Do people feel online comics are obligated to be in color, since they don't have to worry about the cost like in print comics?
Just curious.
Thoughts?
I was ><this close to ending my comic when I was doing it in black and white. While it is much faster and easier to colour in black and white I found doing so was sucking the life out of my work and making it very tedious.
Doing the strip in colour is more difficult and time consuming but more fun and it brings a certain vibrance into the strip. Of course my strip is a gag strip so you have to use the colouring method that works best for the type of strip you're doing. A drama would probably get away with black and white better than a gag strip would.
File size may be a factor, or the amount of time the cartoonist can commit while still updating to schedule may be a factor.
I work in color because I use color to help identify my characters in their jumps though time, and because one of my test readers said that in my b&w test strips it was difficult to tell bearded men apart.
No. Or at least, they shouldn't.
Color works well for some comics, and b+w works better for others. It really depends on the individual comic, and should be up to the discretion of the person making the comic. Some comics look great with color, some one would look down right terrible in anything but black and white.
Assuming, file size isn't a factor, go with whatever works best for the comic.
Do people feel online comics are obligated to be in color, since they don't have to worry about the cost like in print comics?
Just curious.
Thoughts?
Pfft. Making fun of names again? :(
Incidentally, Willie's right. If you do digital toning adding colour isn't really that much slower.
But the decision to add colour or not... well... it generally depends on what you want to potray.
You know, I just joined this forum, and this is exactly the question that has been going through my mind with my own comic, http://24.4.19.108/Casting%20Shadows/ The point is... what do people like more/better? It's a tough question because people have various ideas. So then there's the question what do you, yourself, as the artist prefer... and often times it's not clear cut either. Originally, my comic was going to be greyscale, but somewhere around page 10 or so I started to really like the colored versions (I color them first and then greyscale.) So then I was left with two versions of one page like say....
http://24.4.19.108/Casting%20Shadows/CastingShadows16.jpg and
http://24.4.19.108/Casting%20Shadows/CastingShadows16b.jpg
and ended up scratching my head wondering which to go with. I still don't know. In fact the only solution I came up with was to upload the greyscale on the website and the color on Drunk Duck and link it.. to give viewers a choice. I'm incredibly indecisive. And when I first started this wasn't exactly an issue I'd have ever thought of.
ComixTalk is not responsible for comments, blog and forum posts. News and ComixTalk Magazine articles are copyright by their respective authors.
ComixTalk, its websites and logos are ©2003-2008 | Managing Editor: Xaviar Xerexes | Site Design: Mind Faucet
Pin, ping, Pin, ping, Uma, Oprah....
Color does up your file sizes, but since the majority of internet browsers are on broadband now, the few k doesnt make that much of a difference.
And adding greytone isnt all that much faster to do, so I decided to color IAG.
It's not just the option between B&W or colour.
You can too choose between half-tone, cell-shading, full contrast, inkwash... Whatever floats your boat and fits your comic.
In my case, my comic HAS to be in color, and not only that, in bright colors, no less. I happen to live in a country where everything is always so sunny and bright, and I think I should let that show on my comic.
I was just thinking about that while comparing my coloring to Ping's. I dunno if that's what she looks for, but I always had this impression that London is a gritty, foggy, gray-ish city, and for that matter, her technique suits it like a glove.
I;d like to echo the idea of B&W strips being quicker to produce and smaller in size. But yes, it does depend on the style of the comic though. In any event, a competent artist will create great art no matter what medium is used. Take for example http://geminibright.keenspace.com which has some color strips and some black-and-white strips. The artist handles this very excellently and is equally good in both styles. So color shouldn't matter so much.
Admittedly, I do a daily strip, and frankly I don't spend a lot of time on it because it's a hobby.
-Seth
There's still a cost to going color: it takes more time, and results in larger image sizes. Granted, it's not as literally expensive as getting something printed, but it's still time consuming enough that someone doing a daily strip might want to consider B&W.
Also, there are options between full color, and B&W. For me, making entire panels with naturalistic color just wouldn't work. I'm going for a sort of bleak world, so I use a limited palette and don't color everything.
Scott McCloud's last Morning Improv had a cool use of color, in my opinion.
Working in Black and White allows a creator to put out pages a lot faster, but I don't think it matters. I think color works if it really enhances the black and white work. I don't ink really well (and I'm not too good with black values), so I color my work to sort of compensate for that.
I mostly work in B&W -- but from time-to-time I'll do something with color, or spot color, or a gag with just a bit of greyscale shading to break up the routine. So I'd say, beyond the obvious creative point that nobody is obligated to be in color auf the WWW, you also don't have to be on one side or the other.
[quote:7e2a0f92f7="Michael_Harker"]No. Or at least, they shouldn't.
Color works well for some comics, and b+w works better for others. It really depends on the individual comic, and should be up to the discretion of the person making the comic. Some comics look great with color, some one would look down right terrible in anything but black and white.
Assuming, file size isn't a factor, go with whatever works best for the comic.
I agree - it really depends on the comic!
It is a wonderful thing that you don't have to worry about the cost of making your comics in color when making Webcomics - and of course using the computer to color or enhance color is a wonderful thing - But I would not say online comics are obligated to be in color - or like Michael_Harker said - they shouldn't be!
:D