The Gang, with Color

I think I’ve mentioned once or twice that I don’t consider coloring to be one of my strong suits. I think I can do it well but it does require a lot of trial and error on my part for me to feel like I’ve done it well. I’m a noodler. I like gradients and detail. Just laying down flat colors and calling it good is hard for me.

Flat coloring is faster than gradient, layered color, however, and I’m trying to speed up my processes. For the current incarnation of Oz Squad I’m just doing flat colors. So, even though my fingers are itching to add shadows and highlights, I’m calling this done.

Urrrghh.

Some of the Gang

I started this illustration a few years ago. With Oz-Squad.com getting put together I figured that now was a good time to finish it. I’d originally intended it as a promo illustration for the Oz Squad comic revival. Now I’ll be using it as the illustration on the intro page of the website. I did the last of the inking and scanned it in on Friday. If all goes well I’ll have it colored in time to post that version on Monday. If all goes really I’ll have the text of the introduction finished as well and they can both go up together.

Oz Squad Portraits – the Wizard



In the first Oz book, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, the Wizard is revealed to be a little man, barely taller than Dorothy, who is as bald as an egg. In every book thereafter the text describes him as a little man who is as bald as an egg. The illustrations by John R. Neill, however, show him with a lively fringe of hair. He’s also quite a bit taller than in the original Denslow illustrations.

As you can see I prefer a version with the lively fringe. If asked to explain the difference I’d say that the Wizard shaved his head during his first sojourn in Oz. A shaved head would have made it easier for him to slip on the disguises he needed to maintain his air of mystery.

I don’t have as easy an explanation for the difference in height.