Here’s the final page of Citadel Chapter 1, part 1 – Arcadia.
Disobeying once again the law of the land, and the laws of his household, Miles, now in his late teens ventures into the Forbidden Forest to answer a call heard late in the night. Just what WAS the power that would propel him into sure-fire trouble? You’ll have to wait until next chapter to find out!
In coloring this page, I wanted a stark difference between the two pages of the spread in terms of the color, as we move both through a large portion of time as well as night and day. To do this I simply laid down an “underpainting/coat” in the Photoshop file of a cool blue. By placing the color layer then in Multiply mode I was able to lay down my chosen colors and have them pick up the cool tone below it and create the atmosphere I was looking for! I had used a similar technique on the previous 5 or so pages set in the marketplace in early morning, then using a pale yellow.
Ink on Bristol board, colors in Photoshop CS4
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
With this page, I mark the end of the first part of Chapter 1 of Citadel. An experiment in every sense of the word, I am somewhat pleased with the results of my playing with color, culminating in the last two pages. I would LOVE feedback on how you all think I did. What works, what doesn’t? Should I go more cell shaded…more painterly…more…anything!? Be sure to check out the archives and leave comments!
Starting next week we jump right into Part 2 of Chapter 1 – Daikogen (Great Plateau.) The country at war over the centuries with Arcadia, and home to our second protagonist, a young girl named Amy. The second part of this chapter I approached with much more understanding of the world, story, and comic making techniques and I know the growth shows. I hope you will continue to read and enjoy it!
The big announcement concerning part 2 however, is that I will NOT be coloring these pages. I found in doing Part 1 that it was immensely time consuming. As you know, I missed a lot of my update slots and by the end was reduced to a single page a week. This cannot and will not happen again. Since it was mostly an experiment, I have to problem reverting back to the original black and white art where I put all my true effort and understanding to begin with!
POKEMON: Pokemon posts will return! With the time I’m saving by not coloring any more Citadel pages, I hope to use that time to do more Summer Poke-sketch-a-mon pieces, these WILL continue to be in full color.
Web-Week: Web week will continue all this week with my model series, next week I’ll have some other various images and sketches that I’ve been doing for web-design. The site is near launch and I will definitely be sharing the link when all is ready to go.
N-MAN: There are many things happening in the world of N-Man and Friends: Tales of the Uncanny. I’m working very closely with Steve Bissette and many of my classmates on this amazing project and I hope to make many frequent updates about it as time allows, and as we get closer to the release of Volume 1.
Final Fantasy and Fuse4 – I also will continue to do many streaming shows of both art work/comic process and Final Fantasy Classic games (I-VI) in the coming weeks, including a stream tonight around 11pm, continuing my playing Final Fantasy I! Come on by and hang out!
I’m also in works to join the Fuse4 network, in what capacity is yet to be determined, but my good friend Dave MacCauley is working hard to get new recruits ready for action! More details to come!
Thanks all and have a great rest of your work week!
-RD
Citadel is © 2010 Randall Drew
All Rights Reserved
