Color holds/Color lines process

Another step by step, since I've started assisting with a different aspect of the coloring. I'm still helping the award winning Dave Stewart color his comics. This black and white artwork is by the amazing, one of a kind Geof Darrow. This is Big Guy and Rusty the Boy Robot from Dark Horse Presents vol. 4 issue 1. Click here to see the B/W Full size, to see just how nutty the detail is. And click the captions beneath the other pics to get the full sizes of those.

 

My first step, the flat colors. Darrow is probably one of the most incredibly detailed comic artists in the world, so flatting his stuff is very difficult. And I have to make sure every detail is colored separately. Because we want the artwork to look that much more amazing in color.

This step of the process is new to me and I'm very excited about it! Beyond just the flatting I've started assisting Dave with line art coloring. If you look closely here you will see that all the water, blood, smoke, tattoos, and some other stuff has been colored.  In the finished product below you will see the depth this adds to the art. These are called color holds. Again, this is pretty demanding what with Darrow's detailed fine line-work.

And finally here we have the finished colored page. Really stunning. In spite of the fact that my contributions are somewhat invisible in the final piece, I'm honored and humbled to be helping guys like this create such beautiful stuff.

Another step by step

I wanted to do another step by step to illustrate exactly what I do when I flat, and further illustrate how much more work is done by my boss, Dave Stewart, when he colors the books. I would never want anyone to think I contributed to the coloring more than the flatting. Dave is a brilliant artist and I'm lucky to get to contribute to these comics in any way. The black and white artwork here is by Tonci Zonjic. The book is Lobster Johnson: Caput Mortuum, published by Dark Horse.

 

Every colorist has his own process and different specifications for how they like their flats to look. Dave only asks that I isolate every piece that will have its own color. That's why there are random colors. Color choice is not essential to my part.