Color necessary? If so, how?

[JuneBuggy]

Hi!

I’m finally pursuing a long-held interest of mine and starting a webcomic. I’m not in a rush (couldn’t if I tried due to work schedule anyway), but I’m getting things sorted out slowly.

One thing I was curious about is whether or not coloring is necessary. I’m not very good with it, and what I’ve tried with my drawings so far (I use Adobe Fresca or something like that), looks kinda...weird. But many (if not almost all) webcomics I see...are colored. And it makes me feel as if having one not-colored would just seem incomplete.

If the consensus is that coloring is best, I’m curious what you all use for coloring. Just...the little fill bucket icon thing? Or do you paint the way you draw? I hope that makes sense...

Thank you in advance for any help! I’d also love to befriend other artists/writers starting their own webcomic. We could encourage each other, offer advice for one another, etc.

[Rhonder]

I wouldn't say color is necessary- there are several comics that are either in grayscale or in pure black and white too. But you are correct that the majority are in color, and the average reader prefers color as well.

In the end I think it's worth doing what you're most comfortable with and what can yield the best result. If you're interested in pursuing color and interested in getting better at it, then definitely go for it but if you're slapping it on last minute because you feel like you need it, then poor coloring can actually look worse that black&white or gray scale in some cases.

I'm not familiar with your program, but generally speaking I use "Fill" tools, such as the bucket. When I work in photoshop I use that in conjunction with the lasso tool to select and fill areas quickly and accurately, and in Clip Studio Paint there are a variety of fill tools that all do slightly different things. I think for laying down the base colors, this is the most common method (although some people do fill it in like they draw).

For shading and adding lighting, it can go either way. Sometimes I use the fill bucket+lasso for that too, but more often I "paint on" the shadows in a similar way to how I make the lines.

[teacup_creations]

I don't think colour is necessary in a webcomic. On the contrary, I think having a black and white comic can make it stand out if done correctly. Like graveyard cats or Himawari Share.

As for how to colour, I think it all depends on your art style. I personally have very strong and clean linearly so I can just use the bucket tool and fill in all the sections but I've seen others just do general washes and erase the parts that go over the lines. I think as long as it's consistent you should be fine

[Phantomlight]

I personally love color, but my first comic was black and white and I have seen some great comics done in black and white.
For instance, @allenT's beautiful comic Maor:

MAOR | Tapas

Many Japanese mangas are also in black and white and are great. I grew to have more and more of an appreciation to black and white artwork over the years. I am a sucker for color, but there's absolutely nothing wrong with choosing B&W, it's beautiful in it's own right!

I think sometimes it's also a question of whether your creative work works better in black & white or better in color, perhaps more in terms of the genre or the feel of it. My newest comic is in color (but it lacks shading, it's colored quite flatly) and I feel like it does better in color because of the vibe of it (it's kind of sugary sweet and color does play a part in some little Easter eggs and symbolism every now and again). For instance, my characters personalities go hand and hand with the color of their furs (my comic is furry/anthro) and so seeing the bright orange of Redley's fur is important to his character, as well as the drearier gray fur of Grey's fur. I think it could definitely work in black & white, but I really prefer it in color for these reasons.

[BreakingChalk]

I'll say it is up to the story you want to tell, how much have you experimented with colors, effects and layers and what kind of drawing you want to color.
The more details a panel will have, the harder/more time it will take to color it.

Let's say, in my case, TMBD has a lot stuff regarding sunsets, the sky, the atmosphere, I want to have those really clear for the reader, when it is dark, when it is a sunset, when there's fire and thus a strong light, so I do it in color, but coloring takes like 2/3 of the time when making the comic.

However, having to color the comic has made me found some moments where I don't kwow what colors use for some panels, early one I had trouble with how to set the atmosphere for a "shocking" scene where a character gets shoot, and up to this day, I still don't like the colors I used for those panels:

But then again, some can express more in black/white or grey-scale, you know, less can be more.
Bleach, though later badly received for having way too empty panels, that's something that can work too as it leaves the rest for the reader to imagine, and if done well, can be a good thing for both saving resources and expressing better stuff that if colored, wouldn't look as nicely.

I could also talk about REDUX by The Letter M, it uses grey-scale and some colors for the characters, one uses red, other blue, other green, another a scarlet-ish red, and it looks well and translates great for the story's atmosphere and even its development, as the colors are relevant for the powers of the characters.

