Done for my friend, Nigel. It was his request & his concept… and I believe this “mythical kiss” might have actually been done for-real in an Archie comic in recent years. Not sure—I pay no attention to this stuff!
I decided to employ a couple of techniques I’ve been playing with of late, namely doing the inks solely with a brush pen (a Sakura Pigma, if you’re curious), and adding some “colour accents”…
Although I’ve toyed with getting a proper set of colour art markers, I’ve yet to make the investment; all I have are some cheap Boldmere colour brush pens, from The Works. These things don’t offer a large colour range, nor are they agreeable to solid coverage or blending, so I basically use them for highlights or accents rather than full-colour.
I actually think working with them is an interesting challenge and the results can be striking… this piece is a good example that I think works very well. It’s kind of a Wizard of Oz vibe, with the dream being the vivid, colourful aspect, which I emphasised by using pencil tones on the B&W half.
Also, I quite happily allowed (even encouraged) some of the brush pen’s inking strokes to come out a little dry—it was a well-used brush in action—rather than worrying about neatness. I like how it looks.
I particularly like how Archie was rendered.
Chrissie,
Very pleased with this. I especially like the contrast of the black and white versus the colours and I like the style of the Archie figure – classic rather than ‘modern’. I think Betty and Veronica are a couple in the Archie vs. Predator series (of all places)
Nigel
A cheeky take on squeaky clean characters that gave me a naughty chuckle.