This was a really cool cover to work on, and I had figure out a lot that I'd never tried before. Here's a quick explainer video for it. :)
Lines by Geoffrey Gwin. Colors by K. Michael Russell.
Thundercats pinup
This piece was a ton of fun! There two version for YouTube. One time-lapse and one real-time recording of the stream. I've linked them both below. Click the titles at the top to watch on YouTube and go full-screen.
Part 2: How NOT to Color Comics!
Here's the second in my new series How NOT to Color Comics! This Photoshop tutorial covers shifting your hues and avoiding boring light and shadow colors. :)
How to choose good skin tones! New Photoshop coloring tutorial video up!
In this video, I'll discuss a question I get a lot-- How do I choose good skin tones in Photoshop?
The answer is probably not what you expect!
Pensacon 2016 promo time-lapse
This was a big departure from my usual style. I actually painted it first (and only used the flats to clean it up). I learned a lot along the way. Enjoy!
New video and new (vague) project news!
Hey people! I uploaded a new video tonight. This is a time-lapse recording of a page from TRANSFERENCE #4 for Black Mask Studios. I'm filling in for my friend and fellow colorist, Tamra Bonvillain!
The artist in this issue is Toni Fejzula (VEIL). The writer is my former HACK/SLASH collaborator, Michael Moreci (HOAX HUNTERS, CURSE, ROCHE LIMIT).
If you are wondering what I'm doing with Photoshop in the video around 1:15, I'm using a gradient map. I made a video about them once here. I use them to shift the colors around in interesting ways on an adjustment layer, then set the layer mode to COLOR, then adjust the opacity. I then use that as a base to start adjusting my base colors.
Anyway, this project sort of fell in my lap suddenly, but I do have three new projects coming in 2016 that I can't say anything about yet, but one will be at Image, and the other two, IDW. All are creator-owned projects, and I'm very excited about them! I expect they'll start getting announced sometime in January 2016. UGH. :)
Talk soon!
A flatting tutorial!
By popular request, a flatting tutorial video! Flatters, sometimes called coloring assistants, break up all of the elements on the page into separate colors. It's sometimes called color separations. The colors themselves are irrelevant, but they make the colorist's job easier by allowing them to just select the areas with a magic wand, as opposed to re-lassoing everything when coloring.
There are many, many wrong ways for a flatter to flat pages. I'm constantly hearing from fellow colorists that have a hard time finding new flatters that know how to do it properly.
So I made this video to try to rectify that! I'm sure there's more than one correct way to do it, but this is my way, and I know it works!
New YouTube video: Textures & Atmospheric Perspective
In this week's video, I talk about how I use textures with masks and overlay layer modes. I also discuss a bit about atmospheric perspective--which can be used to create depth in panels and pages with color. Enjoy!
Lines by Drew Moss. Colored by K. Michael Russell
MOTHER RUSSIA COVER
Hey people! I colored this cover drawn by Drew Moss for MOTHER RUSSIA from Alterna. It's a Staff Pick for Previews too! Read on here: http://www.previewsworld.com/Home/1/1/71/941?articleID=167390
New free lesson available at ColoringComics.com!
Hey people! I've made another free trial lesson available in my online coloring course!
The trial is free, and you can see two full tutorials now... one on flatting and one on color theory. No credit card/Paypal/blood of your first born required for the trial. :)
I'll only run this through the weekend, so click the image below to learn more:
Coloring tutorial: avoiding muddy colors
Here's a new tutorial on how to avoid muddy colors in Photoshop! Monitors can show millions of colors--many that you can't print that only work on a computer screen. Here's how I deal with it:
I'll be doing a new intro video for it soon, but I figured I'd go ahead and share. The all-new & improved version of my Photoshop comic coloring course is online!
Line art by Edwin Huang. Colors by K Michael Russell. Copyright 2015.
I took in all the feedback from my original course over the last year, and I've completely overhauled everything to create (what I think) is the ultimate guide to coloring comics in Photoshop.
Now, it's 50+ comic book coloring video tutorials, all brand-new--over 9 hours of tips, tricks, and shortcuts! By popular demand, there's also a version that you can download and take offline if you like. All the videos are also in full-HD 1080p with professionally recorded audio.
Check it out here! http://learn.comiccolor.com/collections