Coloring Inks

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MiG

Coloring Inks

Post by MiG »

Hello again, been a while since I last posted anything here but I've got a question. It's been addressed here before if I'm not mistaken but I just want to know what you do when this phenomenon called "coloring inks" happen.

I started out on a new comic book 6 months ago for a company here in Sweden and I create the fine pencils of rather grubby roughs and breakdowns and being the way I am I strain myself to make it as good looking as possible. Apparently my pencils is a hit but the big problem as I see it is the danged coloring. When we get the inked pages back the colorist goes crazy and overdo every panel and also commits the heinous crime of coloring the crap out of my line work here and there. This is highly disturbing for me since I put so much into my work and the colorist grabs it and then makes it look bad. The worst part of this is that every one else think it looks ok which I think is rather daft of them.

Now, if something looks ok here in Sweden it probably won't survive the international market since the quality simply won't cut it. I've come to the conclusion that my standards are perhaps a bit higher than some of my co- workers, I try to keep stride with the likes of such as yourself, Mr Davis and others of the greatest artists in the industry. I don't think I'm quite there yet but I do believe that this is what we must do in order to keep the comic book alive and when I see the degrading of the comic because of bad coloring I get furious.

Now, since you are one of the best artists I know of I value all and every input I can get from you so here's my question(s): what do you do in circumstances like this? How much influence do you have over the coloring?



Ps. Sorry for the long post, I just wanted to explain this situation a little bit. Ds
Alan Davis
Creator
Posts: 472
Joined: Sat Aug 06, 2005 9:13 pm

Post by Alan Davis »

I have made it clear in the past that I’m not a fan of the majority of computer colouring. Not because of the technology but rather the philosophy that has accompanied the easy application of digital effects that often have little to do with the intention of the black-line art. It seems insane to me that pencillers and inkers are expected to follow the demands of a writer, even when asked to draw massed armies or sweeping detailed city-scapes, whilst the colourist is allowed to satisfy their own egotistical pursuits with no regard to the story or the work of the penciller and colourist. And this does happen. One colourist told me that he was happy to consider my colour notes as long as they didn’t compromise HIS art. This is like the burger flipper in a roadside diner calling himself a chef.
It would be unfair and wrong to say that all colourists are bad. There are a few that are pretty good but they are certainly in the minority
I have recently spoken to a lot of disgruntled professionals about the situation—many inkers see it as a move by the industry to remove the inking process, and I have spoken to colourists who do regard inklines as an obstruction, but more worryingly I have spoken to pencillers who have adopted a defeatist attitude—putting less work onto a page. Less work for the colourist to mess up-- More space for effects so that the effects can dominate. To my mind this is replacing storytelling with a mindless wallpaper of digital static or pages that are so dark it is impossible to see the black line art.
I can only assume that anyone who thinks this looks good has no comprehension of what has been lost—how could they without seeing the blackline art or the pages coloured correctly.
Paulo Pereira
Posts: 112
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:23 pm

Post by Paulo Pereira »

Well spoken, Alan.

I also find I detest most computer coloring (as well as the majority of computer lettering). Not that it can't be used for good, but all too often, it's being used for evil. Aside from the aforementioned obliteration of linework, there is the use of such effects as the blur, which looks terrible (and I can't believe the gall of that colorist – simply incredible!). And I'm afraid those inkers might not be far off, as a lot of art seems to go straight to the computer colorist, these days.

I miss flat color (and hand lettering). It seems the very language of comics is being phased out in favor of something different (and not different in not a good way).
MiG

Post by MiG »

Thank you both for the replies and I can only sympathize. Being a penciler and inker both by nature I have a hard time to accept this coloring trend. The other day I went threw some old Bernie Wrightson material, no color, just inked artwork and his sense of black spots and lighting is unbelievably gorgeous. Why anyone wouldn't want to see that in a comic book is beyond me. And the same goes for any beautifully rendered, inked page, why mess it up with effects which will kill the art in it because that's what it mostly does these days in my opinion. There's a few who can handle an inked page but there's way too few of them.

Back at my work it is indeed the general consensus that anything can be solved with a little color. Makes me wonder what I'm doing there at all. And yes, the pages are pretty often too dark and the line art can't be seen sometimes which in a way is rather ironic considering the fact that I have to be very strict in my pencilling since our inker can follow my lines pretty well but he can't seem to add the necessary detail. So I have to fill every little detail in in my pencils since my details is what the company wants and herein lies the irony ( or perhaps the stupidity ): Once the color comes on my line art here and there can't be seen. So what's the point...

And yeah, I do too miss the old flat coloring. I don't miss the bad print but the old way of doing things with the color mostly let the artwork be and fulfilled its primary function which was being nothing but a complementary ingredient on the page. It didn't overtake it and make hours of craftmanship go down the drain. Sure, some colorists had mad chicken's eyes for colors but they didn't go bananas with the pages. Mostly anyway.

We'll see where the future's heading with this but so far I'm not impressed. I did love the colors for the old post- Onslaught FF issues you made though. Your wonderful and perfect artwork along with the color schemes went very well in them I think.
Paulo Pereira
Posts: 112
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:23 pm

Post by Paulo Pereira »

Just a note, MiG, but from what I can see in your thumbnails in your gallery, your stuff looks great. Unfortunately the links to bigger images don't seem to work.
MiG

Post by MiG »

Thank you Paulo. The gallery needs a major overhaul I think, I've got a lot of updates to do since I haven't really done anything with it in quite some time. There's also been some problems with my web hotel provider's servers recently so it might be because of that too. But I'm working on a new version of my gallery so it should be up and running in the near future. Thanks again^^
Paulo Pereira
Posts: 112
Joined: Tue Sep 19, 2006 8:23 pm

Post by Paulo Pereira »

Hope to see the regular-sized pieces soon, MiG.
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