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Defiant1
A True Collector
USA
3285 Posts |
 Posted - 12/25/2006 : 7:32:16 PM
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Well, after three to four years of collecting, I've amassed quite a few Defiant original art pieces. I've decided to go ahead and inventory my color art pieces. These are all watercolor paintings done over a 1st generation copy of the inked art. They are painted by Defiant colorist Janet Jackson. They are not color guides. Quite regularly collectors ask "what size are these?" I've included the approximate size (±.25") to give people an idea.
Birth of the Defiant Universe
Cover (10.25 x 14.75)
Charlemagne
#2 Cover (9" x 13.75")
#2 Page 11 (8.5" x 14")
Dogs of War
#1 Cover (10" x 14.25")
Dark Dominion
#5 Cover (10.25" x 15.25")
Good Guys
#1 Cover (8.5" x 14")
#1.5 page 7 (9" x 13")
#2 Cover (9" x 14")
#3 Cover (8.5" x 12.75")
#4 Cover (9.75" x 15")
#5 Cover (9" x 14")
Schism
#4 Page 20
War Dancer
#1 Cover (11" x 14.5")
#1 Page 6 (8.75 x 14.25)
#2 Cover (10.25" x 14.5")
#5 Cover (8.5" x 12")
Warriors of Plasm
#0 Page 1 Splash (10.5 x 13.75")
#9 Cover (9.75" x 14")
#10 Cover (8.75" x 14")
Promotional Color Art
Prudence & Caution Full page Pinup (Jim Fern/Mike Witherby Image (10" x 13.75")
War Dancer kicking- Alan Weiss image (11.25" x 15.25")
Lorca Standing - Neal Adams image (10.5" a 15.5")
Defiant1
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Edited by - Defiant1 on 12/25/2006 7:45:50 PM
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Dishrag
Collector
Canada
301 Posts |
Posted - 12/26/2006 : 08:54:01 AM
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| Those are very nice. When you say 1st generation of inked art, does that mean the pencils were done separately? Do you have a pic of the Neal Adams image? |
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Michael Browning
A True Collector
USA
1464 Posts |
Posted - 12/26/2006 : 11:57:57 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Dishrag
Those are very nice. When you say 1st generation of inked art, does that mean the pencils were done separately? Do you have a pic of the Neal Adams image?
Those are xerox copies of the original art colored by Janet Jackson. They are color guides. Not original art.
Mike B. |
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Defiant1
A True Collector
USA
3285 Posts |
Posted - 12/26/2006 : 3:40:13 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Dishrag
Those are very nice. When you say 1st generation of inked art, does that mean the pencils were done separately? Do you have a pic of the Neal Adams image?
Yes. Pencils and inks were done separately. Michael is partially correct. These are painted over copies of the art on bristol board.
These are not however "color guides". Color guides are copies painted with markers and they hand write the shade of color they want as a guide for the printer. Valiant & Defiant didn't use color guides. They hand painted covers and then the covers were photographed. It worked fine at valiant, but most of the Defiant creators complain that the process blurred the images and they were not happy with it. If you see my color art vs. the published cover, the published cover is nowhere near as crisp and bright.
Be warned though. Most of these pieces were done with Doc Martin colors which everyone tells me it is very subject to fading under light. An exception would be the work Tim Perkins did for Dark Dominion.
Tim posted these comments on my messageboard....
quote:
Tim Perkins wrote:
Here are a few answers for you:
The medium used for the colour work I did at the Defiant Bullpen was dependent on whether I was "ghosting" or not.
When I worked on the other books such as War dancer, Charlemagne and Good Guys, etc I used the house-style used by Janet Jackson, so as to blend in to the overall look of those books.
When I worked on Dark Dominion I used my own style of painting comics at the time. I used acrylics, which I treated like watercolours in the main, with an occasionally foray into opaque oil type techniques thrown in for good measure.
The reason for this was down to two things:
Firstly the early colour work I did here in the UK was in watercolour dyes and inks like Janet used on the Defiant books, but I always found they dulled up due to the pigments involved when they went off to print.
It was whilst working with John Ridgway on Judge Dredd that John spoke to another British comics artist by the name of Ian Kennedy - if you have never seen this guys work, please check it out, truly superb artwork that looks effortless. Ian draws the best wheels in the industry and his colour work is really incredible.
Ian told John that he used acrylics and seven colours at that.
The colours in case you are interested were:
Permanent Alizarine Crimson - Cerulean Blue - Cadmium Yellow Medium - Burnt Sienna - Emerald Green - Ivory Black - Permanent White.
Both John and I tried them out and took to them as in print they gave a much stronger and truer image in print.
Secondly some of my earlier artwork had come back into my possession in a less than satisfactory state and acrylics were just that bit more robust.
I haven't noticed any of my Doc Martin pages have faded - but they are archived and in the dark for the most part so that doesn't really count.
The acrylic pages certainly haven't.
The colour is built up with washes just like any similar painting technique until the desired strength is acquired.
Unfortunately, I don't have a picture or scan available right now for the Neal Adams piece. I'll look to see if I have an image buried on a backup disc and get back if I do.
Defiant1
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Edited by - Defiant1 on 12/26/2006 3:42:08 PM |
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Defiant1
A True Collector
USA
3285 Posts |
Posted - 12/26/2006 : 4:02:32 PM
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Here is a larger scan of the Wardancer #5 cover...
