Adding Color
Now that the base design is complete, it’s time to add some colors to Jim and see how he looks with different color schemes (if you have been working on paper up to this point, this is a good time to scan your design and start using the computer, as it allows for testing more than one color scheme for the same design and for easy retouches). We need a version of Jim’s front view with clean lines that allow us to use the color bucket in our editing program to quickly fill in areas with color (see Figure 5.7). Store each part of the character in a different layer, which will let you play with the skin-color values, for example, without affecting the rest of the colors. With this method, you can try several different options and pick the ones you like the most.
With your colors well organized by layers, testing a new color scheme may only take a couple of minutes or so. In Figure 5.7, different hair colors were tried so you could see how the process works, but in this case, let’s say we already know the hair is going to be blue, just like the eyes, as it will complement the bluish grays of the suit. Pick the definitive color scheme for Jim. Let’s continue with the version in the middle, the blue-haired one, as the light tones of the suit have less contrast than the other two.