Hello friends!
So finally, after about 2 months I think I have finished this cover.
It ended up being quite a larger undertaking than I had expected as I have not colored an image quite as detailed as this.
Without further ado here is the process of making the Second Wind cover from the beginning!
Below are the pencils of the initial drawing:
And the ink paged:
I then scan the inked page into photoshop and begin the flatting process. The colors do not really matter at this point, all that matters is that I have the areas sectioned off that I need to separate. It looks like so:
I then adjust the colors until I find a scheme that is suitable. These are still just to build on and as you will see they change:
After checking the layout of these colors, I decided there needed to be a little more subtlety to the undertones, so I adjusted them as so:
I then started to color details sectionally. I started with the front pigeon (I remove the little white digital "boogers" on the black lines later):
I then started to fill in areas of the background, still keeping it fairly general:
And it was here I hit a bit of a snag. I had some trouble deciding where I wanted to go with the coloring for the front section (Sign and front building) and kept changing it around. Here were a couple of the different schemes I toyed with:
I just couldn't quite get it. I was missing depth in the color choices I was making.
It took me quite some time to move on from here (about two weeks). I just couldn't get past this step as nothing was quite looking right to me. So I went ahead and added a few more details (such as the neon lights) to try to gain some ground:
Well, then I had to make some decisions on what color scheme the neon should be and went back and forth:
I got stuck in this spot again for a while and was having trouble moving forward. Then while toying with the details on the sign I came across a way to make the sign looked rusty and weathered, and it moved things along quite a bit.
And finally, after more details and tweaking I came to the image I believe will be final.
Unfortunately I do not have many progress shots between the last image and this one, simply because it was all starting to come together and I.... kinda forgot to take process snapshots:
And there you have it! My first full graphic novel is officially finished. Now on to putting the book together and getting it ready for the printer. I am going to be doing a Kickstarter to publish the book once it is completely print ready, so keep an eye out for more details.
As always you can see all of my work, old and new, at https://www.vestebancomics.com/
This includes the full Second Wind graphic novel!