Sheriff Bill in Colour

March 24, 2014 · by karencomics · in Character Design, coloured pencils, Ink, Watercolour pencils (aquarelles). ·

Just a small post today — a while back I drew a little character study of Sheriff Bill Platypus, suggested by my comic jam buddies when I asked what to draw. Trust Other Minds to come up with something I never would have thought of! At the time I only had done him in pen and ink, but today I coloured him, using watercolour pencils and regular coloured pencils. I used the watercolour pencils to achieve the basic flat colours, then apply shading with the regular coloured pencils. I think I’m going to have to put together a gallery of these studies, I’m starting to get a collection! And then make a comic about them…

8 responses to “Sheriff Bill in Colour”

mathew992 March 24, 2014 at 10:51 pm · · Reply →

I love this character !

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- karencomics March 24, 2014 at 11:23 pm · · Reply →
  
  Thanks, Mathew!
  
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Ulla Hennig March 25, 2014 at 1:31 am · · Reply →

Love the character, too! It is interesting what you say about the use of watercolour pencils and coloured pencils. At the moment I am trying to do the same, using markers for the flat colours and the coloured pencils for the shading. I also like the hat – not one of the stetson, but a very old and worn one – looks good!

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- karencomics March 25, 2014 at 9:23 am · · Reply →
  
  Thanks, Ulla! My most-used method for illustration is to lay down watercolour first, coloured pencils after — in this case the watercolour pencils substituted for the watercolour; markers do much the same thing, so we are using the same technique! I’d love to try doing more with markers, but because they are so expensive, I’ve only splurged on a set of greys to use instead of ink wash.
  
  The hat is a portrait of my own old “disreputable desert rat hat” (the one I”m wearing in my avatar pic) which was found in a garage sale by my neighbours — it’s so comfy, I absolutely live in it in the summertime! The label inside says “Outback” but it’s made in the US. I thought it was appropriate for a wild-west Platypus!
  
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  - Ulla Hennig March 26, 2014 at 12:22 am · · Reply →
    
    Fortunately we have some not so expensive markers here in Germany – the Delta marker which is made by Rotbart and the Stylefile marker. They really have a reasonable price. Maybe you could get Stylefile Markers in Canada? The Delta Markers I think are only sold in Germany.
    
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    - karencomics March 26, 2014 at 10:35 am · · Reply →
      
      Thanks, Ulla — I’ll look for those! The most popular ones here are the Copic markers, which I haven’t tried (because they’re so expensive); I use Prismacolor ones because I happened upon them while they were on sale, and I wanted to try them out. If I find the ones you mention, I’ll get some and let you know how I like them!
      
      I found this while looking for the Stylefile markers:
      http://wednesdaysheroes.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/markerguide3.pdf
      
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chalaedra March 25, 2014 at 9:51 am · · Reply →

Oh, he’s such a cutie! I love him in color. Knew I would though, because I thought he was great in black and white.

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- karencomics March 25, 2014 at 10:41 am · · Reply →
  
  Thanks, Charlotte! Maybe when I come down your way, I’ll get some ideas for a whole cast of Western characters! (I used to love all the Western TV shows when I was a kid — mostly for the horses, I admit!)
  
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