Tao of Guerra

What’s the difference between coloring and painting? Most books that focus on comics stick to comic book coloring, which is mostly flats with some shadows and highlights. My rule of thumb is that if you see a black outline (or even a different colored outline) it’s coloring. If you no longer see the line because you've painted over your sketch, then it’s a painting. Here’s what I mean…


Captain Marvel is basically flats with a strong ink line.

For Wolverine I added more shading, shadows and highlights, but there’s still a strong ink line that defines the illustration.


My version of Lorna by Alfonso Azpiri is a watercolor painting, but I kept my sketch lines prominent. Even though I used colors to give shape and volume to the illustration, the objects are still defined by a black outline. The initial drawing is not changed during the coloring process.


In contrast to these three is my take on the Joker. I've painted over my initial sketch so there's no outline surrounding anything. The edges are created as you paint.


Painting is intimidating, especially when you’re used to comic style coloring, at least it was for me. You don’t realize how much of a crutch that outline is until you get rid of it. Suddenly, you’re not coloring between the lines. There is no line! You have to use shades and tones and palettes to compensate. Whether you use traditional or digital painting, it’s a real eye opener to see your drawing for what is it, without a nice ink job to pop it all out. You have to paint right over your pencils (whether you do it on paper, or scan in your pencils) and often times you’ll not only have to worry about the painting, but correcting the sketch. There’s no point in doing a perfect sketch since you’re going to paint over it anyway. Like all things, as you practice, things start to work themselves out. It’s always interesting to flip between the initial sketch and the finished painting. It’s a big accomplishment to see how far you took your art.

Post by Miguel & Suzy