Yesterday evening after finishing inks on another Maddy Kettle page I took a bit of time to experiment with colouring. I used the above panel from page two. My initial idea was to use gouache on acetate paper, which is the clear paper used in overhead projector. The results were really disappointing, even using Acrylagouache, a combination of gouache and acrylic paint. It just resulted in smeary sheets of acetate.
Something I've been considering is just doing flat digital colours. This is a fast way to colour and I may resort to it in some way but the results always look digital when I do it which is not what I want.
After a couple of disappointments I made a photocopy and just used watercolour on the panel. Then I layered it with the original in Photoshop. this was getting closer to what I wanted; a relatively flat colour with some variation in the washes. however, I couldn't get the colours as intense as I wanted, it looked too washed out. This method does, however, preserve the ink lines, which are the most important part of the art.
So finally I laid down heavier, opaque gouache over the photocopy and then layered it under the inks ( see yesterdays post for a picture of the flat goauche I used on the photocopy ) using Photoshop. This is almost exactly what I want; flat, rich colours that don't obscure the line-work. I wanted something along the lines of Herge, Tom Gauld or the mid century Golden Books; flat, simple, interesting and colouring that doesn't take away from the pen and ink. another influence of interest is the Sunday funnies from February first 1930 that we found in wall used as insulation. The colours were wonderful, a true revelation.
