Colours or black and white

[Nyamesis]

wow never heard of less updates haha~ maybe I'm just too much into stories that I can't wait for the next thing to come up every time.
On the other hand, I do prefer getting a complete chapter and not page releases :/ so rather wait a week for a couple of pages than 1 per day

[9outofPen]

I have comics that I follow in both color and black and white. I personally prefer to draw in black and white, since I have lots of detail and color just takes more time. Then when I want to do special pictures or chapter covers, I'll let my perfectionist self shine through and do color. I'd say go with whichever is most efficient and suits your style!

[keii4ii]

I'm like @Cielle with regards to update frequency. I can't follow comics that update, like, 5 times a week. I'd rather they do fewer, bigger updates. 3 times a week is the max for me.

On topic, it really depends?

Example of "full color and love it":

Wormworld Saga. Superb art, wouldn't be the same without those colors: vibrant and beautiful most of the time, but they can also pull off muddy and less vibrant when the scene calls for it.

My current comic also falls under this category, speaking as a creator. It has a visually rich fantasy world that's best experienced in full color. The main character experiences that world as a newcomer, so everything is a sensory wonder to him. Even though world exploration isn't what the story is really about, it's still a big part of the story. Plus, the colors allow me to try some really neat things with subtle mood depictions.

Example of "monochrome and love it":

Alone is one of my favorite comics! It's B&W plus red spot color. The visual focus is always very clear. The art is very easy to follow, never gets confusing. And the art being B&W works well with the type of the story they're telling: honest, unglamorous, unplugged.

Lackadaisy is an example of a monochrome (sepia, not B&W) comic that just looks really really good!

I also want to mention my previous comic, with a gritty urban fantasy setting. I made it in B&W, and would choose monochrome if I were to redo it. The story was slow, dark and personal. Color would've been a bit... distracting IMO, for that particular story. I mean, there are some depressing/dark stories that work really well in full color, but this particular comic wasn't one of them. Monochrome all the day, except for the occasional color pages for impact.

Example of "full color, might look better as B&W":

there's this full color comic with really good art. The coloring is good, but the lineart is on a whole new level. With that particular comic, I wish they didn't color the lineart. While the color helps me recognize the characters instantly, the lineart is just that good. I can appreciate the lineart more when the color is not there.

Example of "B&W, might look better with colors":

no specific examples I can think of at the moment, but I know I've seen some. Some comics have B&W art that looks really unfinished. B&W art (or any art, really) that lacks depth and focus is liable to lose my attention.

[AnnaLandin]

ohh what kind of comics do you mean by that do you have examples? (I'm also playing with styles a lot, but decided that it is too much work to paint everything .__.)

If you're asking about the hyper-realistic painted art, I'm talking mostly about styles similar to, say, Alex Ross:


It's a very accomplished style - you can see that Ross really knows what he's doing (though the point can be made that most of the people he draws have very, very similar faces), the anatomy is great, it really does look like photos of people except painted. But for some reason, I find it really unsettling in comic-format; it slips into Uncanny Valley-territory for me.

[Pandastrophic]

but it takes so much more time!

My art and colouring used to take up so much time as well until I experimented with it a lot before starting my comic, I would time myself and try different techniques until I found one that's suitable for my comic. So maybe you should experiment a bit and you might find a colouring style that doesn't take as much time?

[Nyamesis]

oh yeah this is one level too polished for me as well :/ but it is really well done!
Kind of the same as I feel about Dan Luvisi's art .o. amazing skills but I like some sketchiness or room for my imagination to work

I guess they'd work as a cover though, but please not the whole comic!

Good thing I'm too lazy to draw like that! hahhaha~

[Nyamesis]

Ahah trust me I have experimented tons, and its just way easier for me to do black and white.
I guess my fastest colour style is done with the lasso tool without any lines or sketches

something like this:

and for environments this kinda thing

Maybe in the future I can experiment with comics in that style, but right now I'll keep it for illustration. ^^
I guess I can be too impatient to finish pages .3.

[Momomori]

both are great! I mean sometimes black and white looks more professional, but if the comic is colored and shaded well you can really tell that the creator really cares about the comic, (and it's not guaranteed that the story will be better,) but that's how I judge the story in first impressions.

