Therefore, I am re-presenting the first three pages of this work, along with the new page, # 4.
Scanning these helped me realize that I need to change the way I work to get the results I want. I like working in markers because, as my former sensei/ confidante Reed Waller points out, they encourage speed. But if you have to labor over every page to get a good rich black after the fact in Photoshop, are you really moving faster?
So I'm going back to inks for most of my heavy blacks.
The markers just plain fade too much.
My brush control with inks is not as strong as it might be, but I have a good hand with a crowquill, so I'm not too worried about losing anything stylistically in the switch back.
I do want to spend a bit more time on detail and include more heavy blacks.
I got lucky with the last page and was able to get some very rich blacks, between pushing the markers and hitting just the right scanner levels. But rather than count on that, I'm going to work in richer blacks from the get go. I will continue to use marker for borders and for some of my gray values.
Sidebar: The white area on the left side of the last panel is not on the original art. I had meant to have that symmetry, but got carried away and filled in the whole area on that side!
So I pulled the old gag: select the white spot, do a layer via copy, flip it and move it into position. And we're golden!
