The Ins & Outs of Digital Color
Or, If it ain’t broke, don’t bother learning all the new fancy tricks and tools Photoshop has to offer!
Commissions can be fun. I went years turning them away, and I really don’t know why. Just knew I could, and advertising illustration allowed me that freedom….to be lazy. Now that turning jobs away is no longer an option, I’m really leaning into personalized jobs for individuals. Turns out, it’s actually pretty enjoyable work- who knew!
Some commissions are pretty basic and mundane (‘draw my face!’), some are of goofy looking dogs only an owner could see the beauty in, and others are downright interesting. As an artist, they all offer a level of satisfaction in their own right, but the ones that require some research can take it up a notch.
Here’s a fun one I got a few weeks ago.
I’ve never drawn a Ghostbuster before, and this dude is a serious ‘Ghosty’- a term that I’d never heard, but understood immediately.
This was a contact from my commissions page, and in the note for the drawing was that he wanted to be drawn as a Ghostbuster. Sold.
This was going to be an all digital drawing. Here’s a few of the reference shots I got:
Then, I had to dig up Ghostbuster refs- that was a fun Google.
I approached this one like I would any Mad job- focusing on the whole character, rather than just the face.
Wanted to convey the weight of the proton back and the kickback of the proton stream.
Note- all of these are drawn and colored in Photoshop on a Mac.
This rough thumbnail evolved into a more final drawing:
From there, it was a matter of throwing in the digital color.
Full disclosure, I filmed the whole process, but in my learning of recording and editing software, I haven’t gotten quite to the point of having much of it to a level that’s ready to share- case in point- over 2 days of drawing and filming, one whole day had no audio. That’s probably for the best, but as I get better at this, doing demos with VO are forthcoming.
What I do have is a sped up run through of the coloring process. Pay no attention to my occasional little head popping up in the corner. The 2 source input for video is in the trial and error phase for me!
Interested in getting your own personalized caricature? Here’s all ya need to know:
With that, here’s the coloring of the figure process: