# "Comic Book Style Shading"



## Samara (Sep 18, 2011)

Alright, so I found some people to bounce critiques off of, and the agreement was that I could offer advice should they do the same for me.  

I noticed one of them used pure black and white for shading for a fire-hydrant red fox, and I suggested they avoid this, with a link to a tutorial explaining why it might not be the best idea. Her response amounted to "I know how to shade realistically, I used comic book style shading, but thanks anyway,".   

Now, admittedly, I don't read comics very often, but is it true that many use pure black & white for shading? Everything I've been reading suggests that shading this way is a very poor idea, because it can make your colors look dull/lifeless/what have you.


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## Zydala (Sep 18, 2011)

Question: was it solid black and white, or a shade of black added to the color?

Former I would consider "comic book"-ish, the latter I would not.

EDIT: you say "pure black and white" so I'm assuming it was solid.


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## FluffMouse (Sep 18, 2011)

There's a type of cell-shading that does use heavy black instead of darker colors, generally it's just for black and white images, but it is integrated into color work as well.

http://cdn.ifanboy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Flash-Rebirth_Interior_1_new.jpg

http://static-l3.blogcritics.org/10/05/06/134297/1218451-azzir---steve-r.jpg

It's usually for older-style comics, or DC stuff.. but I haven't seen white highlighting used at all in this type of work if it's colored.

It could just be an excuse on her end, as cell shading does usually use darker variants of colors for shading instead of blacks, but yeah, it is a style of shading used mainly in comics.


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## Zydala (Sep 18, 2011)

Just to add on to why this technique might be considered an 'exception' to the rule of not using black and white:

The comic industry has to crank out tons of art in little time; back a long time ago it was very easy to use solid ink work and just color in with solid colors; with photoshop and advanced printing techniques these days it's easy to add more highlights and variations in color, but a lot of the technique remains the same (as SugarMental shows in her examples).

This actually doesn't really detract and dull the colors, having a very bright color next to black/white will make it pop. It's when you add _shades_ of black to a hue that the color begins to dull.


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## Samara (Sep 18, 2011)

Ah, okay, thanks for clearing that up for me, guys. 

@Zydala: Yeah, both the white and black were solid.


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## Human (Sep 30, 2011)

Are you talking about heavy solid black areas in her ink work? 
If you're talking about the shades of color than yeah, just adding black or grey to shade with will make a boring mud color.


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## serbus (Oct 4, 2011)

There _is_ an american style of comic shading that uses black, but its one of those things that only looks right when done by a professional who knows how to break the rules properly.  I wish I could think up an example, but I can't remember the name of the woman I watch on DA who does it.  She's done Alice in Wonderland and Supergirl comics.  She's pretty talented.


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## Arshes Nei (Oct 4, 2011)

serbus said:


> There _is_ an american style of comic shading that uses black, but its one of those things that only looks right when done by a professional who knows how to break the rules properly.  I wish I could think up an example, but I can't remember the name of the woman I watch on DA who does it.  She's done Alice in Wonderland and Supergirl comics.  She's pretty talented.



You may be referring to Christina Strain if you mean colorists. But I know there are others. Such as Emily Warren...

http://justaddninjas.com/

http://ceeceeluvins.deviantart.com/gallery/

http://www.frozenlilacs.com/

They are the two that come first to mine in terms of female colorists.


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## serbus (Oct 5, 2011)

Ah, apologies, _he_ is a very good artist and _he_ can be found here.


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## Arshes Nei (Oct 5, 2011)

serbus said:


> Ah, apologies, _he_ is a very good artist and _he_ can be found here.



A lot of Comic artists are just pencilers and other people ink and color their work.

For inking, I remember Trevor Scott being one, and more famously Scott Williams. http://comicsinkers.blogspot.com/2005/07/scott-williams-on-jim-lee.html

When he was working for Image (he was Jeffrey Scott early on because I remember his pinup of Voodoo) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Scott_Campbell, Joe Chiodo http://www.joechiodo.com/jccomics.html actually did a lot of the coloring for quite a bit.
Even in his DA page he's linking to the artists who colored his work.

I wouldn't say there's a specific style to comic books either. I also don't know if Scott Campbell is the best example either. It's not that I don't like Campbell, I got into Gen13 when I was younger because of him, but his broken hips style is disconcerting. But there seems to be that 90's Image cross hatch style, or you have someone like Adam Hughes that uses more solid blacks http://www.justsayah.com/ (or none, depending on what he's doing), similar is Frank Cho http://www.libertymeadows.com/ probably NSFW due but has warnings.

I even like Neal Adams http://www.nealadams.com/

Or you can have art like Moebius NSFW on bottom of page http://lambiek.net/artists/g/giraud.htm who developed into a very distinct line style

Frazetta http://comicartcommunity.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=77

Bill Sienkiewicz http://www.billsienkiewiczart.com/ 

Jae Lee - http://theartofjaelee.com/artwork.php art could look straightforward or blow your mind with the splatter http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_3q_3QLhx-YQ/THU8zOYDh3I/AAAAAAAAAUA/lYXQ4wYvpgg/s1600/Jae+Lee+6.jpg

There's Todd McFarlane or Greg Capullo http://www.comicartcommunity.com/gallery/categories.php?cat_id=149

Mike Mignola http://www.artofmikemignola.com/

Chris Bachalo http://www.chrisbachalo.net/


List can go on and on, including female artists....


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