HOUSE OF CEREBUS cover- color comparison

Benjamin Hobbs:

Greetings! It's been just over a year since the first CEREBUS AND HOBBS column.  As such, I thought it was time to update the banner!

If you haven't backed the POSTCARD FROM HELL Kickstarter, please do so NOW!  There's only a couple days left!


This week, we'll be looking at the progression of the colors of for THE HOUSE OF CEREBUS #1. (Out January 2020.)

David Birdsong made the original cover.  He sent it looking something like this:


I considered coloring Jaka digitally, but didn't get past adding  Color Flats. The digital coloring didn't match with the watercolors on VARK THING:


To better match HOUSE OF SECRETS #92, the cover HOUSE OF CEREBUS #1 is a parody of, I added some hands to Vark Thing and colored the scene with watercolors:


Jaka and Vark Thing didn't look quite right, so I colored them again on separate sheets of water color paper:



With a few adjustments in Photoshop, here's the result:


I sent this version of the cover to Dave.  Here are his notes:

And here's the (hopefully) final version, incorporating his notes:

 


Next Week: More CIH? fun!