Elves - Color work

[TheShow]

http://www.raitheoshow.com/elves/images/elves_01.jpg

The original inked piece by Gary Bedell of Gee Bee Media (http://www.geebeemedia.com/). The image was scanned into Photoshop for coloring. I set the image to multiply and placed it as the top layer of my image so all of my color will appear below the lines. This also helps to keep edges much cleaner that the "delete white space, and color inside the lines" method of coloring.

[TheShow]

http://www.raitheoshow.com/elves/images/elves_02.jpg

I began the coloring with the skin tones of the central figure of the image. I built on my previous case studies (http://www.raitheoshow.com/killbill/killbill.htm) which referenced other artists coloring styles such as Adam Hughes (http://www.adamhughesart.com/). I wanted the colors to have a simple and soft look. Fo this reason, many of the characters unique sections have only a few colors - a base, a lowlight and a highlight. For the NOFX girl, I used a pale peach color for the base. I wanted to keep the skin tones pale and didn't want too much color influence yet.

[TheShow]

http://www.raitheoshow.com/elves/images/elves_03.jpg

I continue to build the images by moving on to the elves. I didn't get too into specific colors here - I kept a lot of the cliche elf colors such as green and brown. I tend to work on a background color that is the least obtrusive color possible - the light lavander will pop out all my shapes and will allow me to see any color bleeding.

[TheShow]

http://www.raitheoshow.com/elves/images/elves_04.jpg

Here, the character is more complete and the hair is begining to take shape. Also, here skin tones have been given more peach colored flesh tones. I began smoothing out the girl to get a stronger sense of highlight. I used standard Photoshop brushes for each application of color and used the smudge tool (set at 15-40%) to soften the transition from one color to the next. The backgound was added in this step as well. I used some custom brushes available from Natascha Roeosli (http://www.tascha.ch/wordpress/). This brush pack has a large grunge brush that was used to create the backgound texture. Using a low opacity setting and varing the color I blotted the backgound quickly.

[TheShow]

http://www.raitheoshow.com/elves/images/elves_05.jpg

This image completes the NOFX girl untill a few versions later. Some contrastwas added to the background to make it more vibrant and slightly volitile. I am begining to add the elves color and I wan them to have an agressive look - using the backgound to help achive this.

[TheShow]

http://www.raitheoshow.com/elves/images/elves_06.jpg

The elves have a bit of a mechanical feel in the pencil drawing so I wanted to do somthing cool with the arms and legs. Here you see the progress from one to the other as each takes on the metallic like limbs. I toyed with the idea of having them reflecting the environment - but the multitude of color became too confusing.

[TheShow]

http://www.raitheoshow.com/elves/images/elves_07.jpg

All of the elves have their color now. At this point I began boosting the brightness and contrast to avoid letting the image get washed out. The nature of the subject will move me to go over saturated in a few versions but for now this is where I stop. You can see the three-light method taking shape on the top elf's hands. It is simple coloring but effective and really gives the illusion of cast light.

[TheShow]

http://www.raitheoshow.com/elves/images/elves_08.jpg

A small step - I returned to the girl added some more detail color to the wristbands and tweaked the feature colors a bit.

[TheShow]

http://www.raitheoshow.com/elves/images/elves_09.jpg

Finishing and framing stage - I was inspired by Tim Burton a bit with the tribal frmaing design. The give the look of gnarly trees casting shadow on these misfits. The tribal designs were made using a combination of the twist and polar coordinates tools in Photoshop. Another large addition in this step is the logo. Think plastic wrap / holiday wrapping for the surface quality. A combination of layer macks and gradients achieves the color gradiation. The same can be done with layer styles but with more limited control - but greater flexibility if revisions need to be made.

[TheShow]

http://www.raitheoshow.com/elves/images/elves_10.jpg

This is the final version of the image. The soft light haze is achieved by duplicating the image, changeing the blend mode to "soft light". Then, apply the Guassian Blur to the image. Settings depend on the size of the image but I generally use the rule of 1.0 per 800 pixels on either dimension. So, on an 800 x 600 image I would use 1.0 as the input number for the blur. Few minor tweaks not mentioned but the image here is a complete version.

[GaryBedell]

The Show Does it again! The Colors are MAD tight. I like the difference between textures on each figure ( like the elves plastic-like look and the girl's clothing) KUDOS. The Penciler is okay too lol.

-Gary

[TheShow]

Thanks Gary - glad you like the look! The colors come easy with quality pencil work!
I'm wanting to post it in the finished work gallery soon. But I'm wonderin what some of the other cgtalk'ers think - what is the general impression out there?

Like the oversaturated look? I have reservations about it at first, but I think it helps boost the visual appeal in the end.

[TheShow]

I really tried to focus on the lighting and get something etheral, hence the hazey glow to everything - so I'm open to any comments on the lighting for sure.

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