How important is a good colorist?
What makes a comic visually appealing? Who is the most important part of the art team? Penciller? Inker? Colorist?
I’ve been drawing for so long that I have no doubt my knowledge of style, technique, etc biases my opinion. I mentally critique every piece of comic art I see – trying to learn from those that I really connect with, and try to figure out what “went wrong” in those I don’t. (There’s a really fine line between art that, on the one one hand, I don’t like because it looks “flawed”, and on the other hand, stylistic choices that are “technically” correct, but that I nonetheless find unappealing. I don’t know if that’s an artist-specific experience or not – I’ll have to think about that and post later).
One conclusion I’ve reached is that the whole art team has to be working together to make the final piece work. It may sound like a fairly obvious statement, but it’s an important point. The comic world is replete with great pencillers’ work being ruined by bad inking (sometimes their own) or bad colors. And there are an equal number of situations where a great inker or colorist has saved a bad penciller. Choose your permutation. Just look through your own books and I’m sure you’ll come across it somewhere, and I won’t waste the effort mud-slinging here.
Instead, here’s one great case of where it all works:
(image from Mike Choi’s blog: http://mikechoirants.blogspot.com/)
The Mike Choi/Sonia Oback team you see here is a great example of where it all clicks (what’s more, they’re a couple). Choi is an accomplished penciller in his own right (clean, technical, not lazy at all with backgrounds or props, lots of good stuff), but when you see Oback’s colors, there can be no denial that her contribution is HUGE! (Often, I think she doesn’t get nearly the credit she deserves for their shared work.) The pencilled image is great: clean lines, solid anatomy, detailed, but it is a bit static, dry, vanilla. Compare that to the colored version. The whole mood has changed, there’s emotion and mystery and danger all over it. Textures pop – metal weighs heavy like metal, you feel the slickness of Domino’s suit, and the brick and blood in the background are amazing. Choi’s solid anatomy is given firmness and volume. Beautiful. On their own, the pencils may feel a bit empty – but they are IDEALLY suited as a canvas for the style of coloring Oback brings to the table. A great team making for a great visual appeal.