behind-the-scenes: whiskey colors!

4.9: Whiskey - Colors!

Coloring this comic was playing around with layer modes and unexpected color choices for lighting and shadow! Also color-picking from photos of burning buildings.

script & thumbs | pencils | line art | color | post

The color process begins when I get flats from Johel, my flatter. (Twitter | Instagram) Flatters are an essential part of the comic process–they help lay down colors and group them, so when I’m rendering I save a lot of time. For example, with the line art below:

It can be pretty time consuming to click and select ALL of the empty spaces for Hop’s hair, skin, shirt, shorts, etc. The lockers are all the same color as well. When I get flats back, everything is grouped–ready for the colors I intend. Instead of clicking 50 times to color the locker room, I can click once and choose the warm light brown shade I want. It’s kinda like Johel chops all the veggies so I can start cooking.

Whiskey proved a challenge in pushing colors in night/party scenes.I’m very used to (read: probably a bit too comfortable with) literal colors. I actually have a palette for Check Please character-colors in daylight. By literal colors, I mean I’ll make the sky BLUE, Bitty’s hair YELLOW, eye and teeth and ice WHITE. Very literal.

I really want to get better at relative/atmospheric coloring, however. So this was a good time to practice. Here’s how I got the final look for 3 panels.

1. I went through and finished this page with very literal colors–then desaturated the background to make the foreground pop. Using a consistent light source is pretty signature of my coloring approach, and here the light is hitting Whiskey from above–and there’s also a bit of blue rim lighting to help him stand out.

2. I got this tip from a Gravity Falls color stylist’s breakdown of her work. (@

Daniaelle Simonsen) Setting a layer to MULTIPLY creates the darkness of the party scene, while setting a layer to HARD LIGHT adds intense lighting to Bitty and the other characters. The red saturated pop of the doorway ended up working well too.

3. I wanted this crucial moment to feel dire and intense–so I google searched for images of burning building interiors and color picked the warm saturated orange and browns. For Bitty, I used his literal colors but dropped an orange overlay over the panel to bring the scene together.

Tip: “Color Holding” is when you color your line art. When I do this to my art, it feels more soft and integrated. I only started doing this during Year Three and you can tell!

To color hold in Photoshop, take your line art layer, hit the “lock transparent pixel” button and color away!

OKAY THANKS FOR HANGING WITH ME during this step by step of making Whiskey!! I hope you learned something? This was one of my favorite episodes to write and draw, and it was fun to break it down! Thank you!! 🏒✔️🥧