i played around with all manner of colouring for this after i brought it into photoshop and while i found certain results interesting, i opted for the most minimal. here were a few of those experiments.

decent contrast here but the details of the original drawing kind of got lost.

another alternative:

i tried to let the background provide some contrast and restore some of the detail.

overall, i actually liked the process that went into achieving the two draft versions but i didn’t like that i lost the detail that i feel needs to be seen. finding that process was a happy accident, just not one that jives with this portrait i think. i guess the lesson for me was that i can’t always be calling an audible on the final output. i should work on planning more…maybe. matt berninger of the national.