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Showing posts from August, 2011

TIME MACHINE color update:

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I CAN'T TAKE ALL THE CREDIT FOR THIS ONE, as the very effective coloring on this drawing was put together by highly-experienced Rich Skipworth, who has mastered the art and craft of digital color to a high degree.  The first thing I notice here is the sheer restraint of color application compared to my efforts thus far  here, the color has been pared back to more practical and direct effect, with only minimal highlighting and shading, and the design certainly stands out a lot more forcefully, with better impact. I reckon I've overdoing the shading and gradient tones especially in my own stuff, I just need to hold back a bit on this score:   the elements stand out a lot more easier on the eye using the more restrained methods that Rich has done here. Elaborate details can still be added though: that bevelled, 'carved-out-of-metal' 'TIME MACHINE' writing is an excellent touch which helps to inject some realism into the absurdist larkings. I will have to rethink my

Technicolor-a-go-go:

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ANOTHER ' BUMPED-UP-INTO-FULL-COLOR' ENTRY, with hopefully lush-n-lavish production values injected into this fairly recent black-and-white entry. I've slowly but surely amassed a fair few techniques into the color spectrum, but there's still a fair few more adjustments and refinements---and even fundamentals-------for me to 'master' as yet. The main new departure here is the introduction of colored outlines, which if used sparingly, give a less harsh, 'softer' look, more akin to a 40s animated cartoon, which is the sort of approach I am looking for. The fact I can now convert black-ink-lines to any color means I can open up a new range of subjects, from polar-bears, ghosts, or jelly babies! The use of digital color is the biggest advance I have aded to my cartoon 'arsenal' this year. Much thanx to Rich Skipworth of CCGB for assisting me greatly with the 'color-lines conversion' technique.

Extreme Close-up Series [2]: the Statue of Liberty.

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HERE WE SEE another 'loving close-up' of one of the supporting characters, the seemingly 'alive' Statue of Liberty, in a 'direct-to-camera' gaze shot. I must be getting more refined and sedate in my old age, as all close-ups of this type I used to do were so over-the-top and extreme, but this one and the recent KOONG KING job are very 'smiley' affairs, with radiant smiles.  Keeping characters appealing-looking is always a good thing; it's so easy to 'tip over the edge' and be tempted into drawing all-out gross facial features with bulging eyes/tongue hanging out and salvatatng, etc.... This sort of temptation is probably best resisted, though I will be doing   some grotesque characterizations on here at some point......the four key main characters will likely be a bit tougher to pull off in this sort of extreme close-up, but I'm sure I can come up with something. Patience is definitely a virtue in this game........ These facial closeups w