For a long while I was considering having the Hero Code be a black and white book - simply from a cost point of view. However, the world of superheroes is a colourful one, and, although used to oversized black and white reprints from my childhood, it felt wrong to not have the book be colour.
I was incredibly luck to find such a talented colourist in Heather. Not only is she great at what she does, but she is fast and understands direction very well, making communication very very easy.
I'll let Heather take over:
My name is Heather Breckel and I graduated from the Columbus College of Art and Design with a degree in Time Based Media. I'm currently working the food service game while I work on someday being able to live off of coloring. I'm obviously the colorist of The Hero Code.
1. What is your process for working?
If I'm given no prior instructions of what the comic should look like from the script, I typically do a little research to figure out the overall feel for it as that will influence my palette and style. Sometimes I'll look at other comics to get an idea of how I want to tackle a book. Once I have a general idea of how I want the comic to look, I just dive right in. The first page is always the hardest as that's when I figure out the initial color palette which can take forever. But after that first hurdle I become a machine and churn the pages out.
2. How long have you been creating?
I've been drawing since I was a child, but didn't discover the wonders of Photoshop until sometime in middle school. I actually didn't decide on being a colorist professionally until my senior year in college, when I'd already spent a lot of time to become an animator.
3. Who or what are your biggest influences?
Marte Gracia, Tony Wash, Dave Stewart, Betty Breitweiser, David Mack, Sam Kieth
4. What else are you currently working on?
I'm working on several titles through Studio4Hire, some of them are Emerald Quest, Demigods, Hotshot, Alien Apocalypse, and WarZone. I'm also doing some work with Jesse Grillo on a book called Sensory Distortion. I just finished my first actual drawn book called The Adorable Mini Adventures which is actually a black and white work. There's a few other things but I don't know what all I'm allowed to discuss.
5. Finally, If you were a superhero, what would your power be?
Teleportation. Whenever I'm stuck in traffic being the geek I am I wish I could use a hearthstone like in the game World of Warcraft. So not having to deal with traffic or high gas prices or massive traveling expenses would be amazing. Sure, it wouldn't really help the world, but it'd help me.
Saturday, September 24, 2011 at 10:13AM 
