ooo! Look at all the perty colors!

[Warofwinds]

I just reached my 70th page today, and also an impasse on coloring style. At first I began using the burn tool, switched to cel-shading (I posted about those two before), integrated those two together, switched to airbrushing and then to watermarked paintbrush (for bg only). I'd like an opinion on which one I should focus on for the majority of comics. Here are some examples, so please vote on which one you believe looks the best.

Burn:
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20041017.html
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20041218.html
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20041225.html

Cel:
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050109.html
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050207.html
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050305.html

Burn and Cel:
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050212.html

Airbrush:
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050129.html
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050226.html
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050312.html

Airbrush and Burn:
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050227.html

Cel and airbrushing:
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050313.html

Airbrushing and watermarked paintbrush:
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050326.html
http://warofwinds.keenspace.com/d/20050327.html

I know some of them look very similar, but I would appreciate your feedback very much. Half the time I start coloring a comic, and then start over again using a different technique.

Also! Does the narration in a corresponding color outline look alright as a substitution for word bubbles? I can

[Meep the Greek]

I voted for Burn because I liked those strips best (the first Burn strip is damned good), but both the Cel strips and the Burn and Cel are very nice. They make for good, crisp, contrasting colors.

The problem I have with airbrushing (aside from the fact that I'm just inherently prejudiced against it) is that it makes everything look softer and blurrier. So it drains some of the intensity away. It works really great for soft moments - love scenes, early mornings, dreams or memories - but I find that the cel shading or burn just works better.

[Kirb]

I'd have to go with burn too, for the same reasons as Meep. Gotta love the crispness.

[Warofwinds]

Thanks, Meep^^ Always nice to know that something works!

But um...errr. That spread on the poll is oddly split. Some seem to like the burn tool, others seem to hate it. Vote people!

musthavemoreyummyyummyvotes.

[Sput]

I don't like burn too much because it tends to give some not-so cool fleshtones. I always shade my skin with more red or blue depending on the lightsource, though.

Airbrush & cell shading for me.

[Caduceus]

The burn tool is a quick and simple way to get hilights onto a field of color. However, it can't control light color or temperature, it can't create a high contrast lighting situation and it doesn't allow you to control negative space in any way. The supernaturally smooth gradations between the dark and light also look way out of place next to black line art.

I know that was a bit of a tangent, but you did ask why people have strong feelings against using the burn tool to shade.

It works but it is really limited. It's a dead end.

That being said, the cel shading looks better to my eye anyway. It's cleaner and in control. The strict cel shading you showed us looks much better than any of the others.

[Faub]

Instead of using the burn/dodge tool directly on the color, try using multiply and overlay layers overtop the base color. MacHall has a drawing tutorial that I followed fairly closely to good results. Multiple multiply layers give you different levels of shadow and the overlay layers are good for highlights. As long as you leave the base colors flat, you can select the color and only shade/highlight that area.

[Warofwinds]

Instead of using the burn/dodge tool directly on the color, try using multiply and overlay layers overtop the base color.

Ah yes, I'm trying something like that right now, but instead of using layers I'm just using the paintbrush at a lower opacicity (Is that a word? ). It's like the layering thing, but less work. I'm partially done with the picture, so I'll post it to make sure it's what you're talking about.



I hope that shows up. I'm still working on the character on the right, especially his hair, but is this what you mean, faub?

[Smight]

If you are going to use burn/dodge you should really run a sponge set on desaturate over your shadow areas. You want to do this because when something isn't in the light value and intensity should decrease, alternately you could set the sponge to saturate and run over your lit areas. either way make sure your sponge is set on a low flow like 10% as its effects can be dramatic.

[Warofwinds]

Give me more votes! I'm five for five! And here I thought the poll might solve something. *mutters nasty things*

Nyah, nyah! See? Nyah!