REDUX | Tapas

[AHaplessFool]

I've seen a fair share of black and white/greyscale comics, and I think that color is super fun and satisfying but not completely necessary.

As with actually making said color, my lining isn't even close to being clean enough to use a fill bucket, so I just color it in manually. It takes awhile, and even longer along with shading (which I do in two separate layers, one layer for sharp shadows and light that I draw in and another for large chunks of gradient shading), but I usually end up pretty satisfied with it in the end. And as you go, lil tricks come out that slowly add up to making stuff look even better. But! Again, as long as you're confident in your lining, then you could totally do black and white.

Another thing I personally like with color is the freedom with backgrounds. While with just lining you have to keep all the lines straight and clear, color lets you slam in whatever effects you want, and it can still be obvious what you're drawing.

Like one of the older backgrounds in my comic; I barely did any lining, but playing around with a plain inking brush on low opacity (all in one layer) I could add in a nice moody alley panel. And it was super fun to draw!

So in summary, I personally think color is fun and satisfying, but tons of black and white comics have launched themselves off just fine without.

[a.g.meade]

@JuneBuggy - As someone who Cannot Color To Save Their Life, I am definitely of the opinion that color is great if you can but not necessary.

I do think there are many ways to do greyscale and/or black and white that it doesn't feel incomplete - just like color comics, there are good ways and not-so-good ways to do them. And just like color comics, how you go about using greyscale can set a certain tone or mood. For example, the traditional ink-wash in InkyBeast's amazing comic Ninecrow really elevates the unsettling mood of the story:

Ninecrow | Tapas

I will say that I've followed some comics that start out in B&W/greyscale and then transition to color later, so that's always an option if you're still getting the hang of coloring!

[magnavarra]

BW style as in classic manga and comic is very nice if it's of the according quality - I mean solid lines and contrast and overall look of the drawing I've seen very few webtoons done in this manner with the quality good enough to my taste.

Cuz most of the comics however are poorly drawn so color at least helps to get attention and make it more pleasing to the audience, younger people tend to like bright colors in general...and it also helps set the mood for the genre. if your style is simplistic you can go with just solid bucket fills, if it's more complex you can use simple gradients for shadows, you can also paint or lasso select-fil it if you have troubles with shading by hand.
you can also make it greyscale and have some colored layer on top with color or multiply blending, or use gradient maps to set color and copy appealing color schemes and lookup tables from the web

[silacinnamon]

I definitely don't think you need colour to make a good comic - just look at how many great manga there are in black and white or greyscale! So there's no need to use colour if you're not interested, but if you'd like to learn how to paint digitally you could look up some basic tutorials or speedpaints on youtube (idk if this is a good answer but I find it better to learn by watching someone else do it lol). And I'd also recomend learning some colour theory (if you haven't already!), just so you have an idea of how to match colours well ^^

I personally don't use the fill bucket or other tools on my comics because the lineart I use on comics is very loose, so I paint it manually (sometimes a friend helps me with this part), but it can take a lot of time to do it this way. But if you have a neat lineart some softwares like Clip Stufio Paint are very good for streamlining the colouring process! You need to learn how to use the tools and maybe make some adjustments, but it saves me a lot of time when I'm colouring a well defined lineart.

[TheDoublekey]

Don't worry, you are absolutely free to do whatever you want. It's your creation and it's all up to you. I deeply understand your doubt, as it was one of my first doubts as well . In the beginning, I used to see so many colored webcomics and I felt bad because mine was in grayscale.

After a while I realised I didn't really care about it, as people still appreciated my work. I encourage you to do what you prefer. I personally suggest you to go for black and white, as it is less time consuming and it gives you the opportunity to deliver much faster. Color is pretty, but it requires a lot of time and you're not always going to make it.

[Phantomlight]

@a.g.meade's comic "Soulbound" is another great example of a comic beautifully done in black and white, AND done traditionally/experimentally with markers and ink for example. I think having many examples of not only how digital black and white can be done, but also traditional art as well is great. "Soulbound" also has only a spot of color (in the eyes), so if you kind of want to incorporate color, that's an option too, perhaps just putting minimal color?

Soulbound | Tapas