This is a re-colored version of an old Flash Gordon piece I did back in 2001, and this is the story of how I did it. Working on the latest Flash Gordon picture made me do a deep dive back into my archives. WAY back! While not my first digital piece, it was very early on and using only Photoshop 5. Not CS5, FIVE! 
So, while I normally like to look to see if my actual drawing has improved, this time I was looking at the use of the media. This picture was drawn back in 2000-2001 with a cruddy pencil and on register tape. What is that? that is the paper loaded into a cash register to print receipts. Back in the day if I was bored while working one at Disney, I was known to doodle on such paper. So, I drew this, clearly influenced by Bruce Timm's Batman and done badly, shoved it in my pocket and brought it home and then scanned it in using a friend's scanner. Transporting it was an issue as this was before the cloud, jump drives, DVDs or CDs and since my buddy didn't have a Zip drive, it had to fit on a floppy disc. Not knowing how to isolate the line drawing by ANY means, it got crudely filled in as seen. I didn't mind as this was only my study and not the final by any means.
Here is the picture I did wind up making and was posted years ago. Heck, it was even in my portfolio for a time. Each layer, as you can see, was done separately in a different file to keep the computer running smoothly. A common practice at the time. In fact, I still do this today but now I have the benefit of using "smart objects". They were still about five years away from being introduced. Pretty simple layer files and structure, nothing fancy going on. No effects really beyond the type and fades. That was pretty fancy back then.
I was still drawing and inking everything by hand on real paper since iPad's didn't exist and the Wacom Cintiq had JUST come into the market making it the first time you could draw right on the screen, but they were super expensive and not yet widespread. I would not even see one in person for several years. Heck, it would be a few years more before I even got my own side tablet (Wacom Intuos), and that was used. Flood filling and coloring your lines was much more difficult for me back then. Using just the magic wand tool and the paint bucket would blow out your already rough lines and then you would have to chisel away the stray pixels. Or so I thought. I had no clue about channels and clipping masks back then and there wasn't a YouTube to learn from either, so you just experimented on your own or copied from your peers. While examining this file is when I decided I would re-install Photoshop 5 and see what I could do with it now.
I was a bit surprised that it actually worked and opened right up! I had to take a moment and look around at the menu and such to re-familiarize myself with it. Plus, just because it may have looked the same, didn't mean it worked the same as I am used to now. There was a bit of gnashing of teeth as my muscle memory had to be fought from hitting some short cut keys that didn't exist yet. Beyond that, I was more surprised how much more robust the program was. If only I had known how to use it back then! I WAS able to make a clean line using channels still and make my color adjustments and use clipping masks! I decided to re-color my picture with only the knowledge I had now. I had to use the same files, and I even forced myself to only use the mouse! That may have been a step to far as the program did work fine using my Huion tablet. The brush engine, or lack of, was a big hurdle for me. That and how much I relied on using the navigator back then as zooming was limited with shortcuts or scroll wheels.
After re-coloring all the parts, I re-assembled them into the file to adjust the lighting and add some texture and effects. Really missed using smart objects here!! Re-coloring took longer than normal too as the old version saw color differently.
So, there you have it. A re-colored piece from 2001 using the same tech. Sure, my choices may have changed over the years, as you can see the newer one is much warmer, but overall, I think the drawing holds up for the most part. To be honest, I didn't think this would work at all and it would all end in frustration, but the old program still has legs! Turns out, it was not lacking, my skills in using it were!! How is that for a hit to the ego!?
Maybe I should do this all again and this time use the most current version of Photoshop (which I do not have), as I am still using CS6! My version is probably just as "outdated" as PS5 was.
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