Kristin Becker's DTC Classes at WSU

The introduction page from Batman: Shadow of the Bat #93

The use of color in Batman: Shadow of the Bat #93 is used as representation for many things throughout the course of this comic. The first real application for the color happens early on in the comic book, constructing the setting. The characters are in a dark factory that is covered in all sorts of desaturated colors and dark imagery which really helps to set the mood for the comic. On this specific page, I think that the illustrators used the heavy contrast of dark to light from the walls to the characters skin and the objects in the room to create a feeling of angst inside the reader.

Another common theme that the illustrators use color for is to represent characters personalities. The fact that Harley Quinn is wearing a jesters outfit would make any layman think she was playful and funny, but the colors on the clothing represent her true personality, which is slightly more hateful and murderous. They also do this on the Jokers clothing, using the slightly irrational color scheme of purple, green, and orange, on something typically depicted as relatively plain or at least similarly colored such as the suit to depict the irrationality of the Joker’s personality. They even do this on the unnamed captive in the background, depicting him with slightly less colorful clothes to make him look more drab and boring compared to the main characters even before you notice the gag in his mouth.

Jimmy Corrigan’s The Smartest Kid on Earth

This is an image from Jimmy Corrigan’s The Smartest Kid on Earth. All of the colors on this page are dull and shades of orange, and green-blue colors except for the little action figure. This particular character is composed of the primary colors, red, blue, and yellow. This unique color combination of the whole page creates selective emphasis on the action figure character. Another technique that this page really uses is vibration and value, this is the idea that when one color is paired with another it can create a glowing effect, which is what is done with the bright red hand on a dull background. With the distinct color of the action figure you can clearly tell that in the last frame it is the same action figure character without seeing the whole figure. On this page color creates importance and cohesiveness between frames, so that it is easier for the reader to follow. This page also really shows the value of a color, what I mean by this is that in the frame where is is showing just the house in the bottom left corner you have one color that there is either white or black added to it to create shadows and definition. This technique is also called monochrome, which I think is demonstrated very well in this piece with the colors of the house. This creates your eye to follow what is important, which is the brightest thing on the page. In this piece color is used very intentionally.

Pages 10-11 of The Mighty Boosh in Bongo Nihongo, included in The Mighty Book of Boosh as an exclusive mini-comic, by JAKe.

Color plays an import role in these two pages of The Mighty Boosh in Bongo Nihongo. In the reading there are two relationships that are discussed between colors. Complimentary and Analogous.

This particular section, previous pages stick to this color scheme too, is made almost entirely of analogous colors. Analgous colors are colors that are next to each other in the color wheel.

If one looks at this color scheme and compares it to a very similar one, it is clearly evident that the colors in the comic are very desaturated. This is done by taking a color and adding grey to it. This to me really sells the aesthetic that they are going for in this comic, a flashback of a band from back in the day. This makes the ink look older and just generally makes it seem a lot duller.

The only color that is not within this analogous color scheme is the light, tinted, color of Spider’s pants and boots. If one looks at this with a color wheel it is clear that this tint is complimentary to the oranages in the rest of the spread.

Scott Pilgrim VS The World Vol. 1

Something to note before we begin is that originally, Scott Pilgrim was done in Black and White, which means the coloring was not part of the original story. Whoever did the coloring of the comic in 2012 though did a great job since there are underlying themes in how characters are portrayed with their colors and what those colors are associated with. One of the more interesting things about these panels is both how the eye is drawn from left to right and how the color transitions between the characters. As your eye moves to the right side of the page, it becomes warmer in colors, and contrasts well between the pages. Doing darkness is difficult when there isn’t a light source as there isn’t in this scene, however the abundance of blue makes it feel like it’s actually dark. The contrast in colors between the characters is also good, especially when it comes to foreshadowing. Scott Pilgrim is in very bland, flat colors that alludes to his boring life. Ramona’s colors on the other hand reflect her abnormal lifestyle, and alludes to how she’s different from the mundane. The theory of opposites attract is played more in the themes of their color scheme rather than their actual colors sense. While the background is mostly snow, there is a large abundance of browns and reds to contrast with the blues from the left side of the pages. Dark orange can tend to look brown, so there is a level of complementary colors going on here too. The way these colors interact is mostly white plus color theory, where the primary color is white on the page.

Marvel Adventures – The Avengers 037 (2009) <-cite link

Color while often overlooked by the average viewer, sets the tone for everything we see in our daily lives, from billboards to magazines to the colors that make up our roads. Humans perceive colors differently and associate them with different moods, feelings, and meanings. While one color can affect our perception of one thing adding another color can change that object or entire frame. While we talk about comics people often think about superheros in bright red, blue, green, and yellow costumes, some may think about blocky black and white comics that some how find a way to express the emotions being shown in a frame. Bright colors are often used by comic artists today to enhance the main character or characters in the frame. On this page from Marvel Adventures – The Avengers 037 we can see the use of these techniques to making the heroes stand out from the background and the dull colors of the civilians clothing blend in with the dull world around them. The background is made up of dull, cool colors to give us that feeling of disgust, fear, and even anarchy. One thing that the artist of this comic faced was using a extended limited color palette, while we see a fair amount of colors in these frames we don’t see many variations of those colors and they are kept simple and clean.

