From: intruder@cats.ucsc.edu (Isaac Truder)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.info
Subject: Rob Davis Comics Career Article 3 of 9
Date: 1 Sep 92 08:05:36 GMT
Followup-To: rec.arts.comics.misc
Organization: University of California; Santa Cruz



A Mr. Rob Davis, comics aritst, has written a number of articles on the
subject of breaking into the comics business and conducting your business
once you're in.  He has recently personally given me permission to
disseminate his articles to the Internet (they were previously available on
CompuServe).  These articles originally came from a publication called the
Comics Career Newsletter.  This next one covers the technical aspects of
how professional comics are colored.



                          COLORING FOR COMICS
 
                              By Rob Davis
 
 
    In printing, four colors are used:  cyan, magenta, yellow, and
black.  The first three colors (corresponding to the primary colors) are
also called "process blue" (cyan), "process red" (magenta), and "process
yellow" (yellow).  Just as on the color wheel, these colors are mixed
together to form the secondary and tertiary colors in the printing
process (more on that later).
 
    Today's comic books are printed on a variety of paper stocks and by
many different types of printing presses.  These variables determine the
method by which comic colors are separated from the various hues seen in
the final product into the four basic colors printed by the press (the
process colors mentioned above, and black).  These variables also
determine the way in which the colorist does his work.
 
    Illustrations for printing must be "half-tones" for tonal gradations
in color.  This means breaking up the image into a series of dots to
reproduce the full tonal range of the coloring.  This is usually done by
a "percentage" screen inserted over the negative being photographically
exposed.  This allows the colors to be rendered into a series of dots
since the light only penetrates the screen where the screen has holes.
Each color (of the process four) must be "screened" separately since a
different print plate is used for each color.  The unwanted colors in
each case are filtered out by a colored acetate sheet placed over the
camera lens that eliminates all but the desired color.
 
    Colorists for the most "mainstream" comics are actually doing "color
guides" for use by the engravers at the printer; the actual coloring
done by the colorist is not reproduced exactly.  The engraver cuts
screens to fit into the negatives corresponding to special notations
made by the colorist and are done on reduced copies of the original
artwork (since the original work is done one and one half larger than
printed size).  These copies are sometimes called "blue-line" or
"grey-line".  This method is limited to a selection of only 64 different
colors and allows for very little "modeling" or gradual shading of
color.
 
    The notation system used by colorists in the above system
corresponds with the percentage of the screen used for color.  The
percentages normally used in this process are: 100% (solid color -- no
screen), 50% (fifty percent of the area screened has dots), and 25%
(twenty-five percent of the area screened has dots).  In the notation
system each color is represented by its capital letter:  R for red, B
for blue, and Y for yellow.  To represent the percentage screen to use,
numbers are used as in R3 for 50% red or R2 for 25%.  The capital letter
alone stands for a 100% "screen" of that color.  The numbers and letters
can be used in 64 different combinations, hence the limitation of 64
colors imposed by the process (i.e. RB2 for 100% red with 25% blue).
 
    Most colorists use Dr. Martin's Synchromatic Watercolor Dyes when
doing color work because of their rich, full color and the fact that
they dilute easily with water.  The Dr. Martin's color "Lake" is equal
to R (magenta), "Cerulean Blue" equals B (cyan), and "Lemon Yellow"
equals Y (yellow).  YB (green) can be achieved using Dr. Martin's
"Emerald" straight from the bottle.  The other percentages are achieved
by diluting the colors proportionally to the desired percent.  For
example Y3 (50% yellow) is a 50/50 mixture of "Lemon Yellow" and water.
This formula is not exact, but with a little practice and observation
can be fine-tuned.
 
    As an aside, let me say that it isn't absolutely necessary to use
the Dr. Martin's.  Where I live the dyes are not readily available, so I
have adopted Windsor & Newton liquid watercolors.  They come in the
"process" colors in generous bottles with a dropper and are just as easy
to use.  If you have the same availability problem you may find the
Windsor & Newton watercolors in most good art supply stores.
 
    Since it is not possible to show you a chart of the 64 colors
mentioned here, you may want to try to acquire one.  A local printer may
be of some help.  If not, try to track down a copy of Marvel Comics'
"Marvel Age" #13 or "The Official Marvel Comics Try-Out Book".  Each
contains a chart of the 64 colors and the "Marvel Age" contains an
excellent article on comics coloring which was used as research on this
article.
 
    Other methods of color separation make use of the "scanning"
technique.  Photos are taken of the colored artwork and transferred to
transparencies.  The transparency is then wrapped around a glass
cylinder and the cylinder is set spinning.  As it spins, a narrow beam
of light passes through the transparency and into a color splitting
prism that breaks the image into the three process colors.  The color
components are then directed onto sensitive photo-electric cells and
converted into electronic signals which are then modified and amplified
in a computer.  Once the colors are modified the computer activates a
series of lamps which expose the color corrected images into
photographic films mounted on another cylinder attatched to the same
spinning shaft of the scanner as the transparency.  These films are then
used to make the individual color plates used on the presses.
 
    The scanning allows for greater flexibility in coloring since it
reproduces exactly what the colorist does.  Many of the "new format"
comics use this process for its beautiful reproduction.  Modeling and
shading may be done when color separation is done this way and there's
no need to make reference or notation from a chart.
 
    There are a few "tricks" that most good colorists have on their
palette.  "Knock out" (an area or figure of all one color) areas of
emotional colors at crucial moments in the story add impact.
"Highlighting" an area by leaving white or a lighter color to one side
intensifies the light or heat source next to the figure or object.
"Overlays" or "color holds" (where there is no black outline or the
outline is in a specific color) are done on a separate sheet of acetate
or vellum overlaying the original art.  This is usually done by the
penciler or inker as a special effect -- simulating invisibility or
colors in a fire or explosion.  "Red-lining", or putting one color next
to another with no black lines between, is usually indicated by the
penciler or inker but may be done in the coloring stages as well.  Red
lining has many of the same uses as color hold.  
 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY
 
Encyclopaedia Britannic, 15th edition.  All entries under "Colour".
    1987.
 
"The Official Marvel Comics Tryout Book".  Marvel Comics Group.  1983.
 
Marvel Age vol.1, #13, "How To Color Comics the Marvel Way".  Marvel
    Comics Group.  April 1984.
 
 
 
+----------------------------------------------------------------------
| This article is Copyright (c) 1992 by Rob Davis.  The author is a
| feelance artist whose work has been seen under a number of different
| company logos.  His professional comics career started with SYPHONS
| #7 from NOW Comics, as a letterer.  He also lettered RUST #'s 1 and
| 2 and penciled, lettered and inked DAI KAMIKAZE!.  At Malibu
| Graphics Rob has penciled and inked several projects.  Among those
| were SCIMIDAR and MERLIN.  For Innovation Rob penciled STRAW MEN,
| MAZE AGENCY, and QUANTUM LEAP.  At Rip-Off Press Rob penciled,
| lettered and inked THE ADVENTURES OF CAPTAIN NEMO.  At Marvel Comics
| Rob penciled theee issues of Hanna Barbera's PIRATES OF DARK WATER.
| At DC Comics Rob has penciled STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION, and
| STAR TREK (one issue each as fill-in, so far).  All this as of
| September, 1992.




--
-Hades (Brian V. Hughes) 
	    "Egads! These look like a women's fingerprints"
						   -- Durlock Holmes