DC Comics Guide to Coloring and Lettering Comics

I guess I should explain what I am after and hopefully that will explain where this review is coming from. I am a complete beginner in the area of drawing and coloring. I mean I have not picked up a pencil and drawn a single thing, but I have decided to learn and begin down that road. I am searching for the books that will help me get to the point where I can be as good as the art I admire. While I feel I may have found some good books on drawing, I decided to also buy this book on coloring. I am after a tutorial, a 'How to.' This book is not a how to, exactly.I bought this book with interest in how to learn to color and color for comics as well. The first section of the book covers some interesting topics in color theory and examples are included of how that is applied to a comic book. The problem is that this is a very brief covering of general basics of color, not actually coloring. IE 'there a 3 basic colors of cyan, magenta and yellow and you can create other colors with these 3. There is a color wheel where is color has an opposite and here is an example picture.'Don't get me wrong that some stuff is interesting and will be useful when I am more advanced than I am now. If you are after learning how to color from scratch, this book wont really help that much. The books' basic break down for coloring is 'some' basic theories and one or two examples of pictures, no actual tutorials on how to actually color. I really can not stress how there are no actual tutorials on coloring, just theory and an example.And that section is brief, like 30 pages and then the book goes into using tools for computer coloring like photoshop, but again only briefly. You will learn that the author prefers photoshop (nothing wrong with that) and how to save a file and what format to work in, but the explanation on the transfer of your art from computer to print is a little confusing and again very generic. The book will only show you the picture of a tool and what it looks like and again, only a small amount of info, no actual tutorials.The lettering section is a bit better, but I have no interest in that at the moment. As far as who can use this book, it wont be for a beginner. For someone who would know ho to color already, this can have useful tips and tricks, but for a beginner trying to learn, find something else.

I bought this book after buying  The DC Comics Guide to Digitally Drawing Comics . I was looking for something with tutorials on actually making comics (the actual doing, not just the set up). I walk away from reading this book with mixed feelings. The color theory and principles of coloring was great, as was the entire section on lettering. But there was nothing on actually coloring in a step by step kind of way. If you're looking for a book on HOW to color, this is not your book. If you're looking for a book on what to keep in mind WHEN coloring, then this is your book. Also if you don't care about color and just want lettering than this is your book (the lettering has more in the way of tutorials).One thing I forgot to mention before, the book is edited a little weird. There is a picture on just about every page. On a number of pages the paragraphs are split between two pages. You wouldn't think that this is that big of a deal, but many times I finished reading a paragraph and then looked at the pictures to see what they were talking about, and then started reading again on the next page only to find that the next paragraph started on the page I just got done reading. Or I would have to turn a page to finish a paragraph and then turn it back to look at the examples. This isn't a deal breaker. It is just a distracting break in the flow of the book. Someone could have easily changed the sizes of the images to keep everything on one page, so it just seems kind of lazy.

This is a great guide for those who would like to get into coloring or lettering comics, but have no idea where to start. In this volume, you'll learn a little about the theory of coloring comics--how to use color to create a dynamic mood without making the art look clutter. Dozens of full color examples are provided to show the contrast between good color jobs and bad color jobs. Also it provides info on how to create your own fonts for use in lettering. It also provides information on which tools would be useful for computer coloring and lettering. Most of this is done on computers these days, so the appropriate software is recommended. If you already have an idea of which tools you would like to use, it may be better to go ahead a get a guide on the specific software you are going to use if you would like more on the side of technique. If you're just getting started in the field of comics coloring, this is a great volume to begin with.

Very interesting book. Despite being published in 2004, the concepts of colour theory, and layouts do not change. I liked the way the book was divided up so that traditional colouring and lettering were discussed first, then the use of De-facto Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. It would be nice to see an updated edition to tie in with the later Adobe versions. The paper used was abit glossy for my liking. Much prefer a matt finish which is not so reflective. The coloring section was written in an informal engaging style. The lettering section I found abit heavy going at times, but as a whole, the book was well worth the purchase. Highly recommended.

Where do I start I initially balthus book so that I could could color my adult comic coloring books so that my illustrations and work would look as nice as the comic books this book does all of that it touches bases on colors usage computer artwork color pencils how to pick the correct colors for your illustration it was more then I expected and found myself doing more reading and educating myself on The Craft illustration and drawing all together it also helped me to see that I'm more interested in the drawing aspect than just a coloring but all of that stuff goes hand-in-hand together would highly recommend

This book is great! It is very well written and full of everything I needed to know. As soon as I had read the coloring section my Photoshop work improved massively - from amateur to professional level. The colour theory section is vital. I can't recommend this enough to those who are interested in the subject. This is the second 'how to' DC book I've read; both were very good indeed. Thank you!

Some interesting insights but it could use an update as seems to have been written a decade ago and doesn't mention newer tech like Manga Studio and the Cintiq, which is slowly becoming as important as the drawing tablet. Pretty useful as a general insight to the process of coloring and lettering nevertheless.

Anyone wanting to discover how to colour comic strips professionally using Photoshop can't go wrong buying this book. The text explains the whole process in detail and the illustrations and screenshots make the whole thing simple.The section on comic book lettering is also very precise and gives advice on both the old method (hand lettering) and also invaluable info on designing your own computer fonts.Personally I haven't tried designing my own computer fonts yet but the advice on colouring techniques has proven to be essential for my Brickman strip for Image Comics. Excellent book.

Very complete, shows the professional way of doing coloring. It helped tackle some of the problems I couldn't fix by myself. Inside tricks and a lot of problem solving everything explained simply and clearly. would recommend to a friend.

i love the whole series.everything you need to know about the art process at dc comics.check out the rest of the books in this series.if you love dc comics(like i do) a definite worthwhile acquisition.