6 / 19
May 2019

For a very long period of time, I have been creating very detailed artwork. when I say detailed I mean like drawing, coloring with intricate detail when shading. Over a period of time while making comics I realized that once I omitted the detail I could be much Much faster. don't get me wrong, I love detail and I did it on every page but one day I found myself losing interest in even finishing my comics and adding that much detail became overwhelming and suddenly i decided to make a change. I said to myself, "dang only if I just did my artwork in flat color and not have to worry about it or worry about what people think". Right then I there I made a decision to transition. Any comic I decided to create in the future will be nothing but flat color, I'm talking about first grade Sh*t here lol no detail what so ever. And then I created my comic (strings and Time). its all in flat color and guess what, it looks bloody amazing. I don't even notice that there aren't any shadows or dark areas. everything is completely flat. I found a way to make it look captivating and interesting without spending so many hours and I can make my readers happy by posting quicker and I am much happier because I can get the job done faster.

So, what about you guys? what do you think about a comic that is all flat color? are you willing to try it yourself? and is there something you do differently that makes you get the job done faster? feel free to share your experience.

by the way, this is what i'm talking about. i like the flat just as much as the detail.

also, check out my comic. all flats!

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    May '19
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    May '19
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Work smarter not harder, as they say. I think the flats version still looks really good, so I'm glad you were able to settle on being less detailed.

Sadly one of my favorite parts is painting in details after I flat. It's the flatting that I find time consuming. :joy:

Working in batches has helped me speed up a bit, but it all still takes way to long. Oh well!

Both versions look great! And the flat one gives me a more classic comic feel. I grew up with comics being flat colored so maybe that's why it feels more at home to me.

I did a comic in flat colors too (and it still took me a lot of time, because coloring is the slowest part to me, and I have trouble picking appealing colors so I stick to grayscale in all my other works :''D)

Here's the comic:

I use flat colors. It saves time and to be honest my style is way too simplistic for lots of detail. I'm still working on ways to make it faster, and maybe someday I'll even add simple shading (gasp!) but for now the flat colors work for me.

I found that I actually prefer coloring my lined pieces in a completely flat (or semi-flat) style; it really allows for my line work to show through.

And after doing cell shading for Demon House, I went full flat for my next color comic, Sarota Springs, save for special lighting situations in which I might add shadow.

It just saves so much time orz

A lot of Disney's 2D animation was done mostly in flats; in fact a lot of animation in general is done in flats and no one cares. ^^ As long as your color choices aren't obnoxious and the line art itself is okay, people would much rather focus on the content than on how much shading you could have done.

My Webtoon is almost all flats (except for dramatic panels, in Disney fashion~) and heck, even I don't notice sometimes. The thick lines help with that, I think:

I don't think I could ever go full flat, though. I just love cel-shading too much~

I think a lot of people use shading and it does little to enhance their work, but if you're going to go flat it helps if you have a graphic sensibility. The pattern on the shirt, the freckles, and the black nail polish really create interest--plus the soft background gives a nice contrast.

I use a lot of flats--and some blends too--in my webcomic.

I agree, the flats actually look way better to me.

But a bit of critique- I think this is because the way you shade could be improved. You only darken the edges object, and you don't have a defined light source. It makes your shading look flatter than your flats, because of how unrealistic it looks- it just feels like your lineart has some darker, blurrier lineart underneath it instead of your characters being three dimensional objects. Maybe try drawing more from reference? If you care, it seems like you're doing pretty well with what you're doing now.

And what do I know, my own comic is flat as fuck lol

10

Well. I guess that I’m the flat of the flattest around here.

I would actually love to do more flat colors but me and shading have a very weird relationship where I am completely unable to draw ANYTHING without shading it in with either colors or line art :v I am incapable of stoping myself.

I've always felt that flat colour pieces are charming in their own way!

i'm too lazy to shade =w=

my comic was originally black and white but since a lot of my characters are colourful, i switched to colour in the middle of chapter 2

:relaxed:yes you are absolutely right. im glad someone sees my point of view <3 thats interesting that you find the flat color more consuming. its usually the other way round.

wow your work looks great. and it is in flat. I really like it :grinning: thats interesting that gray scale is simple for you. its the WORST for me lol I admire people who can keep their comic black and white or grayscale. it is though for me even though its suppose to be the easiest.

wow I actually follow one of your comics and I luv it. "Heavy Horns". :grinning: and yes it looks great. the color in that image is GOALS. i'm still learning and trying to understand color. color theory was not an easy class for me. I do believe that I try with my art work but I definatly need improvement. any who. yes that image you created is so just so awesome. maybe one of these days you could share your technique :smile:

lol thats awesome. see I go full flat because I don't even want to try lol and what is cell shading? I looked it up and it looks like normal shadows or is it different. maybe I'm using the wrong term. correct me if I'm wrong. oh and your art looks good as well :smiley:

I do add some kind of filter to it and thats why it looks blurry lol. thanks i'l most deffinatly do some more reference drawing. and yes I do focus on edges a lot, didn't realize that until you pointed it out. to be honest I do have other better detailed work but just didn't post it. anyway, thanks for the pointers. :grinning:

Thank you!
Yeah it took me a long to time start understanding colors. Even by learning it from the book and tutorials, I found my favorite way to study it was simply to look at photography and art that have palettes pleasing to me. And as an exercise, I would try to recreate those palettes in my own doodles, but without using the eyedropper tool! It gets you more familiar with the color wheel in your program and is a good way to train your eye.