Sarah Perryman - Comic Colorist Thread

[SarahPerryman]

Hi there!

I have been a comic colorist for the past 3 years on all kinds of projects. Artists have a tendency to hide behind their desk 24 hours a day and I am no different. So this year I decided to get a little more involved in the comic world and meet some great new people. I practically live on DeviantArt so if you want to see more of my work or send me a message you can always find me there: http://sarahperryman.deviantart.com

I thought I would start out with a really fun piece I colored between projects. This is Gian drawn by a great artist, Keu CHa and inked by Joey Des.

[JakDark]

You pretty much got the color perfect. And I really like the way you added in the movement on the rock foreground.

[eureka]

Great Job Sarah!!

[brokentool]

the colors of magic =]

[SarahPerryman]

Thank you very much for your nice comments. In an effort to always improve my art I have been taking a hard look at my coloring style. My hubby pointed out the use of too much darkness in a lot of my coloring and it has been something that has bothered me for quite a while. So I am slowing down and really getting back into putting an effort into my tones and shades. When I first started coloring I was mainly focused on learning the shapes, lighting, and speed. Now that I have a pretty good understanding of those, through years of practice, I can get back to the basics and take my coloring where I want it to go.

This beautiful Neverland cover was drawn by Pasquale Qualano for Zenescpe. I borrowed it as a practice piece.

[brokentool]

Looking at the two images now, I can also see it. Mind you, even after seeing the new one, I do not thing Gian looks less good, but the difference is quite evident.

This is something we have talked about with our artist too. Back when we were still in concept stage, he was wondering whether to adopt a style which pretty much excluded the black/dark [like the middle part of the boots of Gian, or parts of her hair], or one that.. does not =]

To be honest, I think both approaches have merits. Or, at least, I like them both and think they have their uses for different things. The second image definitely would not have benefited from the same approach, but in the first one - it does not take away from the overall color scheme and feel - in my opinion.

Incidentally, have you re-colored old work of yours. It would be very cool to see some old/new stuff juxtaposed.

[SarahPerryman]

Good Morning,

I have not recolored an old image but I have been tempted to many times just to see how far I have come.

I found that when I color I like a lot of open space to paint in details, but for comic production that means it a lot harder to do since there is a very tight deadline and you can't treat every page like a pinup. It's sad in a way. If we could put as much time into each page there would be some beautiful comics out there! But heavy inks fill in a lot of the page and make coloring quicker. I struggle with pages that have a lot of thick inks and need to practice them a lot more.

My real trouble with darkness in my coloring was more of a tone choice. I leaned toward dark thick colors with extreme rim lighting to make the shapes pop out. It works for some things but I am really enjoying painting with lighter colors.

[SarahPerryman]

I am still working on adjusting the skin tones. Now, instead of being too dark my highlights are a few shades too bright, lol. So I still have more fine-tuning to do. this was a wonderful page from Jungle Girl drawn and inked back in 2008. I know she is supposed to be blonde but I wanted to use red and make her op a little more. You can see and download the full size here: http://sarahperryman.deviantart.com/...ngle-355112844

Lines: Diego Bernard
Inks: JP Mayer
Color: Sarah Perryman

[Scurlogg_Hawkk]

awesome stuff here :)