#colour process

'Sea-Nymphs Hourly Ring His Knell'

Recently learnt about gradient maps and now I'll never colour another panel any other way. BUT it does look rather odd and take a bit of trust in the process.

Completed panel below! (Ignore the Clip Studio interface, I'm too lazy to crop the screenshot).

tbh my process is still a work in progress as i try to figure out how to do it faster, but it’s basically

take my rough-ish sketch and lower the opacity to ~20%

apply a base silhouette underneath to follow

clip a shitton of layers on top of base for flat colours (each layer is a different colour/detail) so the layers look like this:

this is the part that’s the most tedious imo

then add more details using another clipping layer > multiply (at this point, I’ve basically ditched the sketch layer)

add shading, using another clipping layer > multiply!! i find this part the most fun tbh ‘cause now it's starting to look cool lmao

add sick-ass highlighting effects + colour correction layers as needed (my screen doesn’t produce colours correctly so i have to rely on this a lot)

and ofc disclaimer: i had to do a bunch of value studies, study colour theory, lighting and all that other good stuff!! your lineless work will rely much more heavily on your values and colour, so brush up and pratiquez!!

Sure I can nonnie! THIS IS NOT A TUTORIAL, I REPEAT THIS IS NOT A TUTORIAL

Before I begin I should tell you that I work on a large page format (2480x4640 at 350dpi), and I roughly complete 10 pages each week, of up to 7 panels per page. 

1. I start with a very simple sketch (because there’s not enough time to refine it) on Clip Studio Paint. Before that I will have fully thumbnailed the entire episode on paper with the script on hand, so I know what’s going where and how. I have panel templates pre-made for this step.

2. Line art! I make sure to put down lines quickly and make them as fluid as possible. I also make corrections at this stage, if necessary.

3. Flats! Selection tool and fill tool everywhurrr. On the top left you can see the colour palette I use for UtA.

4. Rendering! Since I have a bajillion panels to render, I make this as simple as I can. Usually just a watercolour brush and light shading.

5. More rendering! Multiply layers for shadows, overlay layers for lighting/highlights. The overlay is my favourite part 8D

6. I open the page in Photoshop and I use my Actions to select, cut and add borders to the panels. I also add texture on a colour burn layer at this point! 

7. Finally, I flatten the file (saving separately of course), adjust the contrast and ready the image for web. All done with Actions to optimize the process (otherwise it will take me forever). Now the page is ready to be accommodated into webtoon format with dialogue! 

I do this with each page and then bring all of them into one single (ridiculously long) PSD/PSB for lettering and editing. 

In total it takes me about 54 hours a week to make one episode, not including the script writing (which I do on Sundays).

Colour film of London in 1927 (by kaisermaca)