Opinion on coloring and the viewer retention with it

baasinsimple 2018-09-02 04:44:04 UTC #1

Ello, Ello. So I was wondering what some of you guys thought of coloring. If I'm going to be completely honest, I hate doing it. I feel like I get so much more done without coloring within the free-time I have and I can focus on parts of my comic I'd prefer to work on like my shading, anatomy and composition and coloring seems like something I just don't want to get involved in. Harsh black and whites and translucent grays work better for my stories for the most part anyway. But when reading something it just seems more like something that's inconsequential to me personally, I can be like "oh that took a lot of work" but other than that, nothing. Sometimes I even feel like coloring covers up for something that's lacking in a comic (of course I'm not talking about all of them, or even most of them, but I feel like that element is much more present in popular webcomics than we notice, especially those on an intense weekly grind.) Like, something may have beautiful coloring but it would be lacking composition and actual line art, not naming any names but a lot of popular stuff on Webtoons has this trend. I still also feel like that if you don't color, no matter how good something like line-work and shading is, you won't get too many followers, sure may just be pure coincidence but it seems to be a trend I noticed on both here and WT.

So what are your opinions on coloring, the idea that in some cases it can mask certain things that are lacking or the idea that readers will be more attracted to someone's artwork if they colored despite the quality of certain things? I'd love to hear your thoughts

LordVincent 2018-09-02 05:25:19 UTC #2

Bottom line answer for any "should I do this because it's popular" question is "No, not if you don't enjoy it yourself because you will be miserable and the payoff isn't worth 24/7 self hate and suffering".

So I will go with that answer for this one too. Like coloring? Do it. Hate it? Don't do it (I have comics that sell just fine in grayscale). Neutral to it? Great, that means you're open to doing it if an employer or project calls for it.

Being in total refusal to do a thing as general as this would definitely hinder you if you wanted to approach a career in arts, but it wouldn't be impossible. Just kills a few opportunities. But if the opportunities that survive are just right for you and you meet that niche well, you'll be fine.

As for whether it "covers up" things, I don't think so. I think it's about artist strengths and priorities. If we're gonna make arguments like this we could just as easily claim that harsh black shadows exist to minimize background work, that detailed lineart exists to make up for a lack of coloring, etc... When in reality artists often just have a thing they like doing more.

Luminosophy 2018-09-02 05:46:21 UTC #3

I wanna add on to that with if you enjoy say, black and white rendering, chances are with enough time and practice you will develop a very attractive aesthetic with it. Going with passion always results in highest efficiency.

When I ran my coloured series and then later a B+W rendition of the same comic, I ended up with overall the same amount of followers. Coloured one just pulled people in faster. On the B+W people often remarked that they enjoyed the backgrounds I did and liked the details I could afford to add in because I didn't have to colour them. If you decide to use limited methods of rendering, you just have to throw yourself at it completely. You're only losing out to colour if you don't put in effort to clearly convey everything in a monochrome palette. B+W is not the easy way out. The manga industry is built upon the art form of inking and retains millions of fans worldwide. The only thing I can really say is pick what you like and push to make it the very best it can be.

Hodge 2018-09-02 06:07:22 UTC #4

Meh, I think too many feel like they HAVE to color, and who knows, the numbers might reflect a preference for color by readers. But even then, I agree with you that sometimes the coloring doesn't really do much for the comic, or it takes too much time and other parts of the comic suffer (run into this problem myself). Though I'm not really against coloring, just some not ideal/poorly planned out ways of coloring. I'm not the best at coloring, but its a pretty complex thing lol and there's plenty of ways to go about it, so I get sad when I see really formulaic/boring coloring styles. It can be a lot of fun if you want it to be! Experiment and play around with it, you'll find that it doesn't have to be super time-consuming or boring if you know how to do it.

BTS 2018-09-02 08:13:52 UTC #5

I hate coloring too, but my comics have people with different ethnicity, so I need the color

fleohr 2018-09-02 09:09:40 UTC #6

Live Forever (a webtoon) is full black & white, but adds red to highlight something in the scene, can be blood, eyes, etc

Now full coloring like, adding light and shading is not for me when I'm doing comics, it does looks awesome, but sometimes it's good being lazy, and just add a gradient to make the whole process less overwhelming

DokiDokiTsuna 2018-09-02 14:26:15 UTC #7

It's always seemed weird to me that people recommended coloring comics so highly. Like...color is not very high up on my list of things that are important in a comic. If I like your story and your art style I could not care less how many colors you use.

