2000 AD Online Forum

What do you think, peeps?

a canna see it.

Very nice indeed. Is it possible to see it without the orange background, which is nicely done but distracting. I'm very impressed with the central figure though.

Looks good!

What program did you colour it on?

Yep - I like.

very nice, subtle and effective.

nice

Course, the kneepads ought to be yellow for a 1977 Dredd...

... less of the humble - that's really good (although i agree it would be nice to see without the orange background)

thinky

That's good.
I think that people don't realise how difficult good colouring is to do.
Try a whole page!

Ratty: do you want to have a go at a full page?

Bolt-01 (serious about this, I need to get a good colourist)

Thanks for the compliments, guy's.

I used Paint Shop pro 7 which I sadly no longer have on my system.

Bolt-01, I'd love to have a go, but as I said I no longer have Paint Shop Pro. I've tried other programs but can't get used to them.

The more I look at that the better it gets. That's a very good job indeed, subtly done.

Without the orange backround.

Super, smashing, great. Even better.

Wake - could that be used somewhere on the site - on Rico's profile or somesuch.

Looks much better than the hideous coloring recently used in Damned Ranger (or whatever it was called) and Brothers of the Blood.

My pride and joy.

This one took me ages to do.

Another favourite.

Jeyzus!! This is ALL fantastic!!

Last one for now.

Secret Agent Zero from Danger Girl.

Looking pretty slick, Ratty! Keep it up!

That seems like serious talent to me.  Thought of actually sending in this stuff, like, properly?

I'm impressed by all of those. Shame you don't have the package on you 'puter because you have a talent for this. If there are any more 2k images to come wang them up - they'd be great additions to the site apart from anything else. I really think the Rico and Stix images deserve to be part of their profile pages.

I like 'em - except I'd prefer Stix's skin colour to differ (at least slightly) from their coats!

Adobe Photoshop Elements pretty cheap and should do everything you'd need. Maybe worth a punt?

M@

The problem with using the Rico image on his profile page is that the picture is of Dredd carrying Rico - you can't see much of Rico himself.

Wake

Ah, but Rico looks like Dredd...  it might be clever n subtle...

I'll get me coat.

the rocketeer one is very good! reminds me of the colouring on Martha Washington( i think Dave Gibbons did the colouring on that too)
Nice 1

It's not for pro work, though, because it can't do CMYK.

Closest thing to a comic strip I've ever done.

"Obi wan deflects Bolt"

What did I ever do to him!

Bloody Jedi.

Obi Wanker-Nobby more like!

Bolt-01

Go on then.

One more.

Gonna try and do some toothy characters soon.

Nice!

You really are very good at this colouring malarkey, Ratty.
For the love of god, will someone furnish this man with a copy of photoshop?

At last, a 2000ad character I can show you.

Artwork by Rufus Dayglo (but then you all knew that anyway).

I made the colours as simple as I could to match retro style artwork.

But I forgot to do the kneepads yellow, again!

How about doing a whole page?

Court room Page One


La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

Fantastic, all my art seems to look crap, you hve a lot of talent.
Best wishes
Ryan :)

Logan, you have read my mind.

Bolt-01

I'll give it a go.

Watch this space.

I don't have time to do a whole page, but I had a bash at the first frame. The top version is what a lot of colourists tend to do these days (including me when I do the odd bit of digital colouring). The colour is blocked in, and Dodge/Burn tools used to "sculpt" the forms. The grey overlay on the chair means Dredd comes forward.

However, the bottom version is how *I'd* like to colour Dredd, given the chance. A lot of the colouring these days seems too "normal" and it'd be interesting to bring back the neon nightmare Mega City 1, which the likes of Brendan McCarthy did so well.

Link: http://www.snubcommunications.com/

Clever bastich! They're both excellent! I agree that the first one is very good but "safe" (it's also, coincidentally, the way I was doing it, boring git that I am), whilst the second one goes out on a limb, but looks fantastic! More, please!

I had decided to have a bash at it, and got about halfway through. I'll stop now, and get on with what I'm supposed to be doing!

The second one resembles, to my ignorant mind, D'Israeli's first Dredd strip.



(Just realised I've got nothing to follow that observation up with.)

Sweet sugar coated chocolate bar! that's amazing (love the second one)  

Maybe D'Israeli's also a McCarthy fan? Actually, that's one of the things I never got round to asking him when I did the MacUser interview - what his influences were and whether any other 2000 AD artists influenced his work.

As for doing some more, I was at one point thinking of submitting some stuff to Matt, but I never got the time to really finish off the strips I was working on. Still, after I've moved house and current work is out of the way, I may take another shot at it.

