Vol 2 cover - Plok 2

Blog posted by Ste Pickford on Sun, 09 Nov 2014
Subject: Plok comic strip

Now I added the shading to the Plok layer. Straightforward again, using the same technique of two adjustment layers between the colour and ink layers.

I also added a subtle white 'glow' effect to the colour layer, which I hoped would help the Plok limbs pop out from the background when overlaid.

I actually wanted the glow to be slightly bigger than this, but Photoshop has a problem (or at least CS5 does - not sure if it's been fixed since this version). Layer Styles like Outer Glow, Drop Shadow, etc. have a built-in maximum size of 256 pixels. This always used to be fine, as the maximum size would mean a glow that was way larger than the image I was working on. But over the years the file sizes that I work at have got bigger and bigger, as computer resolutions get higher and higher. I regularly make video game graphic assets at sizes of several thousand pixels in the x and y, and this cover was drawn at a resolution of about 4.5k x 6.5k pixels, to ensure it's of a high enough quality for any future uses. A maximum size of 256 pixels for Layer Style effects just isn't enough any more.

Well, it would do for now, just about. I could have manually made a bigger glow effect on another layer, but I wanted to hurry up and get it finished.

Tags: plok, ebook, volume 2, cover, process, drawing, colour, photoshop

Follow up post: Vol 2 cover - combined!

Predecessor post: Vol 2 cover - Plok 1

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