Black and white training

I recently took over photo preparation at the newspaper where I work my day job. I use Photoshop to make the photos the right size and resolution, and adjust the contrast, color and sharpness so they look good in print. Every photo needs to be prepared in both color and black and white, so it can go on either type of page. The fun part is turning color photos black and white and adjusting the contrast. I’ve learned a lot more about light and value and what makes images clear and dynamic in black and white just from doing this.

This should serve me well as I embark on something I’ve been trying to do ever since I started my art career seven years ago — drawing comics. There are awesome people revolutionizing the independent comics scene right now, and I want to be a part of it. (My first offering will be Clockwork Dancer by Jon Del Arroz; a steampunk spectacular — please look forward to it!) It’s clear that I will generally not be wanted as a colorist, since I do not color digitally. So, I need to up my black and white game. 

I’ve been doing a lot of black and white since I started the Liturgical Calendar Coloring Book, and most of my work for Sophia Institute Press is black and white. But that’s coloring book style — just outlines. For American-style comics, I need to have black shapes and shadows.

So as training, I've taken some pages of the Liturgical Calendar Coloring Book and applying some black. Here's the St. John of the Cross page. More to come!