Digital colouring

[o1s1n]

i am now seven progs back into my weekly dose of thrill power, and i have to say,something feels different. the artwork seems a lot more digital. especially the colouring. it seems bland and lifeless. although Plot wise Nikolai Dante wasnt anything special, it was great seeing some actual paint and vibrant colour being used!
i was just wonder, is this the norm now for 2000AD now? or are there many fine art/painting strips being included anymore?

[Dark Jimbo]

It does seem to be standard these days to usually use digital colouring. I can't think of many strips now apart from Dante (well, anything by John Burns) which is actually painted.

[o1s1n]

thats really annoying. The artwork in general just seems to be there because it has to be. Dredd is good but its simply functional. The V.C's is a joke. i dont know how anyone with that level of skill could get into the industry.
Lobster Random had some nice linework, but again, digitally inked. bland bland colours.really kills the nice art under it.
then again, maybe i'm just a moany shite who just wont get with the times....

[Art]

Of course, in the early 90s the standard colouring treatment  for anything not fully painted seemed to be to slosh a bunch of wishy-washy water colour over the top of it. Not something anyone would want to see a return to...

[Rob Spalding]

It's entirely possible to make it look great with digital colouring.

Check this out, by the (now 15) artist I am collaborating with.
She didn't do the linework, but it's all digital colouring.

I think it's down to how much effort actually goes into the colouring, not the method.

Link: http://www.deviantart.com/view/33077218/" target="_blank">Pretty damn impressive!

[Steve Green]

Although I can see the criticism. I think there's a bit of rose-tinted glasses going on here.

Just because it's digital doesn't mean it's going to be good or bad. I thought some of the painted artwork in 2000AD and the Meg, post-Horned God was dreadful.

I think the main factor is the colouring, it's much more of a double-act these days, which can work both ways.

- Steve

[o1s1n]

to be honest i think most of the digital colouring i'm seeing in these latest progs could be compared to those wishy-washy water colours of old you're talking about. colouring just for the sake of colour.

looking back at Glimmer Rats and some of that digital Durham Red stuff..the Cantos War i think it was called? years since i read it. but they looked amazing. so i'm not exactly totally anti digital.
it'd just be nice to see paint and digital BOTH used, both to their potential..
but maybe that's asking too much!

oh and Garamin, that IS pretty damn impressive!

[o1s1n]

oh no, i think it was called "The Scarlet Cantos"...*looks for the progs. oh, theres the graphic novels advertised on the back of prog 1490. i must be blind :D

[WoD]

It's come a long way since we first saw in it in tooth...some early examples of it were...not good...to be fair!

I like the fact that we still get B&W art in tooth.  The simplicity of it is better sometimes.

[Cthulouis]

I personally really disliked the art in Glimmer rats, so difficult to tell whats going on and characters apart. I've found his more recent work relys more on the actuaal line work underneath and doesn't completely swamp it with colour (and by colour I mean various shades of black and brown), providing much better ressults.

Also agree with the fact that some paint jobs are terrible. Never mind the work after the horned god, some of the art work *durring* the horned god was terrible, mainly as the saga reached its end.

The dull colours in Lobster random were used to great affect in the first series, where when stronger colour did turn up it was for a reason and more powerful as a result. The later series have kept these dull colurs (I presume) for the sake of continuity, and as such I think it works.

The art on the first (well, second i suppose) series of VCs was cool, but after Henry Flint got taken off the art duties both the art and story went down hill.

I also love black and white art, particularly Shakara, any idea when we'll be seeing more of that?  

Overall I guess variety is the best thing. All methods should be used, but bad practitioners of the various crafts should be kept to those styles that they can do well.

[nofuture]

I don't know if it's my age or if it's just what i'm digging these days but, I'm really into the black and white strips, eg. Low life and Red Seas

[+rufus+]

 I love B&W stuff too!
 but,if it is coloured,  I always much prefer it when artists colour their own work. I know for speed's sake Colourists are often necessary, but given enough deadline time I'm sure most artists would prefer this.
 There have been some noticable exceptions, Mr Blythe very nicely colours Can Kennedy's art (but then he can reference cam's palette from Cam's painted art).
 I just hate colouring with lots of filters and fiddly camouflage.
 Keep it simple...
:-) rufus

[o1s1n]

Red Seas looks great! i have to say, that really took me by suprise. has a really nice unfinished look to it. i wasnt expecting to see anything like that at all.
Low Life on the other hand.... sometimes it seemed like it was trying to be all noire and Silhouette. personally love black and white art when its got loads of thinly built up lines, crosshatching etc. this just seemed too blocky.

[Large48]

I still think you can't beat fully painted art especially by the likes of John Burns, Ian Gibson and Simon Davis........

I'm guessing at the end of the day timescales have a lot to answer for!!!

[radiator]

I think that we should all be thankful we don't have alan craddock's awful computer colouring any more, and we now have the far more talented chris blythe.
Though, IMO he doesn't hit the nail on the head with his colours every time, he is certainly well suited to artists like henry flint - check out total war for evidence.
Also I actually really like Carl crichlow and Kev Walker's muted (or dull, depending on you POV) computer colouring - I hate loads of garish colours clogging up the page!
Personally I can't stand most painted comic art, and as someone who has dabbled in comic art, i also cant understand why anyone would have the patience to fully paint a strip - it takes aaaaages just to draw a simple b+w one.