Here’s a first on two counts. One, it’s my first shot at drawing Mary Jane since my last issue of SENSATIONAL SPIDER-MAN all those years ago (it seems like half-a-lifetime by now…)– and second, it’s my first time trying to color something in Photoshop. I can’t say I’m entirely happy with the results, but as frustrating as it was to do, I’m not going to try to futz with it anymore and possibly make it worse. I’m a very slow, slow learner as a rule anyway– but Photoshop to me just seems like something that’s almost alien in its complexity. My brother was here at my home this past weekend (with his lovely wife as well as my parents– we had a wonderful Easter visit) and he gave me a tutorial on the software. Watching his hands fly over the keys and play with various functions as he showed me everything that PS can do– he made it look so effortless. But of course, when I sit down to try a few things, all that “learnin'” flies right out of my head. I guess I was lucky to just be able to set up the layers properly.

Anyway, I’ll be playing with PS more to try to get better with it, but the frustration factor might keep me from posting too many colored sketches in the future. So for now, here’s my crudely colored Mary Jane……

Mike