Jan 2020
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rajillustration
Jan '20

I do grayscale so I feel you. Grayscale is an artform in itself though, and while it's way less time consuming than coloring the whole thing, quite a bit of work has to go into designing it so it still flows without relying on color to guide your eye. I've been using digital screen tone and that's been a fun thing to learn and looks really neat when it's right (though there aren't too many tutorials on design rules with screen tone so for me it's been a learning experience of trial and error). And personally most of the comics I tend to like have few to no colors at all.

But, I do think that if you don't want to do color, you have to really think a lot more about dynamic layouts and really expressive characters. When the color isn't there to light a scene, your linework has to do all of the heavy lifting. Coloring and rendering hides a lot of linework flaws. Can't hide anywhere when it's linework.

There are some things you might want to check out if you want to go into color, though. Like there's the plug in "MultiFill" plugin for Photoshop (I can't use it because I hate closing lines, but I think it would work for you) and Clip Studio Paint has autofill abilities that work pretty OK.

Here's the link to the plug-in because a lot of Photoshop people don't know about it, and it's pretty good. Multifill is free, and FlattenPro (which is REALLY useful for comics) does cost money. But Multifill is free.

https://peltmade.com/psplugins-flatting.html1

Only issue with Multifill is that it does require a line without any gray but most comic people draw like that anyway.

JerrodStorm
Jan '20

I purposely keep my comics extremely simple for that reason. I like coloring, but it's definitely the most time-consuming part if the background is even remotely complex.

I also set up a "color palette layer" that has the color for the most common characters/objects that I can just drop into my procreate painting from comic to comic. Saves time and effort.

Color's something I do when I am looking for abnegation. Pop in headphones, turn on your favorite let's play channel, and zone out. :slight_smile:

elyss
Jan '20
gempompadour

It takes me about half an hour a page, which isn't that long I know, but yeah I just hate the act of coloring.

joannekwan(ง ˙o˙)ว here to help~
Jan '20

One of my comics only uses 4 shades of grey (not counting the black linework). And I apply them to add a bit of depth, contrast, or to show something is distinctly dark.

229.png800x1237 666 KB

And with only four shades to choose from, I don't have to do much mental acrobatics to pick amongst them, only to keep clothes and such consistent from page to page in a scene.

Hodge
Jan '20

Texture + soft edges + layer mixing + gradient maps (+ automated coloring)

There's this concept where as long as your values work, the colors could even be arbitrary and still work. Its a bit difficult at first cause we tend to immediately think "tree is green, sky is blue, etc." but you can really push things like the mood or light. I recommend just experimenting with all sorts of techniques and looking at what other artists do until you find something you like.

Eightfish
Jan '20

It's possible to make shading with only one color/hue look nice. You'd probably have to use thicker lines and way more black shadows though for it to look finished and balanced.

If you really hate shading this is probably much easier than what other people have suggested.

Examples of comics I know of that have done this:

elyss
Jan '20

Funnily enough I was looking into Flowr Eater and Puppeteer as well :grin:

Tulmut
Jan '20

Monochrome with 8 bit layers, and use tone to create depth and contrast

Cavechan
Jan '20

I like the monochromatic one. I also hate coloring but my comic is manga-style which is thankfully black and white (no gray). You'd be surprised about how much you can do with just two colors.

elyss
Jan '20

I used to do nothing but black once upon a time, but weird teen me thought I had to ditch it to 'diversify my style's so I've lost what skills I had in that regard unfortunately. Though as my art is now, I'm not sure if teen me was completely wrong on that account.

Iris-Grimoire
Jan '20

I've got one more recomendation for different types of monochrome as an inspiration - Banquet is a webcomic that goes for high constrast black and white. The early pages use very little toning, but even the recent ones are very uniform with the focus being areas of white framed by black, allowing for really cool composition.

azzy-m
Jan '20

Actually - I think maybe you should go monochromatic? Like, I almost never see monochromatic comics - I usually see black-and-white/grayscale or fully-colored comics - and when I do it looks pretty nice!

(PS I hate the act of coloring too, mostly because it takes me forever.)

Maybe I should go monochromatic too? Hmm....

potatogirl
Jan '20
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revisionstudios
Jan '20

What about coloring makes you hate it? It's possible you haven't found an efficient way yet or a style that you actually like, or just that you haven't built the skill so it's frustrating. Usually if I'm coming up on something in my comic that I hate or feels tedious, I ask myself "How can I make it fun?" and that can get me through because I've reframed it in my mind.

Like many people said, you don't have to pigeon hole yourself into doing it a certain way, but I also wouldn't avoid it just because it's hard. Hard things get easier the more you do them, and it's worth improving other skill sets. Just don't push yourself so far that you don't feel enjoyment from it anymore.

Also, you don't lose skills. You may be rusty doing B&W but you'd pick it up quickly if you tried again! Besides, those skills should inform your coloring too, you still need values in your colors haha. It's a foundational skill--they're not separate.

elyss
Jan '20

I usually follow the 'make it fun/efficient' method as well. I even took a class on 3D modelling to make drawing backgrounds more interesting and easy. You're right that I haven't found a color style I'm head over heels for yet, but that's mostly because I find the act of coloring uninteresting. I'm not bad at coloring; it's just a process I find tedious and repetitive in a way that I don't feel for any of the rest of the comicing process.

Pandastrophic
Jan '20

I also agree with @revisionstudios
What EXACTLY do you hate about colouring?
Is it filling in the base colours? is it having to pick the colours? etc. When you start to pin point what exact technique you don't like you'll be able to tackle colouring (or even greyscale) from a different angle. There are methods used in colouring that you'll also end up using in monochrome and greyscale too so pinpointing what techniques/methods aren't fun is a good way to start exploring style more even if you don't end up going for a coloured comic.

Like for me, I love colouring but there are types of colouring that I don't like and certain steps that I thought I had to do in order to colour something. Like I thought I had to do flat colours... flat colours have always been the step I hated the most in colouring because it's the most boring, precise and tedious. So I decided to not do it at all, now I do all the colouring aspect of the comic mostly on the same layer (with seperate layers for direct shadows, lighting, lineart, etc) but like the colouring for the background and characters are all on the same layer and it looks kinda painty and a little messy when you zoom in, but the process is much more fun for me.
I only managed to come up with this style because I spent a lot of time testing out all sorts of colouring techniques and timing how long it took me to finish the tester page.

(I have process of colouring a panel so if you'd like to see that let me know)

Eightfish
Jan '20

Yeah!

Sometimes being lazy and trying to get rid of things you hate in your process can lead to you developing your own unique style.

Like Panda there's one part of comic making I never really liked- making precise, smooth lineart. So I used a loose, sketchy style for my comic and chose a fuzzy pen so it would look intentional. And people seen to actually like it, saying my art looks calming and unique and fits the tone of the story!

So who knows, maybe you hating coloring will lead to you developing a technique that makes your comic look unique.