So, I'm colouring this Paul Smith Defenders piece for Gerry, and I'm going to do another step-by-step guide of the process.

For those of you who haven't seen the piece yet, here is the lineart.

Looks good so far.

The first step is to lay down some flat colours to model later. I do this back-to-front; that is, I'll fill the entire page with the colour that is furthest in the background, then start dropping in colours on objects that are closer to the viewer. Here, I've flatted the background stars, the planets, the clouds, and the Silver Surfer (who will be all one colour).

Notice that the colours overlap the foreground characters - this is because I'm going to fill them in after I've done flatting these background elements, without selecting the same spaces twice.

When flatting the characters, what I generally do is fill in one solid colour for the entire figure (like how the Doctor is flatted here) first. Then I'll select the separate bits and use the paint bucket tool to fill them in - this way, I only have to be accurate about selecting within the figure, not outside of it (as that has already been selected).

I thought you'd approve

Here we've got the completed flats. The colours are more-or-less the ones I'll use to paint the final version...well, except for Doc and Namor's skin tones. I'll use darker ones to start with there.

Here is what the finished flats look like without the lineart. This is what your flats should look like - notice that there are no white lines between the selections. All the colour on the various characters and such extends under the lineart.

Now, if you are doing something that will be only ever at a low resolution and for the 'net only, then that probably isn't as important. However, if you are ever wanting to do anything for print, then this is a good habit to get into. This way, if there are ever any plate shifts or anything similar, you won't get a white halo on one or both sides of the lines.

Just like with the flatting, I start colouring the background first. I'm keeping it fairly light and cool (shifted slightly toward blue colours).

The Silver Surfer.

I'm using a blue light source on his front, a yellow one to back light him, to give him some mass.

I also changed the colour of the two small planets, as the one close to him had been too close to the modeling colour I chose to backlight him with, and I didn't want both planets to be the same colour.

Namor (not Nimoy).

Nothing much to talk about here, except that I felt the clouds were a bit too neutral. So, I increased the Magenta a bit.

Doc Strange and Jade Jaws.

I try to keep the amount of selections and modeling on Doc's cape to an absolute minimum - I like keeping it simpler, as that better gets across the notion of a cloth cape (or other similar fabric).

I also tweaked the colour of the big planet behind Doc and the clouds, just to better separate them from everybody and still make them not quite so boring.

The painting is pretty much done - I just have to add the colour holds and add in any special fx. I've even added in my signature at this point.

oh, also, a note about skin tones.

I've made Doc decidedly less tanned that Namor. I figure the Prince of Atlantis probably gets more sun than the Shut-In of Greenwich Village

And here is the final version. I've added some small glows and colour held the clouds, the water, and the energy fx.

Hopefully Gerry will like this

Any questions or comments are appreciated

that is Fantastic!!

Ive one question/request.

could you go into a bit more detail on the modeling/highlights on the Hulk?

Sure, Gerry

Well, I'm using two light sources - one from above and behind (the light that falls on the top of his arm, hand, and the right side of his face), and one that is coming from the left side of the page.

I'm not using a light source from above and in front - that would wash out the figure, making it look a bit like a character in a sit-com.

The way he's lit right now, he's got a large amount of shadow on his chest, the inside of his hand, and the side of his face toward the viewer. This really adds to the sense of mass in the figure (just like the two light sources on the Silver Surfer), making him appear heavy and real.

I tend to use a lot of side and back lighting in my colouring - it is usually more dramatic, more visually interesting. Also, the two lights have slighly different colour to them - the one from above/behind is more of a 'white' light, bringing out the blue in his skin, while the one from the left is a bit more of a 'yellow' light, bringing out the green (although I didn't use them as strongly as I did with the Silver Surfer - I wanted to maintain the idea that the Hulk is green, so I didn't want the blueishness or yellowishness to take away from that. The surfer, being silver/chrome, just has to go to white on his highlights to get his base colour across).

...and, now that I'm looking at it again, I've decided to tweak the Hulks hair modeling a little bit...

Really interesting look at the step by step process, always love to see the thinking behind other artist's work. Thanks.

P.S. Any chance I could get a larger scan of the B&W piece? I love Paul Smith's work and would love to see the details.

its kind of like the lighting the old Universal Studios photographers used . .

Well, if you PM Gerry, he can tell you which thread he had posted a larger version it (or just ask him for a larger version of the scan directly )

That's a very accurate observation

I was watching a documentary of the making of the old Taylor/Burton Cleopatra a few weeks ago, and was really struck by the interviews with the lighting guys, how they approach lighting in those Technicolor films like how I like to do my own colouring

i pm'd you Vlad

Nice job- interesting to see how other people approach these things.