I've always been interested in coloring my art in Photoshop like the pros do; as a self-taught artist, I'm constantly looking for the best resources to teach me what I need to know. Suffice it to say, I've bought quite a few books discussing computer painting and coloring. I've picked things up from them here and there, but I can honestly say that I have not found a book more comprehensive, more considerate of its audience, and better conceived than Hi-Fi Color for Comics. Before reading any further, however, please note that to get the best results from this book, you need to have Photoshop on your computer.
Hi-Fi Color for Comics is actually the best resource you can have if you're trying to learn how to do computer coloring for either comics work or just coloring your own black-and-white artwork - whether the art is inked or still in pencils. In this book you'll learn:
1. How to best scan your work and even how to best stitch together artwork that is too large to fit into one scan
2. How to 'flat' artwork (lay down the base colors)
3. How to render over the flats (the actual painting)
4. How to create color holds (turning black and white lines into colored lines for dramatic effects)
5. Special effects (making glows, fire effects, etc.) and making 'Helpers' (special image files that you can use in your artwork as starters for skies, grass, gravel, etc.)
6. Color Separation (in other words, how to finish your artwork's file and make it ready for print, etc.)
While this book would be great if it only outlined these subjects, it does something even greater: it contains a DVD-ROM that includes a large number of files. Here are just a few:
1. Photoshop Pre-Sets (color settings, brushes, and even shortcut scripts [which you will use liberally in the book's lessons] that you can install directly into Photoshop)
2. Examples of colored artwork, Helpers, etc.
3. 'Homework' assignments for stitching scanned artwork, flatting, etc.
Basically, the DVD-ROM allows you to practice what you learn right along with the lessons taught. You can open the files provided and dig right into coloring them to really get your feet wet in the coloring process right away. This is probably the best feature of the book. And, as a bonus, the pencils that you will color over are done by professionals and, in some cases, provided by top artists like Terry Moore and John Byrne.
Now, certainly, this book is not perfect: there are a number of typos, a couple of accidents in some of the lesson steps, and I found several instances where some lesson steps were accidentally left out (fortunately, they're simple enough that you will figure it out even if you're a novice). Also, those of you wanting to color your penciled artwork should note that, before performing the color separation Step 3 script to finish your artwork, be sure to Apply your line art or else your pencils would be almost completely washed out (the book fails to mention this problematic issue, I discovered).
While it has its faults, Hi-Fi Color for Comics remains the very best resource out there for those interested in learning the comic book style of computer coloring. It is a tremendously well-thought-out book, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. If this book is your speed, you may also want to consider another helpful volume, with has another approach to coloring,
Digital Manga Workshop: An Artist's Guide to Creating Manga Illustrations on Your Computer. Enjoy!
