Comic Geek Speak Super Show 2011!!

I'm on my way to Supershow and these are the sketches I've done already:
More to come tomorrow!

The Answer! : Man of Mystery pt 2

The final colour.

In my last blog I showed 2 finished vbersions with different colour work and was uncertain about either so I put the word out on twitter so that I might get some advice. and I did.

The first word was from Lucas Seigel:
"The second one is WAY better. The first one features the explosion more than it does the hero."

"Great!", I thought. That's the direction I'd been leaning too. Perhaps my insticts were right.

But then Amber Love came in with:
"I respectfully disagree with Lucas on this one. I think the explosions call for more dynamic colors."
followed by
"I normally prefer subtle colors for large outdoor scenes but in this case, it's explosions and I would say the first version has more energy behind the fire. It makes a bit more dynamic with a stronger sense of the movement. "

Things went on like this where I would get a vote for version 1 and a vote for version 2 and most would go on to explain why they felt that way. They were all good reasons and for a while it stayed 50/50, but eventually version 1 started winning out by a great number.

But then I started considering the reasons they were giving. Lucas who chose version 2 said:
"not necessarily brighter, but maybe a little richer color on Answer, specifically on the mask, to make that pop a little more."

and then I heard from Andy Jewett who chose version 1 who said:
" I almost kind of wonder if you could go with an even more saturated color palette. For fun push the colors a little harder."

That's a partial quote from a larger conversation, but he was talking about the character more than the background. So it occurred to me that I had 2 people with 2 different choices but seeing the same weakness; The character itself should pop more. I noticed that opinion echoed in some of the other comments. Clearly I needed to come up with a third option where I enriched the foreground character so it wasn't being upstaged by the explosion. This should allow me to keep the explosion vibrant giving it that kinetic energy I wanted. "...more dynamic with a stronger sense of the movement. " as Amber described it.

This is what I came up with. I added a little contrast with the mask, belt, gloves, and boot, but also added more colour. Not simply a stronger saturation of the blue in the outfit, but the reflective colours from the explosion. a stark orange and yellow highlight and hits of magenta to give it a little colour depth.

The Answer! : Man of Mystery

So I took a shot at Mike Norton's enigmatic hero.

what d'ya think?

I'm still playing around with the colour. I'm not sure I'm completely happy with either and I'll probably try a third option before making a choice.

If you'd like to see more of this character drawn properly by his creator, go here.

CGS Supershow is in 3 weeks!

Preordering your sketches guarantees you'll get it.

I will be sketching on site at CGS Supershow 2011 all weekend, however the event also offers me the rare opportunity to mix with old friends, colleagues and comic fans. In other words, I get all chatty and this slows down my sketching. The best way to be sure, you'll get your sketch is to preorder.

How do I preorder?
simply send me an email at jkwoodward@hotmail.com with a description of the sketch you would like and "CGSSS Sketch" in the subject line. I'll email you back with a confirmation and your sketch will be waiting for you at Supershow!

How much do these original works of art cost?
head sketch - $10
full scene - $30(add $10 for each additional character over 2)

I've included sketches from last year to give you an idea of what you'll get.