Behind the scenes: The colours of Now Recharging
Now Recharging is not a full-colour comic. It’s primarily three colours: a brown, a blue, and a blue-green (or greener blue). Okay, four colours, if you count the black inks! You can get quite a bit of variety out of the three colours, all depending on variables like mixing, gradiating one colour into another colour, which colour gets laid down as the base first, etc. A lot of backgrounds for example are brown laid down in an uneven wash, followed by the blue-green/greener blue on top, creating an interesting patina effect, as seen in these panels.
This approach, of using this particular group of hues, was inspired back when I was experimenting using waterbrush on top of Muji pens. I found the coloured refills were great for portable traveling doodles and getting watercolour-like effects. Below are a few examples of these drawings with Now Recharging characters from from 2015 and 2017.
As I experimented with the limited range of colours, I found I particularly liked the look of yellow, blue and green together. So I started looking more into doing a three-colour palette, and eventually shifted to the brown, blue, blue/green scheme.
At the beginning of the story, way back in 2015, I think I was still using Reeves student watercolours. These were a set of tube paints I had been gifted with even more years ago in university. They last a long time! I think the colours I was using at the time were Burnt Umber, Ultramarine, and Phthalo Blue.
After some experimenting, looking for something more convenient with less packaging to deal with, I ended up switching to Daniel Smith watercolour sticks. This line has no Phthalo Blue, so the colours shifted to Burnt Umber, French Ultramarine, and Phthalo Turquoise.
Can you tell where the shift in colours and paint brands shift happened in the comic pages? I’m actually not sure myself anymore… but looking back through my photos my best guess is around July 2016, so end of Chapter 0 or beginning of Chapter 1.
Periodically, I do add some other colours, either to emphasize something specific, or to bring in a bit more “wow” for a special scene. Red is the most common addition; sometimes there are also yellows and more yellowy-greens. You’ll notice the red in Emmie’s eyes of rage in Chapter 0 Labour page 40. Chapter 7 was distinct in that red was used throughout to highlight key things all over Red Dust World. In Chapter 10 Aware, yellows and greens are used to play up Shiny’s hinoki fragrance. The sunsets in Chapter 3 Ordinary Day page 28 and Chapter 11 Story Time page 70 were two of the rare instances of full colour being used for special impact.
The main benefit of a three-colour palette is threefold. It gives a bit of a distinct look to the comic, while also being enough to give the illusion of a fuller spectrum of colour. And best of all the limited palette allows me to work faster without getting stuck by indecision on colour choices!
Funnily enough, when it comes time to create full-colour illustrations for the book covers and some of the bonus illustrations, I sometimes find myself scratching my head since I’m actually not entirely sure what the colour of something is… And to be honest, sometimes I can’t quite remember the exact way I mixed or blended or layered the three colours to get a particular effect, and I don’t tend to keep proper notes on things. So things shift throughout.
Also, sometimes I imagine: maybe the robots in Now Recharging perceive the colours of the world like this? Who’s to say?
Some quick news: I’m excited to announce that I’ve finally reopened my online shop with physical items, include Now Recharging print books (1 and 2) and some other Now Recharging merch! You can check it out here! It’s been a while since I’ve done this, and things are quite different now, so please take a look at this Ko-fi post for an overview on shop operations before ordering.
♥ Maiji (Aug 1, 2022)
