Gods & Monsters 6

This is the last of the original drawings from 2007. They have been really fun to color, so I may jump in and do some more.

This is Hermes, also drawn by Tim Fish and inked by him as well. I colored using Painter and Photoshop. I'm getting better at Painter by the day - in this drawing and the one previous I discovered the blending tool - which is invaluable at creating subtle gradations.

I still haven't dabbled too much into the other brushes...perhaps in the future.

Hermes was colored in about an hour and a half (by comparison Mars took almost a full day - mostly to correct errors and learn how to use things).

Gods and Monsters 5

The last two drawings were done, like Mars, collaboratively between Tim Fish and myself. For Phaeton here, Tim did the drawing, I inked it and then colored.

Phaeton is the son of Adonis - the sun god - who asks his father if he can drive the golden chariot across the sky just once. Cause, what could go wrong, right?

Well Phaeton almost immediately loses control of the chariot. He swoops too low and scorches the earth, flies too high and illuminates the night and eventually one of the gods strikes him dead to stop the chaos.

Despite Tims great drawing skills there is one little error. See if you can find it.

Gods & Monster 4

Mars. Here's where you can see Tim's far superior comic skills. Tim drew the pencil, I digitally inked the drawing in Painter and then colored it in Painter as well. I really am loving the techniques available in Painter. Too often colored comics look like Disney movie gels, with super slick colors and even tone. Painter allows you to get dirty and messy.

I used flat colors in the backgrounds and then went in with techniques like dry-brush, pen & ink and wet acrylics on top. I left the Multiply layer on to see the inking, but in the future I may try to incorporate the inking into the actual painting layer.

Also, the metal bits on the double sword are a little meh for me. I need to study some other techniques and see what happens.

Tim and I

I was out with my friend Tim Fish (timfishworks.blogspot.com) last weekend and we saw this guy. He had a very distinctive look: broad broad shoulders, a thin waist, and striking green eyes. At some prompting from me Tim drew and inked him, I did the coloring.