Any potential fan who would drop you just because you don't color is probably not gonna stick around very long anyway. Do what you want to do, and those who appreciate your talents will find you. ^^

Klaustasya 2018-09-02 16:32:46 UTC #8

I hate coloring. I prefer ink waaay more so it totally understand wht you're talking about.
lately i've been metting so many good artists on socials, all of them were amazing art genius with anatomy, proportions etc etc....YET everybody were all over the coloring. ALSO THEY MAKE IT LOOKS LIKE IT'S SIMPLE AND REQUIRED LIKE..NO? kind of hard for me who doesn't know how to color for shit.
tch, annoying color trend. Artists are not just colors...

Pandastrophic 2018-09-02 17:33:41 UTC #9

omg everyone doesn't like colouring here? There is nothing in art I love more than colouring, honestly if I wasn't colouring my comic I wouldn't have kept going for 3 years. I really like other people's comics in b/w but I don't like working in it myself, I just get bored since my art doesn't have a heavy focus on lineart either. I chose to make my comic in colour because I love to colour and I remember experimenting for ages on a colouring style that didn't take too long to do because I used to do a b/w comic and hated working on it so much. It really depends on what you like to do.

Some of the most popular comics on Tapas are b/w, readers might lean into coloured because that attracts attention quicker but I don't think they would just disregard a comic because it's b/w. I'm not sure about the ratio but there might be more coloured comics than b/w so you tend to see them more often in trending/popular.

Yeah but so what? My lineart is really sketchy and it doesn't look professional but that's not really what I prioritise in my comic and I don't spend much time on it, I spend that time on the colouring and shading because that's more important to me as =mood/lighting adds more to the scenes. Making webcomics is all about time management and knowing what your priorities are while creating it, whether those priorities are what you like to draw or what works stylistically for your comic.

SleepingPoppy 2018-09-02 18:07:19 UTC #10

You can derive quite a lot of meaning from color. It's just another form of visual communication. And hey, even if the comic is just colored to look pretty, that's valid and has value! B&W comics can be beautiful! Color comics can be beautiful! Frankly, both take a lot of work!

Of course, you're totally allowed to have your own preference! And if black and white suits your story/art I fully support that that's the way you should go!

Heavy blacks can just as easily be used to hide areas that "lack" as full color. As artists we're all just presenting the best version of our product that we can on a time line. So yes, my art looks better colored, so I color it. I am absolutely using that to smooth out areas that might otherwise be lacking. Heck, I'm not the strongest writer, so if having a full color comic helps bridge that gap I have zero issue with that, because I'm doing my best.

All that said, I dont think creators should feel pressured to create their comic a specific way. A more finished product, a higher quality product, will help you gain an audience. That can be accomplished in many ways. Do you.

Menbung 2018-09-02 18:50:35 UTC #11

I used to think the same as you. I didn't like to color and tought many artist only used it to cover their mistakes (some do, but as the spot on peeps before me said, the use of black shadows to cover mistakes or to not draw things complety has been a must for artist to meet deadlines since the dawn of time, and I'm talking about in the pro field).

But when I came face to face with the reality that I had to make money out of my "art" I reached this conclusion: I have to learn how to paint. It's true, color attract people, most of the cases peep want color drawings, there are only a few peeps that would want a black and white drawing.

I've seen all of my favorite artist do amazing things with color so I tried to learn (copy-ing them, watching them paint) and boy was I wrong with my thoughts, color is amazing. I'm not saying you should do the same I'm just sharing my personal experience, if I kept thinking, oh I hate to color, I'd have limited myself so much, I've learnt a lot since I began to color my works, that lead me to get more gigs and be better in general.

Bottom line if you hate colors now it doesn't mean that in the long run you will still hate them =] .

I'm not going to sugar coat it, painting is hard, but is drawing in general easy?, it's an amazing and rewarding challenge to take. So if you ever want to try colors, try to see them as values, try to erase the color information and only see values, that way you can give them a go. Who knows maybe in due time you'll begin to like em.

