BAIL201 - Sequential Images - Stage 2 - Shading and Final Touches

With the outlines cleaned up and inked, it was time to do the background colours. I wanted to have the shading be fairly simple and almost like a cel shaded animation. with only limited colours with a touch of a highlight with a darker colour to give my character more depth. 

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For Joey's shading, I did it in 3 stages. One was a simple base layer with no shading or differences in colours, asides from his eyes which I added the extra detailing on at the stage also, so that they would be ready when the highlights would be added. The highlights give him extra depth and allow him to look more real, Taking a darker shade of each area I was colouring, I followed the line art to where shadowing would be. 

 

Joey's hair was done last, As I personally found it easiest to colour in the red section of his hair with a screen print effect layer, so that I can trace over the highlights with a dark red and the rest a lighter shade of red, so make it fit with the rest of his shading.

Even though only 2 colours where used for the shading, I like the comic/manga-ish style and felt it looked fitting with my own style. The Cel shading style was also effective enough to look professional but while also not being overly time consuming also.






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As for my ghost girl character, I didn't add any highlights for depth as I felt she seemed more ghost-like without it. Instead I used a light but dull blue to fill in her hair, clothes and skin with an added "Screen print" effect on the layer so that you can just about see through her. 

Also adding the outer glow to her, when it went under the lineart and effected the colour of her, It seemed to give her a ghostly depth that was much more fitting. The glow effect was made by drawing a rough line all around the outline with a very pale blue, almost white, and using a blur tool to fade out the edges.

^ I also added a dark toned background with some lines to test the transparency of the coloured layer. I was really happy with how this came out! 




As the comic goes on, I changed the background colour to a lighter blue, so make the effect of her glowing brighter and then later fading away more visible and easy to see without text explaining what was happening. I do think it translated well and can be seen when read. The final panel when she is vanishing was created by turning down the saturation and opacity, as well as using the blurring tool to it's maximum effect. A few more glow-like layers were added so give off a epic feeling, fitting for a final page. 

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When it came to backgrounds, I also wanted them to have a similar way of shading as it would fit in with the characters and overall look of the Zine, but also I didn't feel overly confident with colouring the backgrounds, so this made the task a little easier for me to handle. I think it still worked, as the depth of the buildings are there, looking comic-y while also looking slightly realistic.

The finishing touches for most of the pieces was a simple glow on street lamps, the moon and some windows, that were created the same was the ghost girl's glow was done. I ended up being really pleased with the outcomes, seeing as I usually really dislike doing any backgrounds or landscape type work!



I was also inspired by Dave McKeen as mention in my last post but also this youtube video I found when looking for more building colouring inspiration :        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddALJ0S3ycg