Thursday, August 10, 2006

Working With Women

Since my last post, it's been nonstop action here in my studio. Work has kept me very busy since I returned from Comic-Con, not to mention some cleanup from some storm damage while I was away. So, getting back into the swing, below is the illustration gig I finished up before leaving for San Diego.

One of the cool things about working on comics work with my buddy John Gallagher is that a lot of times we get to work on non-comics stuff together too, as well as on Buzzboy and Roboy Red. The great part about that is that it pays better... ok, actually, it just PAYS, period! Although it makes staying on our comics deadlines difficult sometimes, in reality, this is the type of work that allows us to do our comics in the first place. I've found that this is typical in the world of self-publishing.

As for the work, in this case, John brought us this client. The assignment was to create a series of female characters who were considering having children. So, John had to design a few different character types. He did the designs and rough layouts, and I did the finishing art and the colors. The coloring was a particular challenge, as I had to match a style of art provided by the client, and convert the black line art to color, where I would normally just fill in the blocks of color within the black line art. I really like the look of this though, and may explore doing more work like this on my own.

So here they are (click the pictures for a larger view):


That last one is my favorite. I had to do the most work on the coloring for this one, but I was very happy with the results. I was pleased with the combination of colors. This was the one that convinced me that I should do more work in this vein.

That's it for this week. Hopefully, I can continue to post more frequently, but if not, you'll know where to find me... eventually!

Best,

Rich

9 comments:

Urban Barbarian said...

Way to go, Rich! Some of your best so far! Great cartoon style!

Patrick said...

Nice work Rich! Glad to see you blogging again!

Rich Faber said...

Thanks, guys. Again, it was a collaborative effort by Gallagher and me, so I can't take full credit. However, I think we were both very happy with the results.

Best,
Rich

Dustin Foust said...

Very nice work Rich. You and Gallagher make a pretty good team. I'm not sure what a color hold is. I'm hoping maybe you can fill me in. When I start a project I usually do a ruff (I mean ruff)layout in pencil. Then I'll go over the final layout and fill in the details. Usually with a darker color pencil. Even the second sketch is pretty ruff. I then scan that drawing in and color it using Illustrator. When you use Illustrator there is no need to do a perfect inked version. On my next project I'll try to remember to post all of the drawings so you can see my process. Thanks for visiting my blog and keep up the good work! It's nice to know someone is looking.

DAF

william wray said...

I think the 3rd one reads best. Nice job overall.

Rich Faber said...

Dustin,

Thanks very much, for both the comments, and for stopping by. I'll crosspost this answer to your question on your blog as well: A color hold is when you have a black inked line that you convert to a color line. In other words, you change the black outline to a colored line, and use that line to "hold" the color in. When I first started working in comics, we used to indicate another type of color hold by inking the hold lines as red outlines, instead of black. The colorist and separator would then drop out those red lines, and just let the outline of color stand, so there was no black "holding" line. These days, of course, technology is sufficient to allow us to skip that step altogether, and just do color holds digitally. I hope I explained that well. =)

As for you posting your process, that'd be great! I'd love to see how you work, step by step!

Best,
Rich

Rich Faber said...

Bill,

Thanks! I appreciate you taking the time to stop by and look!

For those that don't know, Bill Wray is an amazing cartoonist (well known for his work on Ren and Stimpy, Samurai Jack, and many others), and more recently, has ventured into fine art painting. He's an extremely talented artist!

Check out his blog, by clicking on his name. You'll be glad you did!

Best,
Rich

Andrew Glazebrook said...

Love these,a really nice look to them ! Fabulous work !

Rich Faber said...

Thanks, Andrew! Very nice of you to stop by!

Best,
Rich