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Step 3

(Click image to see larger version.)

Here we have almost all the flat color laid in, and the front-and-center Connie has been both colored and shaded. I decided early-on in the process that only Connie and Connie Mark 2 should be shaded, and the rest should remain flat. I did this for several reasons. The dimensionality of the front two Connies would make them "pop" just a bit in front of the other characters, despite the riot of color being used. Also, the original Marvel Universe covers were all done in the days before PhotoShop. Colorists in those days only had a limited color palette to play with, and you just couldn't do elaborate shading without liberal use of zipatone.

Take note of a couple things here before going on to the following images...

I was having a frightening time with the middle left quarter of the page, particularly around Captain America/Captain Carrot/Captain Mavel/Colossus/Colossal Boy. They all have red/blue outfits, and they're all layered on top of one another. I first tried to delineate them by using different shades of each color, using duller and darker colors as I went into the background. The result is a very dark Colossal Boy. This was unacceptable for the long run, but I couldn't think of a better solution at the time.

On to Step 4.

All content copyright Melissa Kaercher and/or MISFITS, 2005. All rights reserved.