Expert advice | Your questions answered
Step-by-step: Develop distinct facial types
1
When drawing a young, healthy
character, knowledge of the basics
of proportion is essential. I hint a little at
the underlying muscle and bone structure,
but primarily aim to achieve balance and
subtlety. Too much of any one specific
characteristic can be jarring for the viewer.3
For a wizened or gaunt face I will
exaggerate the underlying bone and
muscle structures, making use of anatomy
diagrams as reference material. If I want to
age the figure, looser skin around the jaw
and neck and bags under the eyes help to
lend authenticity to more obvious wrinkles.2
A fuller face can be a challenge
because the bone structure and
musculature are obscured by fatty masses,
so anatomical diagrams may fall short.
I use a fair bit of photo reference here
to study how the fat around the jaw and
cheeks alters the basic forms of the face.I use a bright,
old-school colour
palette to complement
the clean line work and
the fun subject matter.Answer
Tom Foster replies
Your choice of comics colours
may look good on-screen but
might print much muddier than
you predicted. So I make most
of my colour decisions based on specific ink
values that I know will print well. Back in
the old days of comics, colourists had a
limited palette: initially 63, then later 124
colours, each of these colours consisting of
a combination of cyan, magenta and yellow.
For this reason, I always keep track of
the ink proportions I’m using by inputting
my colour values numerically, using theQuestion
How can I achieve bold,
timeless comics colours?
Jacquie Penn, EnglandCMYK sliders in Photoshop’s Color panel (I
always work in CMYK mode if the work is
intended for print). I usually use multiples
of five, so the basic f lesh tone I used here
equates to C = 0, M=15, Y=20. Then I used
direct multiples of that to add shading (for
example, C = 0, M=30, Y= 40).
This leads to a very natural gradation
of colour that seems rich and organic, even
if it isn’t photo-realistic. This system also
helps you prevent black creeping into your
colours, which will muddy them up and
obscure the detail in the inks.Step-by-step: Make your line work fly off the page
1
First I do my flatting. This is the
process of filling in the basic areas
of colour. I make sure every area is flush to
the next, with no white between them, by
working on a separate layer from the inks
and using the Lasso tool with the Anti-alias
option switched off.3
From here I render the colours, using
the shadow colours with a lower
Opacity brush to build them up. I’ll also
add a few highlights tones and texture
details. I do a test printout of the finished
version, because sometimes the screen
will flatter the rendering a little.2
I then rough in my areas of shadow
on a separate layer (I always keep a
layer of just the flat colours as this enables
me to select areas easily with the Magic
Wand). This gives me an idea of what the
full colour palette will look like. It’s a quick
process that instantly adds dimension.VIDEO
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