Color Comparison (Help Needed)

BlueWorldComics 2024-09-16 06:45:21 UTC #1

To get straight to the point (details below, though they aren't necessary): I hired a friend to color one of my comic pages. While I liked certain aspects of their work, there were several fundamental flaws, along with other issues. So, I decided to recolor it myself, using their general color scheme but making what I felt were essential changes.

What do you think of the adjustments I made? My friend's version is A, and mine is B. Do you agree that the changes were a needed improvement, or do you think my friend was on the right track?

Please be honest—no need to spare my feelings, and my friend won’t see this anyway.

TECHNICALLY, EVERYONE WHO RESPONDS TO THIS IS GETTING A SNEAK PEEK OF MY YET-TO-BE-POSTED WEBCOMIC SERIES, SO... THAT'S SPECIAL!

Extra Details: I'm not a colorist—I prefer working in black and white, but I want to have "special monthly installments" that are colored. I know my coloring job isn’t perfect, and one thing I plan to adjust is adding more gradients to the background. I was aiming for a Sunday Newspaper Comic Strip style, which typically uses flatter colors, but I still feel there are areas that could be improved. If anyone has advice on how to add interest and dynamism with color without overdoing it, I’d love to hear it.

That said, I don’t think my friend has a strong grasp of color theory. For example, they used a dark blue monster in front of a purple background and colored the “BONK” sound effect in magenta over a red background. Then, for the climactic "POOF" panel, they colored the "POOF" sound effect a somewhat dark red and placed it over the cloud, which they sprinkled with orange, muddying it. They also added a translucent black layer over some (but oddly, not all) of the panels to emphasize the dark setting. I also wasn’t a fan of some of the liberties they took, like adding pupils to the monsters' eyes and putting a nightlight in the room.

While I did appreciate their instinct to use a more dynamically colored background for the action panels (something I wanted but hadn’t asked for), I feel like the fiery reds and yellows brightened the nighttime setting too much. Plus, it might just be me, but it made the fighting seem more serious than it is.

Please don't consider my preferences/criticisms when giving your opinion.

Lensing 2024-09-16 07:38:57 UTC #2

Lowering the saturation is always the solution for me, and that´s always the first
thing I try when the page doesn´t look good.

Your friend colored only with highly saturated colors.

Using 80-100% saturated colors make my eyes tired and is not pleasant to look at.
I checked the saturation and your friend used only very saturated colors and that´s
the problem with the coloring.

BlueWorldComics 2024-09-16 14:29:35 UTC #3

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Akarin_Rishna 2024-09-16 14:38:39 UTC #4

For me I personally like bright colours. And my choice is A = v =
And when you said that you're making a special episode, won't a bright colour adds to that surprise element for your readers after reading in black and white for so long?
I would stare in awe at the coloured panels if it were me XD
And the contrast between the fonts of the title and the characters is good enough for me, it's like the title is mild coloured and suddenly the characters are all bright and sunny and full of action XD
The POOF tho XD IDK what to do about it, as it seems to fit and not fit at the same time = v =
Then again, the comment above me proved a point.
Hope this insight helps >w<)9

kyupol 2024-09-16 15:03:06 UTC #5

I like A better to be honest

ThunderChicken 2024-09-16 15:24:47 UTC #6

On a screen I prefer A. If it were in print I'd probably prefer B,

BlueWorldComics 2024-09-16 19:26:21 UTC #7

Yeah... I wanted to mention that I’m pretty sure my friend chooses colors based on how they look on screens, while from the start, I was planning to print the series eventually and kept that in mind with my color choices.

BlueWorldComics 2024-09-16 19:49:01 UTC #8

I appreciate your perspective, and I do want to consider the "customer's" point of view, which is why I started this thread.

A couple of things to keep in mind: I plan to print this comic, so those oversaturated colors would end up looking muddy on the page. Also, even if modern webcomic readers tend to prefer brighter, more saturated colors, I want it to have the feel of classic Sunday newspaper strips, so, even if I do make adjustments to brighten the colors and make them more exciting (definitely open to advice on that, btw ), there would still need to be some major changes.