5 Tips for Colouring Your Comic - 100 Days of Making Comics 2 - DAY 43

Summary

In this video, the creator discusses essential tips for beginners starting a color comic. They emphasize planning color palettes early, maintaining a cohesive color story, and selecting a simple coloring style to save time. The advice includes using fill buckets or large brushes for efficiency, avoiding muddy colors by not shading with black or gray, and considering how colors will appear in print. The creator also shares personal experiences and challenges with coloring, offering encouragement and practical advice for aspiring comic artists.

Takeaways

• 🎨 Plan your color palettes early in the design phase to establish a consistent color story for your comic.
• 🌈 Ensure your color choices match the theme and mood of your story, whether it's somber or vibrant.
• 📐 Lay out all character and setting colors together to check for harmony and make adjustments if needed.
• ⏱️ Simplify your coloring style to save time, especially if you're new to coloring comics.
• 🖌️ Use large brushes or digital fill buckets for coloring to speed up the process and avoid unnecessary labor.
• 🚫 Avoid using pure black or gray for shading; instead, use saturated colors to maintain vibrancy in your artwork.
• 🌙 Study real-life shadows and night scenes to understand how to create depth and darkness without making colors muddy.
• 🖨️ If you plan to print your comic, test your colors on a printer to ensure they look as intended and consider the cost implications.
• 🔍 Consider using CMYK color profiles for printing, or consult with your printer for recommendations on color management.
• 💬 Communicate with print shops to understand their capabilities and recommendations for printing color comics.

Q & A

What is the first tip for beginning a color comic?

The first tip is to plan out your color palettes early on in the design phase, ensuring that the color story of your comic is well thought out and consistent.

Why is it important to understand the color story of your comic?

Understanding the color story is important because it helps to convey the mood and theme of the comic, whether it's somber, cyberpunk, or magical, and ensures that the colors match and belong in the same story.

What does the speaker suggest doing once you have your color palettes ready?

Once you have your color palettes ready, the speaker suggests laying them all out to look at them together to ensure that all the colors match and fit cohesively within the comic's story.

What is the second tip for creating a color comic?

The second tip is to have a simple coloring style for your comic to avoid complicating the process and to save time, especially when working on a large number of pages.

Why does the speaker recommend avoiding painterly styles in color comics?

The speaker recommends avoiding painterly styles because they can be time-consuming and complex, which can significantly extend the time required to complete coloring a comic with many pages.

What is the third tip mentioned in the script for coloring comics?

The third tip is to use fill buckets or big paint brushes to fill in large areas of color, as this is more efficient than using tiny brushes and saves time.

Why should artists avoid shading with black or gray when coloring their comics?

Shading with black or gray can lead to muddy and dull colors, as it reduces saturation. Instead, artists should aim to use a variety of values and saturations to create depth and vibrancy in shadows and darker scenes.

What is the fifth tip for creating a color comic, and why is it important?

The fifth tip is to check how the colors will look when printed, as screens can display colors that standard printer inks cannot. This is important because it affects the choice of colors and values used in the comic to ensure they look good in print.

What advice does the speaker give regarding the printing of color comics?

The speaker advises to understand the capabilities of the printer, test colors with proofs, and possibly use CMYK color profiles for safer printing. They also suggest talking to a printing shop for recommendations and potentially doing test prints at home or a library.

What is a consideration the speaker mentions about printing color comics?

The speaker mentions that color comics are more expensive to print than black and white comics, which is a consideration for creators who plan to print their work.

What does the speaker suggest doing to improve efficiency when coloring large areas?

The speaker suggests using digital fill buckets or traditional big paint brushes to fill in large areas quickly, instead of laboriously using small brushes.