Costume Colour Tests

I've been trying to work out how the superhero unifroms will look. Here's a bunch of tests. I'm really not pleased with the icon - it's pretty much a placeholder for now. 

  

  

  

Colour Test

I've used a freelance illustration to test how I will colour my major project. I heavily rendered this image withe the line-work with the intention of using a layer of flat colours, a shadow layer and a texture layer to achieve the final look. However, I decided this one needed a highlight layer as well. 

I am reasonably happy with the overall look of the final image. I will render with line work a little less and spend more time on it as it is a bit rough here. (that was also an intentional experiment as I often feel my line work can look stiff when inked an wanted to try and retain some of the energy by working looser but in this case I feel it is a little too loose.) 

The shadow layer is added at 25-30% set to multiply and the shadows are applied as one colour. Setting the layer to multiplay let's me draw in shadow shapes without worrying about the colour as it picks up some of the base colour. 

The highlight layer in this instance was set to overlay at 25% and painted in with pure white. 

Adding the texture layer at 100% soft light I found has "unified" the whole illustration and sort of normalised the colours to a working palette. It feels like a cheat or short cut but I think it works fairly well. I would never en up at the colour choices of the final image if I had made the palette on my own.

Major Project Schedule

Working from the assumption that the deadline will be around week 1-2 of August, I have a little over 3 months to complete the project. The schedule can be amended when the final deadline is revealed. 

For the first week in May I want to get the script and character designs finalised. I already have the rough plotted in place and I'll be working with Dom to create the final script and dialogue as there are a number of things I want to include in the project. The final page count should be somewhere in the region of 24-30 pages to allow me to spend enough time on each page to achieve the best possible quality. I'll continue working on the characters looks and the costume designs in this time as well.

I will spend the rest of May thumb-nailing and creating page layouts for the project. During this stage I'll spend a lot of time experimenting with different layouts of pages as well as I want to continue to try different ways of using the comic form as I did with Lost Legionnaire. I'll be creating the layouts pencils and inks in Clip-studio but will also take each layout into Illustrator and begin the lettering process as well since it will save some time later on in the project when I will want to be focused on adding finishing touches to the art. 

From the last week in May through June and July I will be creating the final artwork. As I complete each page I will export it into Illustrator to add the lettering layers and then into the final InDesign project I have set up already in preparation for printing.

This will leave a week or 2 to make any corrections or as a buffer should I struggle hitting the deadlines.

Major Project Initial Character Designs

Here are my initial ideas for how the characters will look. They are obviously quite influenced by the Fantastic Four i.e. with the matching suits no masks etc...  I've been using this as an opportunity to try and design the characters to look different. I am conscious that as I draw I tend to approach constructing figures the same way and as a result this means there are often similarities in the way the characters look to each other. You see this sort of thing with a lot of comic artists. All the generic background characters look similar. They all have the same nose because the artist draws noses the same way every time for example. I would like to try and avoid this and to do that I have been trying to approach the characters features and body sizes slightly differently.

When I come to do the final designs for the characters this will be more obvious. It's something I would like to carry through my work from this point on. What I find approaching drawing characters like this does, is gives the characters more individuality. It separates them from everyone else. They should all have their own shapes and silhouettes and personalities.

At this stage I feel like I am drawing slight variations on the same suit design over and over. I will do a bit more research and try some different approaches to see if I can come up with something a bit more iconic as I feel that these initial suit designs are very "obvious". 

Superheroes need to be unique. They need to be bright and colourful. It's practically a genre convention. 

I had been planning to do these sort of clean pencil style drawings for the book but after some feedback I feel like it's too stiff and that the life and energy of the work I did on the Lost Legionnaire is getting lost. 

I want to try and have some sort of similar messy style to the inks as I feel that comes more naturally to me. If I can somehow spend a bit of time working into that with more gradation and gray tones through hatching etc... then I might end up with something that is still my personal style but appropriate for the project. I feel that the lost legionnaires heavy black and white style is not quite fitting for a superhero book.  I prefer the drawing below on the right for example but think that it's still a little too "neat".

This chap is the villain of the piece, a Superman analogue. I quite like the idea of him wearing the american flag styled cape and have worked it into the plot. 

Major Project Idea

I've been planning out what I will do for my major project over recent weeks. I've decided to do some sort of superhero story so that I can fill some holes in my portfolio and give myself the best chance to get the work I want after the degree finishes up in September.

Here are some of the initial character sketches. I still need to get a team logo figured out. 

The characters are sort of purposely a mashup of the Fantastic Four and X-men with the villain being a superman archetype.

More to follow in the next few weeks.

The Protagonist

Blasius. Happy with him. Might still try some different things with the Roman armour though. The shoulder pad things are quite annoying to draw and get looking good.

Demon Concepts

Here's some more final-ish concepts of the demons. They don't appear for 3 or so pages so I can still play around with the designs for a week or so yet but I don't think they will be changing much from this look.

Concepts

Some concept work. Something is bugging me about the demons. Definitely not there yet. I'll need to try something a bit different.