2nd Cover + First plays with photoshop

Here are my first attempts at using Photoshop. Really was just putting in flat colours and using the burn and diffuse tools on selected areas. Went for the solid red colour on the back ground elements as a nod to my earliest memories of comics, the Raiders of the lost ark annual, and of course the mighty John Higgins colouring of Watchmen. I later made numbered prints of this on A3 and they were  auctioned at the Cardiff comic expo  '12.

After this first try I then wanted to try toning sections. My kids are fans of the avengers animated series (raising 'em right!) so I thought what better way to try then do an animated series style piece, using the manga esque 3 tier toning.
So that’s exactly what you see here.
Was a very quick sketch (hence the wonky sword blade, unless maybe its foam. Being a cartoon for children its safety conscious!!)

 
I then tried to go back to the preview cover and add to its pallet using the colours from the animated series piece. Honestly doesn’t look fantastic, using the burn and diffuse on colours gave it an airbrushed 80’s look.

However should there be an opening to plan designs on fair rides…I’m your man!

 
I then wanted to experiment with enhancing sequential pages using some of effects available.

 
 
You can see here in panel one using the blur tool, Sabre is far away so to give a sort of camera blur does create distance between himself and his grandfather climbing the cliff face.

Here I used a watercolour brush on the snow and mountains, this helped maintain the softness of the snow, yet the hatching on the mountains still (even with the soft edge on the colours) looks sharp and holds its shape. 

Finally in the last panel a very quick use of the gradient tool for the lassoed background.

Since these experiments I've done a few straight to Photoshop illustrations, only really to play with things learnt from imagine fx magazine. I'll post some of these is in due course.

Thanks for reading

Wayne