The Digital Way to Color Comics and Graphic Novels

Intro:

            In recent years, computers have been increasingly integrated into the creation of graphic publications such as comic book and graphic novels.  Specifically, programs such as Photoshop have replaced key steps in the illustration production of these publications that have been done by hand in the past, providing great benefits in time reduction and in quality.  Soon, perhaps the entire idea to final product process will be done completely on the computer, creating a fully digital process.

Background:

            In the past, comic book and graphic novel illustrations was done entirely by hand.  From the initial sketching, to the inking, coloring, and finally typesetting, all was done manually.  For the coloring specifically, the color artist would have a selection of 63 colors to use originally, however that number would increase to 124 in the 1970s.  They were limited in their choices by the amount of the three primary colors of printing they used, Yellow, Magenta, and Cyan.  Each color used had to be made up of a certain percentage combination of these colors.  For example, 25% of Yellow and 25% of Magenta would create a color similar to flesh tone.  Color artists would then apply the colors to the inked pages using watercolors or markers and make a note on the page of which color they used with the corresponding color code.  Afterwards, the color artist would hand in his pages to the editor of the comic series, the collection of pages with the color codes on them would be referred to as the color guide.   This completed the color artist’s job in the process in creating the comic book or graphic novel.

            Even then, the process of coloring wasn’t finished.  Using the color guide, a group of workers would then paint a sheet of material called Acetate, one sheet for each amount of color needed on the page.  For example, there would need to be a separate sheet for yellow at 50 percent and a separate sheet for yellow at 100 percent.  These sheets would then be taken to a shop to produce the negatives, from which the actual comic would be printed from.

This process of coloring pages was very limited.  Not only would the color artist need to redo the entire page if he made a mistake, but it also took a lot of time to color the pages.  Because it was such a tedious job with not a lot of room for creativity, the job of the color artist was not thought well of.  It often was viewed as a role below that of the original character design artist or the inker.  It would not be till the 1980’s that the process would stay this way.

Potential Benefits:

Currently, the process of coloring in comic books and graphic novels is done completely on a computer.  The color artist will receive inked pages digitally, already scanned and ready for him to color.  Using Photoshop or a similar program, he would then color the pages and send the finished files of the colored pages to his editor.  The medium that the artist would use to send his files might vary from company to company, however in this modern digital age the common ones are CDs or simply file hosting sites.  While email is a useful tool, the file sizes of each page can range from 50 to 100 megabytes depending on the resolution they are saved at.  Only mediums that can hold files of that size would be beneficial, as email storage space is limited as it currently stands.

While slightly different, these steps are a lot like the ones a color artist would make before the introduction of computers to the process.  However, now the color artist has the freedom to make changes instantly without having to redo the entire page at all.  Because of the relative ease of making changes to the coloring of a page, coloring now has become an art of its own.  A coloring artist can now add shadows, change light sources, and apply color overlays.  Now the job of a coloring artist is a lot more involved, allowing creative artists to stand out from others and create their own personal touch to the finished work.  Gone are the days of the 40’s when comics would seem flat and two dimensional.  Now with the right techniques, color artists can create a sense of depth to the page and can greatly accentuate the work.

In fact, anyone with a computer and access to an art editing program like Photoshop can go through a similar process that the color artists of today’s comic books use.  Using a single layer for each color, users can select sections of the picture to fill and then apply the color of their choice.  Many amateur artists can use this simple process to color their work for art projects or for their own comic creations.  In fact several authors of comics hosted solely on the web, referred to as “web comics”, use this process to color their own comics before publishing them to internet.  From digitally inking their original sketches, to adding screen tone and other effects, using an art program gives anyone with the right know-how the tools to create a great work if art.  There exists many an artist online who has the same level of skill to that of a modern day color artist.  To achieve a high level of quality however, you would have to do more than simply filling in each color.  Techniques such as the ones listed above can be used in different ways to help tell the story and guide the reader through the pages of the comic.  This is what separates different color artists from each other and make their personal touch on the final outcome of the comic or graphic novel.  

Further Research:

            To be honest, there isn’t much more research needed into this field.  For most color artists in comic book and graphic novel design, using programs such as Photoshop has become a standard of workmanship.  However not all the steps to creating these works are entirely digital, as some artists choose to do the character designs and panel layouts on paper before sending them to the inker.  Perhaps in the future, technology would be able to completely emulate the experience of using paper and pencil, more so than the electronic art tablets of today.  Only then would the entire design process would be purely digital.  Perhaps even the printing of comics would give way to a paperless distribution process.  Only time will tell.

Conclusion:

            With the amount of freedom that using a computer in the coloring process allows, it’s no wonder that it’s so widely used in the comic and graphic novel market.  It’s also allowed color artist to create their own mark of talent to add to the quality of work that goes into the finished product.  The simplicity of the process allows for amateurs to try their hand as long as they have access to an art program to use, while letting more professional artist’s work to really shine through.  This author believes that the further inclusion of computers into the modern production of comic books and graphic novels can only refine the process more and more.