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Friday, December 10, 2004

Goddamn Colouring!

For over a year now, I've been attempting to colour my comic with watercolour paints, watercolour pencils, and a collection of cheap (and often dried up) felt-tip markers. And frankly, it isn't working.

I don't know for certain if it's just that my scanner is getting too old, or whether my watercolour skills are simply inadequate, but I've found that an awful lot of my colours end up washed out in the scan. Light blue skies end up virtually white; subtle variations in hue turn out to be too subtle — except where such distinctions aren't wanted.

So, for the New Year, probably some time in February, I intend making a series of trips to an art supplies store on the corner of Victoria and Ghuznee Streets here in Wellington and buying myself a selection of hand-picked Pantone™ markers. I'm thinking a full set of greys, along with about fourteen different colours (including something suitable for Caucasian flesh tones.)

This isn't as straightforward as you might think. Those markers cost about $10, last time I looked, so we're talking an investment of over two hundred Kiwi smackers. At the moment, money is still horrendously tight, since I don't get paid over the Christmas break and I only have enough to cover my auto-payments and board. And that means I can't easily retire the watercolours to more "arty" projects, such as the covers for my eternally proposed comic book.

Yes, I'm still intent on getting the silly thing out and on shelves some time in the future. Currently, the book looks set to be a pamphlet of about 30 A5 pages, monochrome with colour cover, some background info etc. I still have a lot of scanning, re-lettering and reduction to do though - not to mention drawing the Janet-Greg interview sequence, which I haven't finished.

On the other hand, for the 11th. Dec. comic, I did mix a nice roughly 50% gray ink wash. If I was to pencil - ink - colour - add ink wash shading - I could get a nice effect, couldn't I? I really must think of trying that some time.

Oh, as for the month's delay. University. I'm taking on an intensive summer course, and I should break off blogging and get back to my reading.

And if anyone wishes to contribute to the E Motel Spurious Logic Says Pantone™ Markers Will Speed Up Colouring and Thus More Updates Fund, sure. Go ahead.

posted by Cardboard at 8:32 PM