So, I usually figure out pretty clearly the color schemes for the dinosaur characters in my stupid comics, and above you'll see the way I break of the pack of Acros for the story into an Alpha male with the darker phase (cuz black leopards are cooler anyway) to also help distinguish one from the rest of the group. That helps the readers differentiate between the characters instinctively, but it also means I have to keep track of this on the page, and this is all before the story goes to the colorist, in this case the incredibly capable James Campbell for the color pass. Here's a value study page with annotated positions for the Acros:
So all this planning would be a pain in the butt if I didn't relish the control I have over my own work, which is completely different than the artwork I do for other people and companies. So then the page comes out like this after James does a great job coloring it:
These notes allow James and Philip Simon, the editor of the age of Reptiles books to keep track of my obsessive/neurotic need to control as many aspects of my stupid stories as possible. I'll end this lengthy post with a few other color schemes for other characters in the story. To be clear, in this story the animals are also associated together by using color schemes of similar current animals in the same ecosystem, which is fancy talk for animals from the same place, in this case African Leopards, Marabou Storks and Wild Dogs.
Or this:
Anyway, there you go.
Now go do something far more interesting than read this blog.