Cool stuff!

I'm working my way through the whole page at the mo, and it's not as stylised as this.

 

Top stuff, Ratty, and that second version of the panel is wonderful. I'd be happy to see the whole strip done with that flair.
I think you should be sending this stuff to Tharg, you've got a real talent here :)

Actually, they were Indigo Prime's...

But the comment stands - Ratty, you really should send some stuff to Tharg!!

I'd quite like to have a bash.... any tips?

"Any tips?"

Um, I've got ten on the ends of my fingers if that's any help.

"I'd quite like to have a bash.... any tips?"

If you need help to be able to, erm, pleasure yourself, I believe you're a lost cause*









*Joking :-)

:: any tips?

* Get some decent software that enables you to work with layers.
* Learn about how form affects colour (shading/highlighting).
* Keep things simple.
* Try not to make everything look like it's made of the same material (which can be done by varying how you use Dodge/Burn tools).
* Learn how to bring things forward and backwards by the use of translucent grey overlays (which works a hell of a lot better than blurring).
* Learn some colour theory - especially how certain colours help others to be very prominent. My use of the colour wheel is probably what makes that second panel work so well. (And maybe I will do the whole page in that style, if I get time - it'd certainly be interesting to see how it would look!)

With regards to that last point, an article I wrote on colour theory is available in the current Computer Arts (#98 - the one with the graduate showcase).

I'm not Ratty, but nevertheless, your wish is my command - enjoy! :)

Link: Snub Communications

Indigo, that is lovely. Really nice to see someone taking such an extreme view!

Bolt-01 can't colour to save his life. Always goes outside the lines.

Wow!
I haven't looked at this thread for a while, so missed all this cool stuff.
I love clouring strips, but by grud, why do mine always end up like I've went at them with a pack of felt tips!?
Bloody good work from both of you.

maybe thats because you used felt tips and not a computer?

im impressed with what i see.
first time i have had time to visit this thread.
very good.

this site is bursting with talented people isnt it.generally, which is very impressive.
like you work there though i must say.

You might be on to something there, Max...

Heres my more simple version of the same page.

Quality's a bit naff, tried uploading a bitmap but it wouldn't have it.

That is bloody good.

This is my first attempt at colouring EVER so don't laugh.

I can't work backgrounds properly yet though, they alter the rest of the colour. So I submit my 'coloured' panel and the original uniform colour too.





Despite the comparatively low quality, I enjoyed it loads! Wanna do more.

If anyone does laugh, tell them to sod off. As a first attempt its bloody good.

My advice? Just keep practising. There's no right or wrong way as Indigo's proved with his/her extreme coulours.

As indigo said, try and get software that uses layers. It makes life a damn sight easier.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Nah, i'm joking it's great, it really is. I'd like to give it a go.

Sod Off :-P

Thanks guys. I wil keep practicing - just finished a full page. Done it in a more cartoony style though. Presenting, for the first time EVER in colour, the first page of THE QUICK AND THE DREDD!!

(Bolt and Jared - hope you don't mind me using your page!!)

The rest can be found in the fan section.

Link: The Quick And The Dredd

Apologies in advance if this is MASSIVE, but the link isn't loading very well on my browser.



There...

Carlos has just sent me a scan of this months meg cover in B&W so if any of you wanna be colourists fancy having a go at it send me a mail and I'll send it to you.

The file is quite large at 1.64MB.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. LOgan.

Hope Jock doesn't mind me using this for practice either...

Hi Logan, I'll have a copy of that Meg cover, taverymuch

James

Where'd you find that, Dribs?  I want a go...

follow the link in the sig and send me an e-mail.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

Stupid cross-posting!!

Again - JEB - it's on the site. Copy below.

I know mine is pretty shoddy, but it's still early days for me and this!

Oddly enough, I was messing about with that image over the weekend, too...

Hmph.

I'll never be that good.

As discussed on the Jock's Judge Anderson thread - Jock's pictures look better when they're in black and white.

STOP COLOURING HIM IN, PEOPLE!!

Look - I've ammended your colouring Mr Dribbles - this is what it *should* look like:

Link: Click here if the picture doesn't show.

I don't agree..... I think it depends on the colourist. They generally ALWAYS look good.

Granted they look better in B+W than when I colour them, but there is some great coloured Jock art about.

Heh heh heh... m?only joshin? wid ya.

I'm actually pretty impressed with the lot of you, I just wanted to show off my tip-ex-esque uncolouring abilities.

MS Paint, what would I do without you? Some work possibly? Nah, not likely.

