Adding The Gray

As promised, here are a few screen shots of the grays I applied to the recent kids books.

On the BMX story I also had to do a lot of the bike's wheels in the computer to make it easier on myself. It always seems like a good idea to leave the wheels until I get to the scanned images but then I find myself spending a day doing nothing but building wheels and putting spokes on them. I guess it's easier but it doesn't make for a fun work day.

Ah well, at least it comes out looking good.

I've also been playing a lot more with graying in some of the background lines to give each piece the feeling of a bit more atmospheric perspective. I've seen other people try to do the same thing by blurring in the backgrounds, mimicking the look of a camera being out of focus and, while this works well on a TV or computer screen, I've always felt when I've seen this technique used in print it just looks weird.

But, I really like the way the gray lines look and helps the eye focus on the foreground figures that much more.

I hope you like the new pieces. It's always such a race to get them all done that it's nice to sit back now and admire each finished piece. I think I did a good job on these.

Have a good one!