GrimRose 2018-09-03 01:36:35 UTC #12

Colour does make a comic stand out usually.

Does a comic need to be in colour?
No, most of the time not.

But unless your story is made to be black in white and style and would not look alright in colour, then it might be best to consider adding it.

If you don't want to draw colour since you are unfamiliar with it, then that is probably not the best reason. Weigh your options, but as an artist it is good to try all aspects of art, and colour is indeed an important part of art.

LT1986 2018-09-03 01:54:21 UTC #13

Thank you for making the forum topic. I like viewing colored artwork and black and white artwork. Sometimes I have difficulty trying to figure out what artists have put in some black and white pictures. That is the only issue I have with viewing black and white artwork.

I like making colored artwork, because I'm trying to improve different art skills to make my overall artwork look better. Some of the images that I create will be in black and white, only because I'm using the style to express a point in the story.

Nitelini 2018-09-03 02:52:04 UTC #14

I've gotta disagree with you in certain aspects, if that's tru that some artist use color to cover certain things they lack isn't the whole purpose of colour.

For example to achieve a mood on a scene It's 10 times easier with color than with B/W, why? because in black and white you'll rely heavily on composition and shading and bad desition could mislead the emotion you're trying to achieve, and even then could be hard to read the inner message you're trying to comunicate. Also meanwhile in B/W you only rely on tone and value in with color you also hve the Hue wich allow you to mix a lot and it's possible to have things with the same tone but still have contrast due the hue.

It's color needed in a comic? no it isn't
Is it used to make it up for something you lack ? not necesarily
you should color your work? only if you want to

baasinsimple 2018-09-03 04:12:44 UTC #15

That's an interesting point and it's completely fine to disagree with me, I want to hear as many peoples thoughts as I can on the matter!

ninrhusajha 2018-09-03 18:01:00 UTC #16

You can try limited coloring if you don't enjoy it, if you still want to have some sort of color. Only color bits of certain characters, or have a few special pages that you color.

Really it depends on the mood you're going for.

mselaney 2018-09-03 19:36:05 UTC #17

Coloring does give things very considerable standout/staying factor, getting and keeping peoples' attention, although I think that it's decently just as effective to do grayscale: just so long as you can very clearly block out the foreground, middleground, and background (such as by just using 3 different shades, one for each). It helps communicate the visual idea that you're trying to convey more clearly.

I don't think color is used to make up for lacking skills because what I do tend to notice in artists who are starting out and trying to basically "make up" for things is stuff like poses that hide what they're not so secure drawing (hands behind back, hands in pockets, etc.) or going into very, very high levels of detail (colored or not colored), for instance, drawing every single scale on a snake/dragon as a sort of means to distract from how their construction drawing isn't too hot just yt.

punkarsenic 2018-10-14 15:47:47 UTC #18

i think this kinda makes sense as a reaction - colour is often a key part of an artists signature style, to the point where its possible to identify an artist by the palette alone sometimes. and then, colours illicit a lot of automatic emotion in people - and to the untrained eye, a lot of skill in value and contrast is attributed to colouring as well.

learning to colour simply and with pleasing effect is definitely possible, too. for the record, the stuff you share on instagram is really nicely coloured, particularly the flats for your comic

crayon_witch 2018-10-14 16:26:21 UTC #19

I don't think coloring is necessary for a comic, no. Black and white can be very effective when done correctly! But I also love when color adds to a story-- Ie, sets the mood or intensifies an emotion. Or when certain characters or themes have a color motif that recurs throughout a story!

Color is a skill just like any other aspect of art. It can be done poorly or masterfully.

keii4ii 2018-10-14 16:33:55 UTC #20

I can think of one case where the lack of colors affects reader retention: visual clarity. When I can't instantly tell the characters apart, I have to spend an extra second or two per panel trying to tell who the characters are. This really gets in the way of immersion. So if your characters look a bit similar without colors, try to find other ways to make them very distinct.

Same thing when the foreground start blending into the background a bit. Same thing happens: I have to spend extra time trying to see what's going on. It's very, very possible to create B&W comics that read super clear, so explore the tools at your disposal.