Comics 101 for 12/09/2004 Star Wars Insider #66 - The Art of Shaak Ti -- Week Two: Inks and Color Steps Part One
I'm currently busy this December illustrating a variety of Star Wars projects as things gear up into overdrive for Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith. New features, reviews and tutorials for Comics 101 will return early next year so enjoy this look back at one of my favorite articles. Happy Holidays!
Once I get approval from my art director and Lucasfilm for the final pencil line drawing I begin to ink the illustration on the 2 ply vellum surface Bristol Board I drew it on. For my inking purposes I primarily stick with the Hunt's 102 nib for my crowquill pen and use my tech pens for the straight edges of the background linework of the Jedi Temple. For some of the larger areas of black shapes like the shadows in the faces or robes I use tech pens and sharpie markers to fill them in efficiently.
The following artwork is my final inks for the full color art.
Final Inks
The following examples showcase the initial steps I had taken when blocking in my flat color for the artwork in Photoshop including the characters, the background and also rendering over the linework of the stripes on Shaak Ti's headtails.
Shaak Ti Color Step 1
Shaak Ti Color Step 2
Shaak Ti Color Step 3
Next week we'll take a look at the rendering process in the next stages of digital coloring for this artwork. See you next time!
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