Friday, February 13, 2009

3 Steps and Color Holds

Here's a panel I posted a few months ago. Remember this one? Well, it's been through the coloring process and is now finished.I'm using one special effect here. It's called a "Color Hold." This is where the color of the actual line drawing changes. The lines on the buildings below are a gray/blue color instead of solid black. This makes them look far away, adds some atmospheric perspective. I don't use color holds very often, maybe 12-15 times in the entire book. I used a yellow color hold on the fire in the coyote sequence of Rapunzel's Revenge. 

I now have less than 16 days to finish this book! Yikes! Happy Friday the 13th and Valentine's Day!

4 comments:

victoria said...

Question from the uneducated: Why are the colors on the second step so bright and solid and then the final panel is more muted/realistic looking?

victoria said...

PS - my nephews and nieces LOVE Dinosaur's Night Before Christmas! Hopefully we can catch you at another signing.

Nathan said...

If you look back in the September 2008 archive, you'll see the color-mapping tutorial. The reason the colors are so bright is that they are done by someone else (the color mapping team.) They do the slow work of carefully fitting each color block perfectly under the outlines. It makes it easier for me to then swap out the colors to the final, realistic shades.

victoria said...

Aha - thanks for the explanation. Happy finishing up!