Mr Dribbles - there's no reason why not. Just keep on practising. (Bear in mind that I've been using Photoshop for about eight years now, although for various different things rather than just colouring. I've no idea about Ratty, but I'm assuming he's well-versed in the relevant software, too.)

Oddboy - I never saw that thread, and I do realise that, like Yeowell, Jock is an artist whose work is visually striking in b/w. However, when practising with colour you need to work with various different styles, and Jock's is interesting to work with. Also, it's subjective whether someone's work looks *better* in b/w or not (and, no, I'm not suggesting my coloured effort is ahead of the original?I'm just stating that people have different opinions, and might also point out that it's rather harsh to yell at people just for doing some colouring on a thread about... colouring).

Like I said, was just joshin'!

Oh, you scoundrel.

Oddly, I'm currently having fun colouring artists who tend to work best in b/w (such as Frazer's infamous Death pic).

I'm not pretending to be a colourist in any degree, what i've done is more graphicy any, especial as i've made it look (kinda) like a tooth cover

Dribbles: That is nice, would you like a scan of the original page, sans lettering to have a go at?

Bolt-01

Here's my attempt at the cover.

Had to reduce it some, it was massive!

Just out of interest, had you seen Carlos' coloured version before you did that?

I've just finished a stronty piece. I'll post it on a seperate thread though, so as not to get in the way of the cover pics.

Nope. Haven't got the meg yet, and this was black and white when I received it.

Cool. It's not a milion miles away, to be honest.
A bit "flatter", with less lighting detail, but it's definitely a good start. Keep it up!

Okay.
I might as well join in. Here's my first ever attempt at using gradients etc.

S'a bit small...

Why is it small..?

yeah, it's teeny

Okay then!
Try this.

Much better- do like what you've done with the giant eagle

Thanks.
I still haven't figured out how to get rid of the wee white bits, and how to get the same shade again after I've went on to something else.
Maybe I could read the instructions, but fuck that.

Very nice y'all. Wish I could see the same colours as you guys....

Bolt-01, always in B&W.

If you're using photoshop, try selecting the area you want to fill with colour by using the 'magic wand' tool, then right-click over it and select 'grow' from the menu.  That should incorporate the little white bits into your 'fill' area for when you want to colour it.
And you should be able to get the same shade again by using the 'eyedropper' tool to sample it from your image.

I'd be grateful if someone could give me tips on how to apply colour over cross hatching.

Try putting your colours on a separate layer, set to "Multiply".

Yeah, and you can still select and grow the areas you need to colour on the B+W image and then colour them on the layer.

I always work with a blank/background colour layer, the inks as a second layer set to multiply, and then any other effects layers on top of that.

My tip would be to select all the areas on an image that are going to be filled with the same colour - i.e. Dredd's suit or his gloves and boots - in one go and then save the selection.

Do this across the whole image then you can load up these selections at any time and using hue/saturation or image/adjust/variations (or whatever takes you fancy) play with the colour balance across the image until your satisfied with it.

Allows you to colour the image one way then easily have a play with some wilder pallets.

Ratty, I'm usually reluctant to comment on threads like this as I haven't got an artistic bone in my body alas. Hence I normally leave the criticism to those who know what they're talking about! I would just like to say however that I really like that Carlos pic. Spotted it earlier and this is the third time I've nipped back for another look. Obviously it's a great pic to start with but you've made a great job of the colouring too. I would be happy to find this in my prog. Keep up the good work!
Regards Jim.

Ratty that is absolutely bloody excellent.

With so many talented colourists about, Chris Blythe better watch his arse...

I tend to work in a different way to what I mentioned on here. I create a new layer, set it to multiply, and colour it in a vivid colour (such as red). I then work into the layer with the various colours, using a brush tool rather than the selection tool (which I mostly use for making grey knock-back layers). I guess this comes from my (now distant) background in painting, and it creates a rather nice effect, with the background canvas colour sometimes sneaking through in the odd place here and there to provide some extra texture.

I looked at this thread yesterday and saw everyone was getting their crayons out. I love a bit of colouring in, so here's my take on Ezquerra's Meg cover -- which I've yet to see by the way.

Click the pic (17k) for a higher res image (128k).
Ezquerra's Moebius-like lines inspired a faded '70s Eupopean collection look.

Digital Comic Colouring Tutorial (http://www.pensnpixels.com/tutorials/flatting.htm%22%20target=%22_blank)

And here's my version...

Link: Snub Communications

Thanks boy!

Thought I'd dig this thread up to showcase this.

I'm bloody proud of it if I may say so myself.

's good - especially like the light on the badge :)