A quick pass of all the story pages took approximately 2 and a half days. Putting all the pages together and in color allows you to appreciate the way the color direction is going. I’ll be working out the composition and then the anatomy as soon as I get a grips on the book’s overall “texture”
As of now, I feel the book quite dreary given its sparse use of the warm spectrum, saturated color, and accents (and perhaps even the lack of eyes). I wonder if anyone else feels the same way. I will likely spike the color saturation in the first few spreads (01 - 06) and continue to add accents on a whole. In particular, spread 01 will need more warm colors in that crowd of blue. But afterwards I will maintain the sorrowful colors in subsequent spreads to represent the hunchback’s descent into madness.
The dark colors may or may not be accentuated by the printing process. I would have to send at least one of these pages to have the printer proof so I can have a guide as to how bright or dark the inks will make my colors. One of the advantages of painting digitally, is you can paint it over as you hold a copy of the proof. (Though some printers won’t even bother showing you a proof)
Between the initial studies and the color studies you’ll notice the differences most clearly in spreads 02,07, & 10. These changes happen all the time. Better storytelling is often the reason - other times it’s just censorship - which I suppose is the reason I was told to change spread 10’s knife-in-chicken illustration (my metaphor for the mother’s murder). So far I haven’t gotten comments from the publisher on these, but of course that doesn’t you can’t put in your comments. I’d appreciate it.
