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ChronosCat

Sketchbook Tuesday Dec 4, 2018

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http://egscomics.com/sketchbook/2018-043

I don't know how much there will be to say about this comic, seeing as it's just a colorized version of the latest NP, but it's tradition to have a thread for each post on the main EGS site, darnit!

Re: the commentary, I'm always amazed by how much trouble Dan has picking out colors. Does he picture the comic world in grayscale or something? I mean, I can see trying to get things perfect for a color scheme that's going to be reused a lot in the future, but for anything else my impulse is to just pick something close to what I envisioned that doesn't look horrible and be done with it. (Then again, I'm not a professional artist.)

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Just now, ChronosCat said:

Re: the commentary, I'm always amazed by how much trouble Dan has picking out colors. Does he picture the comic world in grayscale or something? I mean, I can see trying to get things perfect for a color scheme that's going to be reused a lot in the future, but for anything else my impulse is to just pick something close to what I envisioned that doesn't look horrible and be done with it. (Then again, I'm not a professional artist.)

It's not that he pictures in in grayscale originally, it's just that that using grayscale is easier because the palette he has to work with is much smaller as he addresses in the last Q&A.

His recent foray into colouring stems from finding out an easier way to match colours and creating a number of swatches for various characters, for the most part though, the bottleneck remains the backgrounds since they would vary more the the characters, like with characters even if they have different clothes, they could still follow the same colour palettes unless there happens to be a drastic change in form or something. Backgrounds though, the only reason Dan managed to get through Squirrel Prophet in colour was because the majority of it was in one location so it was easy to stick to a single palette for a length of time,  So a Date at the Mall and Sister 3 took place is numerous locations so if Dan tried to do it all in colour, , he'd have to create background palettes for Tedd's home, Susan's home, the video store, Sarah's home, both schools, etc.

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1 hour ago, Scotty said:

It's not that he pictures in in grayscale originally, it's just that that using grayscale is easier because the palette he has to work with is much smaller as he addresses in the last Q&A.

His recent foray into colouring stems from finding out an easier way to match colours and creating a number of swatches for various characters, for the most part though, the bottleneck remains the backgrounds since they would vary more the the characters, like with characters even if they have different clothes, they could still follow the same colour palettes unless there happens to be a drastic change in form or something.

I know, it's just - if he pictures it in color, how hard can it be to pick a color on the computer to match that? As I said, I can understand fine-tuning things if the color scheme is going to be used a lot, but otherwise it seems like it ought to be a fairly simple decision. I mean, I've hardly ever had any difficulty picking out colors in my own works (not that those choices were always right, but you live and learn).

I don't know. Maybe finding colors that look good doesn't come as easily to him as it does to me. Or maybe he's more of a perfectionist than I am (highly likely). It just feels strange to me that an artist far better than me (one I admire as an artist, no less) would consider the aspect of creating a picture that I find the most fun to be a challenge (at least when on a schedule).

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1 hour ago, ChronosCat said:

I don't know. Maybe finding colors that look good doesn't come as easily to him as it does to me. Or maybe he's more of a perfectionist than I am (highly likely). It just feels strange to me that an artist far better than me (one I admire as an artist, no less) would consider the aspect of creating a picture that I find the most fun to be a challenge (at least when on a schedule).

I would definitely assume he's more of a perfectionist.

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Just now, ChronosCat said:

I know, it's just - if he pictures it in color, how hard can it be to pick a color on the computer to match that? As I said, I can understand fine-tuning things if the color scheme is going to be used a lot, but otherwise it seems like it ought to be a fairly simple decision. I mean, I've hardly ever had any difficulty picking out colors in my own works (not that those choices were always right, but you live and learn).

I don't know. Maybe finding colors that look good doesn't come as easily to him as it does to me. Or maybe he's more of a perfectionist than I am (highly likely). It just feels strange to me that an artist far better than me (one I admire as an artist, no less) would consider the aspect of creating a picture that I find the most fun to be a challenge (at least when on a schedule).

That's the thing, I don't think he's actually thinking about colour (or greyscale) until he actually gets to the point where he needs ink it, if he hasn't already done an earlier scene in a particular location in colour,  he won't have a colour scheme in mind when he get to drawing the background and then that's when he starts to figure out the details of it.

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38 minutes ago, Scotty said:

That's the thing, I don't think he's actually thinking about colour (or greyscale) until he actually gets to the point where he needs ink it, if he hasn't already done an earlier scene in a particular location in colour,  he won't have a colour scheme in mind when he get to drawing the background and then that's when he starts to figure out the details of it.

Hmm... When I plan stories, I imagine the scenes visually - and color is a part of that. Similarly, when I go to make a picture, I start with a (color) image in my head that I then try to replicate on paper/screen. Occasionally, the picture in my head isn't quite detailed enough, or I change my mind during production, but in general the only decisions I have to make during the drawing/coloring process relate to how to realize my vision.

Now that you mention it, though, it does make sense that Dan's way of planning stories and art could be different. Different people think in different ways, after all -- sometimes in very different ways (for instance, I think primarily in images and concepts, while some people can't even conceive of thinking without using words).

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3 hours ago, Don Edwards said:
8 hours ago, Scotty said:

unless there happens to be a drastic change in form

As if THAT would ever happen in THIS comic! 

Surprisingly, most transformations in this comic keeps palette ... or transform to palette of other already existing character.

3 hours ago, ChronosCat said:

Hmm... When I plan stories, I imagine the scenes visually - and color is a part of that. Similarly, when I go to make a picture, I start with a (color) image in my head that I then try to replicate on paper/screen. Occasionally, the picture in my head isn't quite detailed enough, or I change my mind during production, but in general the only decisions I have to make during the drawing/coloring process relate to how to realize my vision.

Now that you mention it, though, it does make sense that Dan's way of planning stories and art could be different. Different people think in different ways, after all -- sometimes in very different ways (for instance, I think primarily in images and concepts, while some people can't even conceive of thinking without using words).

Yes. Hmmm ... didn't he tried to describe it somewhere or was it some other author?

Maybe he doesn't plan visually ... or actually plans in grayscale ... or plans in colors which don't work in reality. Or maybe they would work in reality but not on computer screen - after all, computer screen can only show very few colors:

800px-CIExy1931_sRGB_gamut_D65.png

In fact, I'm pretty sure Ellen's new hair color is outside the limited abilities of common monitors. There is barely any green inside, so ...

 

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Just now, hkmaly said:

Surprisingly, most transformations in this comic keeps palette ... or transform to palette of other already existing character.

Well thankfully Dan had decided long ago that the majority of the forms that the main characters take would take on a variation of the base palette Dan chose, Tedd would have purple/pink elements, Elliot would have blue/black element, etc. though in Elliot's case some forms would need different palettes, like Heidi, Goth and Mild Mannered) but those could have been referenced from other sources with a web image search. the most recent difficulty Dan had with character colours though had been deciding which shade of green and yellow Ellen's hair and eyes would be after her recent transformation shenanigans.

Just now, hkmaly said:

Maybe he doesn't plan visually ... or actually plans in grayscale ... or plans in colors which don't work in reality. Or maybe they would work in reality but not on computer screen - after all, computer screen can only show very few colors:

It might help if he'd basing a location in comic on an actual location he's been to (school, the comic shop, the mall) so he'd certainly have some idea of colours, but real world colors don't usually translate well in cartoon style so he'd probably be more like "well that was brown, but it'd be too dark to use in the comic so I need to go lighter" and then proceeds to try to narrow down a shade of brown that would look best with any other colours he's using.

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