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Description
OK, this one's a bit big, but until I figure out Flash I can't really see any better way to do this.

Anyway, I just thought a few folks might be interested to see some of the basic stages I go through when I colour something. I'll do an actual tutorial thingy one of these days (once I do figure out Flash), but until then this is all I got!

step 1: get yer lines - aye, this stage is pretty obvious, but it's how you're always gonna start your colouring. Normally I'll make level adjustments at this point before I separate the lines for working. If the lines are clean and hi-res enough I might threshold them, but that's not too important to how I work.
step 2: flatting - again, pretty straightforward. I knew from the start that I wanted to make strong distinction betweeen the kids in the foregound & the BG figures, so I set this division out in the flats. The flats shown here are taken from the finished file, give or take a couple of small changes.
step 3: colour sketch - I use this stage to establish the basic colour layout for the pic. Pretty simple really - just threw around a few area & full-character gradients, marked out the main effects and dropped in a couple of texture overlays. Bob had suggested the map background when he sent the lines, so I found a Lost Kids map, played around with it a bit and dropped that in too. Oh, and I made a bloom layer too - I usually only do that right at the end, but recently I've got into the habit of doing it at this early stage,, and just refreshing it a few times while I work.
step 4: basic rendering - once I have my lighting sketched out with gradients (step 3), I start brushing in some shadows. This is where I start to think about actual lighting direction. Also dropped in another paper texture and some overlay gradients to boost the foreground/background division. Also had a lucky accident at this point - in screwing around with hue/sat on one of the gradients I accidentally managed to make Meital's magic colour come out as a kinda yellow-greenish purple ... any Pratchett fans out there? ;D
step 5: highs & rims - this is just straightforward rendering stuff with some rimlights thrown in for good measure
step 6: finishing - as there was no deadline rush on this, I left it for a few days after step 5 and came back with fresh eyes. Just a bit of detailing, and adjustment layer or 2, and some playing about with different texture overlays. And that's us!

finished colours: [link]

Description
OK, this one's a bit big, but until I figure out Flash I can't really see any better way to do this.

Anyway, I just thought a few folks might be interested to see some of the basic stages I go through when I colour something. I'll do an actual tutorial thingy one of these days (once I do figure out Flash), but until then this is all I got!

step 1: get yer lines - aye, this stage is pretty obvious, but it's how you're always gonna start your colouring. Normally I'll make level adjustments at this point before I separate the lines for working. If the lines are clean and hi-res enough I might threshold them, but that's not too important to how I work.
step 2: flatting - again, pretty straightforward. I knew from the start that I wanted to make strong distinction betweeen the kids in the foregound & the BG figures, so I set this division out in the flats. The flats shown here are taken from the finished file, give or take a couple of small changes.
step 3: colour sketch - I use this stage to establish the basic colour layout for the pic. Pretty simple really - just threw around a few area & full-character gradients, marked out the main effects and dropped in a couple of texture overlays. Bob had suggested the map background when he sent the lines, so I found a Lost Kids map, played around with it a bit and dropped that in too. Oh, and I made a bloom layer too - I usually only do that right at the end, but recently I've got into the habit of doing it at this early stage,, and just refreshing it a few times while I work.
step 4: basic rendering - once I have my lighting sketched out with gradients (step 3), I start brushing in some shadows. This is where I start to think about actual lighting direction. Also dropped in another paper texture and some overlay gradients to boost the foreground/background division. Also had a lucky accident at this point - in screwing around with hue/sat on one of the gradients I accidentally managed to make Meital's magic colour come out as a kinda yellow-greenish purple ... any Pratchett fans out there? ;D
step 5: highs & rims - this is just straightforward rendering stuff with some rimlights thrown in for good measure
step 6: finishing - as there was no deadline rush on this, I left it for a few days after step 5 and came back with fresh eyes. Just a bit of detailing, and adjustment layer or 2, and some playing about with different texture overlays. And that's us!

finished colours: [link]