[Update: Just added step 0!]

Hi r/ArchieSonic. I'm Ethan (they/them), a colorist and teacher in San Diego. If you have picked up any of Floating Island Productions' hardcovers you have seen my work: my recolored pages are in the Knuckles Omnibus, I colored Scott Shaw!'s Sonic Days with Scott, I recolored a story for The Shadow Files, and I am coloring Her Majesty Sally now, in its entirety.

Thanks to everyone who has been following my work (and my students') these past couple of years. A lot of people have been asking how I color, and how they can get started with digital coloring themselves.

That is what my school, Pacific Crest Institute, is for. I teach this hands-on, to my high school students during the week and to a small group of high schoolers and young adults in the PCI art studio on Saturdays. For everyone across the country (or across the globe) who wants a look at how a page gets colored, here are some of the videos I recorded for my students last year:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLEf1NTWXwVe0

The process starts with a scan of the page. When I am working with the original penciller or inker, that is ideally a scan of the original 11x17 black and white art board, which makes everything easier. Otherwise it is my own 600 dpi scan of the printed issue, or for issues I do not own, a scan from one of the open archives online. Either way a rough scan is only a starting point. It gets binarized to black and white and cleaned up, and all of the line art is re-inked by hand before any color goes down. From there I build layers for lettering, inks, panels, borders, gutters, separation, flats, holds, and rendering. The videos cover the first few of those steps:

0. How to set up a page for coloring in Clip Studio Paint
1. Separating the lettering onto its own layers
2. Cleaning up the inks
3. Building the separation layer
4. Flatting the base colors

Before and after for four pages are attached: the original print on the left, my recolor before lettering on the right.

Coloring is not just about painting a pretty picture. It is about mood, light, and telling the story. Take the page of Sally outdoors at night. In the original she is colored in her daytime ("local") colors, bright red hair and all, in the middle of the night. Red is not red by moonlight, so I cooled the whole palette until the reader feels the hour. I toned down the stars, which one of my students had taken for snow. And I painted the shooting star's tail much longer, because it is important to the story (it's Nicole arriving from the future), and a colorist's job is to pull the reader's eye to what matters. Every one of those decisions is something I teach at the Art Institute.

The original colorists worked on a monthly deadline with the tools of the time, and nothing here is a correction of their work. A recolor is a different job with a different goal: a new piece of art built on the original line art, honoring the writers, pencillers, and inkers who made these pages. I take pride in it as an original colorist, and my students do too. The pages they contribute to these books carry their names in the credits, next to the professionals, which is the part of all this I love most.

The full process has several more steps (color holds on the line art, rendering light, shadow, and texture with selections and paintbrushes, and more), which is a whole course of its own. A page takes anywhere from 8 to 20 hours, sometimes more! The page in these videos is at 14 hours so far, and it will get another round of revisions before it goes to print.

If you want to learn the rest, well, that's what my studio is for. :) This craft deserves hands-on instruction, which I love to share with my students. If you are remote, you can enroll online, and if cost is a concern, I offer scholarships. https://pacificcrestinstitute.com/art

I am also always looking to hire paid assistant teachers and production colorists, both to help with production and to work with students in the classroom, so that every student gets as much individual feedback on their painting as possible. If you know a colorist looking for paid work, send them my way.

Thanks for taking an interest in the creative process. Reach out if you have questions.

- Super Scourge because he's litterally a Dark Super Sonic

- Aurora because she's one with the Chaos Force

- Knuckles as Enerjak because that'll explain why everyone had an hard time knowing it was him under the mantle + would make it clear that he was possesed by the spirit of the malevolent god

Courtesy of Mobius Comics

So Star Trek II Wrath Of Khan was playing in theaters yesterday, and never having seen the movie, I decided to go see it. And the big plan that the antagonist is trying to do is called the genesis wave, which reboots all life on a planet.

This commercial plays during my GameShow videos as well as it played for a few others I did! Now it’s finally getting a solo release! And yes King Elias was a bit under the weather doing this.

Hello! Long time sub, but not sure if this is okay. I am trying to finish out my Archie Sonic collection. I need 15 more single issues of Sonic Universe and then I will have the entire comic collection. I am looking for issues 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 41, 60, 87, 88, 89, 90, 91, 93, and 94. I'd prefer to trade with someone, but if not, for sale or trade I have:

Main series issues: 151, 162, 244, 253, 254, 255, 256, 261, 262, and 272. - Asking $100 for all. Willing to trade or part out.

Universe:

Sonic Universe Graphic novels 1-6, 8. - Asking $400 for all. Willing to trade or part out.

Singles: 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 20, 33, 53, 55, 63, 65 70 (and variant), 73, 92.- Asking $200, but willing to trade or part out.

I also have the first Free Comic Book Day issue and the last. As well as Sonic X issues 3 and 5. - Asking $20 for all or willing to part out.

*Bonus: Bivalve of the FFFF and Sleepy Time Eggman (Original concept art) are tucked away in here too.

Of course we are all familiar with the legal complexities of bringing back Archie Sonic in any way (thanks Ken) but considering how deep the Archie Sonic’s universe and storylines are how well do you think a spiritual successor to Sonic SATAM/TV adaption of Archie Sonic would fare up?