Gray snob or Color nazi?

[Mo]

I enjoy good colour use in other people's comics as well, however, 18 out of the 36 webcomics on my regular reading list are black/white or grayscales.

... so half?

I'm an artist, not a mathematician!

[Black Sparrow]

Well, at least you're specific. For all we know "half" could mean "two of four" or "hundreds of more hundreds"

A lot people will colour their comics because they think it looks better, but I see tons of people that have no business applying colour to their works. If you don't know how to use color, it ends up looking like an eyesore.

Quoted for truth.

[Mo]

Actually, I'm taking' 2 comics off the list now because they never update (curse you, Bob). Both of them were colour comics so now GRAY HAS TAKEN THE LEAD! I'm sure you all needed to know that.

[Pimpette]

I colour because I love colour and I love colouring things.

And I also suck at greyscale and I hate doing it.

[Robin Pierce]

Actually, I'm taking' 2 comics off the list now because they never update (curse you, Bob). Both of them were colour comics so now GRAY HAS TAKEN THE LEAD! I'm sure you all needed to know that.

curse you!! now we need to find you two more colour comics to read.

[Paul Escobar]

I'd say it all depends on the particular comic you're making.

My comics are mostly b&w because I like the "less is more" principle, as in I try to leave out visual information that doesn't add anything to the understanding of the comic. And since most of my comics are just rude jokes, colour would add nothing to that.

But it depends entirely on what you're trying to convey. I'm currently working on a comic that - unusually for me - actually has a real storyline, and that's going to be in colour because I can do better moods/backgrounds/environment that way.

This is not to say that colour is inherently better at "moods" than b&w, I don't think that's the case. But again, it depends on what kind of mood you're after.

I like the way black & white reproduces, and it forces you to try and push different textures and use more line weight variation. Pus black and white has a nice look when it's reproduced.

Oh yeah, agreed. Incidentally, it really annoys me when a comic is not properly reproduced, because the git doing it didn't check up on the necessary specs before going to print. I looks horrible when a b&w comic is printed at too low a resolution, or converted to grayscale and rasterized. If you don't know what you're doing, ask a pro!

A lot people will colour their comics because they think it looks better, but I see tons of people that have no business applying colour to their works. If you don't know how to use color, it ends up looking like an eyesore.

Quoted for truth again. I see that quite a lot in newspapers these days - b&w comic strips get coloured just because that page with the weather chart and all is in colour anyway. And it looks awful, because the strips were designed to be in b&w.

[The Mortician]

I am just following other comic artist's advice when it came to putting in different shades of gray. Personally, I think I can do better with the penciling than how it looks now. I color certain things like robot eyes and the entire chapter covers.

[Warren]

Much like Ryan, my hand-drwn efforts are in greyscale (actually mostly unshaded.) The electronic comics (save for one premiering soon) are all in color.

[Spqrblues]

B&W, because I like B&W as an art style.

I love working in watercolours for non-comicky stuff, but don't enjoy colouring digitally except for the occasional special comic where I don't mind spending hours on a single image tweaking it just right. Colour is great for showing readers that the ancient world didn't look like bleached white statues and bare marble walls, but I've startled a few readers with the colour comics ("the walls are orange? his tunic is red? he has a tan??") I've used both plain ol' Photoshop/ImageReady and fancier Painter-type programs... and I still just love B&W art. My art is okay, I think, but there are some folks out there who are absolutely astounding (with straight B&W, not shading with grey fills and screens).

Also, I grew up playing with crow quills and and little bottles of India ink, and was taught to read from the Alice books with the John Tenniel illustrations, so my earliest memories of how wondrous art could be come from pictures of things like the Jabberwocky and the White King. Definitely had an influence. The next thing that hugely influenced me was a version of The Odyssey in, as I remember it, a billion-year-old issue of Heavy Metal that looked like Greek vases sliding into full-blown life. I've searched and searched for this comic, but even though I found something that claims to be it, it does not at all match what I'm sure I saw.... Oh, yeah, and ye olde Elfquest. Yes, I used to read Elfquest.

I'll read both colour and B&W comics, but probably most of my faves (frex, Platinum Grit, The Antagonist) are B&W.

[Adobedragon]

I recently switched to colour, but so far I prefer the previous grey scale work. I'm just not all that good at colour and it's easier (for me) to build contrast in gray scale.

As a reader, I have no preference, as long as the art appeals to me.

[Sput]

I tend to get bored with works unless they're in colour, or are really damn good shaded grayscale. Otherwise, I just stop checking it.

Plain black and white makes me gag, ngnhgh.


<- hypocritical, did her comics in b&w then greyscale but then she stopped having one entirely so it's okay.

[Perk_daddy]

I find colour often distracts from the line-work and drawing, paritcularly if it's just slapped on and not thoughfully done.

My ears are burning...

I think it depends. Some people make excellent B&W work that, if colored, would take away from the style & mood (think Sin City); other comics need color for their art to be as vibrant as it needs to be.

[TigerEye]

Black and white so far, because I have a passion for working in pen and ink and like to get hands on with it. I might do some color cover pages but thats undecided at the moment. Though since I'm only just starting out we'll see how the black and white stuff goes and if it looks reasonable well .

I like both black and white and colored comics though.

[Cope]

Black and white, and I refuse to render a single shade of grey!

I've been drawing for well over a decade, and I've never been good with colour. Trying now would just make peoples' eyes bleed.

[RemusShepherd]

I started my comic as greyscale, transitioned in stages to color for story reasons, and am now full color.

Note that I'm colorblind.

My next comic will be black and white. I'm not even sure I'm going to ever use grey again. I'm certainly staying the hell away from colors from now on.

[Col]

Coloring would only prolong the delay.

[EvilChihuahua]

I colour my comic, but generally use desaturated colours, to avoid eye bleedage.

[Nanda]

I prefer black and white comics, but use colour myself. Why? Because in my comic, it's easier.

[Mon Ami]

Although my comic is in greyscale..I like colour too, so it is really hard for me to decide such things. For webcomics specifically I find I perfer greyscale, colour can take the focus away from the lineart itself as well as the text giving away the story.

[Warofwinds]

...I believe I am a "color nazi," yes.

IMO, to create a believable fantasy world, color is extremely important. Color creates atmosphere and ambiance, and draws attention to certain details. Even my title image, well, I should say especially my title image perhaps, needs color. It's a different world with different rules, and the colors show that.