Colorist Quotations:
From Dave McCaig – Dave is a longtime colorist who has colored Superman: Birthright, The New Avengers, and Nextwave, to name a few. From an interview on Comic Book Resources.About what a colorist does – "Colorists are the cinematographers of the comic industry. We are not responsible for telling the story in as direct a way as the writer or penciller is, but our work is very important anyway. We set the tone and mood with color, we direct your eye across the page, and set up depth of field. All important, but kind of secondary to the main story. So as long as the editors and pencillers know who I am, and fans like how the book looks in the end, I'm happy."
From Marie Javins – Marie worked for 13 years for Marvel as an editor and colorist before taking off on trips around the world. From an interview at Creativity Portal.
About learning to be a colorist – “The way you learn to be a comic book colorist is you learn from other colorists. At the time I was using paintbrushes. It was a lot of fun for a long time but we went bankrupt as a company several times — so by the time I left I was happy to leave. The comic book colorists were happy to teach anybody and I was lucky enough to have an aptitude for it. A talent I had no idea I had by the way. I literally fell into this career. I was editing by day, and to pay my student loans off, at night I was going home and coloring. Eventually I left the day job and was just doing the freelance coloring.”
From Marlena Hall – A newcomer to the coloring world, Marlena has worked on Knights Of The Dinner Table: Everknights, Dead @ 17, and others. From an interview at Comic Book Bin.
About what a colorist needs – “Like I said before, I've had no formal training, so I don't think you really need it. But if you don't go to school for any of it, I think you have to have some sort of basic knowledge about color. Or at least have an eye for what works and what doesn't. I've bought a ton of books and I go through comics that I already have to study the color composition that I see in those books to give me ideas for my own work."
"What you do need, however, is a knowledge of the programs that you work in to produce your work. You can have all the technique and natural ability in the world, but if you can't use Photoshop or any of the other programs out there, I don't think you'll be able to get very far.”