“The Adventure of Jimmy Corrigan the Smartest Kid on Earth” by Mr. F.C. Ware Pg. ?

The use of color is everywhere and color has different meaning in the way different people use color o view color in their work and in the world. In the book “Graphic Design the New Basics” by Ellen Lupton and Jennifer Cole Phillips they say that color can convey moods on things and based on what color that you use would tell what the relationship the work is to the artist. Color could make thing pop out if they contrast each other or make them hidden if the color mesh well with its surroundings that the artist could decide what colors that they want to use. Color has become a vital part in the design world that the color that’s used depends on the perception of the viewer and that the use of what colors they use is also based on the culture they live with. Designers have many different color pallets that they could use like using primary, secondary, tertiary, complements, or analogous colors and they have many shades, tints, and saturation values on each hue of color. Designs with colors has almost limitless ways that people could work with in their designs that could bring their imaginations into full view.

In the book “The Adventures of Jimmy Corrigan the Smartest Man on Earth” by Mr. F.C. Ware on the page shown above the colors used in this page has dull hues of color in most parts of the page. In the top two frames of the comic for that page the colors for the settings and objects are grey, dull brown and light grey. The only bright color that was used was the boy’s bright orange pants in the second top frame which is contrasts with the scene and draws your attention to the boy knowing that he is the focus of the scene. The bottom three frames of the comic use similar dull washed out colors of gray blue, dulled white, black, and salmon. The only bright colors that contrasts those drab colors is the bright green of the trees and the orange color of the boy’s pants again to draw your attention to them. Based on those colors that Mr. F.C. Ware used he wanted the setting to have a dreary mood that the world around the boy is somber while the boy itself is bright.

Page 186 from Lynda Barry’s graphic novel “What it is.”

This page from the graphic novel “What it is”, is a great visual example to discuss the interaction of multiple colors. The repetition of the colors shown in this visual is a great representation of a palette. This is shown thoroughly in this example with the repetition of color done in the page that demonstrates a pattern that is being used. Then there was the use of near complements and analogous colors. All of these are shown in the visual example, especially when we take a look at the colors used on the sticky notes and the background color. The pink sticky notes on the yellow background are near complements. Then the green sticky notes on the yellow background are analogous colors. The use of these multiple colors help create an effect on how they create a meaning to the author’s comic. The colors used complement each other in order to create a visually appealing comic so that it can provoke an emotion in a reader. This is shown through the repetition of the colors that are all the same tint when we look at a color wheel. The repetition helps keep the consistency of the comic and shows a pattern in the comic. The different colors together helps make the comic seem appealing to the eye as they are more calming colors as well. The colors catch the eye of the reader, but the colors do not distract the reader thanks to the tint being used.

This is page 12 from Maira Kalman’s “The Principles of Uncertainty.” Kalman, Maira. The Principles of Uncertainty. New York: Penguin Press, 2007. Print.

Color plays an important role in not only art and images, but in life as a whole. Color relies entirely on perception, changing based on a person’s social and cultural exposure. Color is a design aspect that can alter the entire meaning of a piece of work with a mere shift, and can appeal to different people in different ways.

From The Principles of Uncertainty by Maira Kalman, this picture shows the portrait of a woman, posing presumably for her picture to be taken or painted. Kalman chose to give this picture a golden-yellow background – a darker shade of yellow with splashes of white tinting it. This gives different hues, adding more depth to the background, instead of making it look like a flat yellow backdrop.

With the background, the woman is painted with an orange dress, which is patterned in red, yellow and white. The choices of color for the woman’s dress and for the background of the picture work cohesively together, making it seem like a well thought out piece, in terms of color. The orange, red and yellow stand as analogous colors, which means they are hues next to one another on the color wheel. And the fact that these hues are warm colors adds to the meaning of the picture, conveying stronger emotion, such as excitement or passion, despite the woman’s stoic facial expression. These colors help viewers respond more emotionally to the piece of art.

In addition, Kalman gives the woman an enlarged hat that is black and white. Her decision to use these acts majorly as a dramatic statement, making the black and white stand out against each other strongly. This contrast works well because they can perceived as opposites, which gives the picture a different kind of focal point, also contrasting noticeably against the yellow background.

Overall, Kalman’s color choices on this page demonstrate how colors can work together to show she thoughtfully used colors that would form the picture and contrast in an interesting way.