Black & white or colour?

NakedElf · Post by **NakedElf** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 9:57 pm

It depends on what I'm doing, obviously.

TNE has relatively simple art which doesn't take too long to draw and benefits a lot from color. I think it'd be visually very boring (and perhaps not as easy to distinguish the shapes in,) if it were in black and white.

If I ever start up my 'Epic Manga Style Epic of Epicness' again, it's going to be black and white. For starters, I think it looks *good* done in a sort of psuedo-Chinese black and white watercolor ink style, and second, it takes WAY too long to do it in color. If I ever want to actually finish the comic, I have to do it in a way that will actually let me finish it.

Dutch! · Post by **Dutch!** » Fri Sep 07, 2007 11:16 pm

I started in black and white (generally just line art with a bit of greyscale shades) because it's pretty well how newspaper comics look - black and white. Although for the last year or so our state paper has started printing all the comics in colour anyway.

I moved to shading (greyscale shades and shadows) after about 45 strips, I think, to give the panels more depth and character and thought they worked well so I stuck with them.

But the strip's about little kids and stuff they'd be interested in and how they'd see the world. While they generally see the world in black and white (good or bad, right or wrong, etc)... it was crying out for colour. After 160 strips I moved to full colour and it just brings the entire strip to life.

It's fairly simple colouring, of course, but they're bright colours (although I think I've toned them back enough that they're not going to offend the more pedantic of the readers out there) and just suit the whole theme of the strip.

Black and white is great, it just didn't suit this particular work.

Axonite · Post by **Axonite** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 5:46 am

legostargalactica wrote:
axonite wrote:So you're saying Legostar Galactica is in color because he's lazy...?

http://legostargalactica.comicgen.com/d/20030129.html

OK... once in 2003. I take it back.

Swimmingtrunks · Post by **Swimmingtrunks** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 7:25 am

I originally started working in black and white because I thought it would be easier/faster than color. The way I do greyscale has kind of complicated itself over the years to where it might take a similar amount of time to a simple color style- but this current way suits Antagonist better anyway, I think.

Alschroeder · Post by **Alschroeder** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 8:32 am

Both my comics are superhero comics. In other words, I'm not vying for the attention of the average, ohhh, reader of the daily PEANUTS or FAR SIDE strips. I'm vying for the attention of the reader of 52 and CIVIL WAR. Which generally means---brighter colors, broader strokes, less clever and consistent characterizations. *Grin*

I remember when ZOT went from color to black-and-white. I tried to keep interested, I really did. But despite some wonderful writing---it was a depressing experience.

Besides, as some have noted on their art, my art is only passable, but with digital coloring it looks half decent.---Al

[geoduck] · Post by **[geoduck]** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 5:48 pm

My strip started out grayscale, but now the appearence of color is a plot-point.

Bustertheclown · Post by **Bustertheclown** » Sat Sep 08, 2007 9:27 pm

I've tried to add to this discussion a few times, only to have it turn into a bit of a tirade about color theory and general visual technique. So, this attempt will be aimed more towards personal preference. I love black and white. I love working in black and white. I feel that there's a different discipline to it, which isn't the same at all with color. I've developed a style that's best suited to black and white, and my storytelling sensibilities have geared themselves toward the use of black and white to an optimal effect. (at least that's what I hope, anyway)

I do agree with yeahduff's assertion that too many webcartoonists don't think through their color choices too well, although I think that most often a symptom of more fundamental problems. Also, I'm not a fan of the use of color as a rainbow Band-Aid for weak or lazy graphics, which is something I see more and more these days, even amongst the professional ranks. If a person doesn't feel that their work is up to par, they should work harder to improve to their standards, rather than working to cover up the weaknesses. Drawing is the foundation to our craft, whether we like it or not.

Vorticus · Post by **Vorticus** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 8:22 am

When I work, I like to work in color since my sketch work leaves much to be desired.

Orinocou · Post by **Orinocou** » Sun Sep 09, 2007 6:48 pm

I use color in the FF6 Comic for a couple-a reasons, which follow thusly:

1) Colors tend to be more eye-catching than B&W. By offering colored pages, I am hoping to attract the attention of more readers. Superficial, I know. But I also do it because

2) Using grayscale/B&W effectively takes skill that I do not have. With color, you can easily chose a pallet to set the mood of a scene or to do special effects (smoke, rain). I think these effects are harder (and thus, take more skill) to achieve in the gray/B&W medium. They're especially challenging if you're working only with pen and ink.

