Last night I had Comics Club at my house. We talked about colouring in.
For a whole evening.
It was just Tyler, Christian, and me. I missed the others, but with such a small crowd I didn’t feel bad that we talked about this issue at such length, mainly for my benefit. And I came away (well, I was home, so I didn’t go anywhere) feeling like I’d just been through a crash college course about illustration.
The down-side is that I need to rework the colouring I’ve already done on my comic. (Oh yes, I haven’t yet properly announced that here — because it still isn’t ready to show!)
I want to keep moving forward, telling more of the stories that are rushing into my head. Of course, the whole thing is a learning experience, and I expect that my cartooning will evolve as I go along. I developed the first chapter, though, to be part of a publication for Comics Club, so this colour business will need to be sorted out for that.
The gist is that I started using all sorts of colours for my comic, just like I do in my Strategic Coach illustrations. While I think they look nice, each panel is a lot of work, which will hold me back from putting this thing out.
I’ve been reading a biography of Charles Schulz (which has me hooked, and is stretching my imagination of what comics can do — plus it’s quite frank about his anxieties, his competitiveness, and his selfish moments, too).
One thing that really strikes me, looking at the cartoons peppered throughout the book, is how beautifully economical they are. Schulz isn’t drawing in a ton of background detail because it would detract from what the characters are doing and saying.
Working on a full-colour panel, I now see after last night’s conversation, demands that I render everything in the scene (versus Schulz’s blank backgrounds). And because of all the colours, I’m having to create lots of separations and layers and stuff, and all this takes time.
A nice side-effect of reading about Schulz is that it’s looping me back to childhood, when I pored over his pages, looking at his linework. I didn’t much care for the characters — they’re always so mopey and mean, except for Snoopy and Woodstock — but those lines were a big influence on me.