First produced image

Copying what Neal Adams produces is no easy task...

Getting ready to draw my own designs, I chose a Neal Adams image I liked and tried copying it. I believe by doing this it will help me to develop my skills at impersonating his style. Here is the outcome...


Stage 1:

 

On an A5 sketch pad, I sketched out the drawing completely in pencil. Once happy with it, I went over it in fine liner and black marker.

Stage 2:

Bringing the saturation down to 0 and using the Ctrl+L function in Photoshop, I altered the image so that everything drawn was completely black. Now the image was ready for colouring...



Stage 3:





































Changing the drawn image layer blend mode to 'Multiply' enabled me to create layers underneath the image to colour. This way you don't have to worry about going outside the lines. Four separate layers were used for the colouration of the suit, mask/gloves/cape, the skin and the belt. Now it was time for shading...


Final Image:

The image was brought to completion by adding a layer with an 'Overlay' blend mode over the top of all the coloured layers, but underneath the drawing. On this layer I used a medium grey for the shading, using different opacities for different strengths of shadow.
After the shading was done, I added another layer to draw the highlights on top, again using different opacities.
Once the image of Batman was complete, I added a gradient to the background to finalise the production.

Neal Adams Technique

After searching for Neal Adams' work and technique, I was lucky to come across an actually video of him working and explaining his technique. Though he video is of him painting, these techniques can most certainly be implemented into Photoshop, which I will be using to produce my image.

"Alien News Anchor: Our cities lie in ruin, but this is only a temporary setback! We will not be denied! We will--AGGHH!"

"Alien News Anchor: Our cities lie in ruin, but this is only a temporary setback! We will not be denied! We will--AGGHH!"

Above is the quote I have chosen for my image. The quote comes from the 1999 N64 and Playsation game, "Rampage 2: Universal Tour".

Personally I haven't played the game, but the quote was the one that appealed to me the most.
The next few blog posts will be images of my work, trying to impersonate the style of Neal Adams.

First Thoughts - 'Neal Adams'

After making a late start on this project due to illness, I've started off by making the decision of what artist to research.

After reviewing the work of all of the selectable artists, the ones that stood out for me personally were Banksy, who I've been a fan of for a long time, and also Neal Adams.

I really like Neal Adam's work. A cartoony, but almost life like style that stays true to the human form. I believe that if I used this style of art, I could produce good work, with a lot of options of different routes to take. The serious route or comedic. As the brief states that we must interpret our style into the image, I know that I'll most likely be creating a humourous image, as it suits my personality far better.


Back in 2007, I competed an art project for AS level that included cartoon like drawings in the same sort of style. During the course of the project I learned a lot of techniques I believe could prove useful towards this assignment, including drawing techniques as well as Photoshop techniques.

Spiderman image produced in Photoshop back in 2007

I shall use my time to study and use the work of Neal Adams to help bring this project to completion. As for the quote that I shall use, I will decide on it later when I truly understand the style of the work, and discover in what way I can use it to best the outcome of the final image.

I shall post some image work produced shortly.