Comic Artist - Volume 3 2016

BRING COLOUR TO

BLACK PANTHER

Ken Lashley’s Black Panther is brought to life by Juan Fernandez,

a pro colourist who passes on a decade’s worth of comic industry advice

B

lack Panther was the first

superhero I really identified

with. I’m a huge fan of the

character. Over the past few

years I’ve had the chance to

work on the comic and it’s always a blast.

When showing the process of how a

comic image is created there are always a

few creators involved, usually a penciller ,

inker and colourist. I’ve been inking my

own work for years now and I’ve become

more comfortable as I move forward in

my career. So I decide to treat this

workshop like I do my day job, and ask

my colourist to do his thing over my inks.

I start my work the same way I do all

my digital work: I lay down some rough

areas and just get rolling. I open the

work up by not overdrawing, letting

the colourist have room to create. Juan

Fernandez does some amazing work,

and finishes the piece with great style.

I begin this drawing by laying down

my red pencil. I use red because the lead

Ken Lashley

LOCATION: Canada

Ken is an

in-demand

comic artist

with more

than 20

years’ experience, who’s

created artwork for the

likes of DC Comics,

Marvel, Lucasfilm,

Hasbro and Mattel.

http://ifxm.ag/ledkilla

Juan

Fernandez

LOCATION: US

Juan has been

working as a

comic book

colourist for

10 years,

providing colours for

a variety of titles

published by Marvel, DC

Comics, Image Comics,

IDW and Heavy Metal.

http://ifxm.ag/juan-f

doesn’t become waxy when I ink over it.

I use a lot of smaller pens and build up

the line weights. I don’t do roughs usually

• certainly not in this case.
  After finishing the inks I create a
  “clean” version. I take the full-colour scan,
  turn the image to Black-and-White in
  Photoshop, then turn down each colour.
  I then go to the Levels function and
  increase the black and decrease the grey.
  Now it’s saved and ready for the next
  phase. It’s colour time. Over to you, Juan.

1

Take the line art

Ken passes over his detailed line art of Black Panther

and gives me a breakdown of what’s going on in the scene.

He tells me the dark jungle is lit by a bright light source from

behind, as the figure poses menacingly in the environment.

2

Use colour to separate details

Every piece I work on, I start out by separating

as much of the details as possible. These colours are not

necessarily the hues I would use to work on, but just very

contrasting ones to help with the separation.

All images © Marvel

SHORTCUTS
Smart Lasso tool
Alt (PC & Mac)
While using the Lasso, hold
Alt to lift your pen without
closing the selection. To
resume lower the pen
and release.

PENCIL, INKS & PHOTOSHOP

GET YOUR

RESOURCES

SEE PAGE 146

Workshops