Sandman: Overture

Neil Gaiman's Sandman: Overture is probably the coolest comic that I've ever gotten the opportunity to work on. I've only assisted with the coloring on some of the pages in the series, but I wanted to share this spread in particular because it was pretty intensive. But as you'll see the printed artwork shows it was worth the extra effort.

The first image you see here is the black and white ink-washes, beautifully rendered by J. H. Williams. Then I lay down the flat colors, but just on the inset panels and the rocky terrain. The entire background in the story is composed of a city made of stars, so my next job was to color the actual ink-washes, to give the drawings of the city a lighter feel. Finally, my boss Dave Stewart paints the finished colors on, adding depth to the rocks and illuminating the star city and the story's Chapter Four title.

And it looks perfect!