Neg 2. Sleepless Phoenix Comic Strip Colouring

Working further on the Comic strip for The Sleepless Phoenix's Ages Anthology. I have been colouring the inked pages, using photoshop.

I began by making sure the document was in greyscale, as the anthology is black and white. Then I selected a texture for the background and edited the textures to fit the areas which needed the specific texture. For example I used a texture called Mountain Rock for the walls and floor as it made the area look dark as if in a bunker or basement, which was the feel I hoped for. I made sure that the textures were on the multiply layer setting so as the ink work could be seen through it, I also multiplied the inked layer as I needed to work tone onto it on different layers

After getting the textures looking right I cropped each panel so that the pages layout would be symmetrical, identical (other than were intended) and neater.

To add tone, I used a graphics tablet and selected the area I wanted to shade, then using a large blurred brush i added dark tones , then using a flat rubber tool on 50% opacity I erased away parts of the darker areas to give the tone more definition.

When adding the lighter tones I used a normal layer over the other layers. Then in a similar fashion to the darker tones i added white, and then altered the opacity of the layer to get the desired shade.

Also as the comic was meant to be from the perspective of a hand held camera, I experimented with lens flare, to do this I made circles by editing a solid circle made with a brush tool, to edit out the centre I used modify tool to contract the selection and the delete the area. I made several circles and 2 lines through so as to give it the effect I wanted.

This is a page which I used the lens flare effect I developed in.