Black & white or colour?

Jackhass · Post by **Jackhass** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 10:57 pm

I use black/white/grey only.

The main consideration was a) colour takes forever and b) I get really anal about colour and hate when it clashes or is too bright, too bland or whatever. I wouldn't be a case of just slapping some green on the grass and some blue on the sky...I'd agonize over it forever.

Robin Pierce · Post by **Robin Pierce** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 1:00 am

I started off in colour, and have now moved to black and white. This has nothing to do with not having the time to accommodate colour – I don’t, but black and white takes longer than colour does. Why?
Take a look a t the examples below:

It’s easy to get lazy in colour. You can make things look good with much less effort then it takes to realistically make something look sharp in black and white. As much as I love colour, and I do feel I’m competent with it, I started noticing that any dramatic shots I had were focusing on the black anyhow. And then I started reading Strangers in Paradise again – which is all black and white, and I admit I get heavily influenced by things I read, and I switched. I find myself adding more detail in the b/w scale than I do in colour.

I hate that colouring dresses up shoddy art. It’s no excuse, really. If the art isn’t up to snuff in b/w then it’s not up to snuff, and colour only makes it look shinier, it doesn’t actually make the flaws go away. Things that I’ve done would look blatantly wrong in black and white, but because it’s prettied up, it’s not as noticeable in the few minutes that people read an update for. But I didn’t like that, so I switched to black and white in order to force myself to do a proper job on things.

As for mood, sure it’s easier to create a mood in colour, but that doesn’t necessarily show artistic competence. Fill a panel background with red and suddenly the whole panel looks more energetic, or more angry, and all without paying proper attention to the expressions in the face or body language. When it comes down to it, people use it as a short cut and a crutch. Colour is supposed to add to things, and I have no problems with that (in theory), but I’m a bit of a snob when it comes to colour theory anyhow, and far too often feel the need to stab at comics because of the way they just throw colour on their work with no real regard for the medium.

So yeah.. basically I work in black and white because I feel I can better work in it. I don’t care what people do, as long as they do it right, and not to stage a cover up.

Prettysenshi · Post by **Prettysenshi** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:06 am

Preach it, Robin.

Yes, I personally prefer color because it does make a page, to me, look more alive. However, it is a crutch for those who don't know how to do black and white well. I think a professional comic artist whose name escape me at the moment said it best : "If the page can't stand as a black and white page alone, then color won't help it anyway"....something along those lines.

I'd love to do black and white and I'm sure the same goes for a lot of people, but to do b/w well, i think you'd have to know a lot of about lighting, which most people don't.

Robin Pierce · Post by **Robin Pierce** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 7:32 am

I agree with the lighting part. But that's the point. Get some books, look at references, LEARN. Otherwise it's just wasted time.

Kilre · Post by **Kilre** » Wed Sep 19, 2007 8:07 am

*Prostrate before the black and white wisdom*

Bret N · Post by **Bret N** » Fri Sep 21, 2007 7:34 pm

My current experiment into comic strip making is purely sparse black and white, but when it comes to color I really love Bill Watterson's (Calvin & Hobbes, of course) watercolor (or watercolor-like) style that he used on his anthology covers and various other things. It's not something you see much in comics, and I must say I totally ripped this look off from him when I do use it (e.g. my avatar). It gives so much more life to a drawing than a lot of unprofessional photoshop colorjobs.

KWill · Post by **KWill** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 9:32 am

I prefer color. It adds a bit of depth to the comic when shaded. Then again, I have a couple things I turn into sepia to make them look old.

Yeahduff · Post by **Yeahduff** » Sat Sep 22, 2007 10:14 pm

Value adds depth. Color helps with tone.

McDuffies · Post by **McDuffies** » Sun Sep 23, 2007 2:11 am

I fancy black and white.

Duralict · Post by **Duralict** » Mon Sep 24, 2007 10:04 am

Robin, your black and white work is incredible. The color was actually distracting a little from how how excellent your sense of value and light is.

Personally, I do full-color. My stuff looks good enough in black and white that I could get by without it, but I find it a lot easier to use color for focus and emphasis, and my composition isn't yet up to handling that job on its own. Though I'm starting to think about making the switch - color is definitely a crutch, and it makes the bad pages look a lot better, but it's doing no real service to the best pages, and working in black and white lets you be a little more choosy about backgrounds. Colored backgrounds just look wrong if they're incomplete, and when they're fully done they can sometimes distract from the subject.

Ohemgee · Post by **Ohemgee** » Tue Sep 25, 2007 6:35 pm

I personally do black and white because I don't think colour adds *so* much to my comic, and I'm very lazy.

However, I like reading comics that are both B&W and colour. Some people's style goes better with color and some better with B&W. It sure is annoying as hell, however, when people try to make their shoddy artwork "better" with colour.