[Zanreo]

To read: Between the same comic in BW, greyscale and color, I'd pretty much always go for the color version. And after that, grayscale/heavy screentone use/ect over plain BW (because there's a difference, but I hear these used a lot interchangably for "black and white art/comics") While I wouldn't drop a comic just because it's BW and some comics look pretty good that way (while others just feel kinda... unfinished or lacking), I can't think of many styles or comics that wouldn't look BETTER or at least just as good in color - can't think of much that would look WORSE in color compared to BW (assuming the artist is using good/decent coloring. With bad coloring, such as eye-burning super-bright colors everywhere that literally hurt your eyes just to look at, theeeen it would probably look better without) Though I read comics with both and generally don't mind if the comic is good otherwise (though I like to have at least a color ref of the characters somewhere).
Even if color meant fewer updates a week, that would be fine with me - it can sometimes be hard to keep up with a comic that updates too often.

To create: COLOR COLOR COLOR all the way. Coloring is fun and my work just feels unfinished in BW or greyscale (I admit my lineart itself isn't that exciting so the color kind of makes up for it)

[Nyamesis]

Haha yeah that's true ;u; man I hate how important first impressions are!
Mainly gonna focus on writing the story first before I do something half assed :/

[Nyamesis]

Hmmm yeah I also feel like it depends on what type of line art style I am using if the art is missing something or not

So my super simple doodle style always gets a colour makeover. Whereas my more manga/comic style can be left in black and white/ greyscale .u. Anyway I think I'm pretty convinced on what I'm gonna do from these tons of replies! ^°^

[AndrewSutton]

Funny you should ask, I actually have two series that are one in colour and one in plain.

Colour looks nice but takes a long time.

Plain tends to not be attractive/ visually stimulating but it is so much quicker and you can always re-release it in colour when your series is done.
(that's what I plan to do.)
you could publish the colour one on kindle comics and earn some money by actually charging for it.

[Nyamesis]

Ohh how does the kindle thing work? Do they only take coloured works on their publishing platform? :0

[AndrewSutton]

I've not compiled anything yet but yeah you can do whatever.

[Kura]

I make a series in colour, and I make a series in black and white.

I prefer working on the black and white comic a thousand times more than the colour.

1. I can get it done faster
2. It doesn't hurt (I have arthritis, the longer I spend drawing the more I hurt myself, additionally colouring seems to agitate it MUCH more than linework does. Colouring is VERY painful for me)
3. I feel like I'm getting somewhere because the story is being released at a good pace.
4. The majority of readers for the colour comic don't appreciate the extra work and pain I go through to make the page and whine about how I don't update enough when I do give them an update.
5. My black and white comic will look the same on everyone's monitors, while the colours on the colour comic will look different depending on monitor settings. The thought of something looking like shit because it's too green or yellow or whatever on their monitor when I worked so hard to get the colours just right is unbelivibly ****ing frustrating.

[AndrewSutton]

colour accuracy is a bitch, I have wacom cintiq 12wx, not accurate at all and can't calibrate

[Nyamesis]

I feel you on all these points, mainly on getting to story out faster, because that is mainly the essence of the comics I am planning to make.

Also I hope you can cope well with the arthritis :< I know its not fun, and hope I won't suffer from it anytime soon .__.

[Nyamesis]

ugh yes :< I never even think about how it looks on other monitors, but sometimes it just looks terrible when they're wrongly calibrated ;__; black and white life is so much easier hahah

[lunaartemisasama]

I love both. But I prefer to draw in black and white.

As a reader I love when people put extra effort in the colors, and sometimes it gives the comic a fantasy or magical feeling, but if they are messy I would prefer them in black and white. But I think that if you can have a really cool style colors don't matter, unless they are important in your story.. For example I love Sarah's Scribbles and Miss Abbot and the Doctor both of them have different styles and it looks amazing without colors.

[mac]

i read a lot of manga so im pretty much used to comics being b&w (has anyone read a full color manga? must be hard for the mangaka...) but if a comic is in color thats always good too