Coloring Oz – Dorothy 3

Posted on February 24, 2011 by skook

Above – the flat colors I’ve laid down under the scan of the original black and white art.
Below – what the colors look like with the illustration layer turned on.

Coloring Oz – Dorothy 2

Posted on February 23, 2011 by skook

Some folks have a weird idea that boys won’t read stories that feature girls as heroes. I suspect that the boys who have that problem were already indoctrinated with that thought by their parents before they’d learned to read. One of my early role models was a little girl from Kansas who, when dropped in a foreign land, didn’t cry or fuss she just picked herself up and set off for home. Not because she missed it really. Dorothy Gale wanted to get home so that her Aunt and Uncle wouldn’t worry about her. She slapped a lion, made some good friends, killed a couple of witches and overthrew a wizard. All before her eighth birthday.

She went back four more times before finally bringing Aunt Em and Uncle Henry with her and settling down in Oz on the fifth excursion. She wasn’t anything special. She wasn’t an outcast or a weirdo or a extraordinarily talented. She wasn’t a chosen one. There were no prophecies of her coming. She was just determined, smart, practical and knew how to look out for her friends.

Coloring Oz – Dorothy 1

Posted on February 22, 2011 by skook

I hope you’re fond of Oz, or at least Oz Squad, because I’m going to be spending the next few (many) days posting the series of mini-illustrations I’m doing for this project. And I’ll admit right now that I’m spacing out the stages of the illustration process into daily updates because, at the moment, I’m still working on the art. If I manage to get far enough ahead of the game I’ll post the process as a single update instead of doing it over the course of days.

Right now I’ll be keeping to one step per post per day. Today’s post is, like the Scarecrow’s series, a bit farther along than it would have been if I’d been thinking ahead. The art here has already had the main inking done.

Coloring Oz – Scarecrow 4

Posted on February 21, 2011 by skook

The Scarecrow’s face is not three dimensional. It’s painted on. If you had a conversation with him you’d be watching the paint move around on his head bag. It would be like talking to a cartoon. I love that.

Coloring Oz – Scarecrow 3

Posted on February 20, 2011 by skook

The next step after finishing the art on paper is to scan it into Photoshop and start coloring. I lay down color under the scan of the illustration. To begin with I just lay down flat areas of color without any shading or tones. Without the illustration layer the color looks like this:

Coloring Oz – Scarecrow 2

Posted on February 19, 2011 by skook

Another day, another step toward a finished color cameo of the Scarecrow. This is the final black and white artwork. The main blacks are all done with ink. Shading and the background were done with a “B” drawing pencil.

Coloring Oz – Scarecrow 1

Posted on February 18, 2011 by skook

2010 was a crap year for getting work done on Oz Squad. It was a crap year for getting much art done period but the Squad suffered the most. This sketch is one of the threads I’m finally picking up after far too long. It’s a piece of a project that Steve handed me last year and I dropped after getting just a tenth of the way into it.

My hope is that 2011 will be the year I finally finish the outstanding Squad projects and get new ones moving. I also hope that the earth doesn’t get hit by an asteroid and that all bad men come to bad ends.

Anyway.

I meant to scan this piece in the sketch stage but forgot so we’ll get started here with the inks. This is the Scarecrow, the first companion that Dorothy picked up on her journey to see the Wizard. He’s been through a lot of hard times since Dorothy pulled him down from his pole. He’s been through a lot of good times as well. He hasn’t forgotten either.

1995 Calendar: February

Posted on September 25, 2010 by skook

I think I’ve mentioned that I’ve been a fan of the Oz books since I was a kid. Since Aunt Hortense could travel anywhere going to Oz at least once was inevitable.

And Then There Are All the Projects I’m Not Working On … Yet

Posted on July 3, 2010 by skook

And what have we learned so far? Not much really. I’m terribly over committed. Really, really over committed when you consider that on most days of the week I have less than an hour available to draw. I don’t know if I’d manage to get more done on any individual project if I had more time available or if I’d just gludge things up by committing to more projects. I’m kind of stupid that way.

And how go things on my other projects?

Progress Report – Oz Squad Comic
Finished – 12 pages
Inked – 8 pages
Penciled – 19
Roughed – 9

Progress Report – Oz Squad Novel Illustrations –
Cover – Inked. Additional Design and Text to Come.
Illustrations –
Finished – 1
Penciled – 1
Yet To Be Started – 34

Progress Report – Sacrifice (Comic for The Black Seal) –
Finished (Photoshopped) – 0 pages
Shaded – 0 pages
Inked – 0 pages
Pencilled – 4 pages
Roughed – 1 page
Lettered – all 5 pages.

Progress Report – Moe and Detritus 8 page minicomic
Script unfinished.

Progress Report – Oziana Story –
Finished – 9 pages
To be done … ?

Progress Report – 2011 Fiction Blog
Illustrations –
172 finished
182 in progress
23 unstarted
Posts written – zero

Progress Report – DavidLeeIngersoll.com
Less than embryonic

Progress Report – Skook Sketchblog
This post 1708. 292 to go. I really need to scan some art. These progress reports are going to get dull pretty quickly.

Progress Report – Skook Sketchblog

Posted on July 2, 2010 by skook

And finally, I need to scan more images so I have something for you to look at every day. I know, no one is dying of suspense waiting for the next sketch or resurrected childhood drawing but posting here on a regular basis is a good way for me to pay attention to the passing of time.

I also need to repost the addresses of the blogs and websites of friends, acquaintances and regularly read complete strangers. I lost my list when I updated my template months ago and have only just now started recreating it.

My current thinking is that on post 2000 I’ll retire this blog. I expect to continue some sort of regular posting but, if all goes well, it will be at DavidLeeIngersoll.com. This is post 1707. 293 to go.