so, we won the hd_worldcup. suppose that means i can repost my art now?

i managed to post the comic online on my own thanks to google sites' fool-proof website-building system. tried to keep it as simple as possible:

cruel language :: hd_worldcup 2009

let me know if anything isn't working!

and now, what i really wanted to post:

now, keep in mind that this isn't really a tutorial, or even an example of how i usually work. my methods change with every individual image i work on.

1. first, to show you what my rough drafts look like:



messy and a lot of unnecessary lines.

2. the next step (taken from a different panel) is cleaning up the sketch.



3. after that (from yet another panel) i added a simple shading. i liked this method so i've been using it fairly often on other pics. this is all in a transparent layer on top of a white background.



4. here i put the base colors in: hair and clothes on one layer, skin on another one. filled the background with... the background color. lineart layer on top of everything.



5. merged the base colors for clothes/hair and skin, and added the shadows the same was i did with the bases. two different layers. i prefer making new layers for nearly every step, because i change stuff around a lot, which is easier to do if you have everything separate.



6.

merged the shadow layers, so now i have one layer for bases and shadows each. i made a new layer on top of the background to begin making the forest backdrop. for the main light areas i started with a low-opacity brush, then a medium one and then a full one.

the same two-layer method was used to paint the large trees that can be seen in the panels before and after the embrace. i used an extra shadow layer to color the snow.

7.

now, on another layer on top of the previous one, i began drawing the trees...

8.

then the branches.

9.

then, on that same layer i added those highlights, which are supposed to be the light coming from between all the trees. in some other panels i put them on another layer.


now, this would be it for the background if i were working on the panels before the embrace. the last step would be to put some highlights on the tree trunks and the characters, and add minor stuff like the blood and dirt on harry, then make the color adjustments that you'll see later.

but with these ones i kept going, to add the glowing effect to the image.

10.

the next step was to merge the base lights, the trees and highlights of the background, and duplicate that layer. then, i added a box blur filter to the duplicated layer with a 14-pixel radius.

11.

then i changed the layer blending mode to "linear dodge" and lowered the opacity.

12.

now, this part is a bit confusing. i made a new layer on top of the lineart, painted the areas where the light would hit the characters and repeated the blur filter. then i painted again, this time smaller highlights around the border of the characters.

13.

then i flattened all the layers. now, since draco's hair and skin are equal or lighter than the color i was using for the light, i used the dodge tool to put highlights on him manually. then i made a new layer, set it to "multiply" and put the blood on harry.

14.

now, the complete page. all my panels were separate files, so when it came the time to make the pages, i copied and pasted them into the new page, then merged them to have all the panels on a single layer.

15.

now i can adjust the colors on all the panels at once. the fourth button in the "color adjustments" window lets you save your settings, which means that, for future pages, i can load that preset and the colors on the panels will adjust automatically.

16.

textures! the one i used comes from sundel on dA.
i drag and drop the texture between the background and the panels, then set that layer to "color dodge." now the dark background has a nice, subtle grunge texture.

17.

to add the texture to the panels, i select it from that same layer. when i have all the areas i need selected, i copy them and paste them on a new layer on top of the panels. note that the last panel went through a last-minute modification in the final version.

18.

then i set the new layer to "overlay" and lower the opacity a little. now thanks to the texture, the colors have become warmer and richer. i also clone-stamped out some of the stronger lines of the texture, which dirtied up the images too much.

that's pretty much it. the last step was adding the borders for each panel, and i fiddled a bit more with the texture layers. nothing significant.

for the red-tinted panels, i did this same process, then i filled a new layer with red and set it to... i don't quite remember anymore. it might have been one of the dodge modes. i then added more highlights on another layer set to dodge, and worked on a 3rd normal layer mixing my own colors when the blending modes wouldn't let me get the ones i needed. the whole thing was a bit of an experiment, really.

the reddish background for the pages is just an extra normal layer filled with red, with the opacity lowered.

any questions?

now i want to talk a bit about the plot. one of the big things here was draco's motives. i couldn't really go into it without making the comic twice as long, so i left it up to the reader's imagination. what *i* had in mind (which at this point is just one of many possible interpretations) is that draco really did love harry, but he was acting out of fear/he didn't really want to do it, deep down. my guess is that voldemort threatened his family again. lord v. must have known he had a connection to harry and he exploited that to get draco to do what he wanted. by the way, i didn't intend to have the death eaters that show up in the end kill harry themselves, they were there to take him to voldemort. i made draco's body language ambiguous on purpose to keep the reader guessing what exactly is going through his mind at the moment, but there are some hints that show that he's not happy with what happens, and that he hates himself for doing it. if not at the moment, the implications of what he did will sink in fully afterwards, and it will not be pretty.

in my mind harry and draco had an on-and-off thing. i'm thinking maybe draco was either passing information to the order or had sought refuge with them recently. anything that let him have contact with both sides. either way, harry obviously thought he could trust draco.

as to what happens after that, i don't know. he could let harry die, or he could have a change of heart and help him escape somehow. it wasn't my intention to continue the story beyond what's in the pages.

also, you might ask, "why didn't you have harry disapparate?" well, i think that's a potential plot hole, to be honest. i'm going to attempt to cover my ass and say his wand arm is too injured to do it properly.

comments?