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Reubo · Post by **Reubo** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:46 pm

Colour... with shading if I have the time. Occasionally black and white if I have not enough time

Black Sparrow · Post by **Black Sparrow** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 8:59 pm

My first comic, I did color. Shading, lighting, the whole shebang. Trouble is, I burned out. Something about spending a couple hours a day trying to color with a mouse just drains the passion.

Now, I'm trying my hand at pure black-and-white, with color only for title pages. I like finishing most of the work BEFORE I scan... it's more conducive to finishing a page in class.

Kilre · Post by **Kilre** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 11:26 pm

I've always felt that you can't have dramatic atmosphere without heavy contrast striking extremes simply from the visual style. I've striven for it--and failed quite a bit.

Color would only help distinguish objects further than lighting and shadows; straight up blacks, whites, and the shades between are what really make the moods and scenes.

Right now I'm experimenting with using shades of blue instead of black; for one, it's more distinguishable from my linework--which is black--and, anyways, blue is still a component color of black in some palettes, so there's no loss.

EDIT:

Paul Escobar wrote: However, I'm currently doing page layouts for a more story-driven project which I think would work better in colour - something about presenting a "serious" fictional world seems to me to call for colour, for some reason I can't quite put my finger on. (Colouring is obviously a lot of additional work, so I honestly wouldn't mind someone offering an artistically valid reason to do it in black & white... rather than the reason of just wanting to avoid the extra work... ahem.)

Have you seen the magic that black and white contrast can perform? Oh, the wonders of heavy, heavy, blacks and stark whites...

Even with the whole grayscale thrown in, it's easy to create upbeat, moody, depressed, and action scenes simply with the amounts of white and black allowed on the page. And hell, it's always easier to appreciate copious amounts of black during emotional moments in comics; just eliminate the colors and use some sparse grays and whites.

Fabio Ciccone · Post by **Fabio Ciccone** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 4:37 am

I do B/W 'cause I have no time to color my comic. I barely have time to make it at all these days :\

Zwuh · Post by **Zwuh** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:33 am

Colour or black + white, it looks pretty fricking awesome either way.

Dragoness_Minerva · Post by **Dragoness_Minerva** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:07 am

When I was younger I used to hate coloring, but now everything I do has to be colored. One of my characters looks just plain weird without color (and is strangely the one I really hate coloring).

BoShek · Post by **BoShek** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 10:40 am

Black and White for me. Color on Photoshop fascinates me, but alas I do not have Photoshop and The Gimp confuses me no end. The current short-story that's going on on my site is entireley in black Sharpie which I think is awesome. Others might disagree, but I have a passion for Sharpies. Except that drawing in Sharpie for hours gives toxic-stench headaches.

Yeahduff · Post by **Yeahduff** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 11:18 am

Also it's not archival.

The Mortician · Post by **The Mortician** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 3:12 pm

Black/White and color for ADAM - difference between time frames.

Color for XIII only. because it looks pretty.

Guardsman · Post by **Guardsman** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 4:25 pm

Personally I’m sitting on the happy, but difficult, middle ground. I use tone on my manga. Now traditional tone work is too difficult for me to actually attempt so it’s all digital. So is my inking.

Irony is to get my manga to look nice it takes about three hours to do all the digital work. That doesn’t factor in the effort of actually drawing it all by hand, on good old paper.

Of course that doesn’t mean I can’t color, I simply choose not to, I can color just fine. Personally I want to work on my line work more. But that’s another story, regardless chalk me up for the black and white category.

Guardsman

Guyford · Post by **Guyford** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 4:55 pm

Mine started out in grayscale and then switched to color after a few months. The main reason was the time needed to finish coloring a page (takes me a few hours to color a page). The plan was for me to stick with grayscale and use color pages every once in a while. I initially thought it would take too long to do each page in color, but I made the switch after a few months when I had some extra time.

I didn't think that I would have enough time to keep things going in full color, but after a couple of pages, I realized that it didn't take me much longer to do things in color as opposed to grayscale. I also ended up streamlining the way I colored things in general during those first full color pages, so I stuck with it.