Behind the Scenes: Raccoony Remastered

Here's an update for patrons on how the Raccoony work is going! The strips were originally scanned and optimized for early 2000s web viewing (1024x768). But Raccoony deserves better so I've been remastering and recoloring the old comic strips. 

The process goes like this. I grab the Raccoony Bible (photo attached). You can see how the original comic was drawn in a hardbound sketchbook. Most of the pages are there in that book. (I've been told by other artists that this is a very weird way to work. I won't deny that I am weird.)

Bible in hand, I re-scan the originals at 600dpi. You might ask, "But Leaf, isn't 600dpi overkill for a webcomic?" Yes it is way overkill! But I'm excited to say that There Will Be A Raccoony Comic Book! The high-resolution comics will print a lot better. I'm not announcing the book yet though because it'll be a ways in the future.

Then I clean up the raw scans. Apply the typical Photoshop trips like adjusting levels. Sometimes a bit of hacking with digital pen & eraser to mend little issues that were present in the originals. You can see the cleaned-up BW version of the comic here. Historical note: Originally there was no intention for Raccoony to be colored. I wanted to work on inking techniques and I was perfectly happy leaving it black-and-white. Some fans had offered to color the strips for me, and thanks to their efforts we have the classic colored strips that we all know and love. But the B&W versions of the comic represent my original vision for the comic.

I wanted to re-imagine the colors for this remastered version of Raccoony. So I went back to classic comics that I loved and drew inspiration. Bill Watterson (Calvin & Hobbes) was especially inspiring. So I selected new color palettes and coloring guidelines, and solicited some help to get the colors painted on. A giant thank-you to Mag for helping me with applying the colors! This saves me a bunch of effort and he does a fantastic job. Mag goes by Pawgoop on Patreon. He does great toony art. Consider supporting him if you like his art. :)

I'm very happy with how these turned out. For kicks you could try comparing these with old BW & color versions that were posted 20 years ago. I hope you liked this behind-the-scenes sneak peak. :)

Title of strip: "Makes Me Feel Kinda Funny"