphic lighting I established in pen and ink on their forms as a guide, I add the darker values of the paint to the figures. Another benefit of the Watercolor brush is that it applies paint transparently to my digital canvas, allowing my opaque pen and ink line art to show through the color at full 100 percent opacity.

Color Step Nine

As a final technique to the overall rendering of my figures in my illustration, I dry my canvas in Painter and then re-open it back into Photoshop. In Photoshop I use my Dodge tool at minimal opacity again to add highlights which balance out my darker shading, rounding out my forms even more fully. Now the artwork is complete and ready to be sent to my art director and be approved by Lucasfilm for publication in Star Wars Gamer #9.

Color Step Ten

I hope you enjoyed this step by step look at one of my favorite Star Wars illustrations and I hope you have as much fun looking at this art as I had making it. There will be more tutorials and behind the scenes looks at my Star Wars art in Comics 101 in the near future so stay tuned.

In the meantime, check out my latest comic book art from my Marvel Comics series, Crimson Dynamo, in my Comic Books gallery. If you like what you see stop by my Stuff to Buy section and pick up autographed issues of Crimson Dynamo #3 through #6 today.

Also, this April 17th and 18th I'll be appearing at Empire Fanfest in New Jersey with my pal and fellow Star Wars artist Jan Duursema along with Star Wars author John Ostrander. Other Star Wars guests featured at the show include Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Shannon McRandle (Mara Jade) and Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett).

I'll be signing and selling my Star Wars and comic book artwork there so if you're in the neighborhood be sure to stop by my table at the show and say hi!

See ya next week for a new Comics 101 featuring the 'Art of General Grievous'! Stay tuned!
-Joe

<< 04/08/2004 | 04/15/2004 | 04/22/2004 >>

Recent Columns:
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10/25/2007Download Zombie Prom for FREE at iTunes, My Top Five Favorite Horror Films and The Horrors of Canada
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06/21/2007Star Wars: Celebration Europe 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Print - Photo Reference, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art and Comic-Con International 2007
05/03/2007Star Wars: Celebration IV 30th Anniversary Limited Edition Print - Photo Reference, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art and Free Comic Book Day 2007
03/08/2007Star Trek: The Next Generation: The Space Between #5 Cover - Rough Sketch, Finished Pencil Art, In Progress and Final Color Art
Archives >>

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