THE VALIANT #1 p18. 2014. Photoshop, 2750 × 4175 px.
Did I say this week? What I meant was that The Valiant trade paperback will be out May 27. But in keeping with the spirit, here’s another page with its accompanying reference. This page was made completely in Photoshop, with a major assist from Kyle T. Webster’s brushes, specifically Rough Inker, Ink Wash 1, Bone Dry, and Deliciously Dry. This allowed me to keep working on the book, even when I was traveling.
RAAaaauaaauAAuUUUgh! Google!
digital inks with wash tone
When the project first began, I was going to “save time” by keeping the colors flat, albeit modulated with an “ink wash” layer. By the second issue, I was already back to my old habit of two-tone coloring, but this technique was nice while it lasted. Because I was inking digitally, I couldn’t help myself from adding the tone as I went along. I just love that look for black and white comics, something akin to Blazing Combat.
digital pencils
You can see that I made a change between the “pencils” (above) and layouts (below). This was one of the first digital pages that I did, and was very early on in the process. So early, in fact, that I was still figuring out what Bloodshot’s powers were, how strong he was, etc. In the original panel 4, I had him leap 20 feet or so in air, but my editor wanted to power him down a bit. Of course, he still punched through what I imagine would be an aircraft-grade cockpit window.