Defiant1
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Edited by - Defiant1 on 12/26/2006 4:09:30 PM |
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Defiant1
A True Collector
USA
3285 Posts |
Posted - 12/26/2006 : 4:13:01 PM
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Here is an article by a colorist that created color guides for DC...
http://reviews.ebay.com/Color-Guides_W0QQugidZ10000000001552849
None of my pieces are the size of a comic book page. None have color percentages noted on them. The process Valiant & Defiant used was created by Janet Jackson & Jim Shooter. Budd Root's piece is oversized also. Some aspects are similar, but these are more than mere color guides.
Defiant1
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Defiant1
A True Collector
USA
3285 Posts |
Posted - 12/26/2006 : 4:16:09 PM
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This is the plasm #9 cover. Much nicer than the published version...
Defiant1
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Michael Browning
A True Collector
USA
1464 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2006 : 12:21:53 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Defiant1
Here is an article by a colorist that created color guides for DC...
http://reviews.ebay.com/Color-Guides_W0QQugidZ10000000001552849
None of my pieces are the size of a comic book page. None have color percentages noted on them. The process Valiant & Defiant used was created by Janet Jackson & Jim Shooter. Budd Root's piece is oversized also. Some aspects are similar, but these are more than mere color guides.
Defiant1
Actually, the process was in use long before Jim Shooter and Janet Jackson did it... Charlton Comics was shooting directly from paintings way back in the 1970s. All of their painted covers were shot directly from the artwork. The difference in that art and yours is that the Charlton art was ALL PAINTED ORIGINAL ART. It wasn't xeroxes with watercolors on top.
Mike B. |
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advunderground
Enthusiast
USA
237 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2006 : 4:56:25 PM
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This is just one method of doing colored art if you ask me. For the book I'm working on, I've got a lot of black and white art, and I'm debating using this method so that if I mess something up in watercolor, I'm not out HOURS of work.
To me, a color guide is just a splash of color to show the printer what mixture of inks to use, etc. At its most base, they could just write 20% cyan, 80% yellow and leave it black-and-white.
An even earlier version of painting over a printed black and white line: animation cels. |
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Defiant1
A True Collector
USA
3285 Posts |
Posted - 12/27/2006 : 11:51:39 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by advunderground
This is just one method of doing colored art if you ask me. For the book I'm working on, I've got a lot of black and white art, and I'm debating using this method so that if I mess something up in watercolor, I'm not out HOURS of work.
To me, a color guide is just a splash of color to show the printer what mixture of inks to use, etc. At its most base, they could just write 20% cyan, 80% yellow and leave it black-and-white.
An even earlier version of painting over a printed black and white line: animation cels.
If you compare these pieces to the B&W ink, you will see many details that are painted in and they have no representation in the inked piece. The pattern on the curtains is painted. The marble texture on the knife above is painted, not drawn. On one of my good guys pieces the building in the background are painted in. Every ounce of those details are "original art".
Defiant1
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advunderground
Enthusiast
USA
237 Posts |
Posted - 12/28/2006 : 11:01:06 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Defiant1
quote:
Originally posted by advunderground
This is just one method of doing colored art if you ask me. For the book I'm working on, I've got a lot of black and white art, and I'm debating using this method so that if I mess something up in watercolor, I'm not out HOURS of work.
To me, a color guide is just a splash of color to show the printer what mixture of inks to use, etc. At its most base, they could just write 20% cyan, 80% yellow and leave it black-and-white.
An even earlier version of painting over a printed black and white line: animation cels.
If you compare these pieces to the B&W ink, you will see many details that are painted in and they have no representation in the inked piece. The pattern on the curtains is painted. The marble texture on the knife above is painted, not drawn. On one of my good guys pieces the building in the background are painted in. Every ounce of those details are "original art".
Defiant1
Yeah, you can tell that quite a bit of care was put into the painting. Like I said, this just seems to be one different method of producing a finished product, but I wouldn't call it a color guide any more than I would call an inked page an outline guide.
Personally, I prefer black-and-white line art and all original inks and whatnot - but I'm fine with there being various levels of original.
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Michael Browning
A True Collector
USA
1464 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2007 : 08:34:07 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Defiant1
quote:
Originally posted by advunderground
This is just one method of doing colored art if you ask me. For the book I'm working on, I've got a lot of black and white art, and I'm debating using this method so that if I mess something up in watercolor, I'm not out HOURS of work.
To me, a color guide is just a splash of color to show the printer what mixture of inks to use, etc. At its most base, they could just write 20% cyan, 80% yellow and leave it black-and-white.
An even earlier version of painting over a printed black and white line: animation cels.
If you compare these pieces to the B&W ink, you will see many details that are painted in and they have no representation in the inked piece. The pattern on the curtains is painted. The marble texture on the knife above is painted, not drawn. On one of my good guys pieces the building in the background are painted in. Every ounce of those details are "original art".
Defiant1
Regardless of the details in the paints, it's still paints over a XEROX COPY and, although it may be original colors, it's not the original art underneath.
These are very nice pieces, but they're not original art. They're a part of the printing process.
Mike B. |
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Defiant1
A True Collector
USA
3285 Posts |
Posted - 01/02/2007 : 12:32:04 PM
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I've never misrepresented what these are. Since I wasn't buying a Lapham piece, I've never said I was buying Lapham's original art. I bought Janet Jackson Original Paintings. Yes, they are over copies. Fact is, they aren't color guides. They look nicer. They are original art.... color art. What is it you don't understand about painting? I thought you knew a little bit about the art world. Do I need to call you an complete idiot? Is that what you want?
Defiant1
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Defiant Comics Color art
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