How Your Watermark is Made Part 3: Digital Color

The Tools

Windows PC with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign (CS5)
Wacom Bamboo Touch with Pen Stylus\

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Digitize and Color

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So now, I scan my ink drawings, use Adobe Photoshop CS5 make a few clean-up adjustments and import them into Adobe Illustrator CS5 to use the handy-dandy Live Trace to vectorize my line work.

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I delete all of the leftover white portions to leave me with the black lines that are ready to be placed into Photoshop. Out of the millions of ways to isolate linework for coloring, the reason I go through this step because the process cleans ups my linework a bit, keeps my edges crisp, and allows for the easiest manipulation later in Photoshop if I need to do so. Here I’ve selected the vector paths so that you can see how only the black lines exist.

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Next, I open a Photoshop document that I have setup to the correct final dimensions and copy’n paste in my newly vectorized line work, each on their own layer, into. I move the pieces around until they are fit together in a way that is aesthetically pleasing and leaves me with enough room for cover lines, which have still yet to be finalized.

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Excellent. Now we have our elements arranged in the composition. You’ll notice that, because we brought in only the black lines, we can see background line work behind foreground elements. To fix this, I utilize my Wacom Bamboo Touch tablet to fill in my lines, keeping my fills on their own layers directly beneath the line work. This coloring method utilizes a lot of layers, so maintaining a high level of organization in your Layers Pallet is crucial.

I’ve utilized differing shades of gray for the fills so I can get a feeling of how close or far away each element is from one another.

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I add a flat base color to the fills and we can start to see the composition is starting to come together.

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Starting with the Democrats vs. Republicans fight, I break my large areas of flat color into smaller areas of local color by selecting an area of fill with the lasso selection tool and promoting the selection to a new layer my pressing “Ctrl-J” on the keyboard. I’m not paying too much attention to light and shade while I’m doing this. Highlights and shadows will come in the following steps.

Note: As each new selection of color becomes its own layer, organization becomes even more impoartant!

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Now for highlights and shadows.

I save to a new Photoshop file just in case I have to go back to my flats to recover anything I accidentally mess up going forward with the new file. I start on the canvas using the dodge and burn tools to give a sense of depth. I use a textured Photoshop brush to create the mottled effect.

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Now, the Democrats vs. Republicans fight get a dose of the ol’ dodge and burn tools and I add some yellow sunlight-esque highlights to the crowd. I created the crowd highlights by applying a bevel and emboss layer style over my flat fill layers. I’ve found it to be a great quick way to add baseline highlights and the direction of light stays consistent by selecting the “global light” option next to the light source tool.

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I rotate the Democats vs. Republicans fight slightly to allow for ample cover line space on the canvas and in the empty space to the right of the canvas. I begin to unify the fight scene with the crowd by bringing in the dark blue=gray color.

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Additional dodge and burn for some more dramatic color.

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I put in a painted voting districts map of Florida I created using some layer styles and the new paintbrush tools in Photoshop CS5.

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Then, I type out the word “redistricting” using the free font Snickles and use the Free Transform Warp feature to warp the text into the same perspective as the canvas and to give it more of a “hand-painted” feel. I add some bevel and emboss layer styling, a quick drop shadow, and voila, I have a refined version of my beginning sketch ready for finalized cover lines.

I decide that this is a good time to put the cover away for a day and not think about it. I’ve been working on it very intensely and stepping away will allow me to come back to the project with fresh eyes and new ideas.

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Cover lines

It is now the Friday before production, I’m given finalized cover lines. The main headline reads “Redistricting Battle: Will the new borders impact our voice?” and the sub-headline says, “In Depth: Love. NY’s Marriage Draw. Your valentines–and One Proposal, and Does Love Really Drive Us Crazy?”

I crack open my Photoshop file, look at it with my fresh eyes and decide that some changes are needed. I lay over quick cover template so I can decide how the cover lines will interact with the masthead and other elements. I decide that a yellow background serves better contrast with the blue-gray unity of the foreground elements (as well as adding a bit more newsstand noticability). I add a few more lighting effects and some minor color adjustments and play around with my existing “Redistricting” line to make it look a bit more like dripping paint.

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I insert the next line, “Battle,” using the same font and treatment as I did with “Redistricting.” The only change is that it is painted in red instead of blue, implying that the Democrat/donkey wrote “Redistricting” and the Republicans/Elephant wrote “Battle.” Again, my own slight artistic commentary on the situation.

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My concern at this point is that the connection between the painted words on the canvas and the paint brushes in my anthropomorphic creatures’ hands may not be immediately obvious. Now, in studio art and other projects, this really isn’t a huge problem. The viewer will be able to figure it out in a short moment of thought. But, when you’re trying to convey a story and compel someone to pick your publication up off the street, you have but the tiniest fraction of time to convince them as they walk past a stack of publications in a rack. What’s an art director to do?

A quick coffee break, two chocolate chip cookies, and half a Tako Cheena butter chicken burrito later, I come up with the answer: Connect the cover lines to their respective authors with a string of gooey paint. Now, the story of the action is immediately clear and made the composition a bit more dynamic. It now feels as though each party had just finished furiously painting their words, whipped themselves around, and immediately began a paintbrush battle.

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Now that that hurdle is over, I’m faced with one more, and this obstacle is bit of a challenge. The message of the final cover lines and the development of the imagery differs slightly from the original concept. The focus of the original concept was the confusion our lead person in the crowd was feeling towards the painted mess of a redistricting Florida, with the fight scene being a fun side action. But now the focus is on the struggle between the different factions. Also, there’s nothing specifically gay about this story I’m visually presenting, which detracts from the “why should our LGBT readers care about this” question we raise for all editorial.

One more coffee break and the rest of that butter chicken burrito later, I figure out a solution.

By placing a small rainbow flag the crowd leader hand, they go from a confused onlooker to leader of the gay community, descending and meeting the situation head on, ignoring the bickering parties, and focusing on the task at hand. The only acknowledgement of the struggle comes from the disdainful look one member of the crowd tosses over their shoulder at the war behind them. And again, I’ve layered commentary into the piece.

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Now, I need to find a new way to show that this issue is local to Florida. I ask myself, “What if I place a map of Florida on the canvas behind the cover lines, as if the two parties couldn’t even get down to drawing lines before waging war against each other?” Given the tumultuous struggle to draw new district lines since we voted to do so nearly 4 years ago, I thought this a good route to take. I use a map of Florida from the 1800’s to further express the archaic nature of the old district lines.

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Now we have a bright, colorful cover with a strong message. I place the Photoshop file into InDesign document that contains the entire layout for Watermark issue 19.03 and lay on the finalized cover lines. I get approval from Editor-in-Chief Steve Blanchard, the blessings of Watermark Publisher Tom Dyer, and we’re ready for the presses!

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And so, with yet another issue complete, I’m able to sit back and relax a bit before jumping right back into the fray and start working on the next cover. An art director’s job is never done… ever!